Four documentaries are getting an IMPACT KICKSTART from Working Films! Congratulations to the film teams selected for this inaugural round of in-kind impact campaign support:
ALWAYS IN SEASON by Jacqueline Olive
As the trauma of more than a century of lynching African Americans bleeds into the present, Always in Season follows relatives of the perpetrators and victims seeking justice and reconciliation in the midst of racial profiling, police shootings, and heated national debate about the value of black lives.
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CRIP CAMP by Jim LeBrecht and Nicole Newnham
Down the road from Woodstock, in the early 1970s, a parallel revolution blossomed in a ramshackle summer camp for disabled teenagers. Crip Camp explores summer camp awakenings that would transform lives and shape the disability rights movement, and America, forever. Told from the point of view of former camper Jim LeBrecht, and steeped in the humor and music of the era, the film traces the journeys of campers up to the present day, in this untold story of a powerful journey towards inclusion.>
DECADE OF FIRE by Vivian Vazquez, Gretchen Hildebran, Julia Steele Allen and Neyda Martinez
As cities today struggle with gentrification and social inequity, Decade of Fire offers an intimate historic portrait of the burning of the Bronx in the 1970’s, transcending era and geography. Set against irrefutably insurmountable odds, and told from the perspectives of the people who survived it, the film’s heroes demonstrate the lengths to which everyday people will go to save their communities; in this case – defending and rebuilding their neighborhoods with their bare hands.
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NAILED IT by Adele Pham
Nailed It chronicles the genesis and 40 year legacy of the Vietnamese nail salon and its influence on an $8 billion-dollar American industry. For mixed-race Vietnamese filmmaker Adele Pham, it’s personal as she confronts her conflicts with the culture and discovers a place within a trade seen by everyone but known to few.
Impact Kickstart is a project of Working Films supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The program was launched with the understanding that a solid strategy for audience engagement and strong partnerships are critical for a documentary film to make a difference. Filmmakers often lack time to do this work themselves or the expertise and the funds to pay for it. Emerging artists, creators of color, and other underrepresented artists can face the biggest hurdles, despite the potential of their projects. To respond to this challenge, Working Films is offering this support free of charge to the selected films, which hold great promise to shift understanding and catalyze action that addresses critical issues of our time.
