Directory of Sponsored Projects

Roll Red Roll is a true-crime thriller that goes behind the headlines to uncover the deep-seated and social media-fueled “boys will be boys” culture at the root of high school sexual assault in America. At a pre-season party in small-town Steubenville, Ohio, a heinous crime took place: the assault of a teenage girl by members of the beloved high school football team. What transpired would garner national attention and result in the sentencing of two key offenders. But it was the disturbing social media evidence uncovered by crime blogger Alexandria Goddard that provoked the most powerful questions about the collusion of teen bystanders, teachers, parents and coaches to protect the assailants and discredit the victim. As it painstakingly reconstructs the night of the crime and its aftermath, Roll Red Roll uncovers the ingrained rape culture at the heart of the incident, acting as a cautionary tale about what can happen when teenage social media bullying runs rampant and adults look the other way. The film unflinchingly asks: “Why didn’t anyone stop it?”

40 years ago, the women of Iceland were sick and tired of being underpaid and undervalued for their work inside and outside the home. “At this time women were doing all the housework,” recalls Gudrun Jonsdottir. “They didn’t have education. They didn’t have daycares. Their salaries were much lower than the salaries of men, IF they had any work. Their names couldn’t even be in the phone book!” So when the U.N. proclaimed 1975 “International Women’s Year” Iceland’s women hatched a bold idea: “What if every woman in the country simply took a day off?” And so, on October 24th, 90% of Iceland’s women walked off the job and out of their homes, refusing to work, cook, or take care of the children from noon to midnight – and the country ground to a halt. Initially derided as a joke by many, the strike transformed the national narrative about women’s place in society. One year later, Iceland passed a law outlawing gender discrimination. Five years later, Iceland elected the world’s first female president. Today, Iceland ranks #1 on the global gender equality index. Our film will bring this inspiring story to life through the memories of the women who were at the heart of it all. We’ll meet these unstoppable characters, portray the opposition they encountered, and discover how they mobilized the entire country at a time when home computers, email and cell phones were nonexistent. The Long Friday is the true story of 12 hours that sparked a revolution.

A white couple living in East Germany in the sixties suggests to their dark-skinned child, that her skin color is a mere coincidence and that it’s of no importance. Until one day as a teenager, the daughter accidentally finds out the truth. What sounds like fieldwork about social dislocation becomes a confrontation with identity in the autobiographical essay film BECOMING BLACK. The film aims at examining the social implications of these personal stories. In 1961 almost one hundred young men from various African countries live and study at the German Union College, a settlement near Bernau. The plan is to convince the students of the socialist victory’s infallibility. In doing so, casual familiarization with the normal population was not wanted. But GDR female citizens and African students fall in love. Like Sigrid from Leipzig and Lucien from Togo. But Sigrid is already married. Seen from the perspective of the now already grown up child, the film tracks the astonishing strategies, that Sigrid and her husband Armin, who are striving for “normality”, develop after the birth of their dark-skinned child. I am that child, director and principal witness all at once. BECOMING BLACK relates the familial and social strategies. The film shows what happens, when something that does not fit the norm suddenly becomes visible in a standardized surrounding, and thus encounters systemic behavior of the majority society. The film ends in Togo, in the middle of my natural father’s African family and could have an happy end.

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.

Seven days after Trump’s inauguration, his Muslim ban was a stunning assault on civil liberties — but more extraordinary still was the ACLU’s counter-attack. Thirty hours after the order was signed, attorneys emerged from a Brooklyn courthouse with fists raised high, triumphant at the court’s first check on the president’s power. This was but the opening salvo in the fight to defend our constitutional rights. The Trump administration has since moved to expel transgender soldiers, roll back voting rights, separate refugees from their children, and force teens to carry unwanted pregnancies. But at each affront, an ACLU lawyer is fighting back. In this modern-day David vs Goliath story, these self-described “freedom nerds” battle an unpredictable adversary with unlimited resources. While the court battles rage, controversy threatens. In Charlottesville, the ACLU’s defense of white supremacists’ right to march — and the ensuing murder of a counter-protester — brings fierce condemnation and inflames a debate around limits on free speech. For nearly a hundred years the ACLU has defended the First Amendment, especially for those with whom they disagree. In today’s polarized political climate, this is difficult political terrain to navigate. THE FIGHT is the inside story of human struggle at a moment of national crisis.

At the abortion helpline in Philadelphia, counselors arrive each morning to the nonstop ring of calls from women and teens who seek to end a pregnancy but can’t afford to. This short documentary exposes a rigged system and the shocking history of federal policies designed to keep poor women from access to safe abortion. Two timelines draw the viewer into the perilous situation in which a woman can find herself. The clock ticks as the caller races to gather funds to pay even a discounted rate for an abortion before she is pushed into a later and more expensive procedure. At the same time, the counselors at the abortion fund—all called “Lisa”— struggle to stretch a budget to last the week so Friday’s “Lisa” won’t be empty-handed when the phone rings. In 1977, three years after Roe v. Wade became the law of the land, the Hyde Amendment was enacted with the explicit intention of denying poor individuals—those receiving Medicaid—access to abortion. The film gives voice to those often overlooked in the contentious debate about reproductive justice: the women themselves. The callers, seeking to control their fertility and family size, and the counselors—college students grappling with their capacity to help women in need— flesh out the lived reality of those affected by the Hyde Amendment. Our film is set in Philadelphia, but similar scenes play out across the country where abortion is out of reach for many.

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.