The change agents, filmmakers, artists, and industry leaders walk the red carpet at the 1st Annual Chicago International Social Change Film Festival! Come check out the glitz and glamor!
Artistic Director and founding member of Kartemquin Films, Gordon Quinn has been making documentaries for over 45 years. Roger Ebert, of the Chicago Sun Times, called his first film Home for Life (1966) "an extraordinarily moving documentary." With Home for Life Gordon established the direction he would take for the next four decades, making cinéma vérité films that investigate and critique society by documenting the unfolding lives of real people. At Kartemquin, Gordon created a legacy that is an inspiration for young filmmakers and a home where they can make high-quality, social-issue documentaries. Kartemquin’s best known film, Hoop Dreams (1994), executive produced by Gordon, was released theatrically to unprecedented critical acclaim. The film follows two inner-city high school basketball players for five years as they pursue their NBA dreams. Its many honors include: the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival, The Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, Chicago Film Critics Award – Best Picture, Los Angeles Film Critics Association – Best Documentary and an Academy Award Nomination. Other films Gordon has made include Vietnam, Long Time Coming, Golub, 5 Girls, Refrigerator Mothers and Stevie. Gordon executive produced Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita and The New Americans (he also directed the Palestinian segment of this award winning, intimate, seven-hour series). Recently he produced a film that deals with the human consequences genetic medicine, In The Family, and executive produced two films, one about community based conservation in Africa, Milking the Rhino, and At The Death House Door on a wrongful execution in Texas. In the role of director, he recently completed Prisoner of Her Past, about a Holocaust survivor suffering from late-onset post-traumatic stress disorder, and co-directed the 2011 release A Good Man, about the dancer Bill T. Jones.
Produced by Kartemquin Films and Spargel Productions
On the first day of school each year, Chicago Public School administrators and teachers struggle to identify the growing number of students who are homeless and without adult support. This is the first critical step in providing homeless kids with what they need to stay in school and get to graduation. Last year, a record 15,580 students in Chicago Public Schools were known to be homeless. The population of homeless children and youth is growing at staggering rates all across America. Statistics from the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth (NAEHCY) state that the number of homeless students identified in public schools has increased by 41% over the past two years alone, to roughly 1.6 million nationwide. Schools across the country are struggling to cope with the needs of more and more young people who have no homes or adult support. These kids turn to school for food, a warm place, and some sense of structure. In Chicago, the problem has become so pervasive in recent years that each school is now required by law to have a Homeless Coordinator. The list they create is a constantly shifting document, and far from complete. Many young people, especially teens, do not want to be identified, do not want to be in the system, and do not ask for help. Like most kids, in this adolescent time of their lives, they just want to be normal.
The Homestretch (working title) focuses on a number of these adolescents as they navigate the treacherous journey into adulthood. The film will be a haunting depiction of the intimate, often unexpected details of what it means to be young, homeless and trying to build your future in America today. Using the youth as guides, the viewer is invited inside the day-to-day lives of young people in Chicago searching for a warm place to sleep, a quiet place to study, the privacy to shower, any way to feel normal under the most abnormal circumstances. The Homestretch focuses on the adolescent years, a crucial time in any young person’s life when they are going through the final years of school and learning the life skills necessary to become successful adults.
Opera singers performing ON the runway, creating a theatrical experience that has never been seen before!
American Chamber Opera & OperaModa, along with Miss Chicago Marisa Buchheit, and Jeff Conway of NBC's 24/7 are hosting a fashion fundraiser to benefit the Merit School of Music and the American Chamber Opera.
Producer- Benjamin Cottrell Designs
Venue Sponsor- InterContinental Chicago (Grand Ballroom)
Official Media Sponsor- Chicago SunTimes Cause & Event
Food Sponsor - Whole Foods
Designers Borris Powell, Fraley Le, Rachel Frank, Anastasia Chatzka, and Stix & Roses, will be featured on the runway.
Entertainment provided by American Chamber Opera and the Merit School of Music.
Statement by Amanda Williams:
For this exhibition, Krista Franklin (www.kristafranklin.com) and I have been exploring notions of excess, value, and altered states of reality in American culture. Our evocative title doesn't do justice to just how far reaching our exploration has been! We've enjoyed the collaborative process, and are excited about the results . We have the thoughtful and astute eye of independent curator, Camille Morgan, as a third voice who will bring our sometimes disparate vantage points into a singular focus! This show will be FUN!
As many of you know, my family members and their related ephemera are often source material for my work. This series is no different.
The unexpected loss of my father last year and the need to use my art making as a way of processing, healing and honoring have served as the undercurrent for this work. While the vibrant, textured oil paintings I've become known for will be a part of the show, I've focused much of my efforts on other media, including paper, acrylic and ice as tools for visually expressing my thoughts about VALUE.
The massive quantities of paper and financial documents my brother and I inherited after closing down my father's 37 year accounting business and cleaning out our childhood home, became a point of departure for a number of the pieces that will be on display.
WARNING: Please note that in fully exploring the messages of contemporary hip-hop, several of the works Krista and I have created have extremely ADULT content that some might not find appropriate for children. These include language, sexuality and drug use. Much of it is presented in a way that questions the intrinsic value of these topics, but it is there nonetheless. I will have my own daughter present, but felt it was important to provide a heads up so that others could make their own decision.
Our exhibit is part of an exciting number of events occurring in October as part of Chicago Artist Month!
http://www.chicagoartistsmonth.org/dreams-jay-z-minor-new-works-amanda-williams-and-krista-franklin
The Microlending Film Project is an independently produced feature documentary centered on the current state of global microfinance to women as a tool for alleviating poverty. It was conceived as a passion project by Futures Trader turned Director/Producer Rachel Cook after reading a Nicholas Kristof op-ed in The New York Times about how empowering women with tools like microfinance can bring about positive, sustainable change (Savings the World’s Women). The project has been undertaken with the best interests of women at heart, as the film seeks to show a balanced, comprehensive picture of microfinance through the lens of the personal stories of the women it impacts. The issue of transparency and its paramount importance to the industry is a key focus, as is showcasing best-practices and suggesting how microfinance can most effectively be used as one development tool in a larger box, both domestically and abroad. Interviews with experts within the field of microfinance and development thought-leaders will ground the narrative, including two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Kristof, CEO and Founder of Microfinance Transparency Initiative Chuck Waterfield, Kiva co-founder Matt Flannery, and experts at The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Also included are interviews with political and economic thought-leaders in the locations in which we film. The filmmaking team includes a Director of Photography with more than 50 studio Hollywood films on his resume, including Terms of Endearment and Courage Under Fire, a Producer/Second Camera with 16 studio Hollywood films on her CV, an Editor who has cut several films for Oscar-nominated documentarian Jon Alpert, and a composer who has produced for the Grammy-nominated Shiny Toy Guns. When premiering the film we’ll launch Seeds (Foursquare meets Kiva) a social game for mobile microlending as part of our social outreach initiative. Moviegoers will receive a free credit to make a loan through the game with the purchase of their tickets, and will be encouraged to download the game as they leave the theater. Seeds will connect lenders and borrowers through direct mobile money transfer. The initiative will launch in Nairobi, Kenya with later domestic lending opportunities in cities like Canton, Ohio, the Director’s hometown. Game design and marketing research are being completed in conjunction with Duke University and the iHub, a shared startup space in downtown Nairobi. Collaborators include award-winning game designer Brad Wiggins.
