Here at Home

HERE AT HOME: WHAT UNITES US? WHAT DIVIDES US?
FILM SERIES & Short Film Initiative

Program 1: Thursday, January 26th, 9PM
Feature Film: Three Faiths, One God: Judaism, Christianity, Islam
Local Short Film: Finding a New Faith: Rhode Islanders Convert

Three Faiths, One God: Judaism, Christianity, Islam thoughtfully examines the religious beliefs and practices shared by Jews, Christians and Muslims to illustrate how many in the Abrahamic faith communities are dealing with historical conflicts and charts their dedication to facilitating understanding and respect. Three Faiths, One God captures a broad range of voices and ideas of ordinary people and respected scholars in the interfaith field. The program contrasts the religious practices of the three faiths, including the rituals of fasting and marriage. Later, the program features a dramatic and moving example of reconciliation as the father of murdered Wall Street Journal reporter opens a dialogue between Muslims and Jews to create better understanding between the two faiths. In the same spirit, a conflict-resolution workshop engages in an intensive dialogue as they attempt to dispel myths, misconceptions and stereotypes about each others' religion.

followed by Finding a New Faith: Rhode Islanders Convert by Rhode Island filmmaker Lisa Delmonico. In Ms. Delmonico's short documentary, Rhode Islanders speak about their conversion to Islam, Christianity, and Judaism.

photo by Bill Rodriguez

Lisa Delmonico is a Providence native and the producer of Everyday Happiness, a local monthly television series funded by the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities, sponsored by Hera Educational Foundation and broadcast on RI PBS/WSBE. Ms. Delmonico is a member of the Rhode Island State Home and School Oral History Project Committee. In May 2005 Miss Delmonico screened her art installation "Yellow Cottage Projections" -- videotaped oral histories of former residents of the Rhode Island State Home projected on to the outside walls of the State Home's only remaining structure, the "Yellow Cottage." She is currently working on a New Media art piece called "Rich People Know How to Whisper, Poor People Know How to Shout," which examines the role of class when attending Rhode Island cultural events, food courts, and beaches. Ms. Delmonico is the Development Director at the Slater Mill Historic Site in Pawtucket.

Program 2: February 23rd, 9PM Feature Film: Independent Lens: A Family at War #704
	When one American family loses their son in the Iraq war, their lives - and views - are irrevocably changed. In A FAMILY AT WAR, Danish filmmakers follow the Kaylor family over the course of a year, tracing their individual reactions and changing attitudes on the military and global politics.

Program 3: Thursday, March 23rd, 9PM Feature Film: P.O.V.: Flag Wars #1601
	Flag Wars is a poignant account of the politics and pain of gentrification. Working-class black residents in Columbus, Ohio fight to hold on to their homes. Realtors and gay homebuyers see fixer-uppers. The clashes expose prejudice and self-interest on both sides, as well as the common dream to have a home to call your own.

Program 4: Thursday, April 20th, 9PM
Feature Film: In Time of War: the Japanese American Experience
Local Short Film: Islam and Muslims: Beyond Misconceptions, which explores how life has changed for Rhode Island Muslims since 9-11 and "Operation Iraqi Freedom." Produced and directed by Scott & Maria Saracen for 3rd Story Productions.

Featuring exclusive interviews with Japanese-Americans in the Pacific Northwest who were affected by evacuation, internment and military service during World War II, as well as recognized historians, In Time of War tells the stories of a former soldier who participated in a battle with German forces that turned the tide of the war, two former internees whose life together began behind barbed wire, and a resister still wounded by the liberties and chapter of his life lost to incarceration. The film examines this history and raises questions about today's application of the Patriot Act in relation to civil liberties.

Maria & Scott Saracen are the forces behind 3rd Story Productions. Scott, director and editor, has over ten years experience as a videographer, editor, and technician. At Rhode Island PBS, he works on numerous in-house productions including A Lively Experiment, RI's Amazing Women, and Costantino's Round Table. Maria, producer and writer, began her television career as a news reporter for Cue-TV and SABC in South Africa. Since 2001, Maria has been Rhode Island PBS' Promotions Producer, attending to the on-air image of the station and promoting prime-time programming.

Program 5: Thursday, May 25th, 9PM
Feature Film: Raising Cain: Boys in Focus
Local Short Film: Mama's Girls, which explores the lives of 3 Providence-area young girls with strong mothers who are thriving despite the absence of their fathers. Produced & directed by Aaron Jungels in collaboration with the Carriage House School video production class.

America's boys are in trouble. They are the most violent in the industrialized world. Many are unable to express their emotions. On average, boys are doing worse in the classroom than they were 10 years ago. Who is responsible for this situation? How do we learn to listen to and support our boys? How can we guide them on the path to becoming responsible, caring men? The documentary, Raising Cain: Boys in Focus, provides answers, insights, ideas, and hope.

Aaron Jungels graduated from RISD in Film/Video in 1987. Since then, he has been a co-director of and performer in Everett Dance Theatre, a multi-media performing arts company. For the past four years, Aaron has been making videos with the students at Everett's Carriage House School in Providence, turning true stories of their lives into short dramas and documentaries.

Program 6: Thursday, June 29th, 9PM
Feature Film: P.O.V. Family Fundamentals #1609
Local Short Film: Translate explores the search and struggle for identity among Rhode Island's Transgendered community. Produced & directed by Rocco Michaluk.

What happens when conservative Christian families have children who are homosexual? Family Fundamentals goes to the heart of today's debate over homosexuality, where the personal is inextricably - and dramatically - bound up in the political.

Rocco Michaluk is the director of video for Video & Vision Multimedia Productions in Newport, RI. Mr. Michaluk's past documentary work includes oral history projects for Fort Adams; Wind, Sea, Sky; and Vanishing Orchards.

Program 7: Thursday, July 20th, 9PM
Feature Film: Monkey Dance
Local Short Film: Wide Angle, explores immigration through the perspective of both recent and established immigrants living in RI. Produced & directed by Taimoor N. Sobhan.

Monkey Dance is a documentary film about three teens coming of age in Lowell, Massachusetts. Children of Cambodian refugees, they inhabit a tough, working class world shadowed by their parents' nightmares of the Khmer Rouge. Traditional Cambodian dance links them to their parents' culture, but fast cars, hip consumerism, and good times often pull harder. Their parents fled the Khmer Rouge genocide in Cambodia in the 1970's, making their way through the jungles to refugee camps in Thailand. In the early 1980's, they resettled in Lowell, a historic New England mill city now home to the country's second-largest Cambodian community. For these parents, Lowell held the hope of safety, employment, and a chance to finally rebuild some of what was shattered by the Khmer Rouge. But for their children, the city offers a dizzying array of choices - many of them risky. Monkey Dance is the story of how three kids navigate the confusing landscape of urban adolescence and ultimately start to make good on their parents' dreams.

Taimoor Nazir Sobhan was born in Rome, and lived there for most of his formative years. Born into a modern Bengali family, and schooled at a British institution, his life has been marked by a plurality of cultural currents. Currently, he is pursuing an honors degree in Modern Culture & Media at Brown University. Previous awards include first prize at the Director's View International Student Film Festival in NYC for his short Day for Night.

Program 8: Thursday, August 24, 9PM
Feature Film: Street Fight
Local Short Film: title tba, Melissa Berube. This short video will explore the issues behind the contentious 2003 City Council seat race in Providence's Fox Point neighborhood.

Street Fight covers the turbulent campaign of Cory Booker, a 32-year old Rhodes Scholar/Yale Law graduate running for mayor of Newark, N.J. against Sharpe James, the four-term incumbent twice his age. Fresh from winning awards at the SilverDocs, HotDocs and Tribeca film festivals, "Street Fight" is this year's political thriller.

Documentary filmmaker Melissa Berube has worked as an Associate Producer for Public Television series "The Visionaries" which included shoots in Ghana and Bolivia. She is currently working as a Co-Producer at Poppy Productions in Boston, MA and is working on a documentary about healthcare. Melissa resides in the Fox Point neighborhood of Providence.

Program 9: Thursday, September 28, 9PM Feature Film: A Fish Story Local Short Film: Bait Shop, Michelle LeBrun. A short documentary that takes us inside the most diverse meeting place in Providence, RI - Ocean State Tackle shop. It is here that all religious, economic and racial backgrounds converge to share their joy for the adventure of fishing.
	Michelle LeBrun has worked in film, performing arts or education for 20 years. In 1997, Michelle founded Harken Productions with the mission of "producing compelling films, both dramatic and documentary, that challenge our assumptions about life and awaken our passion for truth."

Program 10: Thursday, October 26, 9PM Feature Film: Understanding the Divide Local Short Film: South Side: The Strains and Gains of Diversity, Hilary Silver. This short film explores life in Providence's South Side neighborhood, one of the most heterogeneous areas in the State and seeks to answer how residents coping with the challenges of living in a diverse neighborhood.
	Hilary Silver is Associate Professor of Sociology and Urban Studies at Brown University. She specializes in the study of urban poverty and social inequality in the US and Western Europe. This short film draws upon Silver's sociological expertise and over a decade of research on Providence's South Side.

Program 11: Thursday, November 30, 9PM
Feature Film: Looking Toward Home
Local Short Film: Sovereign Nation/Sovereign Neighbor, Kendall Moore. Explores the word sovereignty from the Narragansett Indian point of view. In this seven-minute short film, tribe members voice how legacies of state and federal actions and laws have encouraged or discouraged understanding between the tribe and the state of Rhode Island.

Looking Toward Home profiles the increasing number of Native Americans leaving the reservation for life in cities, such as LA, Chicago, New York, and San Francisco Bay Area. The life and times of urban Indians is shown primarily through the eyes of these individuals as they attempt to maintain their cultural identity while living away from the culturally nurturing climate of the tribal reservation.

Kendall Moore is on the faculties of both Journalism and Film-Media at the University of Rhode Island. Prior to academia, she worked in television and film production for the past 15 years. She has worked as a field producer with ABC News/Discovery Health, the Discovery Channel; producer and national project coordinator with PBS, P.O.V.; and as a medical reporter for Reuters.

Program 12: Thursday, December 28, 9PM Feature Program: Here At Home: What Unites Us? What Divides Us? Rhode Island Perspective This program is a compilation of the year's local short films including interviews with the filmmakers.