AFI’s Silver Theater, in downtown Silver Springs

I’m still thinking of all the great films I watched at this year’s SILVERDOCS festival, so I’ll try to summarize my experience there as best as I can. I will start with one of the highlights for me—the DocuClub “In-The-Works” session. Moderating the feedback was a new friend and ally, Erica Ginsberg, who runs a similar works-in-progress screening series in Silver Springs, Docs in Progress, Inc. The rough cut we screened was Stages, by the talented and prolific arts collective Meerkat Media. Read more about this screening in our own DocuClub Talk Back.

Members of film collective Meerkat Media

I was moved by two portraits of unconditional family love, Eric Daniel Metzgar’s Life.Support.Music and Dear Zachary: A Letter To A Son About His Father by Kurt Kuenne. The former depicts the aftermath of Jason Kriglin’s massive stroke, which leaves him paralyzed. A 34-year old skilled musician, Kriglin was an unlikely candidate for such a tragedy. The film documents Kriglin’s amazing recovery, which is made possible by his doctors, friends, fans, and most importantly, his dedicated wife and family. Hoping not to sound too sentimental, Kriglin’s story is truly awe-inspiring. A different kind of tragedy befalls the main subject of Kuenne’s film. In it, the director uses the epistolary form to construct the incredible tale of the murder of his childhood friend, the suspect’s mental illness, miscarriage of justice, victims’ rights, and ultimately, everyday heroes.

Other highlights include Scott Hamilton Kennedy’s The Garden, which had its World premiere at the festival and won its Sterling US Feature Award. The film recalls the fate of the largest urban community farm in downtown Los Angeles at the hands of greedy real estate developers and corrupt city officials. In Pray the Devil Back to Hell, Arts Engine fiscally-sponsored filmmaker Gini Reticker recounts how a coalition of Christian and Muslim women helped to bring resolution to Liberia’s civil war though wit, courage, and peaceful civil disobedience. The film won the festival’s Witness Award. Another Arts Engine alumna of our fiscal sponsorship program, Cheryl Furjanic, presented her tribute to the Olympic women’s synchronized swimming team, Sync or Swim, which played two sold-out shows. Furjanic’s film is a crowd-pleaser, and she fielded questions from enthusiastic audiences post-screenings. Another hit was Andrew Jacobs’ Four Seasons Lodge. Producer Matt Lavine stated that the film’s two screenings delivered “good crowds and strong responses.”

Sync or Swim director Cheryl Furjanic, wearing her accessory of choice

The festival was packed with so many panels and films that it was incredibly difficult to even take a break in between events. I wanted to attend everything! A high school marching band from Baltimore’s Frederick Douglass High School led the way into the AFI Silver Theater for the premiere of Hard Times at Douglass High. The film was produced by Alan and Susan Raymond, whose PBS series An American Family, was also presented at the festival. In verité style, Hard Times plays like an inquisitive fly-on-the-wall, roaming the halls of the school and following each character’s struggle in a neglected inner-city institution. (The documentary is currently airing on HBO.)

Members of Douglass High marching band

Finally, I made it to several interesting panels, including one presented by PBS’ National Minority Consortia. The Consortia is comprised of organizations that fund and nurture programming by minority producers, and is aimed at diverse audiences. Chief among its mandate is to bring new voices to public television. Sitting on the panel were Patricia Boero of Latino Public Broadcasting, Ruth Bolan of Pacific Islanders in Communications,
National Black Programming Consortium’s Leslie Fields-Cruz, and Shirley Sneve of Native American Public Telecommunications.

Minority Consortia panelists Boero, Bolan, and Fields-Cruz

At the “Funding Case Study of Made in L.A.,” director Almudena Carracedo and producer Robert Bahar laid out their strategies for fundraising. Their film, an examination of the appaling conditions endured by immigrant workers in L.A. garment factories, took almost five years to make. The filmmakers insisted that building an audience and fundraising go hand-in-hand, and happen simultaneously.

A special thank you goes out to SILVERDOCS’s people power: Director of Programming Sky Sitney, Founding Festival Director Nina Gilden Seavey (who gave a witty introduction to audience members at our DocuClub session), Coordinating Producer Deborah L. Jaramillo, Guest Relations Coordinator Alex Lewis Coles, and all the wonderful volunteers.