Below is a list of Film Society fiscally sponsored projects. Browse the list to see what filmmakers are up to and make a tax-deductible donation to the project of your choice via our secure server.
Taking the Lead
Guy Mossman |
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For the first time ever, cameras go behind the scenes at the Eagle Rock School, one of the nation's most innovative high schools for at-risk youth. Taking the Lead is an unflinching character-driven documentary that captures the drama and desperation of a group of students who are required to participate in the musical comedy, The Boyfriend, deep within the Colorado Rockies. It is a high stakes coming-of-age story, rife with humor, emotion and conflict in which the lead Amanda, age 16, must fight to finish the musical and then graduate.
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Taksu Bali – Two Gamelan Journeys
Helen Prince |
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The Hindu culture of Bali fascinates Westerners, with its reverence for art and performance as a part of everyday life. By playing its music, an American group, Gamelan Sekar Jaya, found a way to approach this culture, and to witness its unique response to terrorism. When their music teacher composes a piece and asks them to play it in Bali, despite SARS and further terrorist threats, an intrepid splinter group makes a most triumphant journey!
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Taylor's Campaign
Richard Cohen |
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Taylor's Campaign explores the darkhorse race of Ron Taylor, a disabled truck driver and homeless person, to win a seat on the Santa Monica City Council. Richard Cohen Films produces and distributes documentaries about human dignity and pursuit of justice: Taylor's Campaign, the celebrated documentary on homelessness and poverty; Hurry Tomorrow a classic verité depicting involuntary psychiatric treatment; Deadly Force, a gripping investigation of police accountability in Los Angeles. Presently in preproduction: an autobiographical film exploring integration of children with disabilities into schools.
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Telos
Kyung Lee |
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When a far-out architect launches a project to build the greenest building on earth, he never expected what awaited him. Telos follows a journey of Eugene Tsui, one of the most innovative green architects in the world today as he sets out to build his dream building. He chose Mt. Shasta, a mountain town in the Northern California, where the myth of town has long predicted that such a building already exists underneath the mountain.
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Tents: Where Does Hope Live
Francesca Roveda, Eva Moss |
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An art and activist series of three short documentaries and one full-length documentary, that supports a year process in which people respond as communities to the crisis in Darfur, Sudan by creating tents that are both unique works of art and ongoing focal points for learning about, assisting and establishing relationships with the Sudanese people. They are not answers but points of entry for more concrete forms of Darfur advocacy.
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The Texas Tornado: The Life and Times of Babe Didrikson
Jennifer Kelley |
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The Texas Tornado is a one-hour documentary that highlights the trailblazing life and turbulent times of the greatest all-around athlete in American history. Through the examination of Babe Didrikson's unparalleled athletic feats and dynamic personality, the film will examine the ways in which Babe opened up new opportunities for women in sports in spite of the obstacles she faced: lack of opportunity and acceptance, homophobia and restrictive gender roles.
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They Closed Our Schools
Brian Grogan |
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In 1959, Prince Edward County, Virginia closed its public schools, defying the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court decision. From 1959–64 the schools remained closed for more than 2,000 children. They Closed Our Schools will examine the history of this vital, yet little known, chapter of the Civil Rights era and its relation to contemporary issues in public education.
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The Third Root—Morocco
Reed Rickert |
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Mexican guitarist, Camilo Nu, journeys through the timeless traditions of Mexican, Spanish and Moroccan music to uncover his roots. On this journey, Camilo encounters master musicians who share their passion and culture and perform exciting new roots fusion music infused by these different cultures. The Third Root—Morocco inspires profound appreciation of the interconnectedness that the human race shares through music and takes us on a journey which anyone can enjoy.
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Tillie Olsen: A Heart in Action
Annie Hershey |
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At 92, Tillie remains a beloved writer/activist whose work is required reading in major universities and has been translated into 19 languages. This documentary offers Tillie's incredible story and her unwavering encouragement for all to present their own voice in the midst of difficulty.
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Tongues of Heaven
Anita Wen-Shin Chang |
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Set on islands of the Pacific Ocean and Taiwan, Tongues of Heaven explores the revitalization by young people of indigenous languages that are facing extinction. Conceived in part as a participatory community media project, the film’s larger concerns include the impact of language on identity and culture and the significance of marginalized languages in an increasingly homogenized world.
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Totemist
Tamara Perkins |
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Totemist is a story about three characters: a husband and wife and a man from the wife's past. The couple seems happy, with typical issues that are not so serious they threaten the relationship. A mysterious male friend from the woman's past pays an unexpected visit. The couple's relationship is shaken when he stays with them. After one of the characters is murdered, the story considers the thin line separating good and evil.
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Traces of the Trade
Katrina Browne |
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Traces of the Trade is a documentary in which Katrina Browne and her relatives uncover their Rhode Island ancestors who were the largest slave-trading family in early America. On a journey to New England, Africa and Cuba they explore the full extent of Northern complicity in slavery, as well as the legacy of white Northern amnesia in the present day.
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The Tribe
Tiffany Shlain |
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What can the most successful doll on the planet show us about being Jewish today? Narrated by Peter Coyote, the film mixes old school narration with a new school visual style. The Tribe weaves together archival footage, graphics, animation, Barbie dioramas and slam poetry to take audiences on an electric ride through the complex history of both the Barbie doll and the Jewish people from Biblical times to present day. By tracing Barbie's history, the film sheds light on what it means to be an American Jew in the 21st century.
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Trois, Thalatha, Tres
Sophie Cooper |
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Trois, Thalatha, Tres takes an unusual look at the politics of immigration and assimilation in the United States. This feature-length documentary tells the stories of three immigrants from Mexico, France and Egypt. Sequences revealing their three diverse experiences are interspersed with acts of narrative performance in which the three characters act out the subtle politics of cultural violence confronted in their daily lives. It is in the space between document and performance that the possibilities of personal agency are explored.
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Troop 214
George Csicsery |
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A look at ethnic identity during the Cold War and its aftermath by examining dueling Hungarian youth movements. The Communists came to power in Hungary in 1948, banning scouting and establishing the Young Pioneers as an official compulsory youth movement. Hungarian scouts survived in secret.
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The Trust
Tamara Perkins |
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Over six thousand former inmates return yearly to Alameda County alone. the fact that they are given only $200, a ride and little hope or support, contributes to the current 70 percent recidivism rate. The National Trust for the Development of African American Men, founded by Dr. Garry Mendez Jr, offers hope and another option. Operating in San Quentin and several other prisons, the Trust empowers lifers to promote positive change within themselves, their families and their communities by becoming part of the solution.
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Truth Has Fallen
Sheila M. Sofian |
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Truth Has Fallen is a 70-minute 35mm live action/animated documentary that follows the work of James McCloskey, whose mission is to free prisoners who have been wrongfully convicted of murder. Employing a combination of surreal animation and live-action images, Truth Has Fallen examines the cases of three individuals freed by McCloskey’s work and sheds light on flaws in our justice system.
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Two in a Billion: Raising Chinese Children
Leslie Hill |
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Since 1995 China has adopted out 5,000 children a year, mostly abandoned girls, to Western countries, primarily the USA. But how to raise internationally adopted children with an identity in both cultures to help them through issues sure to come? American parents are finding themselves on a road with no map. They form support groups, Chinese dance and language classes, celebrate holidays and even take return trips to Asia. It’s a sea change in adoption philosophy, but will it work? The award-winning filmmaker, herself a single parent with Chinese daughters, has been documenting this phenomenon for ten years in both the U.S. and China.
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