SOCIAL JUSTICE

The Recall: Reframed key art (abstract graphic of chart). The film's central question: how to increase justice for sexual violence survivors without contributing to a racist criminal justice system, is at the heart of a 4-part collaborative journalistic series im the Boston Globe.

Central Question of doc The Recall: Reframed Explored in Four-Part Collaborative Series

Alumni Films + Filmmakers, DOCS + THE NEWS, Frontpage Article, News, SOCIAL JUSTICE /

The quandary at the heart of The Recall: Reframed (Rebecca Richman Cohen, 26 mins, SDFF 2023) is at the center of a four-part collaborative series of articles appearing in The Boston Globe, which explore how to increase justice for survivors of gendered violence without contributing to a criminal justice system that disproportionately harms vulnerable communities […]

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Mimi Chakarova's new feature, The Apology, examines racist 60s Era Bay Area relocation policy & reparations. The doc has spurred the Alameda Board of Supervisors to pass an official apology, which recognizes their role in the racist destruction of this community.

New Doc on Racist Forced Relocation In Bay Area Helps Spur Action & Official Apology

Alumni Films + Filmmakers, DOCS + THE NEWS, Frontpage Article, News, SOCIAL JUSTICE /

The Apology (Mimi Chakarova), an upcoming doc about the forced relocation of Russell City, a majority Black and Brown community in the 1960s Bay Area, is pivotal to an official apology, which the Alameda Board of Supervisors will present to the community’s residents and their descendants on June 27 at 2 p.m. The apology is

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Alumni Filmmaker Screens New Doc on 60s Era Racism & Forced Relocation in Bay Area

Alumni Films + Filmmakers, DOCS + THE NEWS, Frontpage Article, News, SOCIAL JUSTICE /

As California’s reparations task force approved a potentially groundbreaking list of recommendations earlier this month, The Apology (Mimi Chakarova), a new doc about the forced relocation of Russell City, a majority Black and Brown community in the 1960s Bay Area, was screened for a sizeable crowd in Hayward, including former Russell City residents and their descendants. The

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2023 Jury Winner El Equipo Makes Hot Docs 20

Alumni Films + Filmmakers, Frontpage Article, INDUSTRY NEWS, News, SOCIAL JUSTICE /

After a three-year pandemic hiatus, OUTwatch Film Festival will re-emerge June 9-11 at Rialto Cinemas® Sebastopol, joining Sonoma County Pride’s celebrations for the first time. The festival El Equipo (The Team) (Bernardo Ruiz, 81 mins), which won the Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature at this year’s SebDocs Festival, made the recently released HotDocs Audience

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SDFF Film About Abortion, Women’s Health and Bodily Autonomy

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As you no doubt already know, the  U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on June 24, suspending legal access to vital reproductive health care for woman across the United States and effectively curtailing women’s rights to self-determination and bodily autonomy. In hopes of providing some educational resources that can lend context and dimension to the

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Female Documentarians, Journalists Under Increased Threat in Iran + Israel

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While the war has pulled focus on media suppression to Ukraine and Russia, journalists in the Middle East have experienced a worrying uptick in repression and state-sponsored violence since the start of May. In Iran, at least four female documentarians and one photo journalist were arrested as part of an apparent attempt to tamp down

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Bellingcat’s Innovative Training & Citizen Investigative Journalists Grab Attention in Hollywood

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While SDFF 2020 Official Selection, Bellingcat: Truth in a Post-Truth World (Hans Pool, 2018) won an Emmy in 2019, it’s now up for a second one, along with collaborator Newsy, for its groundbreaking approaches to reporting the news. Bellingcat, the independent, international collective of researchers, investigators and citizen journalists, and the topic of SDFF 2020 Official

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SDFF Alum Streams Oscar-Winning Short + Important Historical Work for Free

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Marshall Curry, whose film Racing Dreams was an SDFF 2010 Official Selection, won the 2020 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short with his remarkable and unexpectedly moving short, The Neighbors Window. Curry’s acceptance speech (above) is also incredible. The film was making the rounds nationally, along with all of the other short films nominated for Oscars until the

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Filmmaker Attempts to Shed Light on Navajo Nation’s COVID Crisis + Effort to Protect Its Most Vulnerable

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After visiting the Navajo nation earlier this month, filmmaker Karney Hatch (Overdrawn, Plant This Movie!) was overcome by the staggering number of cases and the scale of the loss facing the community and decided to volunteer in hopes of helping the Navajo & Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund raise money by shooting some footage for

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Bellingcat Investigations and Coverage Make Mainstream News in U.S.

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SDFF’s 2020 selection, Bellingcat: Truth In A Post-Truth World (Hans Pool, 2019) and some of the journalists affiliated with it have been making the news over the past month. Bellingcat the film is tells the story of the eponymous online investigative collective. Collective leader Eliot Higgins was interviewed on 60 Minutes on July 12 to talk about an investigation he had spearheaded into the

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