SHORTS & BREAKFAST BITES: PROGRAM 1
SAT, 12/6, 09:30AM, 116 min
BAY STREET THEATER
Join us for a delicious breakfast to begin your day
then take in a great program of documentary short films.
9:30am Breakfast, 10:00am Films
Sponsored by Leslie Siben & Tracy DeMatteis
ALL THE EMPTY ROOMS
33min
Director: Joshua Seftel
Producers: Joshua Seftel, Conall Jones, James Costa, Trevor Burgess
The film follows CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman and photographer Lou Bopp as they embark on a seven-year-long cross-country journey to memorialize victims of school violence. Their project documents the empty bedrooms of children killed in school shootings. Hartman steps away from his heartwarming human interest stories and, unbeknownst to his network’s bosses, pursues a piece on absence, memory, and the unseen ripples of American’s gun violence epidemic. As these senseless incidents claim more young lives than any other cause in America, these quiet bedrooms reveal truths more powerful than statistics ever could.
SAVING OUR ANCESTORS: REFLECTIONS BY DR. BIRUTÉ GALDIKAS
27min
Director: Charles Annenberg Weingarten
Producer: Charles Annenberg Weingarten
Director Charles Annenberg Weingarten in attendance for Q&A
For more than half a century, scientist, conservationist, educator Dr. Biruté Galdikas has studied and worked closely with the orangutans of Indonesian Borneo in their natural habitat, and is today the world’s foremost authority on the great apes. Produced by Charlie Annenberg, the film highlights her work in a rainforest ecosystem, its challenges from the palm oil industry, and the importance of protecting orangutans as our close relatives. The film has received awards, including the Dan Conaway Award for Connecting to Nature.
DOC ALBANY
19min
Directors: Ben Proudfoot
Producers: Rachel Greenwald, Ben Proudfoot
OB/GYN Dr. Sheena Favors must choose between life in the city or staying in rural Georgia to provide vital maternal care, following the real-life inspiration of Doc Hollywood, Dr. James Hotz. And the film also covers Favors’s history of fertility issues, connecting her personal experience with her work.
Ultimately, the hope is that the film encourages interest in the National Health Service Corps. “My dream is for medical students and young doctors to watch and be moved by the story, so that they might consider, ‘Hey, maybe I should enroll in that program,'” Director Proudfoot said.
WOMEN LAUGHING
37min
Directors: Kathleen Hughes, Liza Donnelly
Producers: Judith Mizrachy, Liza Donnelly, Nathalie Seaver
Directors Kathleen Hughes and Liza Donnelly and Producer Judith Mizrachy in attendance for Q&A
Longtime New Yorker cartoonist Liza Donnelly explores her lifelong passion for humor and cartooning by speaking, laughing, and drawing with a diverse group of remarkable women who create cartoons for the iconic magazine. Inspired by her acclaimed book Very Funny Ladies and Liza's own biography, the film also looks back at the fascinating history of single-panel cartoons.