To keep their culture and community intact, Yup’ik residents of Newtok, Alaska must relocate their entire village to stable ground upriver, becoming some of America’s first climate change refugees.
*Preceded by the short animation, Cool for You, with filmmaker in attendance for Q&A following both films.
After suffering a miscarriage in prison due to shackling, Pamela Winn becomes an inspiring activist, leading millions to support the Dignity Bill and her mission to end shackling and prison birth.
Impact // Filmmaker’s Voice
We hope audiences empathize and feel moved by this crucial human rights issue through Pamela Winn’s compelling personal story. We hope audiences feel inspired by Pamela’s story of resilience, strength and ultimate triumph and by the power one person can have in shaping laws that forward justice and dignity. We also hope audiences feel stirred to become advocates in their own right: to vote people into office who care about and will fight to pass laws protecting incarcerated pregnant people.
Pamela is actively working in states across the country to enhance the lives of directly impacted women. You can support Pamela’s work through her non-profit organization RestoreHER: www.restoreher.us
The story of a group of pilots dedicated to keeping alive the legacy of the Tuskegee Airmen while pursuing their dreams of becoming professional aviators and inspiring the black community to change the racial imbalance in aviation.
Impact // Filmmaker’s Voice
Relationships provide answers. There is opportunity everywhere if we are willing to see the world through a different lens. We encourage the audience to visit Tuskegee and meet the pilots. Take a flight and see history from the air!
Dani’s Twins captures the high-risk pregnancy and dynamic early parenting journey of Dani Izzie, one of the world’s few quadriplegics ever to give birth to twins.
Impact // Filmmaker’s Voice
Our aim is for this film to be part of the current cultural moment that is seeing disabled people take ownership of disability narratives. When our experiences are authenticated through honest representation and the reappropriation of our own voices, we can catalyze change and foster inclusion. We’d like audiences to translate their deeper awareness into positive change, specifically:
–Improving access to reproductive healthcare for disabled people
–Eliminating discrimination affecting parental rights for people with disabilities
–Providing access to comprehensive caregiving and a functional care ecosystem
–Incentivizing companies to manufacture products and services that are universally designed and accessible
There is a dearth of information about disabled pregnancy and parenting. We are trying to help fill that gap through our film and impact campaign. Here are a few resources:
https://heller.brandeis.edu/parents-with-disabilities/
https://www.christopherreeve.org/blog/daily-dose/pregnant-while-living-with-paralysis
https://www.christopherreeve.org/living-with-paralysis/health/parenting-with-a-disability
Dani’s blog: http://daniizzie.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/daniizzie
Filmmaker and philanthropist Abigail Disney grapples with America’s profound inequality crisis, using her family’s legacy as a case study to critically explore the intersection of racism, corporate power, and the American Dream.
Impact // Filmmaker’s Voice
We hope that audiences will come away with an understanding of the plight of workers of Disneyland and other amusement parks.
A touching and unexpectedly uplifting love story about a Scottish comic book artists with a brain tumour, who uses his art to communicate his experience of cancer.
Preceded by the short narrative, Just in Case.
Opening Night Film
Join us for a powerful opening night celebration, starting with the feature documentary, Refuge – a story of love and fear in the American south. Set in the most diverse square mile in America – Clarkston, Georgia – REFUGE follows the friendship between a Muslim heart doctor and a former member of the KKK, revealing what is possible when we leave the security of our tribes and what is at stake for our country if we don’t.
Co-director Din Blankenship and subjects Chris Buckley and Arno Michaelis will join us for a Q&A.
And following the film, we invite you to join us on the rooftop of Capital One Hall, with a drink on us. There are food trucks galore, putt putt golf, a lively biergarten, amazing views, and more!
Impact // Filmmaker’s Voice
We hope that our film can rekindle our sense of empathy. We’ve captured a story about a community that insists that their shared humanity is more important than any kind of shared ethnicity, shared faith or even shared language. We hope that anyone who watches it will see themselves in all of the characters. If people walk out of this film and are more likely to offer compassion to someone who is different than they are – someone of a different race, a different faith, different political beliefs – if you’re more likely to see a person’s full humanity and offer understanding to one another after seeing this film, then we feel like the film will have been a success.
An HBO original documentary that chronicles the still unsolved death of Baltimore police detective Sean Suiter, fatally shot in 2017 while in the line of duty, and explores the ongoing speculation about what really happened that day.
Producer Mahrya MacIntire and actor D. Watkins will be in attendance for a Q&A and book signing.
Impact // Filmmaker’s Voice
We hope the film sparks questions and conversations about how broken the structure of law enforcement is and how we can create a new system for public safety moving forward. – Sonja Sohn
A thoughtful exploration of Colin Kaepernick’s decision to take a knee during the national anthem and the divisive reactions it spurred in the United States, revealing unique insights into America’s ongoing racial turmoil.
A profile of Aunofo Havea, a Tongan seafarer, who trail-blazes a place for women in the maritime industry and revolutionizes how the Tongan people interact with the whales that inhabit their waters.
Impact // Filmmaker’s Voice
I hope that audiences are inspired by Aunofo’s story, particularly in the way she took a hostile relationship that her people had with the whales into a positive and mutually beneficial one. Her innovation in this area can be an inspiration to people around the world to create better relationships with the natural world and preserve it for generations to come. – Jack Gordon
