Directory of Sponsored Projects

The six main characters in Arming Sisters are powerful, compelling Native women who draw a parallel between their own survivor’s transformation and those of their tribal nations who are seeking to decolonize and recover from trauma. Indigenous women’s self-defense instructor Patty Stonefish says in Arming Sisters, “Honestly, I don’t know a single Native woman who HASN'T been attacked.” The US Dept. of Justice reports that Native American women are 2.5 times more likely to experience sexual assault than all other American women. Amnesty International found that 1 in 3 Native women reports having been raped in her lifetime -- and 86% of the offenses are committed by non-Native men. The ongoing legacy of colonial violence towards Native Americans fuels these high rates of rape. Environmental degradation and violence against women are part and parcel of a larger colonial American legacy that continues unabated. Arming Sisters is an urgent call to action and a demand for restoring tribal sovereignty and self-determination as one of the necessary steps towards ending violence against Native women.

SOORA accompanies a group of Iranian feminists who have been working with abused women from different regions, social classes, religions and educational backgrounds for years. In 2016, in an attempt to raise awareness for women issues and to end the acceptance of brutality against women, they founded an NGO called "SOORA“. Each of our protagonists has her individual knowledge and motivation. But their goal unites them. They want to generate attention for the issue of domestic violence. They want to enable a discussion in society. And they want parliament to pass a new law that will finally turn domestic violence into a crime. With their campaign "Stop Domestic Violence“ they help victims of domestic violence to overcome their shame so they can open up and break the silence. The four SOORA members take us on a tour through Iran – from Tehran to the southern, northern, western and eastern regions where we will experience different ways of living in Iran. We will learn about its diverse traditions and about the ways in which male power is executed with the support of the law. SOORA - BREAKING THE SILENCE deals with the emotional and political struggle of enforcing women's rights in Iran. We learn more about the mechanisms of the Iranian legal system and its repressions. But following our strong female characters also gives hope that their campaign is a valuable contribution to a social change in Iran.

At a time when black transgender women in America have an average life expectancy of under 40, Gloria Allen’s life and story is not only inspiring but seldom seen. The 73-year-old grew up in the 1950s and 60s amid the celebrated "sissy" balls on Chicago’s South Side and transitioned from George after high school with the support of the women in her family — her mother Alma, a former showgirl and Jet centerfold who taught her about makeup; her grandmother Mildred, a seamstress who designed clothes for her; and her Great Aunt Fannie, a former “house” slave who taught her etiquette. An intimate portrait of aging, the film captures Gloria's life now, as she dines with fellow residents in her LGBTQ-friendly senior apartment building; turns losing her front tooth into a joke during her standup routine at Second City's comedy training center; attends her 53rd high school class reunion and reunites with her prom date; returns to the neighborhood church where she once sang in the boys choir; connects with her former charm school students and other young people; and confesses that she’s afraid of dying alone while searching for a man to spend the rest of her life with. The film also features rarely seen archival images of Chicago's Bronzeville neighborhood nightlife and drag balls.

Hyde Park is a groundbreaking documentary spotlighting the deadly, but often ignored, problem of environmental racism. Of all racial inequalities in the U.S. today, one that is often overlooked, but is perhaps most insidious, is environmental injustice—the fact that blacks are more than twice as likely as whites to live in neighborhoods with uncontrolled toxic waste. Throughout the last twenty-five years, study after study has confirmed this statistic. Environmental racism is pervasive. In Hyde Park, an African American community in Augusta, Georgia, residents fall ill from industrial contaminants. Surrounded by seven industrial facilities and without funds to relocate, citizens-turned-activists pursue justice with a grit that will inspire thousands of U.S. communities facing environmental racism.

Evocative of Homer’s The Odyssey, this is a story of survival and strength. We follow the life and career of Selda Bagcan, who embarked on a five decade music journey. Her unique mix of traditional Turkish instruments, her original style on the electric guitar and a howling voice, comparable to nothing else, made her Turkey’s first female rockstar, while her lyrics of the human condition made her the voice of the people. Though her remarkable ascendence from Eastern Turkey villager to revolutionary was not without struggle, she faced two decades of censorship and brief stints in prison for her lyrics. Her return home - her comeback to the spotlight - marks the second succession of her music career as she reaches her 70s. Influencing today’s world’s biggest music artists; recently signing a royalty-agreement with Universal Music, and an invitation to perform at Burning Man Festival in 2019, Selda is making a global comeback bigger than ever before. ’Selda’ analyzes the true meaning of what it is to be an artist in today’s competitive musical landscape, but more than that, ‘Selda’ follows the story of a woman who transcended cultures. What is left of the revolutionary after decades worth of fighting?

RED HEAVEN is the first feature-length documentary to seriously consider what life will be like for the humans who make the first footprints on Mars. The film follows the six crew members of a simulated mission on the red planet as they live in isolation for one year. We uncover the experience of living on Mars from a human perspective — full of adventure and excitement, but also solitude and alienation from their lives on Earth. RED HEAVEN goes beyond the technological challenges of space exploration and looks at what actually happens when we reach our extraterrestrial destination. Are we capable of adapting to life on a hostile planet? In another world, can we hold on to our humanity?

DERMALIAN is a live-action and animated movie about an alien race long after humans that discovers the ruins of the New York Public Library and establishes it as a major archaeological site to study why humans became extinct. The core value of Dermalian culture, law, and science is Empathy. This quality inspires some Dermalians to become so enamoured of human culture that they adopt human form. During her tenure on earth, la dottoressa Giulia Verne, a human Dermalian considered disabled due to her low level of empathy, secretly conducts illegal experiments on Plasma, the heavily regulated, sentient organic substance that is the basis of Dermalian technology and that lives in symbiosis with the Dermalians. Dr. Verne's eventual discovery has potentially serious implications for all human Dermalians and for Dermalian culture in general, as well as la dottoressa's lagging career.

A team of women from the West and Arab World struggle together to reach climate change ground zero: The North Pole. Facing wild challenges – from Russian helicopter crashes and moving Arctic sea ice, to punishing frostbite and open leads of water – an unlikely story of triumph and global citizenry emerges.

The film introduces Ven. Mae Chee Sansanee, revered as the Spiritual Leader of Thailand, through archival footage produced for TV5, France in 1997, History Channel Asia in 2009 and on location interviews. It features Sathira Dhammasathan, the center she transformed from a barren plot of land to beautiful tree-covered haven in Bangkok. The two women and young girl featured are representative of the thousands of women whose lives have been saved and transformed through the love, compassion and wisdom of Ven. Mae Chee Sansanee.

When Martina Radwan, an accomplished cinematographer, meets sixteen-year old Baaskaa on a film shoot about homeless kids in Mongolia’s capital, Ulaanbaatar, she decides to intervene. She sets him up with a foster family and supports him financially. Initially successful in helping Baaskaa, Martina takes on two more teens, Nasaa, a girl, and Vanni, a boy. Unprepared, but determined, she becomes the teen’s unofficial, long-distance surrogate mother and advocate, encouraging them to heal and change. Despite their language barrier, cultural differences and physical separation, this unlikely family by choice develops a deep, intimate bond. With the iconic steppes of Mongolia as the background, the film will delve deep into the country’s rich culture, social issues, and the youths’ gains and painful losses. As Martina evaluates her successes and failures, the film will not only explore the question of how to support neglected, underprivileged and underrepresented children, but also when and how to act as a human and global citizen. One doesn’t have to travel far to find teens like Baakaa, and Nasaa and Vanni. This film allows the young powerful voices, which are generally ignored, to be heard and to inspire us to overcome boundaries, personal as well as cultural ones and to broaden our definition of community and family within the global world we are living in. The Roar of a Lion Club, a personal documentary, is told mostly chronologically, to cover an eight-year period of this coming of age story, employing a three-act structure, using primarily verité scenes.

How far would you go for your family? DREAMS OF DARAA poses this central question. It’s a riveting, personal portrait of the Syrian conflict, told through the eyes of a young mother named Hanadi. At 25-years-old, she finds herself in Jordan’s Zaatari Refugee Camp. Two years have passed since she’s seen her beloved husband, who was abducted by Assad’s soldiers and vanished without a trace. Working full-time to support her girls while fighting an immense internal fear, she still tries to give them a chance at a childhood. Hanadi even befriends a visiting girl clown, who brings laughter back into their home. But as war drags on, camp life becomes increasingly dire and Hanadi makes the harrowing decision to return to Syria. Back in Daraa, the threat of airstrikes is constant. When Hanadi finally learns of her husband’s fate, it leads to a rare invitation to testify before the UN. Determined to share her story and speak on behalf of Syrian women, Hanadi once again leaves everything behind. Told through a unique combination of verité footage and watercolor animation based on Hanadi’s children’s drawings, their tumultuous four-year journey brings to life what so many want most—a place to call home.

Directed by Sundance Award-wining director Rob Fruchtman in collaboration with Cornelia Ravenal, Mikael Södersten and Wendy Sax, MOVING STORIES is about six dancers from the acclaimed Battery Dance Company who travel the world, working with young people who’ve experienced war, poverty, prejudice, sexual exploitation, and severe trauma as refugees. In India, they work with girls rescued from gender violence; in Romania, with Roma kids from one of Europe's worst slums; in South Korea, with North Korean escapees; and in Iraq, with a gifted young dancer who’s fighting to survive. Incredibly, they have just one week to teach the tools of choreography and collaboration to kids who may be enemies, who may have been abused, who may be suspicious and fearful, so that they can tell their stories through dance and perform for their communities. As they struggle to break through, the dancer-teachers confront their own frustrations. Yet their students respond in extraordinary ways - and as they prepare to perform in public in what seems an impossibly short time, both students and teachers experience surprising transformations, unlocking feelings and stories in wellsprings of creativity.

While you may not know his name, chances are high you know his work. Laurie Olin is responsible for many of the most iconic and beloved parks, gardens and public spaces in the country, including the Getty Center gardens, Battery Park City, Columbus Circle, the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden, the Washington Monument grounds, Bryant Park, Mission Bay, and Independence Mall to name a few. But his imprint on cityscapes extends all over the globe. Olin’s motivation has always come from the social aspects of urban design, working passionately to keep cities viable for all citizens with a special focus on the economically marginalized. Over the course of a career spanning fifty years, Olin has aspired to create a level playing field—a more democratic, egalitarian society through shared public spaces. Given the disproportionate growth of the world’s largest metropolises with more people than ever before being born, living and dying in cities, Olin and his collaborators like Frank Gehry, urge us to take a closer look at the health and survival of our cities. They reveal how our sense of place is either degraded diminished through overbuilding and neglect, or enhanced through purposeful design and social encounter. Olin's life story will become a launching pad for the exploration of themes and ideas about the world in which we live: the overwhelming disconnect with nature, the effects of population explosion, the failed promise of the suburbs, the global water and climate crisis, and building economically-driven environments instead of human ones.

PIECE OF MIND follows three stories of San Francisco Bay Area families and individuals with serious mental illness, SMI, seeking treatment and normalcy. Linda’s son, Jesse, 38, with schizophrenia, is about to be evicted from his unlivable apartment. Frances and Patricia’s sister, Teresa, 56, diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, did not want to be taken to the hospital. When she picked up a small knife, police shot her seven times. She survived. Jeff lives with bipolar disorder and attempts suicide after losing his job at age 53. The compelling narrative interweaves delusions and real world circumstances, and reveals solutions to this public health crisis. We learn about the first signs of SMI. Jesse and Teresa have anosognosia, a brain disorder that affects 50% of persons with SMI impairing their ability to understand and perceive their mental illness. Dr. Paul Linde, ER psychiatrist at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, reveals the unwritten priority to save the shrinking number of psychiatric beds for people who are suicidal or violent, leaving the “gravely disabled” to fend for themselves. Jeff’s plans another suicide attempt. Friends convinced him to go with the police. He gets on medication for the first time. Teresa sues for compensation under the Americans With Disabilities Act. Her case boomerangs from District Court, to U.S. Supreme Court, back to District Court. Glimmers of hope emerge. Jesse is hospitalized for court mandated treatment. Jeff becomes the leader of his bipolar support group and tells his story to police officers in Crisis Intervention Trainings

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.

With only a 5th grade education, Jabulile Ndaba, a tall black woman with a contagious sense of humor, never thought of herself as a manager. Now she is a leader-in-training at a small women’s project near Johannesburg, South Africa. The project, Kopanang, enables women to earn money through sewing and embroidery -- and also enables Jabulile to learn management and office skills.

A complex portrait of a city and its inhabitants, The Hottest August gives us a window into the collective consciousness of the present. The film’s point of departure is one city over one month: New York City, including its outer boroughs, during August 2017. It’s a month heavy with the tension of a new President, growing anxiety over everything from rising rents to marching white nationalists, and unrelenting news of either wildfires or hurricanes on every coast. The film pivots on the question of futurity: what does the future look like from where we are standing? And what if we are not all standing in the same place? The Hottest August offers a mirror onto a society on the verge of catastrophe, registering the anxieties, distractions, and survival strategies that preoccupy ordinary lives.

Ten thousand baby boomers are turning sixty-five every day. And with unprecedented advances in medical technology, Americans are living longer than ever, often enduring for years with chronic pain or serious illnesses. Providing patients with relief from the symptoms and stress of serious illness, Palliative Care doctors focus above all on a simple goal: helping patients get what they want. Do No Harm! follows six idealistic young doctors in their final year of training in Palliative Care. Filmed with extraordinary, intimate access to patients and doctors at New York’s Mt. Sinai Hospital, the series immerses us in a new kind of medical care that could transform our nation’s approach to medicine. Like a real-life “Gray’s Anatomy,” each episode is told through the voice of two young doctors, as they put their training to use. We come to know Ali-John, Meg, Jeremy, Chris, Sabiha, and Randi, during the ups and downs of an impossibly eventful year. As they address life and death issues for their patients, we are also immersed in the drama of their own lives, as these idealists in white coats struggle to learn their craft, work inside a broken medical system, and follow an overpowering urge to change the world.