Water Justice: Echoes from Lock One
2020-12-11 19:00 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/water-justice-echoes-from-lock-one/
Register for either/both days of this event here!

Water Justice Lab in North Troy, NY hosts “confluence” virtual gatherings with youth environmental justice advocates throughout communities in the Hudson River Watershed.

The opening evening features a land acknowledgement of the Stockbridge Munsee Community by Heather Bruegl, before the premiere of the water justice documentary “Echoes from Lock One,” a participatory youth production.

The screening is followed by followed by an open dialogue, “What is Water and Environmental Justice?,” facilitated by environmental justice mentors Heather Bruegl and youth educator Meghan Marohn, with participating youth groups, Water Justice Lab (Troy, NY), Kingston YMCA Farm Project (Kingston, NY) and Groundwork Hudson Valley (Yonkers, NY). The evening will end with a collective performance of “Stay Woke” with Jayohcee, and a special visit from hip hop artist Xiuhtezcatl!

Echoes From Lock One – Trailer from Catherine Rafferty on Vimeo.

About Echoes from Lock One

North Troy teens spent five weeks with Media Sanctuary creating a multimedia documentary on water justice and the legacy of the Erie Canal in one of NY’s most economically challenged and environmentally devastated neighborhoods.

Environmental Justice Mentor

Heather Bruegl is the Director of Cultural Affairs for the Stockbridge Munsee Community. The mission of the Cultural Affairs Department is to protect, preserve and tell the history of the Stockbridge Munsee Band of the Mohican Indians. We do this through the archives at the Arvid E. Miller Memorial Library and Museum, protection of our ancestral lands through Historic Preservation, and revitalization of our Language. She is a member of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, is a graduate of Madonna University in Michigan and holds a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in U.S. History. Inspired by a trip to Wounded Knee, South Dakota, a passion for Native American History was born. She has spoken for numerous groups including the University of Michigan, College of the Menominee Nation, Shawano County Historical Society, the Kenosha Civil War Museum, Stockbridge-Munsee Band of the Mohicans, and the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin. She has spoken at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh for Indigenous Peoples Day 2017. Heather also opened up and spoke at the Women’s March Anniversary in Lansing, Michigan in January 2018. She also spoke at the first ever Indigenous Peoples March in Washington, DC in January of 2019. Summer 2019, she spoke at the Crazy Horse Memorial and Museum in Custer, South Dakota for their Talking Circle Series. She has also become the ‘’accidental activist’’ and speaks to different groups about intergenerational racism and trauma and helps to bring awareness to our environment, the fight for clean water and other issues in the Native community. A curiosity of her own heritage lead her to Wisconsin, where she has researched the history of the Native American tribes in the area. In addition to that she also currently travels and speaks on Native American history, including policy and activism.

Hip Hop Artists

Xiuhtezcatl! Martinez, Earth Guardians Youth Director Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, (his first name pronounced ‘Shoe-Tez-Caht’) recently turned 18. He’s an indigenous climate activist, hip-hop artist, and powerful voice on the front lines of a global youth-led environmental movement.

Recently named TIMES Next 100, Xiuhtezcatl has felt called to change the narrative on what it means to be an activist since an early age. Still a teenager, X has spoken multiple times a the UN, addressing the General Assembly and spoken on panels with the likes of Bernie Sanders, Van Jones, Shailene Woodley, Bill Mckibbens and Pharrell Williams.

Xiuhtezcatl has a unique talent for connecting people through popular culture and sharing the message of his indigenous roots to better serve the planet and reimagine the future for his generation.

Jayohcee, also known as Corey Jocko is an hip hop artist, activist, and a First Nations Mohawk Warrior. Jayohcee is featured in Echoes from Lock One teaching youth how to write and perform a song through hip hop “for their multimedia documentary and performing his Standing Rock song, “Stay Woke.

PARTICIPATING YOUTH GROUPS

Water Justice Lab

The Water Justice Lab fellows are taking a leadership role organizing and leading the Water Justice Confluence. This youth science mentorship program is a project of Media Sanctuary’s NATURE (North Troy Art Technology and Urban Research in Ecology) Lab Environmental Education Center and Riverkeeper. The project will establish a water quality sampling lab, educate diverse communities about water literacy and water civics (water issues and how to make a difference), develop the advocacy capacity of the North Troy area, and strengthen a network of environmental justice advocates focused on water issues in the Hudson River Watershed.

The Kingston YMCA Farm Project

The Kingston YMCA Farm Project’s mission is to educate, nourish and connect the Kingston community with our urban farm. Our vision is to use the farm as a way to engage young people in the magical and empowering process that is food production. Children and youth are involved in all aspects of food production and farm care: seeding, transplanting, watering, weeding, harvesting, and ultimately preparing and eating. We have farm stands on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, where we make our produce as accessible as possible to our community. Participants learn how to turn the vegetables they grow into healthy snacks and dishes.

We are committed to racial and economic justice and we are working to create a more equitable food system for all. As we do this, we find different ways for our youth to make change in our community. We have recently started having a Book Club this summer. Since then, we have read Stamped the Remix by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi; as well as How to be an Anti-racist by Ibram X. Kendi. The crew has also done things such as sent letters to elected officials, installed a Say Their Names memorial, painted two utility boxes with antiracist messages, initiated a county-wide Sojourner Truth Day, and more.

The Kingston YMCA Summer Youth Crew wrote and created a video called Truth Talk. Truth Talk focuses on what they learned about our history and how to be an anti-racist agent of change.

Groundwork Hudson Valley creates sustainable environmental change in urban neighborhoods through community-based partnerships that promote equity, youth leadership, and economic opportunity.

The Green Team program hires local teenagers enrolled in the Yonkers Public School system for environmental jobs – for many, their first real job. The program focuses on leadership, group dynamics, and a variety of conservation and construction skills. This hard work is tempered with amazing adventures, like hiking, camping, and swimming.

https://youtu.be/fxNvLj9u5Qw

MORE ABOUT WATER JUSTICE LAB

Organized and hosted by Water Justice Lab, a new project of Media Sanctuary’s NATURE (North Troy Art Technology and Urban Research in Ecology) Lab Environmental Education Center and Riverkeeper. The project will establish a water quality sampling lab, educate diverse communities about water literacy and water civics (water issues and how to make a difference), develop the advocacy capacity of the North Troy area, and strengthen a network of environmental justice advocates focused on water issues in the Hudson River Watershed.

Local Voices / Local Media: The Struggle for Clean Air in the Hudson Mohawk Region
2021-04-21 19:00 - 20:30 | https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/local-voices-local-media-the-struggle-for-clean-air-in-the-hudson-mohawk-region/
You will receive links to the videos prior to the panel, and then can join in for a conversation with the media makers and local activists.

In the Shadows of Norlite, photo by Catherine Rafferty

On Earth Day, we celebrate our local voices in their eloquent calls for environmental justice and clean air in the Hudson Mohawk region. We focus on local media makers who are creating media as an organizing tool, whose work shines light on the power of personal voice.

Our “mini-media festival” features a conversation with local Capital Region media makers Sonja Stark with “Albany Alert,” Dave Publow with “We Care About Our Kids: Voices of the Victims of Norlite,” and Catherine Rafferty with “In the Shadow of Norlite,” along with the powerful voices featured in their films, Joe Ritchie, Judith Enck and Barbara Heinzen.

Our featured local media makers focus their lenses on two grassroots environmental action groups: Lights Out Norlite, who are raising awareness about the Norlite toxic waste incinerator located in Cohoes, and Clean Air Coalition Of Greater Ravena-Coeymans, who are addressing waste incineration and tire burning at the Lafarge/Holcim Ravena cement plant located next to the Ravena Coeymans Selkirk middle and high schools in Coeymans.

Sponsored by iEAR Presents! and the School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at Rensselaer, made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Register Here

EVENT SCHEDULE

7:00-7:10 Opening Welcome/ Thanks & Acknowledgements

7:10-7:40 Panel 1 Media as an Organizing Tool

7:10 Sonya Stark

7:20 Dave Publow

7:30 “In the Shadows of Norlite,” photojournalism essay by Catherine Rafferty

7:40- 8:10 Panel 2 Power of the Personal Voice

Discussion with subjects of the films: Joe Ritchie, Barbara Heinzen, Judith Enck

8:10 Final conversation/ Moving into action!

8:30pm End

MEDIA MAKERS

Sonja Stark

Sonja Stark began her freelance DP career in 2005. Prior to that she was employed as an Emmy award-winning news videographer for the local CBS news affiliate WRGB for over a decade. She has honed her craft shooting and editing footage in over 72 countries for documentaries about history, environment, music and social causes as well as episodic programming about travel for broadcast on cable channels and PBS. She calls her one-woman business PilotGirl Productions.

Dave Publow

Dave Publow is an environmental activist, radio journalist, printmaker, and videographer. He is also a resident of Troy, NY, one of the many communities directly affected by the Norlite hazardous waste incinerator. His focus is to use the tools at his disposal to spread awareness of environmental injustice, and to help galvanize the community to find the powers within themselves to meet the challenge.

Catherine Rafferty

Catherine Rafferty is a freelance photojournalist and documentary filmmaker from upstate New York whose work explores intimate, complex themes with concern for social justice. She recently worked in Phoenix, AZ at The Arizona Republic, part of the USA Today network, as a Pulliam Fellow covering the COVID-19 pandemic and calls for racial justice. She’s previously interned at the Times Union in Albany, NY and The Sanctuary, where she documented Uptown Summer in the Roots for Resilience solo exhibition. She graduated with a BFA in photojournalism from Rochester Institute of Technology in 2020. Rafferty produces the “Birth Justice” podcast on WOOC 105.3 FM and is currently media mentor to the Water Justice Lab Fellows at The Sanctuary. She’s excited to continue working with the fellows to tell the story of their community and its relationship to the river.

FEATURING

Joseph Ritchie is an environmental justice advocate and the Executive Director of Saratoga Sites Against Norlite Emissions. He is a student at Syracuse University studying Environmental Policy. Joe grew up in the shadows of Norlite.

Environmental Policy Expert Judith Enck founded Beyond Plastics in 2019 to end plastic pollution through education, advocacy, and institutional change. Passionate about protecting public health and the environment, she teaches classes on plastic pollution as a Senior Fellow and visiting faculty member at Bennington College, and was recently a Visiting Scholar at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University.

Judith has held top influential positions in state and federal government. Appointed by President Obama, she served as the Regional Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, overseeing environmental protections in NY, NJ, eight Indian Nations, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands – in addition to managing a staff of 800 and a $700M budget. Previously, Judith served as Deputy Secretary for the Environment in the New York Governor’s Office, and Policy Advisor to the New York State Attorney General. She was Senior Environmental Associate with the New York Public Interest Research Group, served as Executive Director for Environmental Advocates of New York and the Non-Profit Resource Center, and is a past President of Hudson River Sloop Clearwater. Judith appears on a weekly public affairs radio show on a local NPR affiliate, the Roundtable on WAMC in Albany, NY.

Barbara Heinzen is a long-term strategist and scenario planner with a successful 35-year practice working with companies and civil society, usually in non-Western countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Recent assignments have been with two multi-stakeholder projects concerning the future of energy: one in East Africa and the other in Pennsylvania, USA. In 2011, Barbara Heinzen returned to the USA from central London, UK after buying 20 acres of land along the Hudson River in upstate New York. This property is part of the Barbets Duet partnership. Individuals in East Africa, England and the USA are working with their own land and communities to learn how to manage land for environmental benefit while improving local livelihoods.

Register Here

Arica: A Toxic Waste Scandal with "Our Soil" Panel
2021-04-25 14:00 - 15:30 | https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/arica-a-toxic-waste-scandal-with-our-soil-panel/
View a special Northern Hemisphere sneak preview of the documentary Arica, then join us for a panel discussion with directors, Lars Edman and William Johansson Kalén, plus local “Our Soil” project leader Professor Abby Kinchy and Professor Sebastian Ureta (Chile) and Rodrigo Pino (Chile).

Register to screen the Arica documentary by Lars Edman, William Johansson Kalén plus join us for the “Our Soil” Panel! You will be sent a link once you register, with a 24 hour window to view the film. The panel will meet at 2 pm. Please view the film before or after the panel!

[Please note: because this is a sneak preview, we have agreed to close registration at 100 people, so be sure to register!]

Arica tells the story of a Swedish mining giant who dumped hazardous waste in Arica in northern Chile. Subsequently thousands of inhabitants are damaged. Now the survivors are seeking justice in a groundbreaking transnational corporate accountability trial.

A Swedish mining company exports 20,000 tonnes of toxic waste to the Chilean desert town of Arica. Thousands of people become sick, many die from cancer. ARICA plunges us into the groundbreaking corporate accountability trial which begins after Lars Edman – born in Chile and raised in Boliden – exposes the scandal.

Alongside his co-director William Johansson, Lars follows the story for 15 years, exposing how decisions made decades ago in Europe continue to affect people in South America. Part personal journey, part courtroom drama, ARICA is the story of an afflicted community fighting for justice against a multinational company desperate to clear their name.

Toxic Colonialism – the export of waste material from rich to poor countries – is on trial.

“Our Soil / Nuestros Suelos”

The city of Arica is a sister city with our local city of Troy, NY, in the project “Our Soil / Nuestros Suelos.”

Funded from a National Science Foundation grant, Our Soil involves community-engaged environmental research (“citizen science”). The Our Soil / Nuestros Suelos teams have been developing a Community Soil Study Toolkit to test soils for three heavy metals (lead, arsenic, and copper) that may be found in urban soils. One of our partners is in Chile, Dr. Sebastian Ureta, has done work with these DIY kits in Arica, Chile.

The research involves The Sanctuary for Independent Media as a community partner, bringing to the project strong record of involving neighborhood youth in environmental projects, such as water testing and urban gardening. Our plan is to hold a series of hands-on workshops with North Troy neighborhood residents, to teach them how to sample and analyze soil from yards and gardens. It is important to note a distinguishing element of the project: unlike soil testing projects that exist elsewhere, NSF has funded us to develop and evaluate a method of collaborative, community-based soil research. It is not merely “soil testing” but a package of interdisciplinary education and collective action, conducted and analyzed by an interdisciplinary research team.

More about the Panelists

Lars Edman

Born in Chile and raised in Sweden, Lars returned to South America to attend the Valparaiso Film School. Toxic Playground was Lars’ first film which went on to win 6 international awards, screening in over 30 international festivals and being broadcast on TV across Europe.

Since completing Toxic Playground, Lars has retrained as a speech and language therapist and now lives in the north of Norway. Arica will be his second feature documentary.

William Johansson Kalén

William Johansson Kalén has worked as a Director, Editor in chief, DoP and Film editor since 2006 and has been working with a number of documentaries, documentary series and TV-programs. He co-directed the award-winning documentary Toxic Playground in 2009 and started as a film producer in 2015 when he also became a shareholder of Laika Film & Television. He is currently producing an artistic documentary about architecture that will premiere in early 2021 and producing a couple of Laika’s projects in development. He has worked as assistant producer on the documentary Cold Case Hammarskjöld and the fiction Beauty And The Dogs and The Man Who Sold His Skin. He is also the Swedish producer in the fiction Jordanian film Farha that premiere in spring 2021.

Abby Kinchy

Abby Kinchy is a sociologist, working in the interdisciplinary field of science and technology studies (STS). Her research examines the politics of pollution, in order to illuminate the relationship between science and democracy.

Most recently, her research has focused on “citizen science”–public participation in environmental monitoring. Her goal is to bring concepts of power and social justice into sharper focus in popular and professional discussions of citizen science. What kind of citizenship is implied in citizen science? How can participatory environmental research enhance struggles for social change beyond merely generating data? Her book on this topic, co-authored with Aya H. Kimura, is Science by the People: Participation, Power, and the Politics of Environmental Knowledge (Rutgers, 2019). Kinchy’s newest NSF-funded project, Nuestros Suelos/Our Soil, explores how citizen science could help urban communities to identify heavy metal contamination in soil and to advocate for solutions.

Professor Kinchy is the author of Seeds, Science, and Struggle: The Global Politics of Transgenic Crops (MIT, 2012). She was the PI on the NSF-funded Watershed Knowledge Mapping Project, which examined the practices and politics of environmental monitoring in the context of shale gas development, or “fracking.” She is also a co-organizer of STS Underground, a research network that advances social science research on the technoscientific dimensions of mining, burial, and other forms of subterranean exploration.

Sebastian Ureta

Sebastián Ureta is an Associate Professor in the Sociology Department at the Universidad Alberto Hurtado (Santiago, Chile). He trained as a sociologist, with a focus on science and technology studies. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degree in sociology from the Universidad Católica de Chile in Santiago and completed his PhD in 2006 in the media and communications department at the London School of Economics (UK). Subsequently, he worked as an Assistant Professor at the Instituto de Sociología, Universidad Católica de Chile. From November 2007 to March 2008 he was also a British Academy visiting fellow in the sociology department at Lancaster University (UK). From May 2009 to March 2012 he was a Marie Curie International incoming fellow at the Center for Technology and Society (ZTG), Technische Universität Berlin. Currently he is working on a research project focused on the government of industrial waste in Chile, in particular the massive waste produced by the country’s booming mining industry. In March 2015 he became the PI of the Millennium Nucleus for Energy and Society Research (NUMIES), a new research group studying the interrelations between energy issues and society in Chile.

Rodrigo Pino

Rodrigo Pino is from Arica. Since the beginning of the controversy regarding Boliden’s waste more than 10 years ago, Rodrigo has been quite probably the most important spokesperson of the affected communities.

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Toxic justice is a platform where we discuss waste trade, corporate responsibility and ways to legally challenge human rights abuse by big corporations in the west. The platform is inspired by the case of Arica Victims KB vs. Boliden and the documentary film ARICA, which describes the case. Our goals are prevention, accountability and reparation. And justice for those of us who are affected.

Sponsored by iEAR Presents! and the School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at Rensselaer, made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Echoes from Lock One
2021-04-30 00:00 - 23:59 | https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/echoes-from-lock-one/
“Echoes from Lock One” is an evocative call for environmental and water justice from the eyes and voices of youth in Troy, NY.

Personally screen this video and listen to a Q&A podcast with co-creators!

During the Sanctuary’s “Uptown Summer” program, media makers, artists and scientists worked with teens in camera, audio production, script writing, music production, dance, historical research as well as scientific testing, to create this experimental, participatory documentary with a message for change:

“We live along the shores of the Hudson River at the beginning of the Erie Canal, Lock One, the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution. The history of the Erie Canal and the devastating effects of industrialization are mostly unknown… even to the people of Troy, who live right next to it. Our river and our neighborhood have been poisoned by a legacy of pollution. This is our call to action. For justice and for our future. No more waiting!”

Featured in:

Environmental Film Festival of the Capital

North Dakota Environmental Film Festival

Kansas City Environmental Film Festival

Mistah Jayohcee is an Artist, Activist, Performer, songwriter, producer, engineer, and promoter – a jack of all trades. He is a First Nations Mohawk Warrior who is also a hip-hop artist. Jayohcee is featured in Echoes from Lock One, teaching youth how to write and perform hip hop for their video, and offering a private performance for them.

Co-created by Youth Media Sanctuary/Uptown Summer Youth and Mentors in collaboration with The Sanctuary for Independent Media, Executive Producer Branda Miller.

The Sanctuary for Independent Media is a place for community-engaged interdisciplinary experimentation, with the overarching goal of shedding light on the intersectional role of media, science and art in the process of building a democratic society. Uptown Summer is a media arts and environmental education summer employment program for local youth to share homegrown stories of hope and justice.

Witness to the Future: 25th Anniversary Screening
2021-05-05 00:00 - 23:59 | https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/witness-to-the-future-25th-anniversary-screening/
Witness to the Future still

Twenty-five years after its release, Witness to the Future’s focus on so-called “ordinary” citizens turned environmental activists has more relevance than ever before! Here’s an interview with producer Branda Miller on the WOOC Hudson Mohawk Magazine as part of the build-up to this event.

It’s time to watch this video again!

Then, watch the Q&A with WTTF filmmaker Branda Miller and co-producer Robin Oppenheimer speaking with interviewer Corinne Carey of WOOC 105.3 FM’s Hudson Mohawk Magazine before this 25th anniversary screening.

Branda Miller’s “Witness to the Future” is an experimental documentary video project about individuals who have been transformed from so called “ordinary” citizens into activists who struggle for environmental and social change.

“Witness to the Future” seeks connections that unite people of all cultures, communities, races, and economic classes as they struggle for environmental and social change. Represented are people from three regions of the U.S.: the “downwinders” of Hanford, WA, including Native Americans; “whistleblowers” and white-collar workers from the nuclear reservation; rural African American, poor, and working-class communities in “Cancer Alley,” LA; and Latino and Hmong farmworkers and mothers in the San Joaquin Valley, CA.

Reviews of “Witness to the Future“

The Economist

“Environmentalist may be leery of some modern technologies, such as genetic engineering and nuclear power. Yet one new technology promises to make their movement much more powerful. This CD-ROM demonstrates how recent advances in computing and the internet can be used for dramatic political effect. The enemies of the greens – the firms and governments that greens accuse of neglecting nature – aught to watch out.”

MacWorld

“If you seek thought-provoking material for an environmentally inclined friend, look no further.“

I.D. Magazine

“It will change the way you think about [Image] consumerism and the industrial infrastructure that supports it.“

WorldFest International Film and Video Festival

Gold Award – Interactive Educational / Adult CategorySilver Award – Ecology / Environment / Conservation Category

Dr. Nicholas J. Smith-Sebasto

“When I experienced Witness to the Future, I was left literally NUMB. My initial impression was one of complete shock. Branda has created something that appears to be truly revolutionary. Those interested in the Environmental must be made aware of her production and more important, must be trained in how to use it.” (National Association of Environmental Educators)

Pacifica Network & Democracy Now!Segment about “Witness to the Future,” December 29, 1997

About the Filmmaker

Branda Miller is a media artist and educator, dedicated to art, ecology and community interdisciplinary arts. She is the Arts and Education Coordinator at The Sanctuary for Independent Media, where she has developed numerous media literacy/community arts/youth media and creative place-making projects. She is a Professor of Media Arts at Rensselaer, teaching courses in documentary, art, community and technology, and independent art production. Miller is an Emmy award-winning editor who worked in the media industry of L.A. and N.Y.C., and whose media art works have been screened, exhibited and broadcast nationally and internationally. Branda Miller has three decades of experience in participatory design and praxis, and a history of transdisciplinary collaborations created to stimulate cultural animation, build community, and create dialogue around freedom of expression and environmental justice.

About the Producer

Robin Oppenheimer is a Seattle-based internationally recognized media arts historian, curator, educator, and scholar who has worked in the field since 1980. She was Executive Director of media arts centers in Atlanta (IMAGE Film/Video 1984-89) and Seattle (911 Media Arts 1989-95). Earning a PhD in Interactive Arts and Technology at Simon Fraser University in 2011, she was a Lecturer at the University of Washington Bothell (2008-2015) and adjunct faculty at Cornish College of the Arts (2014-16). Recent projects include working as a media arts historian/writer for Google’s Artist and Machine Intelligence group in Seattle https://ami.withgoogle.com/ . Her areas of research include media arts histories, with an emphasis on 1960s collaborative art & technology projects (light shows, E.A.T.), participatory media, and media activism.

"Not Going Quietly" w/ filmmaker Nicholas Bruckman and panel discussion
2021-11-12 19:00 - 22:00 | The Sanctuary, 3361 6th Ave, Troy, 12180, United States
Join us for a virtual film screening of “Not Going Quietly” with filmmaker Nicholas Bruckman, followed by a panel discussion.

The event begins with a quick introduction by filmmaker Nicholas Bruckman, then we will screen Not Going Quietly. Following the film, a personal message by Ady Barkan and brief Q&A with Nicholas will lead into a discussion led by People’s Health Sanctuary moderators Aileen Javier and Corinne Carey with panelists: Tracey Corder, ACRE (Action Center on Race and the Economy); Ursula Rozum, Campaign for NY Health; Julia Solow, Hand in Hand (The Network of Domestic Employers); Scott Desnoyers, health care activist.

CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO DOCUMENTATION

On December 18, 2017, approximately 70 protesters against the GOP Tax Bill were arrested while staging a ‘die-in’ in the rotunda of the Rayburn House office building. One of the arrestees was health care activist Ady Barkan, who is living with ALS. Barkan said the GOP tax bill’s cuts to Medicaid will put his and 13 million other American’s life at risk. (Photo by Michael Nigro)

A rising star in progressive politics and a new father, 32-year-old Ady Barkan’s life is upended when he is diagnosed with ALS. But after a confrontation with powerful Senator Jeff Flake on an airplane goes viral, catapulting him to national fame, Ady and a motley crew of activists ignite a once-in-a-generation political movement called “Be a Hero.” Together, they barnstorm across the country and empower people to confront their elected officials with emotional, personal stories to demand healthcare justice, and Ady holds groundbreaking interviews with Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren. Through his journey, Ady discovers that collective action and speaking truth to power offers hope for his family and millions of others.

View Democracy Now! clip of “Not Going Quietly”: Paralyzed with ALS, Ady Barkan Continues Fighting for Medicare for All

This event is a collaboration between the iEAR Presents series with support from RPI’s ARTS department and School of Humanities, Arts and Social Science, and from the New York State Council for the Arts/ NYSCA, with The Sanctuary for Independent Media and People’s Health Sanctuary.

https://www.notgoingquietlyfilm.com

Nicholas Bruckman produced the feature film VALLEY OF SAINTS, which won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for an Independent Spirit award. The film was released on Netflix and was a New York Times Critics Pick.

He previously directed the feature documentary LA AMERICANA, which won the best documentary prize at the NY and LA Latino Film Festivals. The film broadcast worldwide on networks including PBS, National Geographic, and Al Jazeera.

Nicholas Bruckman is the director of NOT GOING QUIETLY, his latest film about 32-year-old Ady Barkan’s life.

Nicholas’ work has received support from foundations including the Fledgling Fund, Cinereach, NYSCA, NYFA, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. He is the founder and CEO of People’s Television, a New York and D.C.-based branded & original content company.

PANEL

Tracey Corder, Campaign Director – Policing and Incarceration, ACRE (Action Center on Race and the Economy)

Tracey is a Deputy Campaign Director for ACRE ‘s Policing work. She comes to this work after serving as a social worker, electoral campaign organizer and political strategist.

Her most recent position as Director of Federal Action and Racial Justice at Center for Popular Democracy worked to advance direct action as a tactic to advocate for progressive legislation on housing, immigration, voting rights, climate and policing.

Tracey serves on the Advisory Board of Be A Hero, the Steering Committee of Black Womxn For and is a trainer for the Birddog Nation.

Ursula Rozum, Co-Director, Campaign for NY Health

Ursula Rozum, a Syracuse native, is an organizer building people power to win healthcare for all with Campaign for New York Health. In 2012, she was the Green party candidate for Congress. She likes bicycles and growing vegetables.Busy-bee organizer in Syracuse, NY.

The pandemic is exposing the weaknesses of the current healthcare system and why we must create a system that guarantees care for everybody. The New York Health Act (A5248a/S3577a) will provide comprehensive, universal health coverage — including long-term care — for every resident of New York.

Scott Desnoyer, healthcare activist

Scott Desnoyers says his son died because of $20 and Amy Sterling Casil was charged $50,000 after her baby died – they are among many Americans sharing their stories about the health system.

Daniel was 29 when he died. He killed himself after failing to get his medication refilled because he missed a $20 premium he was not aware of.

“I promised his siblings and him at the funeral in front of everyone that I was going to make our lawmakers look me in the eye and see the consequences of their decisions,” shares his father, Scott Desnoyers. a loving father who lost his son and became a Medicare-for-All activist.

Julia Solow, Lead NY Caring Majority Organizer at Hand-in-Hand: The Network of Domestic Employers

Julia’s passion for organizing comes from a long legacy of organizing in her family, personal experiences of struggle and amazing mentors along her journey. She first got involved in movement work when social work professors in college introduced her to immigrant rights leaders fighting for the DREAM Act in 2010. Since then, Julia has been organizing in solidarity with working class people of color-led movements and power organizations on efforts to address gentrification, living wages for farm workers and drivers licenses for undocumented immigrants in New York State, among others. Prior to her work at Hand-In-Hand, she has had the privilege of working at AFL-CIO National Headquarters in DC, Community Voices Heard in New York and as an Americorps VISTA in Cleveland, Ohio. Julia has a Masters in Social Work from CUNY Hunter College. She is bilingual in English and Spanish

Aileen Javier, co-moderator

Aileen Javier is a Community Health Worker/ Outreach Educator/Family Advocate. She is passionate about fomenting community health by supporting and empowering people to successfully navigate the local social and health care system. She worked as a Community Outreach / Family Advocate in Massachusetts. At the Sanctuary Aileen collaborates in the NATURE Lab’s newest initiative: Health Autonomy Clinic and she is working on radio production for WOOC 105.3 FM publishing pieces on local health resources. Aside from the radio production, she helps plan and organize events and distribute flyers, she is ready to help in any way that she can. In the near future she will do community outreach for the HAC.

She enjoys dancing, buying from local businesses and farms, meditation, yoga, hiking and living a healthy lifestyle. She loves talking and meeting new people. She is part of the People Power at the Sanctuary because she believes in the Sanctuary’s Mission “We use art and participatory action to promote social and environmental justice and freedom of creative expression.”

– From Aileen: The Sanctuary For Independent Media is My Tribe and my Second Family. I am honored to be part of such a Great Organization! I Love You Guys! See what Aileen has done with the Sanctuary

Corinne Carey, co-moderator

Corinne Carey is a political & public affairs strategist taking on bold public health initiatives backed by sound evidence & human rights. Carey is the campaign director of Compassion & Choices New York. Compassion & Choices improves care, expands options and empowers everyone to chart their end-of-life journey.

Compassion & Choices’ award-winning video features the groundbreaking filmmaker Hammer urging New York lawmakers to pass the Medical Aid in Dying Act. “My cancer is incurable … I will reach a very debilitated state,” she says in the video, in which she notes that she suffered through more than 100 chemo treatments for ovarian cancer over 12 years before entering hospice in late 2018. “I would so much like to be able to manage my own death by choosing the time and the person I’d like to have with me so that I can die in comfort and with compassion and not in pain and morphine-drugged.” Hammer died on March 16, 2019, at age 79 in her Manhattan home without access to this gently dying option. In February, Oscars in Memoriam honored her for her legacy as an experimental filmmaker. Watch the entire award-winning video of Barbara Hammer urging New York lawmakers to pass the Medical Aid in Dying Act.

Corinne Carey is a radio producer with Hudson Mohawk Magazine on WOOC 105.3 FM.

CO-SPONSORS

Be A Hero Fund

Be A Hero takes on the impossible fights. Big money. Special interests. Powerful politicians. We’ve taken them all on– and won.

The Be A Hero team is led by Ady and co-Executive Director Jamila Headley. Together with a group of committed organizers, Ady and Jamila are fighting for a more just health care system in the United States.

Four months after the birth of his son Carl, Ady Barkan was diagnosed with ALS. Confronting his own mortality, Ady decided to spend his remaining time fighting to transform America’s health care system so that it guarantees all of us the care and dignity we deserve and lifting up stories of incredible heroism in the face of injustice.

Jamila is an impact-focused leader and an accomplished advocate for healthcare, racial, and disability justice. She thrives at the intersections of strategy and implementation, building organizations and movements at the global and local levels, and caring for the individuals in them.

The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the brokenness of our healthcare system, and the time is ripe for transformational change. But in order to win, we must build a powerful movement and we can’t do it without you. Join our fight today!

NY Health: Healthcare for Every New Yorker

The New York Health Act [A.6058/S.5474] will provide comprehensive health care for every New Yorker. You and your healthcare provider of choice will work to keep you healthy—New York Health pays the bill. You will never have to fear going without coverage again—especially in the middle of a deadly pandemic.

Over the last year, tens of thousands of New Yorkers died, lost income, fell behind on rent, and struggled to pay medical bills. Meanwhile, private health insurance corporations made record profits. The COVID-19 pandemic puts everyone at risk, but Black, brown, and low-income New Yorkers carry the greatest burden of exposure, with disproportionately more serving as essential workers and disproportionately fewer having access to healthcare.

We need a legislative agenda of compassionate care to heal from this pandemic. That’s why we partnered with allies in the housing justice and decarceration movements to release the Compassionate New York Agenda. This is a road map to saving lives and billions of dollars by providing guaranteed healthcare, stopping unjust evictions, and reducing the number of people behind bars and harmed by the criminal and immigration systems. We reject the austerity agenda, and call for a movement based on compassion and care to drive the legislative agenda in New York.

Join us in building the movement to win universal, guaranteed healthcare — and more. Check out ways to get involved in passing the New York Health Act!

"Outta The Muck" Film Screening with Ira McKinley & Bhawin Suchak
2022-05-07 19:00 - 21:00 | The Sanctuary, 3361 6th Ave, Troy, 12180, United States
A fiercely self-determined family in the deep south resists despair with love in this unique narrative of Black achievement.

Filmmakers Ira McKinley and Bhawin Suchak screened their film “Outta The Muck” for a hometown crowd at The Sanctuary for Independent Media on May 7, 2022 in Troy, NY. This is the Q&A that followed the screening.

www.mediasanctuary.orgouttathemuck.com

Family, football and history come to life in an intimate portrait of the Dean family, longtime residents of the historic town of Pahokee, Florida. As we take a journey back home, with filmmaker Ira McKinley, to the land of sugarcane, he reconnects with his niece Bridget and nephew Alvin and explores their shared family history that spans seven generations. Told through stories that transcend space and time, “Outta The Muck” presents an intimate portrait of a community that resists despair with love, remaining fiercely self-determined, while forging its own unique narrative of Black achievement.

BHAWIN SUCHAKDIRECTOR/PRODUCER/DOP/EDITOR

Bhawin is an educator, filmmaker, and founding member/co-executive director of Youth FX, a media arts organization focused on empowering young people of color in Albany, NY and around the world by teaching them creative and technical skills in film and digital media while supporting self-determined communities of emerging artists. Bhawin also co-directs NeXt Doc, a year-round fellowship program that exists to amplify the voices of documentary filmmakers of color between the ages of 20-24 years old. Bhawin is the co-director, producer, cinematographer and editor of Outta The Muck (2022), a feature length documentary supported by ITVS, JustFilms, Sundance, and Southern Documentary Fund. He previously co-directed, The Throwaways (2014) with Ira Mckinley, and Free To Learn (2004).

IRA MCKINLEYDIRECTOR/PRODUCER/WRITER

Ira McKinley is a filmmaker and activist and the director/producer of the award-winning documentary The Throwaways. Born in Upstate New York he is now based in South Florida where Outta The Muck is set. Ira started his activism in the 1980’s when he participated in Act Up in Ithaca, NY. During the winters of 2007/2008 he started a Homeless Arts Showcase in Northampton, MA’s Pulaski Park which was inspired by his fifteen years being homeless himself. Ira is the recipient of the 2014 ACLU Carol S. Knox award, 2013 MLK Storytelling + Activist Award from Siena College, 2009 Northampton Arts Council’s Emerging Filmmaker Award, and was the 2009 Producer of the Year for Northampton Community Television. His current film Outta The Muck tells the story of his family roots in Pahokee, FL and is being produced with support from ITVS, JustFilms, Sundance, and Southern Documentary Fund.

Sponsored by iEAR Presents! and the School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at Rensselaer, made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of The Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

The Team:

BHAWIN SUCHAKDIRECTOR/PRODUCER/DOP/EDITOR

Bhawin is an educator, filmmaker, and founding member/co-executive director of Youth FX, a media arts organization focused on empowering young people of color in Albany, NY and around the world by teaching them creative and technical skills in film and digital media while supporting self-determined communities of emerging artists. Bhawin also co-directs NeXt Doc, a year-round fellowship program that exists to amplify the voices of documentary filmmakers of color between the ages of 20-24 years old. Bhawin is the co-director, producer, cinematographer and editor of Outta The Muck (2022), a feature length documentary supported by ITVS, JustFilms, Sundance, and Southern Documentary Fund. He previously co-directed, The Throwaways (2014) with Ira Mckinley, and Free To Learn (2004).

IRA MCKINLEYDIRECTOR/PRODUCER/WRITER

Ira McKinley is a filmmaker and activist and the director/producer of the award-winning documentary The Throwaways. Born in Upstate New York he is now based in South Florida where Outta The Muck is set. Ira started his activism in the 1980’s when he participated in Act Up in Ithaca, NY. During the winters of 2007/2008 he started a Homeless Arts Showcase in Northampton, MA’s Pulaski Park which was inspired by his fifteen years being homeless himself. Ira is the recipient of the 2014 ACLU Carol S. Knox award, 2013 MLK Storytelling + Activist Award from Siena College, 2009 Northampton Arts Council’s Emerging Filmmaker Award, and was the 2009 Producer of the Year for Northampton Community Television. His current film Outta The Muck tells the story of his family roots in Pahokee, FL and is being produced with support from ITVS, JustFilms, Sundance, and Southern Documentary Fund.

DARIAN HENRYPRODUCER

TRACY RECTORPRODUCER

SAM POLLARDEXECUTIVE PRODUCER

Read the VARIETY article

WORKSHOP

Register for the Be The Media! workshop before the film screening from 5pm-6pm on May 7.

Join documentary filmmakers Bhawin Suchak and Ira McKinley as they breakdown the process of their project Outta the Muck.

"Witness," a documentary with filmmaker Masood Haque
2022-06-17 19:00 - 22:00
Please join us for a screening of Witness, a documentary film about the Aref-Hossain case, with filmmaker Masood Haque. The screening is followed by a panel with Lynne Jackson, Kathy Manley and Larry Rulison. This event is part of iEAR Presents! and co-sponsored by Project SALAM (Support and Legal Advocacy for Muslims), Coalition for Civil Freedoms, Capital District Coalition Against Islamophobia, and Muslim Solidarity Committee.

***Please note that for everyone’s safety, we are following Covid protocols that include requirements that all attendees show proof of vaccination or a recent test for entry, and wear a mask. We will notify ticket holders if the protocols change.

In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks a local pizza shop owner and the Imam of an Albany mosque found themselves at the center of an elaborate FBI sting operation. A convicted felon was sent undercover to lure the young men into a criminal plot as part of a plea bargain. They spent most of the next twenty years in prison while their accuser went on to a prominent role in the 2018 Schoharie limousine crash. Witness explores the difficult balance between civil liberties and security with a searing look at the impact of the War on Terror on everyday life.

WitnessDoc.com

Join us before the film screening for the Be The Media! workshop: “The Struggle to Tell Your Story,” with Masood Haque

Witness touches on a host of contemporary issues, ranging from the War on Terror to the balance between civil liberties and security. Most importantly, it examines the idea of due process. In pursuit of security, the American legal system is turned upside down. In cases involving terrorism, there is an almost automatic presumption of guilt based on fear, which is then exploited by prosecutors, who portray ordinary people as dangerous threats to safety and security. Thus, the jury system becomes an extension of law enforcement. Juries feel obligated to convict heavily bearded Muslim men with exotic, unpronounceable names because of their implicit faith in law enforcement and the FBI, and because of their fear that by acquitting, they might let a real terrorist go free.

Witness also grapples with the idea of preemptive prosecutions, used against hundreds of Muslims. Orwellian in its conceit, preemptive prosecutions target those deemed dangerous by engaging them in a variety of fictional plots and stress-testing their ideology in the quest to “prevent the next one.” Thus American law enforcement uses fear once again, this time to undermine long-standing, cherished legal principles. Ultimately Witness asks the question: How far are we willing to go to create the illusion of safety for ourselves?

Witness also examines the role of media in becoming an arm of the government’s disinformation campaign. Even though the print media acquitted itself well in the coverage of this case, asking critical questions that often earned the wrath of the prosecution, local television news reporters bought the government’s contrived story hook, line, and sinker. These reporters parroted the government’s often-dubious claims as fact, thus becoming a tool for manipulating public sentiment. The day the story broke, several reporters were told by FBI agents that the initial sheet of charges would outline the men’s involvement with terrorist organizations, yet in the actual court documents there was no mention of such connections––leaving some reporters to wonder on air what had happened to these nefarious ties. Check out more about the story here.

Masood Haque: Producer/ Director

Masood Haque graduated from NYU and subsequently received his MFA in documentary film production from CUNY. He has produced and directed several award-winning short form documentaries, including Stranger in Paradise which won the top prize at City Vision Film Festival and the jury prize at Jackson Heights Film Festival. Witness is his first feature documentary.

Listen to the interview:

Read More

Masood Haque on Creating the Film “Witness”

After the film screening Masood Haque will be joined in a Q & A with:

Lynne Jackson is a community activist, and will be the moderator for the panel. Lynne Jackson is a breast cancer survivor who has lived in Albany, New York for more than 40 years. She makes her living as a computer consultant, worked with Save the Pine Bush for more than 35 years, volunteers to work on the issue of preemptive prosecution of Muslims and gives presentations on these issues. She lives in the South End of Albany with her husband, Daniel W. Van Riper and two cats.

Hear the story: Jackson of the Muslim Solidarity Committee on “Witness” Documentary Film

Kathy Manley is a criminal defense attorney, speaking as Yassin Aref’s attorney. She is the Legal Director of the Coalition for Civil Freedoms and the President of the Capital Region Council of the New York Civil Liberties Union. She is also a founding member of Project SALAM. Her main emphasis is criminal defense and constitutional rights. She concentrates on appeals, and has written many winning briefs before a variety of courts., and has received several awards for her work.

Hear the story: Manley Discusses “Witness” Film on Aref-Hossain Muslim FBI Sting

Larry Rulison has been a reporter for the Albany Times Union since 2005. Larry’s reporting for the Times Union has won several awards for business and investigative journalism from the New York State Associated Press Association and the New York News Publishers Association. As a journalist, he has written about the informant, Shahed Hussain, the 2018 Schoharie limousine crash and the connections between the 2 cases.

Hear the story: Larry Rulison On Aref-Hossain Case

Additional interviews:

Read More

Reshifting the Narrative with Leena Al-Arian of CCF

Read More

Yassin Aref’s Daughter on Experiencing His Arrest

Read More

Aref-Hossain Case Showed Need for Muslim Support Network and Database

Sponsored by iEAR Presents! and the School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at Rensselaer, made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of The Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

"The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks" Film Screening
2022-11-03 19:00 - 21:00 | The Sanctuary, 3361 6th Ave, Troy, 12180, United States
with filmmaker Yoruba Richen

Yoruba Richen will screen The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks at the Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy, NY. This film captures the unexpected story of Rosa Parks and her life beyond the historic bus boycott, revealing the intent behind her activism, her radical politics, and her courage. The screening will be followed by a discussion about the film, voter rights, and activism.

Curators: Elizabeth Press, Kathy High, Branda Miller.

Sponsored by: iEAR Presents! and the School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at Rensselaer, made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of The Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

5pm – 6pm: Be The Media! Workshop: Social Issue Filmmaking with Yoruba Richen

7pm: The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks film screening and discussion, moderated by Dr. Veneilya Harden

***In line with our commitment to equity, love and justice, we ask that you please keep your mask on at our indoor events.

Photos by Robert Cooper

Yoruba Richen is an award-winning filmmaker whose latest film, The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks premiered at Tribeca Film Festival and will stream on Peacock this fall. Other recent films include the Emmy-nominated, How It Feels to Be Free and the Emmy and Peabody nominated The Sit In: Harry Belafonte Hosts the Tonight Show. Her film, The Killing of Breonna Taylor aired on FX/Hulu and won an NAACP Image Award. Yoruba is also a past Guggenheim and Fulbright fellow and recipient of the Chicken & Egg Breakthrough filmmaker’s award. Yoruba is the founding director of the Documentary Program at the Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.

Moderated by:

Dr. Veneilya Harden received her Doctorate of Education and Executive Leadership in August of 2020 from St. John Fisher College and her Masters in Counseling in Community Psychology with a Forensic Mental Health Certificate from The Sage Colleges in 2015 at which time Dr. Harden was also appointed to The New York State Office Of Mental through Governor Cuomo’s Excelsior Fellowship Initiative where she has maintained her employment for the past seven years. Dr. Harden is also a Project Associate with The McLean Group focusing on Diversity, Leadership, Equity, Education, and Inclusion. Dr. Harden serves actively in the Capital Region community on the Albany Community Police Review Board as Vice Chair and Chair of Mission Accomplished and Peer Reviewer of the ACA Journal. Dr. Harden’s work has centered around advocacy, education, equity, and policing disparities.

Workshop

Be the Media! Workshop: Social Issue Filmmaking with Yoruba Richen

Yoruba Richen will show clips from a few of her recent documentaries and talk about her approach to social issue filmmaking. Yoruba will also examine different filmmaking genres – archival, investigative, verite- and discuss how stylistic choices, journalistic ethics, and advocacy shape her work.

"Storming Caesars Palace" Film Screening
2023-03-08 19:00 - 21:30 | The Sanctuary, 3361 6th Ave, Troy, 12180, United States
Join us for a film screening of the Indie Lens Pop-Up Storming Caesars Palace followed by a community-driven conversation and local resource sharing by local partners. Presented by WMHT in partnership with The Sanctuary for Independent Media, NYS Poor People’s Campaign, Rensselaer County Dept. of Social Services, Troy Area United Ministries (TAUM), Unity House, and YWCA of the Greater Capital Region.

REGISTER

Masks are encouraged and will be available at this event. If you are feeling unwell or have any symptoms of illness please stay home and rest.

About This Film

After losing her job as a hotel worker in Las Vegas, Ruby Duncan joined a welfare rights group of mothers who defied notions of the “welfare queen.” In a fight for guaranteed income, Ruby and other equality activists took on the Nevada mob in organizing a massive protest that shut down Caesars Palace. (See preview.)

More information available at https://pbs.org/stormingcaesars

"A Woman on the Outside" Film Screening
2023-04-01 19:00 - 22:00 | The Sanctuary, 3361 6th Ave, Troy, 12180, United States
Join Directors Zara Katz and Lisa Riordan Seville and protagonist Kristal Bush for the screening of the documentary film A Woman on the Outside, about the struggle to keep families connected despite incarceration. Before the film screening, all three women will give a Be The Media! workshop and give a brief opening reception to the Women on the Outside exhibition. After the film there will be a panel discussion with local prison justice activists.

5pm: Be The Media! Workshop: Participatory Design in Journalistic Process with directors Zara Katz and Lisa Riordan Seville with documentary participant Kristal Bush.6:30pm: opening reception for the Women on the Outside exhibition in the Sanctuary cafe.7:00pm: screening of A Women on the Outside followed by a panel discussion and networking.

Curator: Branda Miller.

Sponsored by: iEAR Presents! and the School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at Rensselaer, made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of The Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature; Co-sponsored by: The Chris Wilson Foundation, The Release Aging People in Prison/RAPP Campaign, Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York, The Center for Law and Justice, and Capital Area Against Mass Incarceration.

Masks are encouraged and will be available at this event. If you are feeling unwell or have any symptoms of illness please stay home and rest.

“A Woman on the Outside” Q&A

About the Film

Growing up, Kristal watched nearly every man in her life disappear to prison. She channeled that struggle into keeping families connected, both as a social worker and with her van service that drives families to visit loved ones in far-off prisons. But when Kristal’s dad and brother return to Philly, her happiness meets the realization that release doesn’t always mean freedom. Passionate, funny and resilient, Kristal remains determined to carve out a different future — for herself and for her young nephew, Nyvae. Part observational documentary, part family album, A Woman on the Outside is a tender portrait of one family striving to love in the face of a system built to break them. website

https://vimeo.com/725900136?embedded=true&source=vimeo_logo&owner=9616283

By the end of the trip, Lois and Rachel, who are newer riders, laugh and talk with the other women. Kristal’s regular riders say they look forward not just to the visit, but to catching up with friends they have made on the van.

“It’s something to look forward to,” Tanesha says of visiting day. “We talk about this stuff all week long, all of us. Sometimes we all get together and cook food and sit down and talk. Because that’s what we be needing. From one sister to another. From one wife to another.”

Photos and Videos by Zara Katz and Lisa Riordan Seville

Filmmaker Bios

Zara Katz (Director/Producer) is a filmmaker and photo producer for editorial, documentary and branded content, specializing in crafting character-driven visual stories. Katz is currently Photography Director at NBC News.com, and has worked with outlets including The New York Times Lens blog, Time magazine, Medium, The Guardian U.S., Pop-Up Magazine and Lifetime/A+E Networks. She was the Senior Photography Producer on a Getty Images/Dove campaign photographed by more than 100 women and non-binary photographers, which won the Silver Glass Lion at Cannes in 2019.

Lisa Riordan Seville (Director/Producer) is an award-winning reporter and independent filmmaker whose stories explore how money, power and policy shapes the lives of everyday people. Her investigative and enterprise work has appeared across NBC News platforms, on BuzzFeed News, The Guardian U.S., Lifetime/A+E Networks and WNYC Radio. It has been recognized with a Peabody, a Hillman Award and a Sigma Delta Chi from the Society of Professional Journalists, among others. Her most recent piece was a cover story for New York Magazine about the deaths of 15 men in New York City’s notorious Rikers Island jail complex.

Panelist Bios

Kristal Bush is the protagonist of the documentary film A Woman on the Outside.

Jose Di Lenola, Clemency Campaign Director of RAPP

At the age of 16, Jose was sentenced to 26 1/3 years to life for second-degree murder and served eighteen of those years in Attica prison and various correctional facilities. While incarcerated he worked as a rehabilitation peer educator in relapse prevention, anger management, and mental health; and mentored at-risk youth diversionary programs. Jose co-founded and served as President of the Attica Lifer’s Organization and consulted several organizations. Jose was released in December 2021, has his own consultation business, Carceral Consultation, and is the Clemency Campaign Director for the Release Aging People in Prison (RAPP).

TeAna Taylor, Co-Director of Policy & Communications and Capital Region Organizer at RAPP

TeAna advocates for children of incarcerated parents, informed by their father’s nearly two decades of incarceration and working with We Got Us Now and the HALT Solitary Campaign. They have been engaging their community in restorative justice work for the past five years. They created and maintained a peer mediation program at a local middle school, leading mediations between youth, parents, and teachers; facilitating circles that ranged from community building within classrooms to repairing harm between community members; providing conflict coaching sessions for students; and training students in peer mediation and conflict resolution. TeAna has also facilitated circles to address issues faced by students and faculty of color at their alma mater, SUNY Schenectady, that led to policy change for a more inclusive and diverse campus.

Co-sponsors

The mission of the Chris Wilson Foundation is to transform the incarceration system by providing better and more sustainable programming for incarcerated individuals that centers personal relationships, resilience, development and agency. Our Master Plan Program focuses on trauma and resilience, systemic oppression and mass incarceration and goal-setting and reentry. The program is being implemented in three states, and is currently running at the Capital District Youth Detention Center in Albany.

The Release Aging People in Prison/RAPP Campaign is a grassroots advocacy organization created and led by formerly incarcerated people and family members of people in prison. We work to end mass incarceration and promote racial justice through the release of aging people in prison and those serving long sentences. We work to dismantle the racist policies of mass incarceration by expanding the use of parole, compassionate release, clemency, and other forms of release in New York State. We work with other organizations across the country to end life imprisonment in the United States. By organizing community power to free incarcerated elders, we work to uproot a system of endless punishment that fuels mass incarceration and damages Black and other communities of color.

The mission of Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York is to provide high quality, effective legal representation and assistance to indigent prisoners, help them to secure their civil and human rights and advocate for more humane prisons and for a more humane criminal justice system.

The Center for Law and Justice recognizes that the criminal justice system in the United States has a history of racism and classism, stemming from both laws and practices, that continues to this day. It is the center’s mission to reform the criminal justice system and dismantle its oppressive elements.

The Center for Law and Justice aims to eliminate the gap between law and justice by creating an equitable criminal justice system which values all human life and acknowledges community members as partners in public safety. The center seeks to achieve this goal through amplifying the voices of marginalized people and communities, while educating and empowering those same communities to demand an end to mass criminalization, mass incarceration, and systemic oppression.

Capital Area Against Mass Incarceration (CAAMI) seeks to challenge and dismantle mass incarceration and the systems of oppression that sustain it. We do this through coordinated actions and by opening the dialogue about mass incarceration and the criminal injustice system in a way that is empowering to all individuals and communities affected by them. CAAMI defines “mass incarceration” as both the excessive quantity of people caught in the criminal justice system, and the racially discriminatory and cruel quality of the current punitive model of social control. Police brutality, racially disparate sentencing, and post-prison discrimination function as a self-reinforcing system that damages communities.

Exploring Motherhood: Navigating the Journey of Disability
2023-10-20 19:00 - 21:00 | The Sanctuary, 3361 6th Ave, Troy, 12180, United States
Join us for an evening of honoring motherhood & disability with filmmakers Nöelle Gentile, Michael Mejia, & Victoria Kereszi, and storyteller Bethany Van Delft. The short film Between Us and feature documentary film Into Loving Hands will be screened, followed by a panel discussion about motherhood, choice, giving birth and advocating for a child with disabilities and medical complexities in a society that was not built with them in mind.

Sponsored by iEAR Presents! and the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at RPI, and made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. Co-sponsored by The Arc NY, The Doula Network of the Capital Region, and The People’s Health Sanctuary. Curated by Branda Miller.

Into Loving Hands: In the fall of 2012, Chris and Rebecca Williams were thrilled to be expecting a second child, but halfway through their pregnancy at a routine ultrasound, they discovered that prenatal testing indicated that something was terribly – fatally – wrong. The couple, staunchly pro-choice, was subsequently faced with momentous decisions as they grappled with the hand they’d been dealt while also trying to navigate both the medical community and society.

This film chronicles four years of the Williams’ journey, from their initial grief to the unexpected miracle of life, the midwife’s exam room to the pediatric OR at Boston Children’s Hospital, capturing the emotional challenges and triumphs of what it’s like to raise a child with Down Syndrome and multiple heart defects.

EVENT PHOTOS:

FILM MAKER & PANELIST BIOS:

Victoria Kereszi – Director of Into Loving Hands

Originally from Media, Pennsylvania lives in Upstate New York with her husband and 2 daughters. Before moving upstate studied film with Sam Pollard, Lora Hayes and George Stoney. In NYC she worked for community television and curated a women’s experimental and documentary series titled Eye AM: Women Behind The Lens. Shortly after moving to Troy and as an MFA student at RPI she completed a documentary triad about three elderly women, one of which was her grandmother who ran a junkyard in Chester, Pennsylvania.

Victoria began filming Into Loving Hands one year after having her daughter and receiving prenatal and postpartum care by Michelle Doyle, Rebecca’s midwife.

Noëlle Gentile – Co-Director & Writer of Between Us

Gentile is a director, acting coach, and artist educator. She has worked as an acting coach with filmmakers and producers such as Adam Sandler, Jeremiah Zagar, and Jingyi Shao. Most recently, she was the acting coach on the films Shooting Stars (adapted from the 2009 book by LeBron James and Buzz Bissinger), You Are SO Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah! (directed by Sammi Cohen and starring Adam Sandler), Ava DuVernay’s film, Origin, and on Netflix’s Rez Ball, written and directed by Sydney Freeland. Noëlle has also worked as an artist-educator for Youth FX; Arts, Letters & Numbers, the NYC Department of Education’s Theatre Program; City College of New York; and Brooklyn College Film School. She is currently an adjunct professor for the Maurice Kanbar Institute of Film and Television at NYU Tisch. Noëlle is in post production for her directorial debut, I Was Here, based on her family’s story.

Michael Mejia – Co-Director, Director of Photography, & Editor of Between Us

Michael is an educator and filmmaker with a concentration in documentary, music videos, and narrative films. He has been an educator in several organizations throughout Albany NY including; The New York State museum in 2009, The Liberty Partnerships Program in 2011, and has been a part of Youth FX since 2010, currently serving as the creative director of Rogue FX films, teaching and directing. Michael has also been the director of photography on several short films. He received a Bachelors in Fine Arts from Pratt Institute and plans to continue to learn, educate, and create for years to come.

Bethany Van Delft – Comedian & Storyteller

Bronx-born Bethany Van Delft moved to Boston with her Marxist Dutch dad, black Puerto Rican mother and siblings, where she learned being called “zebra” did NOT mean she was weird but cool. At “19” she went to Paris to model, got kicked out, and ended up in Milan where she spent Sundays sitting on the ground in front of Duomo, eating gelato and speaking Spanglish with an Italian accent.

iEAR Salon is sponsored by iEAR Presents! and the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at RPI, and is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

"Confessions of a Good Samaritan" Film Screening with Director Penny Lane
2023-11-29 19:00 - 21:00 | The Sanctuary, 3361 6th Ave, Troy, 12180, United States
Director Penny Lane returns to the Sanctuary to screen her latest film Confessions of a Good Samaritan about her own experience deciding to become a “Good Samaritan” by giving one of her kidneys to a stranger. This launches her on an unexpectedly funny, intimate, and provocative quest to understand why everyone seems to think she’s crazy.

At 5pm, join Penny Lane for the Be The Media! workshop: Positioning Yourself as Subject in Documentary Filmmaking

Confessions of a Good Samaritan is a provocative inquiry into the science, history, and ethics of organ transplantation, asking an ancient question in a whole new way: who is your neighbor, and what do you owe them? We’ve all heard versions of this question, but how often do we really stop to think about its meaning?

“Good Samaritan” kidney donation is a term used to describe the exceptionally rare circumstance in which a person is moved to donate a kidney, not to a friend or a loved one, but to an unknown stranger. The small number of people per year who make this choice often describe it as a “no-brainer”: I could have a relatively low-risk procedure, and save someone’s life? Obviously! With more than 100,000 people in need of a kidney, slowly dying on dialysis, for the Good Samaritan donors, the only question is, “Why isn’t there a line of people out the door waiting to give a kidney?”

But, for the vast majority of people, making a “Good Samaritan” donation is incomprehensible, or suspicious in some way. Why do they do it? Do these people just want attention? What are they compensating for? This mystery is what sets Penny off on her quest to understand the science of altruism, the ethical controversies surrounding organ donation, and her own motivations.

Along the way she collects a library of rare, often strange, archival films documenting the history of organ transplantation. Accompanied by a quirky cast of charismatic scientists, surgeons, ethicists, and other donors, Penny documents her experience through “confessional” diaries and intimate footage of her own surgery and recovery. All of these elements are assembled into a fast-paced, funny, personal and philosophical collage.

Penny Lane (Director) has been making award-winning, innovative nonfiction films for over a decade. This includes six features – most recently Confessions of a Good Samaritan, premiering at SXSW 2023 – and over a dozen short films. A 2020 Guggenheim Fellow, Lane has also received grants and awards from the Sundance Film Festival, Cinereach, Creative Capital, Chicken & Egg Pictures, Tribeca Film Institute, Wexner Center for the Arts and many others. Penny has been honored with mid-career retrospectives at the Museum of the Moving Image, San Francisco DocFest, Open City Documentary Festival and Cinema Moderne. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. And yes, Penny Lane is her real name.

Co-sponsored with People’s Health Sanctuary. This event is a collaboration between the iEAR Presents series with support from RPI’s ARTS department and School of Humanities, Arts and Social Science, and from the New York State Council for the Arts/ NYSCA, with The Sanctuary for Independent Media. Curated by Branda Miller.

"Israelism" Film Screening
2024-02-11 15:00 - 18:00 | The Sanctuary, 3361 6th Ave, Troy, 12180, United States
In the spirit of cross-cultural learning and understanding, the Albany Chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace alongside our co-sponsors, are excited to host an in person screening of Israelism followed by a community discussion at The Sanctuary for Independent Media. Created by two first-time Jewish filmmakers who followed the experience of two young American Jews, Israelism provides a thought provoking view into the connection between the American Jewish Community and Israel.

Masks required and can be provided. Attendance is limited, pre-registration required!

Sponsored by: Albany Chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace

SOLD OUT

Sorry, but we have hit our registration limit! Please note: there will be no entrance at door without confirmed registration.

Please join us after the film screening (roughly 1.5 hours long) followed by a discussion, facilitated by representatives of the Jewish, non-Jewish and Palestinian/Arab communities, on your takeaways, related personal experiences and reflections. Even if you have already seen the film, please feel free to join later for the subsequent discussion.

In showing Israelism, Albany JVP, The Sanctuary for Independent Media, along with our co-sponsors Women Against War, Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace, Palestinian Rights Committee Albany, and Saratoga BLM, and PSL hope to further understanding between all members of our community on this difficult and controversial issue and provide a safe space for dialogue.

If you want to understand the wrenching generational rift over Israel among many left-leaning American Jews, the documentary “Israelism,” is a good place to start.
– Michelle Goldberg, New York Times

For more information please reach out to: jvpalbany@gmail.com

Be The Media! workshop: Creating a Long-Term Media Project
2024-04-16 17:00 - 18:00 | The Sanctuary, 3361 6th Ave, Troy, 12180, United States
“Spaces of Exception” is a film profiling American Indian reservations alongside Palestinian refugee camps. Join us for a Be The Media! workshop with co-director Matt Peterson prior to the screening of “Spaces of Exception,” to learn about the process of creating a long-term media project.

“Spaces of Exception” was filmed from 2014 to 2017 in Arizona, New Mexico, New York and South Dakota as well as Lebanon and the West Bank. It is an attempt to understand the significance of the land—its memory and divisions—and the conditions for life, community and sovereignty. “Spaces of Exception” comes out of the long-term multimedia project The Native and the Refugee.

5pm – 6pm: Be The Media! workshop: Creating a Long-Term Media ProjectJoin Matt Peterson, co-director of “Spaces of Exception,” to learn about the process of creating a long-term media project.

7pm – 9:30pm: film screening of “Spaces of Exception” and community conversationAfter the film screening (roughly 1.5 hours long), Matt Peterson, co-director of “Spaces of Exception,” will be joined with Indigenous and Palestinian/Arab guests about takeaways, related personal experiences, and reflections. Even if you have already seen the film, please feel free to join later for complimentary tea and snacks and the subsequent discussion.

In showing “Spaces of Exception,” Albany Jewish Voices for Peace, The Sanctuary for Independent Media, along with our co-sponsors hope to further understanding between all members of our community on this difficult and controversial issue and provide a safe space for dialogue.

Filmmaker Bio:

Matt Peterson is an organizer at Woodbine, an experimental space in New York City. He co-directed the documentary features “Scenes from a Revolt Sustained” (2014) and “Spaces of Exception” (2018), and co-edited the books “In the Name of the People” (2018) and “The Mohawk Warrior Society” (2022).

This workshop is curated by iEAR Presents! and is made possible in part by New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

This event is a collaboration between the iEAR Presents series with support from RPI’s ARTS department and School of Humanities, Arts and Social Science, and from the New York State Council for the Arts/ NYSCA, with The Sanctuary for Independent Media, and is a featured project of the NEA Our Town “Sanctuary Eco-Art Trail” creative placemaking grant.

Indigiqueer Media Artist Theo Jean Cuthand: Participatory Radio Workshop
2024-05-30 17:00 - 21:00 | The Sanctuary, 3361 6th Ave, Troy, 12180, United States
Join media artist Theo Jean Cuthand for a Be The Media! participatory radio workshop, to focus on Indigiqueer and ecological issues.

Using improvisational documentary techniques, the Be The Media! workshop participants will create a short radio play with Theo Jean Cuthand, loosely inspired by Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds broadcast but based on the colonization of what is now Troy by European Settlers. This workshop will begin with a brief presentation of Cuthand’s work.

Cuthand’s Sanctuary presentation is sponsored by iEAR Presents, with NYSCA, the School of Humanities and EMPAC at RPI, and the NEA Our Town creative placemaking project Sanctuary Eco-Art Trail, which connects Indigenous legacy with environmental justice (in partnership with the Stockbridge-Munsee Community Band of Mohican Indians). The participatory radio play created in this workshop will be featured as a multimedia element on the Sanctuary Eco-Art Trail.

Hear Theo Jean Cuthand interview with Hudson Mohawk Magazine

Hudson Mohawk Magazine · Participatory Radio Workshop Based on Welles' "War of the Worlds"

Theo Jean Cuthand was born in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada in 1978, and grew up in Saskatoon. Since 1995 he has been making short experimental videos and films about sexuality, madness, Queer identity and love, and gender and Indigeneity, which have screened in festivals internationally.

His work has also exhibited at galleries including the MOMA in NYC, The National Gallery in Ottawa, and The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. He completed his BFA majoring in Film and Video at Emily Carr University of Art and Design in 2005, and his Masters of Arts in Media Production at Toronto Metropolitan University in 2015. He has also written three feature screenplays and has performed at Live At The End Of The Century in Vancouver, Queer City Cinema’s Performatorium in Regina, and 7a*11d in Toronto. In 2017 he won the Hnatyshyn Foundation’s REVEAL Indigenous Art Award. He is a Whitney Biennial 2019 artist. He is of Plains Cree and Scots descent, a member of Little Pine First Nation, and currently resides in Toronto, Canada.

This is the second night of a series of two events in a collaboration between the Arts Department and EMPAC at RPI, by Plains Cree and Scots artist Theo Jean Cuthand. At EMPAC on May 29, Cuthand presents an artist talk and screening that explores his work and process through an Indigiqueer lens. At the Sanctuary on May 30, Cuthand will engage directly in the community as part of the Sanctuary Eco-Art Trail project, with a particular focus on Indigiqueer and ecological issues.

This event is curated by iEAR Presents! and is made possible in part by New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

This event is a collaboration between the iEAR Presents!series with support from RPI’s ARTS department and School of Humanities, Arts and Social Science, and from the New York State Council for the Arts/ NYSCA, with The Sanctuary for Independent Media, and is a featured project of the NEA Our Town “Sanctuary Eco-Art Trail” creative placemaking grant.

"No Other Land" Film Screening & Panel
2025-03-20 19:00 - 21:30 | The Sanctuary, 3361 6th Ave, Troy, 12180, United States
An act of creative resistance to Apartheid, No Other Land documents a Palestinian activist and his unlikely alliance with an Israeli journalist, as he searches for a path towards equality and justice. Join us for this film screening and panel discussion.

No Other Land is the 2025 Oscar winner for Best Documentary Feature, a major win for a film that couldn’t get a U.S. distributor.

Film Screening will begin at 7:30pm to allow people to break fast for Ramadan. In the meantime, Taína Asili will share her most recent video “Strong Tree” about the local movement in support of Palestine.

SOLD OUT

Film synopsis

Over five years, a Palestinian-Israeli collective of directors captured footage of Masafer Yatta residents in the West Bank and their struggle, survival, and death in the face of the Israeli military and settlers, as they witnessed the destruction of their homes and schools and were forced to leave their villages with nowhere to go. Yet No Other Land is more than a powerful work of cinéma vérité; it is the story of the growing friendship between Palestinian activist Basel Adra and Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham, both united by harrowing circumstances and one fragile idea: that through cinema and resistance, one can (perhaps) imagine a space of peace and freedom that never existed in their lives.

No Other Land is an award winning documentary, including the winner of the 2025 Oscar for Best Documentary Feature award and the 2024 Berlinale Best Documentary award.

Panelists:

Hana’ is a farmer and beekeeper, who just returned home to the Capital District after spending two months in Palestine. Hana’ is an activist with the Palestinian Rights Committee.

Faris is a Palestinian and Muslim American, originally from a small Palestinian village outside the city of Ramallah. Faris is a member of the Palestine Narrative Project, working to educate the Capital Region on the Palestinian cause and inspire people to work towards Palestinian liberation.

Keren Carmeli is a member of the Albany chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace and the Palestinian Rights Committee. She is an anti-Zionist Israeli-American who was raised in occupied Palestine, and draws on her family’s Holocaust survival story to inform her dedication to the liberation of Palestine”.

Moderator: Jude Abu Zaineh is a Palestinian-Canadian interdisciplinary artist-curator working across art, food, science, and technology studies. Her work develops counter-archive practices and investigates themes of culture, displacement, storytelling, diaspora, and belonging, through de-colonial and feminist perspectives.

Co-sponsors

Jewish Voices for Peace

Palestinian Rights Committee

Sam Feder presents "Heightened Scrutiny" Screening & Q&A
2025-04-23 19:00 - 21:00 | The Sanctuary, 3361 6th Ave, Troy, 12180, United States
Heightened Scrutiny is a documentary film about the first out trans attorney arguing in front of the US Supreme Court (United States v. Skrmetti) and the role of mainstream media in fueling anti-trans legislation. The film’s director, Sam Feder, will be presenting this film at the Sanctuary followed by a Q&A. Ahead of the film, Feder will be offering a Be The Media! workshop from 5-6pm.

This event is a collaboration with the RPI’s iEAR Presents series, supported by the Department of Arts and the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, and is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

Heightened Scrutiny follows Chase Strangio, ACLU attorney and the first out trans person to argue before the Supreme Court, as he fights a high-stakes legal battle to overturn Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth (United States v. Skrmetti).

The film exposes the dangerous role of mainstream media in fueling anti-trans legislation, uncovering how biased coverage drives hate, endangers lives, and threatens democracy itself. With insights from journalists like Jelani Cobb, Lydia Polgreen, and Gina Chua, and activists like Laverne Cox, the story dismantles anti-trans disinformation and highlights its devastating real-world impact.

As SCOTUS prepares to rule on the case, HEIGHTENED SCRUTINY reveals the fight for bodily autonomy as a fight for the soul of democracy, offering a powerful call to action against bigotry and injustice. website

Flaherty Film Seminar
2025-06-29 11:00 - 16:00 | The Sanctuary, 3361 6th Ave, Troy, 12180, United States
An immersive program of screenings and conversations, the Flaherty Film Seminar is an internationally recognized forum for collective inquiry into non-fiction cinema, encouraging the exchange of cinematic ideas across generations and cultures, and promoting the expansion of the limits of cinema itself.

Register

In collaboration with Picture Lock One and the Tang Museum, this gathering of the internationally recognized seminar provides access to two curated non-fiction film programs followed by group discussion, encouraging the exchange of cinematic ideas across generations and cultures, and promoting the expansion of the limits of cinema itself. Lunch will be provided.

Schedule:11am-1pm: Flaherty screening program #4 + discussion12pm: food is provided1pm-2pm: break between sessions and get a Sanctuary campus tour if interested2pm-4pm: Flaherty screening program #5 + discussion

Join other Flaherty Film Seminar pods:June 27: The Tang Museum in Saratoga SpringsJune 28: Picture Lock One at 50 4th Street, Troy

Learn more about the Flaherty Film Seminar gatherings

“Turn the Light Around” 16mm Film Screening
2025-09-20 19:00 - 21:00 | The Sanctuary, 3361 6th Ave, Troy, 12180, United States
Join us for screenings of 16mm plant processed performance films, presented by Katherine Bauer and Joyce Lainé, members of the film collective Le Ratoire and Atelier MTK. The images in each film emerge before our eyes through the process of a developer composed of plants, ashes, and water. The sun gives to the plants, the plants give to the silver, the silver turns the light around, to give to our eyes. The screening will be followed by a Q&A. This event is co-sponsored by iEar Presents!

In this screening, plants are collaborators in both the subject and the material revelation of the visual story. Plant is the Place. The action of creating these films are themselves performative relationships with the surroundings, the projection expanding this vision for yet more eyes to see.

Plant Processing is a collective action— particularly with the methods of Le Ratoire’s performative folk film-making style, but also with the methodologies of collective making and restraints employed by La Ratoire’s “Asphalt Splendor.” For this film, the group will set out to make a portrait of “the river that flows both ways,” or Mahicannittuk in Machican (aka The Hudson River), canoeing and camping from Troy to worlds end, plant processing all along the way with the different plants growing on the shores.

“Bat Nut,” is a poetic video document of friends gathering together to clear the locally loved Beaver Pond in Chatham, NY of the thorny Bat Nut. Other videos will show an exploration of a closed tungsten mine from WWII in Portugal, processed with the industrially farmed Eucalyptus, and a turn around a temple outside of Guadalajara, Mexico which was processed with beer and sage from their surroundings, and a film stained red from being processed with a certain seaweed, and more!

Alternative Film Processing Workshop with Le Ratoire, 2-6pm

Le Ratoire is a filmmaking collective; since 2019, composed of Léa Lanoë, Pierre Borel (Labo L’argent, Marseille, France), Katherine Bauer, Joyce Lainé, and Loïc Verdillon (Atelier MTK, Grenoble, France). They have elaborated a methodology for collective filmmaking wherein all aspects and stages of the film are made in a single go. Beginning with a constraint (a place, a theme, a technical method), embrace the unplanned that emerges within the process; the unexpected “failures” that inevitably occur are as important as the constraints that first inspired the process. The name “Le Ratoire” refers to the verb in French, rater, that means “to miss, fail, or flunk” and laboratoire, indicating the analog hand-made laboratory practices employed. Also the idea of a ratery or site for the “lab rat”; in this case we are the rats running tests on ourselves.

ATELIER MTK, founded in 1992 is the first collective film lab of France. It is an artist-run cinematographic laboratory equipped to work in all aspects of analogue films. The lab should be considered like a playground. Tools and techniques of the film medium are re-appropriated from the industrial film laboratories in order to encourage filmmakers to consider every element as a phase with creative potential. https://www.filmlabs.org/labs/mtk/.
