America ReFramed

Leaving politics aside, Rodrigo Reyes looks anew at the brutal beauty of the U.S./Mexico border and the people caught in its spell. The evocative Dantesque essay film reimagines the border as a mythical place exploring the vulnerability of the human soul, the violence man creates and the destruction left in its wake. The film opens with Reyes’ own words: “Close your eyes. Try to imagine what the world was like, many, many years ago. Try to imagine when borders did not exist.” His invitation is for us to think about a world where time, wonder and mystery converge seamlessly. He continues, “And then we arrived.” Later, as the camera sweeps across an endless expanse of desert, Reyes adds, “We tore it apart into a thousand pieces. And in the madness that followed, we discovered violence, hate, and finally, separation.” In the auteur tradition of caméra-stylo, Purgatorio captures a stunning mosaic of compelling characters, empty edifices and stark landscapes along the border to deliver a haunting meditation and visceral experience. Exposing both the flaws of human nature and the incongruities of the modern world, the filmmaker reflects on questions that are impossible to answer. Reyes’ epic film transforms a treacherous reality into a fable of humanity.

Choreographer Allison Orr finds beauty and grace in garbage trucks, and in the invisible men and women who pick up our trash. Following a rich and long trajectory of modern dance artists, Orr’s experiment in dance and social practice celebrates the humanity and dignity of professional sanitation workers. "It’s about me setting up the possibility for people to show themselves to folks they may never ever see again in their lives, in a really personal way…and, for people to leave feeling more connected to each other," says Orr. Sanitation workers are a part of a cadre of civil service employees who receive little recognition and yet their work is more than “just a job.” They perform a duty that is integral to the health and well-being of the community. Among these sanitation workers we meet intrepid moms, dedicated single fathers, sports coaches, day care providers and youth ministers. For nearly a year, filmmaker Andrew Garrison follows Orr as she rides along with Austin sanitation workers on their daily routes to observe and understand the job and its functions. She studies the process and movement it requires and along the way makes friends and honors their individuality and humanity. Both the film (Trash Dance) and the dance project culminate on a dark, rainy night on an abandoned airport runway where two dozen trash collectors and their trucks deliver — for one night only — a stunningly beautiful and moving performance, before an audience of thousands, who are awed to discover the spirit and beauty in the people who make a garbage truck "dance."

Seven years in the making, this award-winning documentary takes viewers on an intimate journey into the lives of three refugees who now call America home. American Heart, the feature documentary debut from Chris Newberry, centers on a remarkable health clinic tucked away in St. Paul, Minnesota, which serves as a crossroads for these chronically ill refugees and their devoted doctors. In the opening scenes we hear a beeping monitor and see the jagged lines across a heart monitor, and a smiley-face get-well balloon. The patient is Alex Gliptis, an Ethiopian refugee suffering from PTSD, diabetes and HIV, who has a burning desire to go back to Africa. Alex tells us that sometimes it’s kind of a dream that he is really in the United States. He tells us about his depression, sleeping disorder and about his medications. Yet, he still has bad dreams about the past and that in some ways he can’t really believe that he got out. Throughout the course of the film, we also meet Thor Lem, a former political prisoner from Cambodia who survived the killing fields, but is dying from liver cancer. Patrick Junior, a member of an oppressed ethnic minority in Burma is the writer of over 200 songs, many of them religious and uplifting. He loves to sleep with his guitar. The health care challenges they face are daunting, made more complicated by the trauma they carry from the past. Despite failing health and life-threatening health emergencies our protagonists lead remarkable lives; their outlook and trajectories surprising even to their doctors.

In the quiet, bucolic Patagonian countryside in the town of Bahia Murta with 587 inhabitants we meet Eraldo Pacheco, a thoughtful man who has recently arrived at a momentous decision. “Things are worse here than ever,” Eraldo tells his father and family as he announces his plan to move to the United States to fulfill a three-year contract tending sheep almost 6,000 miles away in rural Idaho. In this observational documentary of impressive beauty and painterly cinematic images the imbalance of economic forces is seen in high relief. With poetic subtlety the film speaks to the economic fragility of these remote and rural communities in South America as well as the precarious and fickle agricultural economy up north. Once in Salt Lake City, Utah, we meet Jhonny Qispe, from Peru, who also made the trek up north and who also left a wife and two children behind. Peaceful, meditative scenes envelop the viewer – vast desert, steep mountains, winter’s terrain and thousands of sheep belie the angst of the economic woes that cause a separation between a man and his beloved, his elders, his children, and the spiritual majesty of his homeland. Jhonny is also deeply invested in being a provider for his family. But what might seem like a pastoral, nomadic life is a lonely and tough existence. While Eraldo is up north, he continues to fret about not being in Chile tending to his family, especially his elderly parents. Did he make the right choice?

According to the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University, the desegregation of U.S. public schools peaked in the ’80s, but since then, schools have become even more segregated. Our Mockingbird highlights the transformational experiences of teens from two extraordinarily different high schools in Birmingham, Alabama -- one all black and one all white -- who collaborate on a production of the play, “To Kill a Mockingbird.” The film weaves commentary from an array of notables including journalist Katie Couric; Congressman John Lewis; Harvard Law School Professor Charles Ogletree; Former U.S. Attorney Douglas Jones (prosecutor of 16th Street Baptist Church bombing); Pulitzer Prize winning writer, Rick Bragg; Pulitzer Prize winning author, Diane McWhorter, as well as actors from the 1962 film and others who reflect on the legacy of Harper Lee’s prescient novel and a timeless line from her central character, Atticus Finch, who said: “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view. Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.”

Set upon building a new school, the city of New Haven claims eminent domain over the Upper Hill neighborhood. While the city argues the building of the new school corresponds to a need for better school facilities, the residents of the area, mostly struggling low-income African-American families, say the decision corresponds to the city's determination to sanitize the neighborhood in the proximity of the Yale-New Haven Hospital. Together with the help of community leaders and a civil rights lawyer, the unlikely group of neighbors decides to contest the city's claim and take the case to federal court. The Hill is a fascinating look at the complex issues surrounding urban planning, gentrification and economic renewal.

New Orleans, Louisiana is one of the "murder capitals" of the United States. For the last decade, statistics have shown murder rates four to six times higher than the national average. Eighty percent of the victims are black males, mostly in their teenage years. Shell Shocked starts at the surface of New Orleans' teen murder epidemic and delves into the hearts and minds of those whose lives are most deeply impacted -- the youths who live in fear of violence, the parents who grieve a loss they will never fully transcend, and the mentors and officials who are dedicated to touching, and perhaps saving, one life at a time. Topically, the film will lay out the big picture of a city plagued by murder and violence; it will describe, in simplified terms, how children's lives are shaped by family, schools, poverty, and a stressed criminal justice system; and, finally, it will present solutions related to individual, community, and administrative choices.

What if our last act could be a gift to the planet? Determined that his final resting place will benefit the earth, musician, psychiatrist, and folk dancer Clark Wang prepares for his own green burial while battling lymphoma. Clark and his partner Jane, boldly facing his mortality, embrace the planning of a spiritually meaningful funeral and join with a compassionate local cemetarian to use green burial to save a North Carolina woods from being clear-cut. With poignancy and unexpected humor, A Will for the Woods portrays the last days of a multifaceted advocate – and one community's role in the genesis of a revolutionary movement. As the film follows Clark's dream of leaving a legacy in harmony with timeless cycles, environmentalism takes on a profound intimacy.

What would you do if you started to disappear? On the first day of shooting the documentary, Laury Sacks, the film's subject, faces the camera and squarely asks: "What do I hope for?" At the age of 45, Laury, an ebullient actress and the doting mother of two small children, had a reputation as the quickest wit in the room. At the age of 46, she began forgetting words. Soon she could barely speak. For one year, filmmakers Pamela Hogan and Connie Shulman follow Laury in her long, inexorable descent to fronto-temporal dementia, a little-understood disease that strikes people in the prime of life. It is the profoundly personal portrait of a woman who is facing the unthinkable and the impact her progressive disease has on loved ones. Following the television broadcast premiere, host Natasha Del Toro discusses the impact on caregivers for those suffering from dementia with Nicole McGurin, Alzheimer's Association, MA/NH Chapter.

Dionicia Martinez and her teenage son, José Luis, have gambled their futures on the hardscrabble sport of horse racing. While gamblers make long-shot bets in the hopes of winning big, Dionicia, much like 11 million undocumented immigrants in America, stakes her life on finding a way out of poverty. In fact, she lives in the stables at a California racetrack and works long hours caring for racehorses while José Luis is turning heads as a hotshot apprentice jockey. Dionicia dreams of bringing her two sons who remain in Mexico to join her in the U.S. But with the racetrack closing and her future uncertain, Dionicia must rethink her family's chances of finding a stable life.

Learning to Swallow is an intimate portrait of a resilient young woman, Patsy Desmond. A charismatic, emerging artist, the “it girl” seemingly had it all: admiring friends and lovers, a prestigious work assignment with an internationally renowned artist in New York City and the potential to successfully realize her dreams. And in spite of this, Patsy struggled with bipolar disorder too. A failed suicide attempt leaves Patsy unable to swallow and for the remainder of her life must receive sustenance through a food tube. Over four rocky years, Patsy struggles to accept her physical condition and learns to deal with the life she now faces: recovery and healing. Her inability to eat and her emotional state transform her artistic voice in the process. Filmmaker Danielle Beverly captures Patsy’s raw honesty and wit even as she becomes increasingly frail. However, by the end of the film, hope and an undying spirit prevail. Patsy renews her pact with art and life.

Yellow Fever follows Tina Garnanez, a Navajo veteran returning from duty with the U.S. Army who realizes that her home on the Navajo Reservation has become a battleground in a protracted war over nuclear proliferation. As she seeks to learn about her own family history and its relationship to the uranium mines, we witness her evolution from curious family member to environmental justice activist. While examining the positive and negative externalities of nuclear power and the impact of historical and long-term uranium mining on the Navajo Nation, she arrives at her own conclusions. In an effort to advocate against further contamination of Navajo land, Tina aligns herself with a group of Navajo grandmothers and heads to Washington, D.C. With the elders, she lobbies Congress, and thereby the nation, for the creation of new frameworks for a just and equitable energy policy.

A father’s duty is to provide the necessities of life and protection for his family. In the Colvard family, however, this sacred trust was violated and the crime was particularly heinous. Chico Colvard’s three sisters survived severe emotional and physical abuse and repeated rape at the hands of their father. At 10 years old, Chico accidentally triggered a series of events that uncovered this evil secret and 30 years later, armed with his camera, he seeks to understand how his father has manipulated and controlled an entire family for life, and to explore the depth of his sisters’ capacity to forgive.

Four incarcerated women Shirley, Carlene, Tanya and Ruby were beaten, raped, sold, abused, and nearly killed by their husbands. Collectively, they spent over eighty-five years in Missouri State prison each serving life sentences, convicted for having killed their husbands to save their lives. Through the years, the local press vilified these women, portraying them all as savage murderers without any knowledge of the ongoing abuse they suffered. With the help of impassioned lawyers and law students from the Missouri Battered Women’s Coalition they begin a decade and a half long quest to secure their freedom. But will the judicial system and a notoriously secretive Missouri parole board give them a chance to renew their lives?

Hanna Ranch is a feature documentary about a visionary and charismatic cattleman, Kirk Hanna. Part eulogy and part love letter, we learn about Hanna through the memories and intimate anecdotes from family members, colleagues and friends. Hanna Ranch was built in the 1940s by Kirk Hanna’s father and grandfather, who came from New Mexico and chose the Colorado site for its proximity to Fountain Creek, which runs through it. With 2.65 miles of stream coursing through the property, Hanna Ranch protects important floodplain and upland habitats with essential plant communities and associated wildlife to help it thrive. Featured in the book “Fast Food Nation” and dubbed the “eco-cowboy,” Hanna was an early adopter of Holistic Resource Management practices, sat on numerous environmental boards and was president of the Colorado Cattleman’s Association. Hanna became a leader in the environmental ranching movement that set out to protect the West from the relentless encroachment of development and misuse. Hanna’s opinion was so widely sought and respected that some believed he could run for governor of Colorado. But when his dream of harmony and sustainability ran up against the reality of family conflict and mounting threats to the land, Hanna lost hope.

What lies beyond the art of giving and receiving? In Perfect Strangers we meet Ellie, a kind-hearted masseuse, who decides she wants to share the gift of life with a stranger who has posted online that she needs a kidney. More than 98,000 people in the United States are waiting for a new kidney. Tragically, one-third of them will die before a kidney from a deceased donor becomes available. Five hundred miles away, Kathy endures nightly dialysis and loses hope of receiving a transplant until she hears from Ellie. They meet and form a deep and genuine friendship. Over the course of four years, however, both women face unexpected challenges. As their parallel journeys unfold, the film raises questions about what motivates an individual to perform an extreme act of compassion. When we learn that Kathy’s body would reject Ellie’s kidney, we become disheartened along with them. Ellie firm in her commitment to gift a kidney, explores new and even anonymous options. She is open to all possibilities as long as her kidney does not “go to Dick Cheney,” she says half-jokingly.

Much more than an urban pastime, 9-Man is a competitive Chinese-American sport with roots that trace back to the Toisan* region of Guangdong province. In North America, the game was a way for Chinese workers to escape the drudgery of menial labor during an era of extreme discrimination. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 -- the first U.S. immigration law targeting a single ethnic group -- constrained the formation of Chinese families, effectively creating Chinatown "bachelor societies" where men outnumbered women by huge ratios. In the 1930’s, a traveling 9-Man tournament emerged, and helped create fraternity within a community plagued by unjust stereotypes of Asian masculinity. Today, 9-Man provides a lasting connection to culture and community pride for men that know a different, more integrated America. Following several teams over the course of one season, 9-Man captures the spirit of 9-Man as teams prepare for battle on gritty asphalt streets and oil-spotted Chinatown parking lots throughout North America and fight for the championship in Boston. While the elders question how to pass the torch, the next generation struggles with maintaining tradition in gentrified urban centers while the community becomes increasingly multi-ethnic. What does the future hold for this streetball battle?

Teshya Alo is 16 years old and weighs 125 pounds. But on the judo and wrestling mats, she throws women twice her age and many pounds heavier. And she beats boys. Now she has her sights set on taking gold at both the judo and wrestling world championships. If she does, she'd be the first and youngest athlete ever to win world championships in two different sports in the same year. But it won't be easy. Teshya lives in Hawai'i and the cost to travel to mainland tournaments drains her family's resources. She's a student at Kamehameha Schools and she's going through puberty. Winning Girl follows the four-year journey of this part-Polynesian teenage judo and wrestling phenomenon from Hawai'i, and in doing so tells the dynamic story of an elite athlete on her ascent, a girl facing the challenges of growing up, and an entire family dedicated to a single dream.

Born in a refugee camp in Cambodia, poet Kosal Khiev was lucky to escape the war-torn country before he was two years old. Granted asylum, Khiev grew up in the U.S. with his mother and siblings. By the age of 16, he was convicted of attempted murder and spent the next 14 years in jail — including 18 months of solitary confinement in the New Folsom State Prison in California. Fatefully, during his time in solitary Khiev experienced a breakthrough that forged his path to freedom. In jail, he found writing and spoken-word mentors and upon release became a student/participant in the inaugural class of "The Actors' Gang" led by Artistic Director and Founder Tim Robbins. As a refugee with permanent resident status but no citizenship in the U.S., however, Khiev was deported to Cambodia, a country he's never known. "How do you survive when you belong nowhere?" The documentary follows a year in the life of Khiev, while he navigates his new fame as Phnom Penh's premiere poet and receives the most important invitation of his career—to represent the Kingdom of Cambodia at the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. Later he visits France for the first time where his life comes full circle and he faces a past he never dreamed of.

In Narragansett, Rhode Island, Zachary was having the time of his life—surfing on the beach, enjoying bonfires with friends until the night he and best friend, Timmy, got into an accident. Zachary was rushed off to the hospital. Timmy didn’t make it. After being hospitalized for 6 months and overcoming feelings of guilt, Zack realized that he was going to be in a chair for the rest of his life. Zack doesn’t see himself as disabled and says that some of the coolest and most interesting people he knows are in chairs. So in the summer of 2012, Zack, along with his best friends Will, Tripp and Harvey, retrofit a vehicle for a cross-country trip in search of inspiration. Along the way they meet practitioners of the adaptive sports movement, where differently abled persons rock climb, swim competitively, play soccer and more. They also meet pioneers like Kirk Bauer, founder of Disabled Sports USA. He, with a group of war veterans, created the organization in 1967 to encourage persons like themselves to live full, integrated lives. From rehabilitation patients to Paralympic athletes, Endless Abilities captures the spirit of resilient people who defy being defined by their physical disability. Ultimately, Zack and his friends, learn that sports really are a great equalizer, unifying people of all abilities who rise to full potential on the playing field.

If You Build It follows designers-educators-activists Emily Pilloton and Matthew Miller, to Bertie County, the poorest in North Carolina. Their goal is to offer a compelling and hopeful vision for a new kind of classroom in which students learn how to use the tools of design to build their own futures. Living on credit and grant money, Emily and Matthew work doggedly to persuade a reticent school board to invest in them in the wake of a failed investment to renovate a school that now sits abandoned and vandalized. Determined to prove their model works, they successfully engage teenagers like Stevie, who tends to his family's farm, along with other members of the high school class. The parents of these teens are hopeful they can be engaged to use their minds and intellectual faculties to achieve gainful employment and a bright future someday. The town is concerned not only about the continual brain-drain but about the future viability of Bertie County itself.

Where God Likes To Be focuses on three young protagonists full of hope and promise - Andrea Running Wolf, Edward Tailfeathers, and Douglas Fitzgerald - following them over the course of a summer that marks a turning point in all of their lives. Each grapples with whether to leave and pursue opportunities far from home, or stay behind with friends and family potentially struggling with limited opportunity and marginalization. Edward is looking for work but doesn't even get a call back from national stores and fast food chains. He wonders if this has anything to do with his last name, Tailfeathers, and if employers are not willing to work with Native Americans due to the stereotypes that are attached to them. He relieves his frustration by playing loud metal music with his band “Nothing Survives” in a friend’s garage. In the intimacy of his bedroom, time stands still as he strums his guitar and sings a love song. Andi, a young woman who graduated high school with honors, is on her way to the University of Montana in Missoula, taking with her lots of photos of family and friends as well as her favorite poster of Sitting Bull. This is her first time away from home and she anxiously sits on the train not knowing what to expect. Once at her University dorm she soon feels lonely and out of place. When she returns to the reservation again after her first months away she visits her grandfather’s grave and realizes how deep her connection to her home and her ancestry really is. Doug struggles to make a living on the reservation but vows never to leave his home. He is proud to be a true cowboy and an Indian. A young family man, living in a small house with his wife, his baby daughter and his siblings, mother and grandfather, he worries that families on the reservation today are not teaching their kids about their ancestors and connection to the land which nurtures their identity, as well as their native language and culture.

By the River of Babylon takes us into the unique culture and environment of South Louisiana below the Mississippi River: a habitat that gave rise to Cajun and Creole music, food, and culture, and one that is disappearing at an alarming rate. With compelling footage and expert commentary from Bob Marshall, a New Orleans Pulitzer prize-winning journalist, among others, the film weaves this sad story into a fabric of famed but decaying dance halls and the musical habitat they represented. Riveting archival performances by Zydeco heavyweights Clifton Chenier and Beau Jocque, and Cajun and Swamp Pop artists like Nathan Abshire and Tommy McLain, are juxtaposed by thorough and thoughtful explanations of the man-made triggers that may eventually drown the entire area: the seventy-year effort to levee and control the entire river by the corps of engineers, and the rapacious dredging of the swamps for commercial transportation and oil and gas exploration and pipelines. Louisiana, a major source of energy for the nation, is being destroyed bit by bit, and the region's eco-system and marshland subside further and further each and every year. In addition to a deep and personal connection to the region, the filmmakers credit Mike Tidwell’s book, "Bayou Farewell: The Rich Life and Tragic Death of Louisiana’s Cajun Coast" as a major source of inspiration for making this filmic journey.

Gender identity issues often appear in early childhood. Some kids, feel they were born in the wrong body and this belief creates conflict in how they view and define themselves. Once a young person makes up his or her mind to embark on a gender transition, both parents and the teenager face questions and daunting challenges that they would have never imagined. Tony Ferraiolo knows this from experience. As an adult, he successfully transitioned from being female to male. Now a Certified Life Coach and Transgender Youth Advocate in New Haven, CT, we watch Tony in his role as educator and activist, guiding children as young as 8 and their parents, through the arduous journey. Tony thoughtfully acknowledges the complicated dynamics of transitioning from multiple perspectives, and he creates safe spaces and support groups for teens and their families. Formerly identifying as a lesbian, Tony comes to terms with the complexities of his own life as a female-to-male transgender person. He honors the little girl that he was and tattoos an image of her on his arm. He also muses about love, friendship and self-determination.

With humor and candor, BEFORE YOU KNOW IT celebrates the bold and brave lives of active gay senior citizens who have witnessed unbelievable change in their lifetimes: from the Stonewall Riots and gay liberation to the HIV/AIDS pandemic and gay marriage rights. The film introduces us to Dennis, a gentle-hearted widower in his 70s who explores his sexual identity and fondness for dressing in women's clothing under the name "Dee," and becomes a resident at Rainbow Vista, a gay retirement community outside of Portland, Oregon. In Harlem, New York, we meet Ty, an impassioned activist for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights, who hears nothing but wedding bells once gay marriage legislation passes in New York; and, Robert, known as "The Mouth," who was born and reared in Houston, Texas. The son of a Southern Baptist preacher, Robert always knew he was a "sissy." But in Galveston, Texas, he is a feisty bar owner who presses on when his neighborhood institution is threatened. Born before the modern gay rights movement, Dennis, Ty and Robert have become pioneers in an unprecedented "out" generation of elders. They are also among the estimated 2.4 million LGBT Americans over the age of 55. While some gay Americans adhered to the cultural norms of earlier times, others became activists and made it their mission to live out, loud and proud. Each has faced discrimination, neglect and exclusion.