Directory of Sponsored Projects

With unprecedented access, the Indigo Girls documentary brings to life the songwriting and storytelling of music that transformed a generation. Combining exclusive archival, intimate vérité, and scripted live-action magical realism, the film invites viewers into the lives of one of the most iconic folk-rock bands in America. After sharing a childhood outside of Atlanta, Georgia, Amy Ray and Emily Saliers have been making music together for over 30 years, starting with their friendship in high school choir. Despite their contrasting personalities, the two quickly became famous for their ability to harmonize. In 1989, their self-titled debut album became a breakout hit, and Amy and Emily found themselves sidelined by an industry eager to define them – as activists, lesbians, Southerners – and wholeheartedly embraced by devoted fans who connected with their unique sound and emotional lyrics. Across decades of political turmoil, the Indigo Girls consistently took a stand for indigenous rights, racial justice, LGBTQ dignity, and climate change – through their music, by speaking out publicly, and in their private actions. By celebrating the legacy of a duo who never quite got their due, this film lifts up the powerful charisma of their integrity, vulnerability, and harmony. Moving between their coming of age memories as gay women in the South, their sudden rise to fame, and the beauty and friction of aging, the film examines identity, legacy, and the healing power of music through an intimate, character-driven film about legendary musicians Amy Ray and Emily Saliers.

Lost in Translations takes the audience on a quest to answer essential questions regarding Bible interpretations which have led to decades of theological harm to the LGBTQ community. For instance, How did the word “homosexual” end up in the Bible? What are the passages, known as “clobber passages,” used as “sacred weapons” against the LGBTQ+ community? What is their translated evolution through time, culture and human understanding? Is the increase of LGBTQ+ suicide, in connection with anti-gay rhetoric, specifically in religious environments, a result of this evolution? Can shedding light on the mistranslations of the past, positively impact our society in terms of acceptance, love, and communion with one another? If we are able to understand where man’s unintended influence altered the universal understanding of God’s will; can we find the wisdom to see one another as worthy of the same rights to love, marriage and leadership?

ROCKY FLATS is the story of a network of communities in Colorado now engaged in one of most urgent yet under-the-radar environmental stories of our time - of the hundreds of thousands of tons of nuclear waste left by the end of the Cold War. Late in 2018, the federal government opened Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge north of Denver, and declared its 6,500 acres safe for recreation. So why is a growing collective of scientists, environmental groups, citizens, activists, and health experts vehemently saying otherwise? They say that decades of plutonium contamination on these lands left enough residual plutonium to pose a real threat to both humans and animals. At the center of the Refuge is the former Rocky Flats Nuclear Facility - the largest and most notoriously mismanaged nuclear weapons plant in U.S. history. Rocky Flats sent radioactive plutonium into the air, water, and soil of surrounding communities for over 35 years. In 2003, its 1,098 remediated acres were sealed off and declared off-limits to human activity in perpetuity. Now, according to scientists and environmental groups, to claim that the 6,500 acres surrounding it are free of contamination is preposterous. ROCKY FLATS follows five individuals who are leading the fight to uncover the truth about Rocky Flats, and galvanize local communities to demand that the Wildlife Refuge be closed. But the events unfolding in Colorado tell a far larger story - of the toxic legacy of the Cold War that is still putting communities in peril across America.

Two women, both Iranian, living at opposite ends of the globe, begin an email correspondence. Leyla is an academic in the US, Farahnaz a filmmaker in Iran, and they have never met. In their letters, they share stories, anecdotes, memories, observations on Iran, culture, the past, art, family. The letters are accompanied by personal film clips and private photos. As stories are shared, an alternative and unofficial history of Iran emerges from two personal angles: one within the country and one outside. This alternative history, that focuses on private spaces and unknown archives, is the core story. The film also traces Leyla 's difficult decision on whether to go back to Iran or not, forming a dramatic parallel narrative.

The lives of a trans Air Force officer in Nebraska and two boys in the Southend of Seattle intersect with those of the first women to win a national championship, the first and only all-black men’s ultimate team, and a prescient feminist economist whose life was tragically cut short by cancer. These stories span fifty years of ultimate history, illuminating the hard, vital fight against systemic oppression. Though ultimate frisbee is unique in that women and men created it together and is technically inexpensive to play, it has followed the growth model of more traditional mainstream sports, which values and over-represents men. In the U.S., players are majority white, male, upper-middle-class, and college-educated. Voices that have historically been underrepresented in the sport -- LGBTQ and non-binary folks, women, people of color, folks from differing socio-economic backgrounds -- are speaking up about their experiences and barriers, pushing for intentional change. By investigating how a seemingly accessible and inclusive fifty-year-old sport grew to be a majority white male sport in the US, we can understand nuanced ways in which systems of oppression have functioned throughout the last 50 years of American history.

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?”