There are 8.8 million adults living with severe mental illness in the U.S. today. Family members are their primary caregivers. The documentary-in-progress Piece of Mind amplifies the voices of families as they advocate for equity in health care for their loved ones with brain disorders.

This private story is told through the eyes of a mother fearful for her son unaware of his schizophrenia, two Japanese American sisters with a sister diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder who was shot by police seven times and survived, and a suicidal man with bipolar disorder who has a positive encounter with police. Their experiences reveal complicated family dynamics, conflicts with law enforcement and a broken health care system.

Combining intimate interviews, archival footage and animation, the film highlights the urgent need for treatment before tragedy and a comprehensive continuum of care for individuals with brain disorders to give them a chance at a better life. For more info contact: sheila.ganz@gmail.com

Lord Randal Plunkett (39), the 21st Baron of Dunsany Castle Ireland, changed his life and is working to re-wild his 1700-acre estate to fight climate change. But, the Transportation Authority threatens to build a railroad through his property which will destroy his forest and the wildlife that call it home.

Love Taps is a dramatic short film that follows the experience of a young boy who decides to conceal his father’s affair with another man in order to get his family back together.

The writer/director of “Love Taps” is Brooklyn based African American filmmaker and visual artist, Derrick Woodyard. Derrick currently is an MFA candidate at NYU Tisch School of the Arts with a focus in Directing and Writing. His films have investigated stories of internal moral struggles, trials of multiracial familial bonds, and the traumas of parental absence all from the lens of Black Characters.

The faces of homeless children Through interviews and live footage, this film shows how homeless children live, their social and school experiences, the struggles they and their parents face daily, and what is and is not being done to address this crisis.

“I have been an advocate for Human Rights all my life, and homelessness has been my number one social issue. I have always dreamed about doing my part in eliminating America’s most shameful disgrace… the shocking tragedy of homeless children.”
-Maryana Palmer (Producer/Director)

Generation Nerd Girl is an inspirational feature documentary exploring the exciting generational change taking place for women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) through the lens of one of its bold leaders – Dr. Karen Panetta, Dean of Graduate Education for the School of Engineering at Tufts University.

Recent data from LinkedIn’s millions of platform members shows women are now entering STEM careers in record numbers. Dean Panetta, a 2011 winner of the Presidential Award for Excellence in STEM Mentoring, has been a bridge to the change, having taught, mentored and inspired hundreds of young women from all over the world.

Generation Nerd Girl will introduce the highly personable Dean Panetta, show the challenges and perseverance it took for her to break through endemic sexism and will explore the teaching and mentoring insights she specifically developed to help open the path to STEM success for young women and girls. We’ll see how she also extended the same techniques and opportunities to BIPOC men who have experienced many of the same challenges as women in STEM.

Interviews and archival material will introduce some of Dean Panetta’s mentees and highlight the impact of their career choices on their lives and our greater society. Even though there is good news, key industries are still not even at 20% representation for women. We’ll highlight the continuing work of Dr. Panetta, her mentees, and others to eliminate the remaining inclusion challenges for future generations.

When her father passes unexpectedly, Dr. Ayne Amjad is thrust to the helm of a decades-long struggle to aid a southern West Virginia town beset by cancer-causing chemicals. After formulating an audacious plan to relocate the town’s residents, Ayne must decide how much she is willing to sacrifice – and which of her allies she can count on – to fulfill her late father’s mandate to “help others” at all costs.

Impossible Town examines the struggle for environmental justice that so many low-income Americans wage today, in a country with so much wealth concentrated for the benefit of so few privileged citizens.It is the story of Ayne’s unexpected rise to state leadership and the stalwart citizen activists who subvert so many of the stereotypes that exist about places like West Virginia.

Short Film Grant

A feature documentary shown in six chapters currently in post-production and seeking finishing funds, Scared to Debt reveals the student loan crisis to have grown wider and deeper over the years placing in excess of 45 million Americans who collectively owe $1.8 Trillion in debt. All of whom are under unprecedented financial hardship and chronic economic stress.

Most Americans wonder why college costs have outpaced the rate of inflation. Many still believe student debt is a case of the “Bad Borrower.” Scared to Debt reveals how the federal government, financial institutions, and universities are responsible and carry most of this blame.

In Scared to Debt, you’ll meet key insiders and hear credible voices expose an inept, corrupt Department of Education, leading to anguish experienced by student and parent borrowers across all demographics. Anyone aspiring to or working for higher education will benefit from the solutions shared in the film to restore America’s confidence in the opportunities afforded by higher education.

Sallie Mae Not, Chapter One is completed and premiered virtually at the Whistleblower Summit + Film Festival on July 26, 2021.

In 1961, Jose Sarria is the first openly gay man to run for public office in the United States – and he runs in heels! As the drag performer at a San Francisco beatnik bar, the former World War II veteran decides to run for City Supervisor after local officials threaten to shut down all the gay bars. Jose’s opera parodies bring in hundreds of gay clientele every weekend, and he exploits that fame to inspire the fractured community to unite.

Jose inspires oppressed men and women to stand up for themselves. He fights for their right to love who they choose to love. The tragedy is that his activism pushes his lover, Jimmy, away, and in the end, he can’t save the one he loves the most from a self-destructive path.

Darío Higuera Meza, a traditional saddle maker in Baja California, Sur, Mexico, turned 70 in 2018. In March that year, he traveled 200 miles in 20 days by mule-back, herding a pack train of donkeys from an oasis in the heart of the Sierra de la Giganta all the way to La Paz. Along with his son and his 8 year-old grandson, they packed a dozen burros with Goat Cheese, Dates, Sugar-cane Candy, and 10 gallons of famous Comondú Wine… just for the sake of history!

Fearing that the old traditions might be lost forever, he overcame hardships of health, rattlesnakes, and hot days on dusty, forgotten trails in order to honor the memory of Lower California’s “long-haul” equine merchants – Los Arrieros – the muleteers of Baja’s donkey pack-trains.

26 Seconds is a two-stage film project that reveals the global epidemic of child sex trafficking. The first stage is a two-hour feature documentary that is currently in post-production. The second stage is a dramatic documentary miniseries. Through a captivating journey across the world, Galindo reveals the ubiquity of the problem and the gravity of the damage sustained by this evil, destructive trade. In intimate interviews, the audience gets a raw, often shocking glimpse into the lives of children and women in various cultures and regions.

The interviews include vivid details of how each victim was captured or lured into the sex trade, the horrors of their captivity, and the commitment of each individual, non-profit organization, crisis intervention team, and law enforcement in the fight to eradicate global sex trafficking. The film project exposes the underage sex slave industry from the United States to Asia and Africa. The 26 Seconds team is currently editing the feature documentary with three-time Emmy award winner, Mark Wilcken, as lead editor. Contact Kelly at 26secondsdoc@gmail.com

With over twenty intriguing personalities spanning nineteen locations across the globe, Keeper of Time delves into the world of timekeeping by examining the planets and stars above, the astonishing engineering of fine mechanical watches, and the science behind the atomic clocks that keep our modern world running. All the while, Keeper of Time contemplates the theoretical and physiological notions of time, aging, and human mortality with interviews from cutting-edge scholars in the fields of theoretical physics, human physiology and philosophy. Winter 2020 release.

999 reveals the hidden story about 999 unmarried, young Jewish women registered for government service in a supposed shoe factory and ended up in Auschwitz. Their government had paid the Nazis to take them and work them to death. Who were these young women? Why were they chosen? How did a handful survive over three years in the death camps?

94-year-old Edith Grosman——#1970——reveals the truth of this almost completely ignored piece of women’s history, the First Official Jewish Transport to Auschwitz. January (2020) the book by the same title is being published by Citadel Press in the USA and in 13 countries worldwide. This film will pair with the book to educate and inform a wider public about this historical #MeToo story.

Cadejo Blanco is a narrative/documentary hybrid feature film about a young, working-class girl from Guatemala City (Sarita) who, when her younger sister goes missing, travels to the small town of Puerto Barrios to track down her sister’s dangerous ex-boyfriend, Andrés. Through great peril and life-threatening tasks, Sarita lies about who she is and joins Andrés’ teen-gang, slowly growing closer to him and to the truth about what happened to her sister.

The script was written by director Justin Lerner with the help of real teenage gang members who shared with him their stories of living in Puerto Barrios and who will play versions of themselves in the film. They will act alongside a handful of Guatemala’s most famous, award-winning film actors. Lerner is a professor of film at the Cinema School at University of Francisco Marroquin in Guatemala City and this project has partnered with the NGO “Movimientos De Esperanza” to use some of the film’s budget to give financial, psychological, and emotional aid to the children of Puerto Barrios, before, during and after the film is finished, to give them opportunities to earn a living without violence, outside of the gangs.

At a time when funding and programs to address homelessness in Los Angeles are hotly debated, THE ADVOCATES goes behind debates and headlines with real-life demonstrations of transformation from the trenches of the crisis. Sharing insights, skills and dedication, this emotive, revelatory film is driven by two unforgettable main characters. Both are Los Angeles natives and Latinos who give tireless, highly skilled outreach and support to people experiencing homelessness. While experts analyze the underlying causes of the current Los Angeles homeless crisis amid a changing policy landscape, these two caseworkers win our hearts with their dedication and integrity.

Three mature women searching for meaning in their lives, become undercover detectives despite having no prior investigative experience. The mastermind of their “missions” is Francesca Fortuna, an 85-year-old wealthy widow, philanthropist with a heart of gold. “The Golden Girls” meets “Charlie’s Angels.”

Although Triple Threat is a comedy, there is an underlying theme of ageism at its core, that many women, age 50+, feel excluded and devalued by society. When questioned why she would hire “mature” women who have no experience as detectives, Francesca summarizes, “Who better to go undercover than women who are nobody, who are cast aside by society, who are invisible?” The fact that 50+ year old women are blatantly missing from scripted online content even today, demonstrates they are clustered into a very underserved segment of our society. It’s time mature women took their rightful place at the table of scripted online entertainment.

When an unlikely duo discovers a pattern of illegal sterilizations in women’s prisons, they wage a near impossible battle against the Department of Corrections. Filmed over seven years with extraordinary access and intimate accounts from currently and formerly incarcerated people, BELLY OF THE BEAST exposes modern-day eugenics and reproductive injustice in California prisons.

The pastoral farmlands surrounding the Central California Women’s Facility, the world’s largest women’s prison, help conceal the reproductive and human rights violations transpiring inside its walls. A courageous woman who was involuntarily sterilized at the facility, teams up with a radical lawyer to stop these violations. They spearhead investigations that uncover a series of statewide crimes, primarily targeting women of color, from inadequate access to healthcare to sexual assault to illegal sterilization. Together, with a team of tenacious heroines, both in and out of prison, they take to the courtroom to fight for reparations. But no one believes them. As additional damning evidence is uncovered by the Center for Investigative Reporting, a media frenzy and series of hearings provide hope for some semblance of justice. Yet, doctors and prison officials contend that the procedures were in each person’s best interest and of an overall social benefit. Invoking the weight of the historic stain and legacy of eugenics, BELLY OF THE BEAST presents a decade long, infuriating contemporary legal drama.

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Active duty military, veterans and their families are facing a mental health crisis of catastrophic proportion, just as our national dialogue shines a very bright spotlight on the state of our country’s overall mental health. In this day and age of advanced knowledge and unlimited resources, it is unfathomable that mental illness and the admission of psychological trauma is still considered a weakness or a defect of character. Yet, this is the pervasive mindset of military culture and our nation at large with respect to the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and cure of psychological and emotional wounds. The consequences of these archaic and damaging beliefs are staggering: 24 suicides to every one battlefield death since 1999, rampant homelessness, substance abuse, incarceration and broken homes. These are all symptoms of untreated War Stress Injuries, which beg the questions: Why are we failing our bravest men and women who suffer needlessly? What is being done and what more can we do about it? Why have we let this preventable crisis happen?

STRANGER AT HOME explores these questions through a former Navy Psychologist’s tumultuous, personal account of his transformation from decorated career Officer, to reluctant whistle blower, to veteran with a relentless mission: to have Military Medicine become our nation’s leader in mental health reform – not just for the benefit of our warrior class, but for every American. “The Military has always played a major role in the civil rights movements in this country. They’re usually dragged, kicking and screaming by Congress to enact policy change. But once they do, society at large quickly follows. Just look at desegregation, gender equality and gay rights, to name a few. So, this is the next civil rights, if you will, how we treat mental health and the people suffering from mental illness.” — Dr. Mark Russell, PhD, Commander US Navy , Retired.

THE COVERUP is a feature exposé that reveals startling information previously hidden from consumers that links exposure to toxic chemicals used in cosmetics and personal care products to devastating health effects such as cancer, infertility, birth defects, allergies, asthma, autism, and more. This powerful exposé discusses the government’s lack of regulation over this $250 billion dollar a year industry and how corporations have put profits before consumer safety.

THE COVERUP addresses the unhealthy beauty standards perpetuated by cosmetic companies through advertisements and shows how companies lead consumers into believing their products are safe. The film also uncovers how these chemicals enter our environment and affect coral reefs and marine life. These issues affect everyone regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status, and is something we have absolute control over through personal choice. This solution-oriented film will empower consumers and companies alike and challenge our government to protect the public.

The Need To GROW is a feature documentary following innovators of low and high tech solutions to localize food and regenerate our planet’s dying soils. With more toxic chemicals being sprayed than ever before, food seed varieties going extinct, bees dying off, historic water shortages, epidemics of malnutrition, hunger and food waste coexisting, and an estimated 60 years of farmable soil left on the planet, the time to fix our broken food system is now. But can we feed the world without destroying the Earth?

Through the stories of underdog leaders facing unpredictable challenges—from activists to urban farmers, from permaculture designers to computer scientists, from ancient to cutting edge technologies, from Boston to Los Angeles—emerge solutions that conserve natural resources and create true food security. The Need To GROW reveals not only the potential of decentralized food production models that work with nature, but more importantly, reveals our potential as active participants in an interconnected biosphere to become a planetary force for ecosystem restoration.

We rely on them to keep us healthy, yet surprisingly doctors, especially young physicians in medical school have the highest suicide rate of any profession, almost twice the national average. Jumping from hospital roofs, hanging themselves in closets and overdosing on readily available drugs, this ‘dirty little secret” in the medical community is a symptom of a broken heath care system that’s not only putting the lives of doctors at risk… but patients too. Medical mistakes are the third leading cause of death in the United States alone, often caused by sleep-deprived and disillusioned doctors forced to practice assembly line medicine. And the crisis is getting worse.

For the first time, Emmy winning former PBS Producer/Director Robyn Symon, exposes the “silent epidemic” of physician suicide in this eye-opening documentary feature following three people bonded by grief and driven to bring this critical issue to light and save lives.

A-15-year quest to expose the underworld of sexual exploitation andtrafficking from Asia to the Americas leads world-reporter CheloAlvarez-Stehle back to the windswept beach where her childhood ended andfamily secrets began. As Chelo documents the transformation of sextrafficking survivors, she meets Virginia Isaias, Mexican woman whose lifeis engulfed in a cycle of sexual exploitation. Escaping with her 6 months old daughter from a sex trafficking ring in Mexico, Virginia crosses the USborder in search of freedom. After years of hard work, Virginia begins torebuild her life and speaks out about her ordeal for the first time in thisdocumentary. Virginia, who barely speaks English, becomes a US citizen and aprominent advocate for other sexual exploitation survivors in the Latinocommunity in Southern California by setting up a non profit. Inspired byVirginia’s courage, Chelo is moved to explore her unyielding desire forseeking out these types of stories in what becomes a parallel journey ofintrospection that shatters the silence around abuse in her own family andin her own life.

Fall Grant

“Pictures of Infinity” explores Tesla’s concept of a universe that is alive and breathing; filled with dynamic energy which he called the ‘aether’, or the ‘wheelwork of nature’. This energy will become visible and audible through evocative images of nature, computer-animated graphics, dramatizations of Tesla’s discoveries, and with spinning, swirling streams of radiant music and sound. “More than a century ago scientist, engineer and humanitarian Nikola Tesla predicted the current environmental crisis and knew we would need a radical solution.” says director/producer Hall. “He devoted the last part of his life to providing one, with his discovery that the earth produces an unlimited reservoir of natural energy and his invention that harnesses it, based on an entirely new understanding of physics.”

www.picturesofinfinity.net

Four hundred feet below the red soil of Ghana, West Africa, men with pickaxes and shovels follow an ephemeral seam of gold like ants in a mound. Most of these “galamsey” miners enter the dangerous profession of illegal gold mining for the same reason — poverty and the perpetual search for work in a nation stricken by poverty. Justice, a 20 year-old galamsey digger, climbs down a 4’ x 4’ hole to pull gold-laden quartz rock out of the earth, eager to earn quick cash and go to trade school. Abdul, a 23 year-old miller, enjoys owning a galamsey mill because of the prosperity it has brought to his life but is unaware of the dangers that the dust and the mercury used to purify the gold pose to his health. Emmanuel, 19, joins a galamsey refinery in hopes of one day abandoning the job and going to the university. Across the globe, an estimated 13 million men, women and children dig hundreds of feet underground as small-scale miners, risking life and limb to scrape together a meager living in the most dangerous of working conditions. The hazardous and destructive methods used by the miners have created an environmental threat of epic proportions, contributing to an industry that has become globally the largest single emitter of mercury to the environment. Today, nearly one-quarter of the world’s gold output is estimated to originate from small-scale mining, yet few in the West know the story behind how this precious metal is obtained and at what personal and environmental cost. “The Money Stone,” a one-hour documentary, brings to light one of the world’s most hazardous professions — the galamsey gold miners of Ghana.

www.moneystonefilm.com

“This is the story of a symbol: one mountain destined to be destroyed by the coal industry and a grandmother’s struggle to save that mountain by creating the first sustainable, green collar jobs project in the Appalachian coalfields: The Coal River Wind Farm. Coal River Mountain is an ancient Appalachian cradle of rolling ridges and nestled hollows, providing refuge for delicate wildlife and a home to a unique mountain culture. But just beneath the surface lays something that calls into question the mountain’s very survival: $4.3 billion worth of coal. Massey Energy, the largest practitioner of mountaintop removal coal mining in West Virginia, holds permits to clear-cut 6,450 acres of hardwood forest, detonate thousands of tons of explosives and topple the mountain range into over nine miles of streams in the valleys below.Connection to the mountains runs deep in the hills of West Virginia. To the people that live there, the mountain is more than rock, dirt, trees and coal. They speak of memories of their grandmothers gathering ginseng in autumn, and of a grandfather’s grave in the family cemetery. They talk of ramp dinners in spring, of bear and turkey hunts, of foraging for molly moochers. This way of life in the Appalachian heartland was first sacrificed by surface mining in the 1960s. That is when Lorelei Scarbro, as a little girl, would trek up the hollow to the exposed seam of coal on the mountain’s side with her father. There they would gather enough coal to heat their home through the winter. “That’s how all of the families did it back then,” Scarbro says. That was before her father, like his father before him, went underground to mine coal for the company. Later, Scarbro’s husband also found work in the mines. He died of Black Lung and is buried in the cemetery behind the family home. “I have a six by three plot in that cemetery next to my husband,” Scarbro says. “And if they come here with those bulldozers, I’m going to have to draw the line.This film explores what it means to “draw the line” in this battle to stop mountaintop removal coal mining. And asks: Can Lorelei Scarbro save Coal River Mountain?”

www.thecoalwar.com

Winner – 2015 Los Angeles Area Emmy Award in Arts and Culture/HistoryPresented by SDP Productions in association with Croatian National Television. Producers: Maria Ramas, Brenda Brkusic,Ted Sprague, Kate Johnson and Douglas Turnbaugh. A daughter’s promise to tell her mother’s story becomes the unfolding of more than the life of a celebrated 20th century émigré dancer. It is the story of a lost time in dance, of exile and return, and of the triumph of art over politics.

Bob Dylan’s “the times they are a changin” perfectly describes the multi-faceted life of Penny Cooper whose life as a celebrated criminal defense attorney, art collector, feminist and philanthropist mirrors the transforming decades during which she has lived. Penny shares stories of her life against the stunning backdrop of her art collection as well as her extensive personal archive of photos and press clippings. Historic archival stills, moving footage and her personal images will inform interviews with Penny, her life partner Rena, her former law partners Jim and Christina, her nephews Colin and Kelly, and her courtroom adversaries to fill out the picture of this amazing woman.Penny Cooper has stories and stories that prove that truth, indeed, is stranger than fiction. Sometimes the stories are funny and sometimes they are devastating – like life. And it is not only in the law that she has made her mark. Penny experienced sexism and came out as a lesbian when it was still difficult to do so. She and Rena have built a world-class art collection, one of a very few which focuses almost exclusively on women artists. There have been many, many films about lawyers – both documentary and narrative. But Penny is at its core a film about a woman, a real woman working in the real world, told from a woman’s point of view.

www.pennythedocumentary.com

THE MOSAIC OF LIFE is an inspirational and uplifting documentary depicting the life and positive philosophy of DR. JACK BRAUNS, a Holocaust Survivor who reveals how even the worst circumstances can still allow life’s colors to shine and illuminate even the most hopeless among us. Dr. Brauns takes us on an upbeat adventure around the world and into the deepest depths of the soul. Physically fragile at 88 years, he recently gathered his strength and lead the way back to Germany to reveal his past experiences, including slivers of kindness in the darkest of places and tools he used for survival audiences can incorporate in today’s modern life stye. Dr. Brauns survived the Kaffering sub-camps of Dachau Concentration Camp by the power of his cherished childhood memories and started his new life in 1956 by filming a rich treasure trove of stylish, personal Super 8 footage charting the story of life in America in the second half of the 20th Century. You do not need to be Jewish nor have been connected to WWII to relate to this mesmerizing, timeless and invaluable material.Dr. Brauns’ autobiography RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS – How I Turned Despair into an Appreciation of Life will be blended with his classic SUPER 8 film coverage, mixed media and HD footage of today. THE MOSAIC OF LIFE will help preserve history by recording more testimonies, including current interviews with Dr. Brauns, fellow survivors, his family, co-workers and several Historians. The film will also incorporate animation directed by legendary animator Art Leonardi. In addition, Dr. Brauns gave a 7-hour testimony in June 1996 to the USC Shoah Foundation Institute Visual History Archives that will also be integrated. Upon completion, all material and interviews filmed for THE MOSAIC OF LIFE will be donated to the Shoah Foundation Institute Visual History Archives. Unlike other Holocaust films, this is an empowering film encouraging light, redemption and restoration.

www.themosaicoflifemovie.com

While Time Stands Still reveals the poignant untold story of America’s deployment-torn families confronted by the haunting terror of war. Over 1.7 million ordinary families appear to be living a normal life on the outside; yet, inside an ever-present fear rages: losing a loved one in combat in Iraq or Afghanistan.While Time Stands Still is a nonpartisan documentary that addresses issues and offers solutions. At the core of the film are two military wives, Denneny Cochran, a spunky redhead with a tongue ring, saying goodbye to her husband Jordan for the first time, and Brandi Albritton, a twenty-four year old mom of two toddlers, facing her husband Aaron’s second deployment in less than two years. Their day-to-day trials are interwoven with moving accounts from resolute military families from around the country who open their hearts and share their experiences. Mothers like Cyd Deathe walk around in a daze unable to sleep while their children are in Iraq, plagued by the torment that the next knock on the door will be a Marine in dress blues, whose duty is to deliver the message: Your child is dead.While Time Stands Still explores the themes of struggle, courage, and resilience uniting military families who overcome isolation and panic to discover self-reliance and determination. In the face of these difficulties, they give testament to the indomitable spirit of American fortitude.

www.whiletimestandsstill.com

Changing Face of Harlem is a one–hour documentary that examines the current revitalization in Harlem told from deeply personal stories of residents, small business owners, developers, public servants, and clergy. Since the late 1980’s, the image of the Harlem neighborhood has evolved drastically from a crime-ridden ghetto abundant with abandoned buildings to an appealing economic investment with a rising draw of tourism and interest among large commercial business. As a result, the neighborhood has attracted new residents and new commercial corporate entities. Harlem residents have a mixed range of opinions about the future of their community. Some are fearful of what lies ahead and look towards the past for the best of its years. Others foresee a brighter future and happier days for a better Harlem. The main consensus that is prevalent among the community is a concern and necessity for cultural preservation.The film overviews development in Harlem over the last 20 years and reveals the larger complex paradigm of gentrification. Present day Harlem represents economic prosperity, investment, and a promising future, but for whom? What will be the future outlook for one of America’s most famous and historic community?

www.changingfaceofharlem.com

“Shakespeare High”, is a feature-length documentary about a group of teens in Southern California whose lives are profoundly changed by learning, and then performing Shakespeare in the 90th Annual DTASC Shakespeare Competition. The film follows several students – mainly underserved, and from diverse socio-economic backgrounds, and explores how their dedication to drama provides them the purpose and passion to overcome great challenges.Amongst the teens chronicled include Tosh from East Los Angeles, a former gangbanger whose discovery of drama rescued him and diverted him to follow his passion, stay in high school, and get good grades. In the high desert town of Hesperia, African American football stars twins Galvin and Melvin found Shakespeare after their father murdered their mother during an acrimonious divorce. They are drawn to the violent nature of Othello because it helps them release repressed traumatic feelings in ways they didn’t think possible. Nicole – earnest and wise-beyond-her-years – is consumed by her drama studies. Her mother suffers from a terminal disease, and her family is broke. She can’t afford to go to a four-year liberal arts college to pursue her dream career, and despairs that she’ll never get out of her small town.These are but a few of the thousands of stories of Southern California high school students who compete in the DTASC Shakespeare Festival. After we meet and hear these inspirational and emotional tales, we follow our protagonists to the competition and watch as months of arduous preparation culminate in a single, frantic day – when performances are judged by an expert jury/verdicts rendered/dreams ended/prizes won – and careers begun…Contact: Lori Miller, Producer

www.shakespearehigh.org