Film Selection
Death by Design
Consumers love – and live on – their smartphones, tablets and laptops. A cascade of new devices pours endlessly into the market, promising even better communication, non-stop entertainment and instant information. The numbers are staggering. By 2020, four billion people will have a personal computer. Five billion will own a mobile phone. But this revolution has a dark side, hidden from most consumers. In an investigation that spans the globe, filmmaker Sue Williams investigates the underbelly of the electronics industry and reveals how even the smallest devices have deadly environmental and health costs.
On March 26, through a case study featuring the film Death By Design, Caitlin Boyle, the founder of film distribution firm Film Sprout, will show how grassroots screening initiatives and citizen-driven actions like petition-writing campaigns can create new opportunities for documentaries seeking to make a change in the world.
Sue Williams has produced and directed five critically acclaimed, feature documentaries about China for national PBS broadcast. Contemporary China features prominently in her most recent film, Death by Design. Sue also directed two highly praised biographies on Eleanor Roosevelt and Mary Pickford for the PBS series, American Experience. Her films have been broadcast in more than 25 countries and appeared in festivals around the world; they have won numerous awards, including the 2016 The Boston Globe Filmmakers Fund Award.
Unrest
Jennifer Brea is a Harvard PhD student about to marry the love of her life when suddenly her body starts failing her. Hoping to shed light on her strange symptoms, Brea grabs a camera and films the darkest moments as she is derailed by M.E. (commonly known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome), a mysterious illness some still believe is “all in your head.” Brea’s wonderfully honest portrayal asks us to rethink the stigma around a disease that affects millions of people. Unrest is a vulnerable and eloquent personal documentary that is sure to hit closer to home than many could imagine.
On March 27, during a case study of the feature documentary Unrest and the accompanying virtual reality installation Unrest VR, Rebecca Ashdown, a campaign director for Together Films, a marketing, distribution & data agency based in London, will focus on the unique hybrid distribution model, the creative ways of maximising non-theatrical screening campaigns, and reaching your target audience using the right platform.
Jennifer Brea is an independent documentary filmmaker based in Los Angeles. She has an AB from Princeton University and was a PhD student at Harvard until sudden illness left her bedridden. In the aftermath, she rediscovered her first love, film. Her feature documentary, Unrest, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won a Special Jury Prize. She is also co-creator of Unrest VR, winner of the Sheffield Doc/Fest Alternate Realities Award. An activist for invisible disabilities and chronic illness, she co-founded a global advocacy network, #MEAction and is a TED Talker.
Minding the Gap
Deep in the heart of the American Rust Belt lies Rockford, Illinois. Growing up here, all you can look forward to is unemployment and poverty. But three high school friends find an outlet through skateboarding, and one of them, Bing Liu, films all their adventures. What he also captures is the abruptness with which they are catapulted into adulthood, with its dead-end jobs, babies, and reflections on what it actually means to be a man. Years later he returns to his hometown to find out what has happened to his friends. The director breaks pretty much every rule of documentary filming: he appears in his own film, and sometimes talks directly to camera. At one point Minding the Gap even resembles a therapy session, with the filmmaker processing the abuse he suffered from his father and warning his friend Zack that he’s in danger of ending up in the same vicious circle of alcoholism and violence. But Liu comes through with flying colours, because everything about this film is authentic. He uses it to paint a very topical portrait of an American generation that’s in danger of being forgotten.
On March 25, at the case study: Minding the Gap Megan Vandervort from the Picture Motion impact agency will explain how the film has managed to succeed, and share their future plans with human rights activists and civic organisations.
Bing Liu is a 30-year-old Chicago-based filmmaker whose critically acclaimed documentary Minding the Gap has earned over 50 award recognitions since its premiere at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, where it took home the Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Filmmaking. He directed three storylines on America To Me, a 10-hour series from Steve James that examines racial inequities in the U.S. education system. Bing is a member of the Directors’ Guild of America and was a former member of the International Cinematographers’ Guild. Bing Liu is a 2017 Film Independent Fellow and Garrett Scott Development Grant recipient, and graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in Literature from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Show time & place
Kherson,
