Don’t Foil My Plans

http://dontfoil.com/about-the-film/

Justin Canha is a 24-year-old autistic whose mind races with cartoon images and movie dialogue. He fills notebooks with nanoscale drawings of every imaginable cartoon character. His speech is peppered with animated film sound bites and when alone, he rattles off nonstop cartoon dialogue. Because of his autism, everything he sees is through the prism of cartoon culture. But there is far more to Justin than his incredible capacity for detail and his obsession with the animated universe. Like many of us, Justin has a dream of living an independent life, and he has set the deadline for his 25th birthday. For five years, award-winning director Ben Stamper followed Justin as he entered the uncharted waters of adulthood. Don’t Foil My Plans is the story of a young man with a dream that is far bigger than his diagnosis.

But often, the biggest dreams are realized in the very mundane aspects of life, which is where this film begins. The opening scene to Don’t Foil My Plans depicts Justin’s mother training him to navigate the NYC public transit system so he can commute on his own. From there, the camera follows Justin everywhere from his job at the local bakery to learning household chores. Through it all, it is clear that Justin never steps out of his cartoon world. He furtively works on his impossibly small drawings, sharing them with whoever happens to be around. He deftly uses cartoon culture, cartoon dialogue, and tiny drawings as a social bridge and vehicle for self-expression. Justin insists on pulling others into his world as much as he tries to function in theirs. Scenes like these provide new insight into the interpersonal possibilities with people on the spectrum.

This film’s objective is twofold: to enable Justin to tell his story on his terms and to help shift the public dialogue away from “What are we going to do with all of the new autistic adults?” to “How can we empower this autistic generation to reach their full potential in the workplace, in higher education, and as leaders in the public sphere?”

Because this film is a portrait of Justin Canha as an individual rather than an issue, his story arises out of genuine relationship and shared experience. Featured in the film are family members, friends, and professionals all serving to shape and be shaped by Justin. Justin’s parents, Maria Teresa and Briant, are depicted in the struggles of the present day, as well as in home movies from Justin’s childhood that reveal relentless and innovative parents teaching their son seemingly simple concepts, like why it’s not okay to touch a hot stove, or when and how to say “I’m sorry.” Don’t Foil My Plans is an intricate tapestry of the past, present, and the ever-looming future. The result is a complex and surprising portrait of Justin Canha as the artist, the animal lover, the younger sibling in a suburban family, the hard-working employee at a bakery in Spanish Harlem who is engaged in a lifelong struggle to use his “handicap” as a tool for self-realization. Don’t Foil my Plans is a film about pushing the boundaries of what is considered possible for people on the autistic spectrum.

Death by Design

http://deathbydesignfilm.com/

Consumers love – and live on – their smartphones, tablets, and laptops. A cascade of new devices pours endlessly into the market, promising even better communication, nonstop entertainment, and instant information. The numbers are staggering. By 2020, 4 billion people will have a personal computer. Five billion will own a mobile phone.

But this revolution has a dark side, hidden from most consumers. In an investigation that spans the globe, filmmaker Sue Williams investigates the underbelly of the electronics industry and reveals how even the smallest devices have deadly environmental and health costs. From the intensely secretive factories in China to a ravaged New York community and the high tech corridors of Silicon Valley, the film tells a story of environmental degradation, health tragedies, and the fast approaching tipping point between consumerism and sustainability.

Cries from Syria

https://www.hbo.com/documentaries/cries-from-syria

Cries from Syria is a searing, comprehensive account of a brutal five-year conflict from the inside out, drawing on hundreds of hours of war footage from Syrian activists and citizen journalists, as well as testimony from child protestors, leaders of the revolution, human rights defenders, ordinary citizens, and high-ranking army generals who defected from the government. Their collective stories are a cry for attention and help from a world that little understands their reality or agrees on what to do about it. A documentary by Evgeny Afineevsky, director of the Oscar-nominated film Winter on Fire, Cries from Syria premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival.

Take action: https://www.hbo.com/documentaries/cries-from-syria/resources

Cracked Up: The Darrell Hammond Story

https://www.crackedupmovie.com/new-page

In Cracked Up, opening in the fall of 2019 in New York and Los Angeles, we witness the impact that childhood trauma can have over a lifetime, through the incredible story of award-winning comedian, master impressionist, and Saturday Night Live veteran Darrell Hammond. Renowned for his impressions of Bill Clinton, Sean Connery, Al Gore, and more, Hammond performed brilliantly on live TV, but behind the scenes he suffered from debilitating flashbacks, self-injury, addiction, and misdiagnosis, until the right doctor isolated the key to unleashing the memories his brain had locked away for over 50 years.

Cracked Up director Michelle Esrick creates an inspiring balance between comedy and tragedy, helping us understand the biological effects of childhood trauma in a new light, breaking down barriers of stigma, replacing shame with compassion and hope, and exploring what’s possible when science meets the human spirit.

Cracked Up also features Lorne Michaels, Steve Higgins, Christopher Ashley, Dr. Nabil Kotbi, Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, Whoopi Goldberg, and Larry Laskowski.

Chuck Norris vs. Communism

https://www.chucknorrisvscommunism.co.uk/

In 1980s Romania, thousands of Western films smashed through the Iron Curtain, opening a window into the free world for those who dared to look. A black-market VHS racketeer and a courageous female translator brought the magic of film to the people and sparked a revolution.

Choices [Short]
https://youtu.be/s3_0OFumc0w

A mother chooses to escape from a violent marriage by running from a cult and living on the streets of Salt Lake City, Utah, with her children. A remarkable tale about love and the power of family.

A University of Utah “Humanities in Focus” Film

https://humanities-focus.utah.edu

Humanities in Focus is a yearlong course at the University of Utah that connects undergraduate honors students with community members from marginalized populations to produce groundbreaking documentary films. Led by Jeff Metcalf and Craig Wirth, the program builds community, fosters a commitment to social justice, and allows all involved to develop confidence and a range of skills.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSP3BGlWMHOL-kB6fJjao0g

The College of Humanities provides this opportunity at no cost to its highly qualified and capable participants, which means it relies on the generosity of individuals and foundations to make this program possible.

Support the Humanities in Focus program
https://umarket.utah.edu/ugive/index.php?gift_id=71&special=Humanities%20in%20Focus%20HU16838-40165

Chasing the Moon

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/chasing-moon/

Chasing the Moon, a film by Robert Stone, reimagines the race to the moon for a new generation, upending much of the conventional mythology surrounding the effort. The series recasts the Space Age as a fascinating stew of scientific innovation, political calculation, media spectacle, visionary impulses, and personal drama.

Utilizing a visual feast of previously overlooked and lost archival material – much of which has never before been seen by the public – the film features a diverse cast of characters who played key roles in these historic events. Among those included are astronauts Buzz Aldrin, Frank Borman, and Bill Anders; Sergei Khrushchev, son of the former Soviet premier and a leading Soviet rocket engineer; Poppy Northcutt, a 25-year old “mathematics whiz” who gained worldwide attention as the first woman to serve in the all-male bastion of NASA’s Mission Control; and Ed Dwight, the Air Force pilot selected by the Kennedy administration to train as America’s first black astronaut.

Bending the Arc

http://bendingthearcfilm.com/

Thirty years ago, as much of the world was being ravaged by horrific diseases like HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, three remarkable young people, barely out of their teens – Jim Yong Kim, Paul Farmer, and Ophelia Dahl – came together in a squatter settlement in Haiti.

Determined to provide the same world-class level of medical care they would expect for their own families to the Haitians that soon became their friends, they faced obstacles so enormous they weren’t even considered surmountable by the rest of the world.

They managed to bring together the resources to build real health clinics in areas that had been ignored by everyone else – where patients were as likely to arrive by donkey as by ambulance – and stocked them with the same medical supplies that could be found in places like Harvard Medical School. (Indeed, in some cases, supplies that were found at Harvard made their way to Haiti.)

Idealistic but very inexperienced, they suffered tragic early failures that made them question the way they were delivering healthcare. This led them to develop, in partnership with the patients themselves and guided by medical anthropology, a revolutionary and controversial model: training their friends and neighbors – ordinary Haitian villagers – as healthcare workers. And most remarkably – despite enormous resistance from the outside world – they treated diseases that the experts had determined could not or should not be treated in the poor because of expense and difficulty.

The groundbreaking work they began in Haiti – creating a remarkable model of how to deliver the highest-quality care in the most unlikely places – would eventually grow to have massive global effects. They expanded beyond Haiti to Peru, then onward to Rwanda, where they helped rebuild the country’s healthcare system. They averted a deadly MDR-TB epidemic, treating dying patients against official World Health Organization policy. They took on HIV/AIDS – becoming the first doctors in the world to treat patients in rural settings with full courses of anti-retrovirals.

As a result, world policies changed, deeply entrenched ideas transformed, and millions of lives were pulled back from the brink of death.
Through remarkably candid interviews and stunning never-before-seen archival and on-the-ground footage shot in the midst of a deadly epidemic, the audience is immersed in the struggle of these fiercely dedicated characters as they fight ancient diseases, scrape together funding with the lives of their friends on the line, face scorn and hostility from the global health establishment, and suffer heartbreaking mistakes from their own lack of experience.

Reaching far beyond the issue of healthcare, Bending the Arc shows how moral imagination, strategy, and sheer will together can change the trajectory of the world, bending the arc of the moral universe closer to justice.

Anote’s Ark

http://www.anotesark.com/

What if your country was swallowed by the sea?

The Pacific Island nation of Kiribati (population: 100,000) is one of the most remote places on the planet, seemingly far-removed from the pressures of modern life. Yet it is one of the first countries that must confront the main existential dilemma of our time: imminent annihilation from sea-level rise.

While Kiribati’s President Anote Tong races to find a way to protect his nation’s people and maintain their dignity, many Kiribati are already seeking safe harbour overseas.

Set against the backdrop of international climate and human rights negotiations, Anote’s struggle to save his nation is intertwined with the extraordinary fate of Tiemeri, a young mother of six, who fights to migrate her family to New Zealand. At stake is the survival of Tiemeri’s family, the Kiribati people, and 4,000 years of Kiribati culture.

An Inconvenient Sequel

https://inconvenientsequel.tumblr.com/

Former American Vice President Al Gore continues his tireless fight, traveling around the world to train an army of activists and influence international climate policy. Cameras follow him behind the scenes, in moments both private and public, funny and poignant, as he pursues the inspirational idea that while the stakes have never been higher, the perils of climate change can be overcome with human ingenuity and passion.

Take action: https://inconvenientsequel.tumblr.com/action