Directory of Sponsored Projects

WOMEN IN BLUE opens in 2017 as Chief Janée Harteau—the Minneapolis Police Department's first female chief and by then five years in office—works to remake her department by getting rid of bad cops, retraining others, and demanding accountability. As part of her reform efforts, she works to recruit more women and promote them within the force into positions of leadership. But in July 2017, when the police shooting of the unarmed white, Australian woman Justine Damond rocks the city and makes international news, Chief Harteau is forced to resign. The new chief—a man of color—restructures the department and promotes only men to his top brass. With reports about racial bias and police brutality in the news daily, the film follows the women of the MPD over 18 months as they fight to not only “protect and serve” the people of Minneapolis, but also restore gender equity to their department. Unprecedented in its point of view and urgently needed, WOMEN IN BLUE is a film about women and policing, but it’s also a film about women in a heavily male-dominated workforce, and the struggles, and difficult choices, that they are forced to confront. It’s as much a Minneapolis story as it is a national one.

Lacy (28), Raiderette Cheerleader, Oakland Raiders. After an exhausting 12-hour Sunday dancing on the field, Lacy bursts through her small apartment doors to a hungry family, her husband Josh (28) and daughter, Scarlett (2). Josh reminds her, “You’re about to default on your student loans. When are they going to pay you?” After 6 months of working over 20 hours a week practicing, weight training, doing appearances and dancing on game days, she has yet to see a single paycheck. Maria (29), Jills Cheerleader, Buffalo Bills. In below freezing temperatures, Maria requests to leave work early in order to make it on time to her Buffalo Jills’ dance rehearsals. Maria’s heart sinks as she opens an email and sees her name under “BENCHED” for being overweight. She recalls the humiliation of a golf fundraiser where she was forced to sit on men’s laps in exchange for money. Lacy hires the all-female law firm LVBH and files a class-action lawsuit against the Raiders, asking for legal pay and better working conditions. This inspires Maria to do the same with the lawyers of Dolce Panepinto, adding the NFL, a broadcasting company and the cheer director as defendants. As Lacy is forced into arbitration and settles her case, Maria continues to fight through depositions, mediations and hearings. Assemblywomen Lorena Gonzalez and Nily Rozic propose and pass laws to force teams to treat their cheerleaders as employees. Lacy and Maria are empowered to become leaders in their communities.

WHAT WE LEFT UNFINISHED is a documentary about five unfinished fiction films from the Afghan Communist period (1978-1991). It is also a story about a tight-knit group of Afghan filmmakers who loved cinema enough to risk their lives for art. Despite government interference, censorship boards, scarce resources, armed opposition, and near-constant threats of arrest and even death, they made films that were subversive and, in the filmmakers’ opinions, always “true” to life. Archival fictions, present-day recollections, and both imagined and real visions of Afghanistan slip and slide into each other in a film that reminds us that nations are invented, and films can reinvent them.

This is the unveiling of the Mother of Hollywood... In the age of the feminine awakening...

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

Competitive creative dog grooming is the most colorful competition in America. WELL GROOMED is the fascinating new documentary that captures the hearts, minds and imaginations of the artists involved. Following four champion groomers and their gorgeous, vibrant dogs through a year in the life on the technicolor competition circuit, WELL GROOMED playfully explores their creative process. From South Carolina to California, New York to Arkansas, these women are revolutionizing the age old question—what is art? Director Rebecca Stern has captured a revealing look at pets, families, friendships and the glory of dog grooming through a bright spectrum of color. WELL GROOMED is a crowd-pleasing, family-friendly lm that provides an upbeat look at a unique slice of Americana.

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.