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Newburyport Documentary Film Festival
September 13, 2019 - September 15, 2019
The Newburyport Documentary Film Festival (NDF) is held every September along with year-round programs in Newburyport. For over 14 years we have been committed to bringing the highest caliber documentary films to our community. In addition to screenings all weekend at historic venues, we also hold filmmaker receptions, after-parties, panel discussions, Q&As, and workshops.
Passes:
DAYTIME Pass: $100 Good for all films that screen before 7:30pm. This pass is limited!
ALL Access Pass: $125 All films and events
Pass holders are reminded to arrive 15 minutes before screening to ensure a seat.
2019 Films
Beers of Joy
A free reception starts at 6 pm upstairs at the Firehouse Center.
The film starts at 7:30 PM followed by a Q & A session.
Synopsis
Beers of Joy is a fascinating, entertaining, and savory journey into our world’s favorite, magical elixir. The film is an Official Selection at leading film festivals including Newburyport as well as Winner of Best Feature Documentary at the 2019 Los Angeles Film Awards, Best Feature Documentary at the 2019 New York Film Awards, and Best Feature Documentary at the 2019 Festigious International Film Festival.
Feast upon stunning visuals of medieval monasteries, historic German villages, and breweries from across the world that serve as the backdrop for four people immersing themselves in their passion for beer. An internationally acclaimed brewer and a celebrated chef take separate journeys of discovery through Europe and early America, while two Advanced Cicerones attempt to pass the prestigious Master Cicerone exam (beer’s equivalent to wine’s Master Sommelier), one of the most difficult tests in the world.
Historians, scientists, clergy, brewers and — most importantly — the every man and woman add flavor to this love letter to beer and prove once and for all… life is best celebrated over a beer!
A post-screening party will take place immediately after the Q & A session at Sea Level Restaurant
Hail Satan?
Synopsis
Chronicling the extraordinary rise of one of the most colorful and controversial religious movements in American history, Hail Satan? is an inspiring and entertaining new feature documentary from acclaimed director Penny Lane (Nuts!, Our Nixon). When media-savvy members of the Satanic Temple organize a series of public actions designed to advocate for religious freedom and challenge corrupt authority, they prove that with little more than a clever idea, a mischievous sense of humor, and a few rebellious friends, you can speak truth to power in some truly profound ways.
“Wheels of Fortune”
Thursday Fields
Part of a short film presentation “Wheels of Fortune”.
Presented with Peace Out and Motorcycle Man
Synopsis
A surprisingly diverse cast of characters gathers every Thursday evening at a defunct airport in Brooklyn. Native New Yorkers and new immigrants, Wall Street traders and construction tradesmen, they come to race bicycles on Floyd Bennett Field’s crumbling, windswept tarmac.
The competition is merciless. The rewards are many.
Thursday Fields is a portrait of New York City’s current-day melting pot in action.
Motorcycle Man
Part of a short film presentation “Wheels of Fortune”.
Presented with Peace Out and Thursday Fields
Synopsis
‘Motorcycle Man’ is a short documentary about a man who has pursued a single passion in life: motorcycle racing. Dave Roper has raced every year since 1972, competing on exotic vintage bikes at racetracks around the world and winning a reputation as a folk hero of the sport.
But Roper is hardly an adrenaline addict. He takes a philosophical approach to racing, viewing it as a test of mental and physical abilities. As he enters his twilight years, Roper reflects on the unconventional path he has followed in life, the dangers he has faced and the choices he has made.
In the post-war era, when many men and women sought security in conformity, Roper took chances and dared to be different. A Vietnam veteran, he never married and has lived alone in a small, cluttered house on Long Island since 1978. But he finds fulfillment on the racetrack and through a large community of friends, some of whom run a fan club in his honor.
‘Motorcycle Man’ follows Roper from a workshop in Brooklyn to his home on Long Island to a racetrack in Canada. Along the way he encounters autograph-seeking admirers, old friends and fellow racers eager to test their skills on the track. It also delves into Roper’s past, including his historic win at the Isle of Man TT in 1984, when he became the first American ever to win the notoriously dangerous race.
‘Motorcycle Man’ celebrates the speed, sweat and thrill of motorcycle racing, while offering a meditation on craft, obsession and what it takes to pursue your dreams.
Peace Out
Part of a 3 short film presentation “Wheels of Fortune”
Presented with Thursday Fields and Motorcycle Man
Synopsis
Sometimes a dream deferred, even one for 45 years, can be nurtured and brought back to life. In 2016 my husband Jerry retired at the age of 66 and promptly announced he wished to buy an old VW bus and drive it across the country. It seemed like an odd retirement plan but I learned he had attempted this earlier in his life at the age of 22, in a 1966 VW Beetle, and that journey had met with an ignominious end not far from his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. The idea of driving an old air cooled vehicle across country never died in him and he set off in 2017 in a 1973 VW bus which he hoped would take him from our home in Newburyport, Massachusetts across the country to the Pacific Ocean. While my initial response to his quest was “You go live in your old bus, and I will meet you wherever there is a nice hotel and spa”, I knew I wanted to find a way to support and participate in his dream. Peace Out captures the view he had from the large bay window of his VW bus named Zorba as he tries to finish something he started 45 years ago. I created Peace Out as a homage to his dream and to all dreams which sometimes get deferred but with perseverance can find new life.
Eat Up
How hard can it be to deliver fresh, nutritious school meals under the Federal reimbursement rate and within government regulations that kids will actually eat?
Entrepreneur and philanthropist Jill Shah steps in to work with the school district to redesign school food and get Boston cooking for Boston; a prototype that she believes can be replicated across the nation.
Eat up is the story of that endeavor. The film follows a pilot project that shows exactly how hard it is for big bureaucracies to make change, how big ideas depend on the “little people” on the ground, in this case the lunch ladies, and that although everyone may have the same good intentions,different perspectives can lead to conflict and confusion along the way.
The initiative is driven by women: a headstrong entrepreneur, a well intentioned bureaucrat, an impassioned principal, and a fast talking, no nonsense cafeteria manager who leads her team of lunch ladies as the order unravels around them. We follow their journey as they laugh and cry, as they deconstruct and then reconstruct a system that is so deeply entrenched and has so many depending on its success.
20 million kids across the united states rely on the lunches they receive free at school as their main source of nutrition. Yet, often, the food they are served is so unappetizing it ends up in the trash. Eat up follows a Boston entrepreneur as she sets out to reinvent school lunch. Over a year long journey, she wrangles with bureaucracy, unwieldy regulations and a team of stalwart lunch ladies to navigate a path to replace plastic wrapped vended meals with fresh, healthy food cooked from scratch that changes the way kids both eat and learn.
Stories of Intersex & Faith
Synopsis
Five intersex people come out of the shadows to shine light on a medical scandal harming children for decades.
Why are thousands of needless surgeries performed in the United States each year even though the United Nations calls them “torture”? Our anxieties about sex and gender, often rooted in religion, have lead us to hide, shame, and harm healthy intersex children.
Yet these remarkable stories reveal how some intersex people find healing and hope in their religious faith. They insist, “It’s society that needs to be healed, not us.”
The Pollinators
Synopsis
Much of the food on our tables comes from the intrinsic act of pollinating the flowers that become the fruits, vegetables and nuts we eat, but agricultural practices, pesticides and politics are making that simple act of nature more difficult everyday. Honey bees pollinate one third of the food we eat, yet alarmingly honey bee populations in this country have fallen by half since the 1940’s and continue to decline. Honey bees are threatened by indiscriminate pesticide use, disease, industrial scale monoculture farming and powerful corporate lobbying interests that work to influence the EPA and USDA, who are our gatekeepers for a safe agricultural system. Our very food system is under threat and rests on the wings of these tiny insects and the commercial beekeepers that move them from farm to orchard pollinating crops that native pollinators can no longer adequately accomplish.
This film will follow migratory beekeepers and their bees throughout a growing season, joining them as they stop to pollinate the myriad plants and trees that depend upon honey bees to grow and produce our food. Much of the work moving bees is done at night when the bees are in their hives so few people actually get to see what these beekeepers do. Throughout the journey we will meet farmers, scientists, chefs and academics to give perspective to this complex food system that we all depend on. We will explain the problems of modern large scale agriculture, offer ideas on how it can be improved and learn about these pollinators that are a subculture of agriculture and a vital cornerstone of our entire food system. It’s a cinematic road trip that will result in a feature length documentary film about the importance of pollination to our food system, the complex interrelationship between migratory beekeepers, their bees and the agriculture system that needs these migratory honey bees in order to grow the food we eat.
Ways of Seeing
It Was All So Wonderful
Presented with The Vision of Ulysses Davis as part of “Ways of Seeing”
Synopsis
It Was All So Wonderful: The Everyday Magic of Mary Pratt follows the beloved artist’s development as one of the country’s great realist painters. The documentary features Mary’s final interviews and appearances on film, highlighting her career and life as an artist. Displaced and isolated, Mary Pratt’s life was a highly complicated one of delicate rebellion. In this touching and timely documentary, Harvey captures Pratt’s humour, strength and beauty of spirit, but also Mary’s feminist significance as chronicler of women’s experiences, with her fascination with and elevation of domestic objects.
The Vision of Ulysses Davis
Presented with “It Was All So Wonderful”
Synopsis
Ulysses Davis constructed an idiom distinctly his own and his extraordinary body of work speaks vividly to the nature of his experience as an African-American artist and barber in the American South in the 20th century. This film is a reflection on his work and an offering to the legacy of this singular man.
Last Man Fishing
Part of Troubled Waters Series
Last Man Fishing (60 mins)
Recipe For Disaster: Green Crabs in The Great Marsh (6 mins)
The Last Trap Family (11 mins)
Synopsis
LAST MAN FISHING is a cinematic look at the vastly changing seafood system through the lens of small-scale fishermen across the United States. Narrated by best-selling author Mark Bittman, the film explores the dichotomy between the industrial model and sustainable fishing methods that focus on conservation and quality.
Among the fishermen profiled is renegade New Englander Tim Rider, whose dream of supporting his family as a fisherman is met with numerous challenges. His story parallels that of Darius Kasperzak, a jig boat fisherman in Kodiak, Alaska, who seeks to build infrastructure for a struggling small boat fleet.
Filmmaker JD Schuyler weaves a collection of intimate stories from coastal communities with expert interviews to portray the complex struggle between corporate giants and family fishers. Produced in part by veteran filmmaker Matt Wechsler (SUSTAINABLE), and featuring conservationist Carl Safina and author Paul Greenberg, LAST MAN FISHING calls to question the ethics of the seafood industry and its impact on small-scale fishing across the United States.
The Last Trap Family
Part of Troubled Waters Series
Last Man Fishing (60 mins)
Recipe For Disaster: Green Crabs in The Great Marsh (6 mins)
The Last Trap Family (11 mins)
Synopsis
THE LAST TRAP FAMILY follows Corey Forrest, a 3rd generation self-described fishermom, as she works with her family on the last trap fishing operation in Rhode Island. To join Corey and her father Alan aboard their ship is to peek into a bygone world powered not by technology but by traditions handed down from generations. As they work with gear maintained for decades, they fight to keep a family business afloat and maintain a way of life connected to and in partnership with the natural world.
Director Statement
I wanted to tell a story about the commercial fishing industry from the point of view of a family-run operation. There are fewer and fewer independent outfits today in an industry that’s becoming rapidly more corporate and consolidated. And while a host of global factors impact the fishing industry, I wanted to focus on the personal. THE LAST TRAP FAMILY follows Corey and her family working on the last trap fishing operation, a bygone practice powered not by new technologies but by traditions handed down over generations. As we witness the strenuous work they do at sea and on land, we also experience Corey’s deep connection to a way of life that she does not take for granted. It’s not just a job for her. I find personal inspiration in Corey’s story and in her family’s work, and I find myself reflecting on how their family-run operation fits within the global context of fisheries, a changing climate, and the seafood choices of American consumers. While the US controls more coastline than any other country, Americans largely pass up local seafood for cheaper imports. As working waterfronts shrink and disappear around the US, I ask myself what value do we place on the sources of food we consume, the jobs that we support, and the resources that we share. -Hudson Lines
Recipe for Disaster: Green Crabs in The Great Marsh
Part of Troubled Waters Series
Last man Fishing (60 mins)
Recipe For Disaster: Green Crabs in The Great Marsh (6 mins)
The Last Trap Family (11 mins)
Synopsis
Recipe For Disaster is the story of an ecological catastrophe in the making in four neighboring towns on the Massachusetts coast. As native scallops, mussels, clams, and protective eelgrass disappear under the explosive invasion of green crabs, scientists, local experts, and residents are scrambling to save the marsh from decimation.
When faced with an invasive species and the prospect of ecological devastation, residents along the New England coast are in search of a sustainable solution to save the marsh.
Recipe For Disaster tells the story of the little-known invasion that is threatening an entire New England ecosystem, and the struggle of local experts and residents to understand and prevent this catastrophe. Driven by the rising temperatures in the Gulf of Maine, billions of green crabs have overrun the abundant natural marshes on coastal Massachusetts, decimating the populations of clams, scallops, mussels, and eel grass that birds and fish depend upon to survive. In just a few short years of explosive population growth, the damage caused by green crabs has local residents and experts rushing to avert irreparable destruction with approaches such as transplanting eelgrass and paying fishermen to trap the crabs for compost.
The most promising solution, however, is popping up on gourmet restaurant menus in the form of green crab roe.
This short, powerful documentary film explores one aspect of the consequences of climate change that are echoed in coastal communities around the world, with stunning footage of the beautiful marshes and estuaries whose salvation may come on a dinner plate.
WBCN and the American Revolution
Saturday Night Feature
Free reception starts at 6 pm
Film at 7:30 pm
Q & A after the film
After party
SECOND SHOWING ADDED!
Synopsis
“WBCN and The American Revolution” is a landmark, feature-length documentary that tells the previously untold story of the early days of the radical, underground radio station, WBCN, set against the dazzling and profound social, political, and cultural changes that took place in Boston and nationally during the late-1960s and early-70s.
It’s the incredible, true story of how a radio station, politics and rock and roll changed everything. The film is produced by the Peabody Award-winning independent production company, Lichtenstein Creative Media.
Ty Burr, the Pulitzer-prize nominated film critic for the Boston Sunday Globe wrote: “I watched the movie with awe,” and the film won “Best Documentary” at the 2019 DC Independent Film Festival and was the “Centerpiece: Documentary Spotlight” at the 2019 Independent Film Festival of Boston, where it sold out a 900-seat screening.
The film shows how Boston, which was overshadowed in 1967 by the exploding psychedelic scenes in both San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district and New York City’s East Village, emerged as the central crossroad of the counterculture and political activism in the late-1960s and early-1970s.
The story is told through the extraordinary history of WBCN, which in its early days called itself “The American Revolution,” and the personal and political journeys of a compelling cast of characters who connect and intersect through the radio station and exploding music scenes, militant anti-war activism, civil rights struggles, and the emerging women’s and LGBTQ-liberation movements.
The film includes dramatic first-person accounts from the radio station’s staff along with newly filmed and archival material that features the leading political, social, cultural and musical figures of the day, who crossed paths with the radio station. They include Noam Chomsky, Abbie Hoffman, Jane Fonda, Jerry Garcia and Duane Allman, Lou Reed, Bruce Springsteen in his first radio interview, and Patti Smith, performing in her first live radio broadcast.
The documentary also includes never before exhibited film material shot by Andy Warhol and cinema vérité pioneer Ricky Leacock and images from leading photojournalists of the day, including the late Peter Simon, brother of Carly Simon, who is interviewed in the film.
These dramatic and compelling stories in “WBCN and The American Revolution” are expertly and powerfully interwoven with the original sights and sounds of the critical events of the era, through the more than 100,000 audio and visual items shared by the public for the film in an unprecedented archives search.
The film tells a story that is timely and relevant, especially to young people, who are seeking to use media to create social change.
Director and producer Bill Lichtenstein worked at WBCN starting at age 14 as a volunteer on the station’s Listener Line and later as a newscaster and announcer with his own weekly show. Bill’s last film, “West 47th Street,” won Special Jury Award for Documentary at the Atlanta Film Festival; Audience Award for Best Documentary at the DC Independent Film Festival; and Honorable Mention at the Woodstock Film Festival. It later aired on PBS’s P.O.V. and was called “must see” by Newsweek and “remarkable” by the Washington Post.
Rigged: The Voter Suppression Playbook
Synopsis
What would happen if political operatives tried to subvert the sacred American principle of “one person, one vote?” What if they hatched and pursued that plan for years before anyone noticed what they were doing? That is the frightening tale told in a new feature documentary, Rigged: The Voter Suppression Playbook. Narrated by Jeffrey Wright, and shot during the chaotic 2016 election, the film identifies and unpacks a shrewd ten-part strategy developed by Republicans to suppress votes that would be cast against them.
Why did they do it?
Obama’s 2008 victory revealed a rising demographic tide of non-white and younger voters that threatened GOP success into the future. Mark McKinnon, a former Republican strategist, notes in the film that Republicans could have moved toward the center and appealed to the rising minority majority, but instead the GOP “figure[d] out how you turn out more of your people and less of the other guys.” In short, suppress the vote.
How did they do it?
Rigged shows viewers just what they did – and continue to do – from creating new barriers to voter registration, to purging American citizens from the voting rolls without notice, to new and deliberate impediments to casting a vote. In addition, the film shows how GOP activists developed an elaborate but false narrative of widespread voter fraud in order to justify the necessity for new and draconian voting restrictions.
The message of Rigged?
In the wake of the 2018 elections, our democracy is still in peril. Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) states in the film, “I fear for our younger people. I fear they will not have the kind of democracy I experienced . . . somebody’s got to say, ‘This is not right.” Somebody’s got to say, ‘We can do better.’”
Well Groomed
Synopsis
Competitive creative dog grooming is the most colorful competition in America and WELL GROOMED captures the hearts, minds and imaginations of the artists involved. Follow four champion groomers and their gorgeous, vibrant dogs through a year in the life on the technicolor competition circuit, playfully exploring their creative process. From South Carolina to California, New York to Arkansas, these women are revolutionizing the age old question – what is art? Director Rebecca Stern has captured an up-close and revealing look at pets, families, friendships and the glory of dog grooming through a bright spectrum of color.
The Last American Colony
Synopsis
The Last American Colony is a compelling and revealing story of an invisible island — Puerto Rico. It is told through the eyes of Juan Segarra, a Harvard educated man who having become acquainted with the history of his island home and its relationship to the United States chooses to embrace the independence movement and becomes a member of Los Macheteros, a group dedicated to achieving its goals through armed struggle.
Segarra’s personal narrative is an awakening to the reality his homeland is an American colony with a century long history of Puerto Ricans struggling to retain their cultural identity and regain control of the island’s destiny. The film opens in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria revealing the painful and deadly consequences Puerto Ricans have faced for decades.
Throughout the film, historical moments of resistance are woven into the narrative structure providing evidence of the past as a mirror for today. Segarra’s participation in the clandestine operations of the movement are revealed with intimate detail as he becomes the lieutenant to commandant Filiberto Ojeda Rios. These ‘acts of war’ against the US in the late 70’s and early 80’s includes the destruction of 10 US military planes at the National Guard runway in San Juan and the enormous heist of 7.2 million dollars from a Welles Fargo depot in Hartford, Connecticut. For more than a decade the FBI was unable to trace the activities of Los Macheteros who have been labeled domestic terrorists.
Their fight for independence is a desire to rid the island of dependence on the US. It has evolved from decades of economic and political inequality where many perceive the only benefit of life as a colonial resident since 1917 is US citizenship. It is a qualified benefit as one cannot vote for President, have a representative congressman or senator, but can be drafted into the military.
The Last American Colony is a thought provoking and uplifting film in that it portrays a David and Goliath story through the eyes of those who fought and sacrificed everything for freedom. Juan Segarra’s belief in the struggle remains firm although he has spent more than 18 years in prison for his illegal actions. His focus today is on different tactics renouncing an armed propaganda strategy while still working for independence; his new career is that of a translator working in the Puerto Rican criminal justice system.
As he concludes the film with sharing personal stories at his Phillips Andover 50th reunion, Segarra says, “Nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience are important tools as are many others. Maybe there should be more of it. It’s looking like these times call for urgent action. Clearly, I think violence is not the way to go and is in fact counterproductive. It kind of feeds into what – for lack of a better word – the system really wants.”
“Our America” Series
Born in America
Part of “Our America Series”
A Blue Sky Like No Other (31 mins)
Born in America (34 mins)
Reclamation: The Rise at Standing Rock (23 mins)
Synopsis
Born in America, focuses on a Chinese family who comes to California to have their baby in order to obtain the privilege of American citizenship. Throughout the film, the audience will learn more about ‘birth tourism’ and why many Chinese families and investors are buying into these programs. Is it legal or not? How will American people be affected by birth tourism? The audience will figure this out with the help of these two families, the agencies, lawyers, and professors.
A Blue Sky Like No Other
Part of “Our America Series”
A Blue Sky Like No Other (31 mins)
Born in America (34 mins)
Reclamation: The Rise at Standing Rock (23 mins)
Synopsis
On September 11, 2001, Wall Street executive Steven Fetter was a block away when the South Tower of the World Trade Center came down. As the grey dust cloud overcame him, Fetter believed that his life would then be over. “A Blue Sky Like No Other” is a documentary short in which Fetter offers an eyewitness perspective of that day, memorializes the heroes who lost their lives while saving others, and explains how surviving that tragedy led him to change his life by leaving Wall Street and heading West.
The film features original music by Laura Warshauer, the first recipient of the Buddy Holly Singer/Songwriter Award. This documentary short is based upon Fetter’s one-person play that he earlier presented in New York City (where it was designated a Critics’ Pick by Time Out New York) and Rochester (NY).
Reclamation: The Rise at Standing Rock
Part of “Our America Series”
A Blue Sky Like No Other (31 mins)
Born in America (34 mins)
Reclamation: The Rise at Standing Rock (23 mins)
Synopsis
In 2016 from the summer through the harsh winter at Standing Rock, North Dakota, the youth of many tribes unite the Native Nations for the first time in 150 years and rise up in spiritual solidarity to non-violently fight for Unci Maka (Mother Earth) against the 3.8 billion dollar Dakota Access Oil Pipeline (DAPL). These young Native leaders known as water protectors join together to honor their destiny as they pray and protect Mother Earth by leading a peaceful movement of resistance which awakens the world.
Pariah Dog
Synopsis
Pariah Dog is a creative documentary focusing on several eccentric street dog caretakers in Kolkata, India. Shot over three years, the film paints a kaleidoscopic picture of the city of Kolkata, seen through the prism of four outsiders and the dogs they love. These men and women have found meaning and purpose in their shared mission to care for neglected street dogs, who have existed in the towns and villages of India for thousands of years. For some this mission is enough, for others, dreams of a better life are always near.
Production began in September of 2014, and wrapped in April, 2017. In 2017 Pariah Dog was selected to take part in the “Only In New York” meetings at the Doc NYC film festival, and later the Rough Cut Screenings at the 2018 Docsbarcelona festival in Spain. The film premiered at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in February, 2019, where it was awarded “Best Feature.”
Sending Off
Synopsis
SENDING OFF follows the patients of Dr. Kaoru KONTA and her team of nurses as they provide hospice care to patients in their homes in rural Japan. A special focus is directed at the deepening relationships the patients form with their families as they reach the end of their lives. Sometimes difficult to watch, the film challenges us to think about how we live our own lives and how we would like to die.
Who Killed Lt. Van Dorn?
Synopsis
Lt. Wes Van Dorn, a 29-year-old United States Naval Academy graduate and the married father of two young sons, died when the helicopter he was piloting crashed off the coast of Virginia during a 2014 training exercise. Motivated by her grief, his wife Nicole sought an explanation for the cause of the disaster. Her efforts spurred an investigation that uncovered a long history of negligence and institutional failings around the 53E helicopter—the model Van Dorn was piloting when he was killed, and the deadliest aircraft in the US military. Through incisive reporting and interviews with Van Dorn’s colleagues and family, Who Killed Lt. Van Dorn? is at once a poignant picture of one family’s tragedy, as well as a revelatory inquiry into the murky inner-workings of the American defense establishment.
“I need to finish Wes’s work. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe he was wrong. I don’t know. But the only way to find that out, is to… look into that, and to talk to people, and to see if the worst was actually the truth”
— Nicole Van Dorn, Wes Van Dorn’s widow
“When you know the quality of the people and the work that they want so badly to do well, and you’ve entrusted your child to the military thinking that this is where they’re going to be able to be their best self, and find out they don’t have the best equipment to work with – that is a very hard thing to learn. It’s a very hard thing learn.”
— Susan Van Dorn, Wes Van Dorn’s mother
Sing You A Brand New Song
Synopsis
Sing you a Brand New Song: The Words and Music of Coleman Mellett by Jeanie Bryson. Guitarist Coleman Mellett was working on an album of original songs when he perished in a plane crash at the age of 34. In this moving story of enduring love, music, and friendship, Grammy-Award-winning producer Barry Miles, James Taylor, Chuck Mangione and many other talented musicians come together to complete Mellett’s final album, and to revel in his music. A beautiful and joyous documentary that should not be missed.
Runner
Synopsis
When he was only nine, Guor Mading Maker (known as Guor Marial) ran from capture in war-torn Sudan to eventually seek safety in the US. In his new life, Maker began running again, participating in high school track and field and eventually becoming a sensation qualifying for the 2012 Olympics. But because the newly formed South Sudan was not recognized by the International Olympics committee, Maker had to fight to compete independently, refusing to run for Sudan and taking a stand against its oppression.
Runner depicts Maker’s difficult and triumphant journey from refugee to world-renowned athlete, told in intimate interviews with gorgeously animated flashbacks.
