Project Synopsis:

Abdi and Bolota is the story of two American dreamers. It follows elite long-distance runners Abdi Abdirahman and Bolota Asmerom on their journey to the 2012 London Olympics. This intimate and personal documentary about life on the track explores the significance of racing in sports, and what it means to be black in America when you are African. As they prepare for the 2012 Summer Games, the lives of Abdi and Bolota reveal a universal story: what it means to wake up every morning and follow your dream, including all the work, sacrifice, triumphs and failures that come with being a professional runner. Unique about their story is their relationship to running, the geopolitics that led them from East Africa to the United States, their drive to win, and their faith in themselves despite the personal, financial and physical obstacles that they must overcome.

Project Synopsis:

In November 2005, one of Los Angeles’ most prominent historic landmarks was demolished. It had served the city for 68 years. This feature length documentary will explore the Ambassador Hotel, its contributions to local and national history, and the impact of the building’s fate on the Los Angeles community. The Ambassador Hotel is a modern tale of Babylon: its former glory is passed down through stories from within our collective memory. For decades the Ambassador Hotel was a cultural hub that brought together the community; most recently, it was at the center of a conflict that tore this community apart. In an attempt to create a historic and public record, After 68 will use first-hand accounts to chronicle the forgotten memories of the Ambassador Hotel. These memories reveal a paradox between education and preservation that created a dramatic, uncompromising, and lengthy debate surrounding the demolition of the site. Ultimately, this film will demonstrate how the Ambassador Hotel’s history embodies two opposing sides of a cross-cultural divide, as Los Angeles struggles to define its multi-faceted urban center.

Project Synopsis:

American Blowback: New Mexico’s Black Berets is a civil rights era story that unfolded in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It tells the little documented story of five Chicano youth and a catholic priest who formed the Black Berets, an activist organization that ran from 1969 to 1973. For years, the group was labeled as militant and stigmatized. This film will be a more accurate portrayal of the Black Berets, young men who not only listened to the voices of their community, but responded. They made affordable health care accessible, founded the first community health clinic in the Albuquerque area, and set up a mobile unit that took health care to people’s homes in rural New Mexico. They addressed human rights violations in the prison system and formed an emancipating identity that shaped a movement, empowered its leaders and their community. 

Project Synopsis:

On July 17, 1988, César Estrada Chávez, 61-years old, embarked on a 36-day water-only fast to call attention to the harmful effect that pesticides were having on America’s farm workers, and to shine light on their deplorable working and living conditions.  This was Cesar’s Last Fast: 36 days of self-sacrifice and deep spiritual commitment to the fight for justice and dignity for America’s poorest workers.  In the way that the documentary Man on Wire is a film about a man willing to give up his life for his art, Cesar's Last Fast is a film about a man willing to give up his life for La Causa – the cause.

Project Synopsis:

Cumbia, the popular Latin American music genre has recently felt a resurgence around the world and New York City, in particular. The melting pot is cooking a new stew of cumbia and the flavor is not just being enjoyed by Latinos, but by non-Latinos as well. The underground success of cumbia in the last few years has been fueled by DJs and the internet, and has resulted in a new Pan-Latino rhythm. Cumbia York follows several key musicians in New York City who have been instrumental in reviving the genre. It culminates in a grand finale that brings them all together at the Encuentro de Musicos Colombianos, an annual gathering of Colombian musicians in New York. What started as a movement in Buenos Aires and Mexico has now spread around the world, and morphed into various forms and colors of cumbia rhythms including global bass, tropical bass, nu-cumbia, and digital cumbia. But the names keep changing depending on who you ask.

Project Synopsis:

Dreamtown follows the triumphant yet at times tragic portrait of three young men’s struggle to realize their dream. They compete for their place on Ecuador's professional soccer team; after finding success, they became determined to uplift their people. The dreams of a pro, a protege, and a novice collide as these Afro-Ecuadorians perform for many audiences in the hope of bringing home more than just a medal.  This film is set in the impoverished Afro-Ecuadorian town of El Chota Valley, a place where the primary export is Ecuador's top soccer talent and, prior to the 2002 World Cup, was invisible to the rest of the world. Even though it is now known, El Chota still remains marginalized by a nation that reveres its athletes.  The players families’ survival and their entire community's dreams ride on their shoulders. 

Project Synopsis:

Considered a remarkable achievement in approach and style, and involving some of the period’s greatest artists by fusing dance, music and painting and transcending cultural and dance differences, The Three Cornered Hat brought flamenco to the world. This film retraces the journey and contributions of Félix Fernández García, a superb flamenco dancer who was selected by the Ballet Russes to be flamenco teacher, performer and collaborator.  Garcia’s fate, after the ballet was created, led him to be placed in a mental asylum and kept there for 22 years, until his death. He never danced his ballet while many enjoyed its fame.

Project Synopsis:

Fifteen years ago, Sandra Salas' father killed her mother Irma and then killed himself, ending a horrific generation of family domestic violence. On the day of Irma’s funeral in 1995, the surviving members of the Salas family – 5 brothers and sisters – made a vow that the domestic dysfunction that took both their parents’ lives would end with them.  But today, confronted with her nephew Lorenzo’s arrest for domestic violence, Sandra knows that the cycle has not been broken, and now she has to act. The result is Recovering Irma, a documentary that charges directly towards a family disease that haunts their daily lives.

Project Synopsis:

Why and how do second-generation Dominican-Americans identify as Dominicans while living in the United States? What makes them Dominican and, more importantly, what does not? Returning to the Dominican Republic, a feature length documentary, will explore the concept of “identity” in Dominican culture. Returning will capture the re-integration of two young Dominican-Americans who have chosen to return to the Dominican Republic: Jamil Abreu, a Yale graduate and current employee of the Major League Baseball Association; and Nolvia Delgado, a female activist working for a non-profit in the Dominican Republic. It will also follow the story of Arisleyda Dilone and her family’s challenges with deportation and assimilation.

Project Synopsis:

Cruising low and slow down the streets of Chicano San Diego is the city’s only all­women’s lowrider car club, The Unique Ladies.  Pat and Sherry turn heads for their super slick and tricked out vehicles, and cause a stir by challenging a gender norm. Traditionally, men rule the road, and women take the sidelines. It has been a constant struggle to keep their club alive.  However, they have managed to make it to their fifth year.  Now, the ladies want to expand their club, but the transition is not proving easy. The lowrider scene still resists women taking the driver’s seat.

Project Synopsis:

Kivalina Documentary is a one-hour film and engagement campaign that starts in one of the most doomed coastal communities in the U.S. Above the Arctic Circle, on an 8-mile-long eroding island, sits Kivalina, Alaska, home to a modern-day Inupiat society of hunters and mothers, preachers and teenagers. For decades they have known that their ancestral homeland was a lousy place to build; but recently, rising sea levels and violent storms have intensified a need to relocate their community. The big questions are: Where? And with what money? The story evolves into a sobering yet heartfelt exploration of the politics of climate relief, as one Alaska Native community struggles to move to safer and higher ground.

Project Synopsis:

La Vigilia is the story of Gina, an undocumented single mother who risks deportation when she joins a vigil on the Arizona state capitol lawn for over three months, attempting to stop the nation’s toughest immigration law from going into effect. We follow Gina as she becomes a leader of the vigil, and her transformation as she finds her voice after years of silence. Through the lens of the vigil, a portrait emerges of the community at the center of our immigration debate. 

Project Synopsis:

This documentary follows three brave and remarkable native women in Colombia as they nonviolently defend their autonomy amid ongoing warfare. Colombia has 102 indigenous peoples that are caught in the crossfire between Latin America’s oldest guerrilla group and the army. We Women Warriors bears witness to human rights abuses, but the film’s stories emphasize female empowerment, courage to move onward, and faith in the survival of indigenous culture.

Project Synopsis:

Seen through the eyes of a young Navajo Woman, this film explores the effects of uranium mining and energy production on the Navajo Nation. Yellow Fever examines the players and victims of the energy industry, and the struggle to restore quality of life on Navajo land. It is also a rare window into Navajo culture.