Community Cinema

Spotlight

Community Cinema wrapped up yet another record-breaking season — with more than 50,000 people attending 900 events in 100 cities across the country. Working behind the scenes were Community Cinema’s regional outreach coordinators and producing partners who spearheaded the events and collaborated with more than 1,200 local and national organizations. Following are highlights from our engagement work on the nine films that were selected for the 2010-2011 Community Cinema season:

Season Highlights

  • A young man sits on a horse bareback and looks into the camera.
    Reel Injun

    Screenings gave Community Cinema audiences an opportunity to engage in discussions about challenging stereotypes, the importance of media literacy, and the need for Native media makers to have the tools to tell their own stories. Local partners were diverse, with participation from Native American community organizations, youth programs, educators, and media organizations.

  • An older man with gray hair is shown looking into the distance thoughtfully.
    Deep Down

    Screenings provided a powerful platform for students, faith leaders, and concerned community members to make connections between the impact of mountain top removal mining on Appalachian communities to issues in their own community, discuss alternatives to coal-produced energy, and highlight the power of individual and collective action. Our national partner, the Natural Resources Defense Council, made it possible to bring the filmmakers to several screenings, including a Nashville screening geared towards green initiatives in faith communities.

  • A man speaks into a microphone, his head tilted back and arm outstretched.
    The Calling

    Live events brought diverse audiences together for interfaith dialogue and discussions about tensions between faith and modernity. Many panels across the country featured leaders from varied faiths, and audience members were invited to participate in video interviews for the online engagement campaign answering the question, “What’s Your Calling?”

  • Members of the Spirit of Goodwill band stand onstage with hands raised overhead.
    For Once in My Life

    Screenings of For Once in My Life connected 5,000 audience members with information and resources on local programs that provide job training, independent living skills, and additional support to people with disabilities. More than 175 organizations partnered on local events, including Goodwill affiliates in a dozen cities.

  • Cyntoia Brown seated in a correctional department vehicle looks through a metal mesh window.
    Me Facing Life: Cyntoia’s Story

    Screenings of Me Facing Life: Cyntoia's Story created unique opportunities for violence prevention programs, juvenile detention centers, and after-school programs working with young women to examine the root causes of youth violence and juvenile incarceration. National partners included Community Justice Network for Youth, the Coalition for Juvenile Justice, Campaign for Fair Sentencing for Youth, and the National Council on Crime and Delinquency. In Pittsburgh, the local Girl Scout Troop’s Leaders In-Training for Tomorrow Program brought 30 girls to the screening; following, each girl wrote a letter to Cyntoia telling her how her story and the film had an impact on them.

  • Rose Mapendo embracing her daughter, Nangabire, after they are reunited.
    Pushing the Elephant

    Community Cinema screenings of Pushing the Elephant featured the first-hand account of war survivors, domestic abuse counselors, Congo experts, as well as community leaders working on refugee resettlement. By using Rose Mapendo's inspirational story, audiences across the country participated in eye-opening discussions about the hidden effects of war on women and children, the refugee experience, surviving the trauma of war, and the power of forgiveness.

  • An extreme close-up of the late Benazir Bhutto wearing a white head scarf.
    Bhutto

    Discussions at Bhutto events spanned in focus from the need for more women in political leadership to the history of U.S.-Pakistan relations. The Washington, DC screening, largely attended by students, featured a "teach-in" style discussion with his Excellency Husain Haqqani in conversation with Frank Sesno, director of the School of Media and Public Affairs at The George Washington University. Ambassador Haqqani colored the discussion with touching personal anecdotes of his friendship with Benazir Bhutto.

  • A Somali woman wearing a gold-colored guntiino holds a small American flag while wearing a name tag.
    Welcome to Shelbyville

    Screenings of Welcome to Shelbyville provided a platform for audiences across the country to discuss what it means to be "American" amidst profound economic, cultural, and demographic changes in the United States. Community Cinema partnered with Welcoming America, the national organization featured in the film. While the state of Arizona has been the focus of headlines for all sides embroiled in the immigration debate, local screenings in four Tucson, Arizona libraries provided a way to move past the headlines and talk about real people's experience with immigration and welcoming newcomers. The library staff were so inspired by the screenings that they are planning to work with local partners to launch their own local Welcoming America chapter.

  • A figure wearing a flannel shirt and head scarf stands at sunset in near silhouette with head thrown back and arms raised above.
    Two Spirits

    Two Spirits brought together more than 5,000 people to talk about gender, sexuality, supporting LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, transgender) youth against bullying, and the values that many indigenous communities have long embraced. Parents, students, and community and school leaders spoke passionately at events about the importance of finding and accepting who you are, and the relation between ignorance and violence.