Directory of Sponsored Projects

Wisdom Gone Wild - is a personal documentary following a sixteen year caregiving journey into dementia for Rose Noda, a Japanese-American woman and her filmmaker-daughter Rea. The film follows a non-linear structure going between hospice, early onset, and mid-term dementia; mirroring Rose’s own erratic ‘travels through time’. To ‘enter the world’ of the person living with the condition - Rea enters Rose’s world, sitting calmly during her dramatic outbursts, listening deeply to her fragmented anecdotes, believing in her visions of animals, and joining her in spontaneous musical serenades. Unexpectedly, she finds a deeper connection to a mother who had previously been distant throughout her childhood. She discovers that like herself, her mother was at heart an artist and a creative. Rea is also able to connect the dots of Rose’s seemingly nonsensical stories to real events in Rose’s history; in particular her incarceration in U.S. concentrations camps during WWII and the FBI surveillance of Japanese Buddhist priests. Accepting her mother’s cognitive changes, Rea discovers a poetic language to communicate with Rose. They develop a vibrant relationship based on play, connection and humor. Rose’s dementia is revealed as a form of wisdom that has gone wild.

River of Grass addresses the Florida Everglades’ past, present, and future through Marjory Stoneman Douglas’s groundbreaking book, The Everglades: River of Grass (1947) which transformed popular perception of the land from a worthless swamp into a valuable river. Marjory was a Miami-based journalist. suffragist, and advocate for the Everglades until her death at 108 years old. Over haunting Everglades landscapes and an otherworldly soundscape, Marjory's observations of a shifting and developing South Florida contextualize present-day scenes in which a diverse cross-section of people navigate their relationship with a compromised place. Positioning past and present directly in conversation with one another, the film reveals how historical events inextricably shape the present. Together the stories build a complex collective map of a unique and endangered place.

Told through the lens of filmmaker and subject Martine Granby, The Mask That Grins and Lies, follows Martine as she wades into the choppy waters of her own family's past, and examines how they’ll move forward once the stigma of mental illness is out in the open. Both deeply personal and expansive, the film calls into the light the denial that plagues not only Martine’s family but brings to the surface the larger structural invisibility many face in diagnosis, treatment, and daily life. The Mask That Grins And Lies challenges the mythology of the “strong black woman,” offering often-unseen imagery to challenge what it means to not just survive, but thrive, moving forward even without a cure-all.

Code for Bias captures the fallout of Joy Buolamwini’s startling discovery that most facial recognition software does not accurately see dark-skinned faces or women. Joy is forced to reckon with bias encoded in algorithms, the invisible mathematical equations that are remaking our behavior, our culture, and our democracies. Automated decision-making has the unprecedented power to disseminate bias at scale. Through the organization she founds, the Algorithmic Justice League, Joy aims to create a movement towards accountability and transparency. Code for Bias follows poet of code Joy Buolamwini journey to push for the first-ever legislation to govern AI in the United States. In Joy’s success, failures, and challenges lies the collective hope for a more humane use of the technologies of the future. But can the best of our humanity challenge the power of big tech yielding bias in artificial intelligence at scale? Artfully crafting vérité, lyrical visuals, and imaginative graphic novel elements, Code for Bias captures the personals stories of people whose lives have been directly impacted by algorithmic bias. Powerfully conveying the importance of Joy’s work, Code for Bias features personal stories of people directly impacted by unjust algorithms. As humans increasingly outsource autonomy to machines, Code for Bias explores the setbacks in hiring, health care, and criminal justice. Through intimate portraits and groundbreaking thought leaders, the film aims to show the human impacts that are happening under the guise of machine neutrality and optimizing efficiency.

AFTERMATH revisits the scene of a wrenching, highly-publicized hate crime 25 years later. When Brandon Teena arrived in Falls City, Nebraska, in November of 1993, the 20-year-old’s handsome looks swiftly won him friends and a pretty girlfriend. Three weeks later, on Christmas Eve, Brandon was brutally raped and beaten by two new-found “friends,” enraged when they discovered that he was transgender, presenting as male, but assigned female by birth. The two men came to murder him that New Year’s. Critically-acclaimed and Emmy-nominated, THE BRANDON TEENA STORY drew global attention, exposing the roots of violence, hatred, and transphobia in America. It was the first documentary to investigate violence against transgender people in the US, leading to hate crime laws and changes in policing practices. AFTERMATH, a follow-up to THE BRANDON TEENA STORY, builds on the filmmakers’ 25 years of relationships in Nebraska. Through the eyes of a community still grappling with the impact of Brandon’s life and death, the film explores the changes – or lack thereof – when it comes to perceptions, behavior, laws, and understanding of LGBTQ community members in heartland America. Weaving archival Super-8, VHS and contemporary HD verité footage of people in their surroundings, AFTERMATH revisits characters from THE BRANDON TEENA STORY and introduces new ones.

At the intersection of the northern Mexico desert and the plains of Southwest Texas exists a symbiotic community. Here, people’s lives are spread across the margins of two countries, connected by a bridge and a river that they all travel. Following a journalist capturing the changing political landscape, a lone crusader promoting international kayaking while the local rag-tag kids splash by the river banks, a mother straddling a life in two countries to keep her family together, and the quotidian moments of the lives lived in between two nations and their cultures, The In Between offers an intimate portrait of a place and its people at the heart of Mexican-American identity.

Marlise Muñoz was 33 years old and 14 weeks pregnant with her second child when she died. She suffered a pulmonary embolism and was pronounced brain-dead in a hospital in Fort Worth, TX. Marlise had told her family that she never wanted to be on life support, under any circumstances. And since a brain-dead patient is in fact legally dead, that should have been the end of this sad story. But the Muñoz family was forced to keep Marlise on mechanical support against their will for 62 days, because of a little known law that states “a person may not withdraw or withhold life-sustaining treatment… from a pregnant patient.” What followed was a painful ordeal, with critical implications about bodily integrity, rights and liberty. The media picked up the story and the press wildly debated what choice the family should make. But the bottom line was: the family didn’t have a choice. The case ignited polarizing opinions; one side argued that if anything could be done to save this fetus, it should. The other claimed that the State was imposing a ghoulish and cruel mandate on the family, using a dead woman’s body to incubate a fetus. The film reveals that this is not an anomaly: there are currently 32 states (and counting) with similar or identical pregnancy exclusion policies. The Muñoz’ personal journey is the jumping-off point for a timely examination of a growing trend of laws that seek to control a pregnant woman’s body. Even her dead body.

Narrated by Pulitzer Prize winning author Alice Walker, MAESTRA (Spanish for teacher) explores the experiences of nine of the women who, as young girls, helped eradicate Cuban illiteracy within one year. Interweaving recent interviews, archival footage, and campaign photos, this lively documentary includes one of the first Cubans of her generation to call herself a feminist and one of the first openly proud members of Cuba’s LGBT community. With wit and spirit, all recall negotiating for autonomy and independence in a culture still bound by patriarchal structures. Eight years in the making, MAESTRA highlights the will and courage that made the monumental endeavor possible and the pivotal role of women’s and youth empowerment in building a new society.

In the comedy boom of the late 1990s Rick Scotti was a busy guy—working clubs across the country—when he came to the deadly realization that nothing felt right. At a time when the words gender dysphoria and gender reassignment surgery were rarely heard, Rick’s awakening at age forty-seven led to a year of hormonal treatments, surgery in a small clinic in Canada and a new identity as Julia Scotti. And then the doors shut. Tight. Everyone turned away—former wives, friends, family, comedy world buddies, and most painfully Julia was shut out from contact with the people she most desperately loved – her children. She completely reinvented herself, spent a decade teaching at a junior high, developed a whole new network of friends, and then several years ago, in her early 60’s a friend dared Julia to step back on stage at a comedy club and she began the journey back to the world she loved. And in that same period, her children made contact after fifteen years of total estrangement. This film tracks Julia’s comeback, the rough life on the comedy circuit and the return of her children, who both find their way into the comedy realm. We observe the delicate and sometimes difficult business of re-discovery as comedy becomes a shared language of identity and healing.

Little Miss Westie follows two transgender siblings as they navigate puberty, school, dating and transitioning during the Trump era. Ren is competing in the Lil Miss Westie Pageant as the first out trans-girl and her older brother Luca is coaching her on posing, make-up, and talent. He knows his stuff because he competed six years ago when he was living as a girl. Whether Ren wins or loses, this experience will change the family forever offering a rare window into the lives of two very young gender pioneers.

DAY OF A STRANGER is an intimate portrait of world-renowned Trappist monk, Thomas Merton, during his final years while living as a hermit from 1965 to his untimely death in 1968. Interweaving meditative images of his hermitage nestled deep in the woods of Kentucky and nearly 150 hours of rare audio recordings he made as a hermit, the film pieces together a first-person narrative of one of the twentieth century’s most brilliant minds.

American filmmaker Heather Tenzer embarks on a journey to find out why a group of devout New York and Jerusalem rabbis are engaged in an intifada (Arabic for ‘uprising’) against Israel and in support of Palestinians. Founded 80 years ago in Jerusalem, Neturei Karta is the only religious Jewish group publicly speaking out in support of Palestinian rights. As a result of their activism, they’re regularly beaten on the streets. This feature-length documentary, equal parts memoir, investigative, and historical, combines narration, home movies, interviews, and archival films to tell the story of Tenzer’s journey into Neturei Karta’s community. Tenzer first encounters Neturei Karta when she is a teen marching in New York’s Israel Parade. “Free Palestine!” they chant. “Just ignore them!” the rabbi of her school urges. For many years, she does. Tenzer reunites with Neturei Karta years later in Jerusalem. What’s motivating these socially conservative Yiddish-speaking religious men to protest Israel’s bombing of Gaza?” she wonders. Intrigued, she attempts to unravel the mystery of their activism, where it comes from – a story she never learned in religious school. She follows four activists inside their Jerusalem and New York communities and on their travels to Gaza. Through the lens of their diverse, intergenerational voices, the rabbis share compelling stories, offering a nuanced narrative about their unique history.

On April 2016, 700 law enforcement officers swarmed a housing project in the Bronx, arresting 120 people in what federal prosecutors later said was the “largest gang bust in modern New York history.” TROUBLE FIND YOU tells the story of a Kraig Lewis and his family, whose lives were derailed by this bust and Lewis's subsequent prosecution. The film explores the difficulty of living as a black man in America whose community is highly surveilled and whose friendships and past is weaponized against him.

The Rembetika Blues is a documentary film about the power of music and what makes us human. Rembetika music or the Greek blues is a music of the streets and a music of refugees. The film explores the heart and soul of Rembetika music through peoples’ stories of love, loss, and longing.

Pat Steir is best known for her mesmerizing Waterfall Paintings, which she poured, splashed, and threw onto the canvas beginning in the late 1980s. Yet she’s been at the forefront of American painting for decades, with an artistic practice that spans half a century. In Pat Steir: Artist, Steir herself evokes her difficult childhood in New Jersey, her youth in NY as part of the NY 70's art scene, and her friendships with the most groundbreaking artists and poets of her generation. Steir discusses her relationships with her artistic mentors including John Cage and his ideas of chance and non-intervention; Sol LeWitt, who as Steir's partner for many years influenced her development of Conceptual Painting; and Agnes Martin’s minimalism and deep spirituality. Pat Steir: Artist is a first-person, character-driven documentary. There are no talking heads, but rather a story of self that unfolds over the course of the film. It is organized in chapters that cover Pat’s family, her artistic friendships, her painting practice, her experience as a woman artist in a field that is very much dominated by men, and feminism more generally. Pat’s relationship to books and poetry, and, finally, the success she’s meeting with at this late stage in her career. It is only now, at nearly eighty, that Steir’s career is truly taking off, as she has become one of the highest grossing living women artists. In her own words, “Now that I’m over 70, I’m like an honorary man.”

Set in Berlin and New York, With Wings and Roots interweaves the stories of Tania, Miman, Sonny and Akim – artists and activists raised in the Global North to parents from the Global South. This longitudinal documentary accompanies them as they move from their 20’s into their 30’s, facing major turning points: fighting for citizenship, creating a family, surviving violence, and finding creative expression. As each individual’s journey unfolds, they all face exclusion and the search for identity while learning to define belonging for themselves. Beautifully shot over the course of seven years, the film weaves back and forth between their lives. It offers intimate and tender portraits of these global citizens envisioning new possibilities of belonging, in a world increasingly hostile to their existence. The film is complemented by a robust transmedia and education initiative that includes a web platform, workshops, curricula, and live events. Learn more: reimaginebelonging.org

For nearly four decades, presidential candidates trailed by the media have flocked to Youngstown Ohio, a poster child of industrial decline to use as a political backdrop. Shots of shuttered factories and sagging porches tell the familiar tale of a once prosperous town struggling to survive. But dig deeper and another story emerges of a community in the throes of transformation. Filmed over the course of a year, this documentary follows a cast of young residents born and raised in Youngstown, in their struggle to shed the ghosts of the past and make a new life for themselves. Interwoven storylines capture structural change but also personal transformation: a drug dealer turned councilman, four young brothers on the brink of homelessness, a working mom trying to buy her first house, and the leaders of a non-profit who are trying to save their town, house by house. One main story arc follows the non-profit’s work to renovate an abandoned blighted house. We first see the house filled with trash and discarded personal belongings, remnants of love and loss, a symbol of the town itself. When the steel mills closed, Youngstown lost 40,000 jobs and over half the population left, destroying the social fabric of this tight-knit community. Over the course of the film, we watch this house transform back into a home. Despite the huge obstacles residents in Youngstown still face, this documentary is an inspiring portrait of local resilience and power, capturing a community on the cusp of change.

PRAY AWAY follows the journey of a group of LGBTQ Christians who claimed to have changed from gay to straight and collectively created, controversially led, and then unexpectedly disavowed the religious right’s conversion therapy or “pray the gay away” movement. One part redemption story, one part anti-hero character study, and one part exposé of the ex-gay world of yesterday and today, PRAY AWAY enters the world of the contemporary movement - still thriving under an effective rebranding - as our protagonists work to disrupt it.