http://www.thedoctalkshow.com

Short films about growing up Muslim in Chicagoland, surviving sex slavery in Ecuador, struggling to learn in a Singapore elementary school, fighting for immigrants rights and your father’s respect, creating safe outdoor spaces on the south side, transitioning from daughter to son. Singing, storytelling, schmoozing and special guests.

Produced & hosted by Jeff Spitz

For info and tickets see www.thedoctalkshow.com

Films/FILMMAKERS

Urooj Yazdani/A DESTRUCTION (excerpt only)

Marriage is a destruction says an 11 year old girl in a remote Pakistani village who wishes to become a doctor instead of a child bride.

Halonah Abraham Paiss/STANGIRL (10 mins)

When a high school fangirl’s crush spirals out of control she goes viral and then criminal.

Kyra Jones & Juli Del Prete/THE RIGHT SWIPE (webseries trailer 2:38)

Two hot and enterprising young women start their own consulting business to “help” boys who want to score with the ladies on dating apps like Tindr.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABu3DSWqWXE

INTERMISSION

Cecelia Condit/WE WERE HARDLY MORE THAN CHILDREN (8:52)

With exquisite fine art, song and illusion a remarkable video artist remembers the illegal abortion in the 1960s that nearly killed her best friend, a friend who still cannot recall any of the details decades later.

Laura Fallsgraff/NO SMALL MATTER (8:16 excerpt)

A powerful expose about America’s failure to support a decent standard of child care similar to other nations.

SPECIAL GUESTS

Erika Wozniak/THE GIRL TALK (:55 seconds promo)

https://vimeo.com/thedocunit/review/326970894/d8fc52ce1e

Lindsey Slator/MY MOTHER SAID (3:23 music video)

An a cappella singer from Mississippi appears at The Doc Talk Show and leads listeners on a life journey that blends singing, photography and video.

https://vimeo.com/320978614

This Fall The Return of Navajo Boy screened with Navajo guest speakers at sponsored public events in the Navajo Nation, Salt Lake City, Chicago; Portland, and France!
In the Navajo Nation, Indian Health Service collaborates with Groundswell to engage audiences in remote communities impacted by uranium mining. Participants from the film, Elsie Begay, her son Lorenzo, and daughter-in-law Mary Begay travel across the reservation to lead discussions.
In the Midwest, the University of Chicago Law School hosted a screening and panel discussion with filmmaker Jeff Spitz, Navajo activist Mary Begay, and author Judy Pasternak. Pasternak’s new book: Yellow Dirt: An American Story of a Poisoned Land and a People Betrayed features the Navajo family in our film. Pasternak appears in our film’s 2008 Epilogue which is now available on DVD.
Bennie Klain, Co-producer, traveled to France for the Premier of The Return of Navajo Boy at the Amiens International Film Festival. (See photos on Groundswell’s Flickr page.) Groundswell Board member, Alan Slavik, a Paris-based marketing consultant, attended the Amiens premier and is planning future screenings in Paris.

Groundswell co-founder Jeff Spitz recently screened a rough cut of Robben Island Singers at Prosser Career Academy High School on Chicago’s West Side. Thirty-five students watched the film and then were able to ask questions to singers Muntu Nxumalo and Thembinkosi Sithole in South Africa via Skype.
Students said they liked going back and forth from South Africa to the US and having a live conversation with the ex-political prisoners. They liked the “real lives” theme of the film.
“Both sides liked the way that stereotypes in both countries are broken down by music, film, and international exchange,” Spitz said.
Students said they appreciated the chance to see a film work-in-progress.
“Kids did not want a shorter version, because they want to experience the whole journey of the singers,” Spitz added. “They understand the message about forgiveness and they discussed the fact that the Singers did not choose to become fighters, rather that conditions led them to fight for a higher cause. For freedom and equality.”

US Courts last month ruled in favor of Chevron’s request to view 600 hours of outtakes from the award-winning film Crude: The Real Price of Oil. The film chronicles the struggle of Ecuadorians against Chevron’s oil contamination of their land.
In this highly unusual case, Judge Lewis Kaplan, of the district court in Manhattan, awarded Chevron access to footage that could ultimately add to the company’s defense in a $27 billion case that spans more than seventeen years.
Judge Kaplan ruled that transparency and justice would be served by allowing the company access to the outtakes including interviews with environmental activists including Sting.
The decision brings into question the freedom of documentary filmmaking and journalist’s privilege. Filmmaker Michael Moore has said that the decision could have a “chilling effect.”
In a recent interview, Crude director Joseph Berlinger commented on the ruling. “It’s just a complete disregard for any belief in the first amendment. I am a journalist. I am covered by a journalist’s privilege,” said Berlinger. “We are shocked by the judge’s decision, at the broadness of the request.”
Berlinger plans to appeal the verdict, and is seeking donations to cover his legal fees.

As the world witnesses what is quickly becoming the worst oil spill in US history, Groundswell co-founders Jeff and Jennifer Spitz led discussions surrounding The Return of Navajo Boy and the impact that unchecked corporate activity can have on the environment of local communities.
Following a screening of the film, Jeff and Jennifer brought the audience up to date on recent actions towards cleanup that the EPA has made in Monument Valley, including the installation of a fence to ward people away from hazardous waste.
“The audience members were particularly interested in the story from the point of view of how it bodes for the current environmental crisis in the Gulf Coast region with the giant and ongoing oil spill there,” said Spitz.
“They seemed to draw connections between environmental contamination like these and the need for responsible parties to clean them up. Hopefully the current oil spill will be easier in terms of responsibility, since British Petroleum (BP) has said they’ll pay all cleanup costs. Sadly, the same can’t be said for the uranium contamination on Navajo Nation.”

Groundswell co-founder Jeff Spitz presented a rough cut screening of our upcoming documentary “Robben Island Singers” at the Amnesty International Human Rights Art Festival on April 24th. It was the first time a rough cut has been publicly screened and was met with a very positive reaction from the audience.
The rough cut, now 97 minutes long, spurred a lively conversation afterward as Spitz sat on a panel to discuss it. “I took 3 pages of notes,” Spitz said. “This is the kind of conversation I hoped for, it was very helpful.”
Afterward, the audience was eager to discuss the over-arching themes presented in the film: apartheid, violence, forgiveness and self-actualization in two very different worlds: South Africa and America. The film tracks the journeys of three South African ex-political prisoners once imprisoned with Nelson Mandela after fighting Apartheid.
The singers have brought their message and the music that sustained them while in prison to American schools in a revolutionary cultural exchange program. More information can be found at the project’s website, www.RobbenIslandSingers.com, which also offers their music for purchase or download.

Groundswell is pleased to announce that The Return of Navajo Boy is now available to the general public for home DVD purchase at NavajoBoy.com and direct streaming rentals at Amazon.com.
For the first time, customers can now order a DVD of this award-winning documentary for personal use, or stream the film online through the world’s largest web retailer. Says director Jeff Spitz, “From a dusty 1950s film reel to a new documentary film and from a Sundance Film Festival premier to screenings on Capitol Hill, this story keeps opening eyes. Lots more eyes will see it now.”
Visit Amazon.com or NavajoBoy.com to order or download the film. The trailer for the film is embedded below.

For the past eight years, the Paris International Film Festival on Human Rights (FIFDH) has focused on raising awareness and film education for schools and students regarding the complexities of human rights breaches involving economic, social, cultural, civil, and political rights.
This year’s Prix Spécial du Jury was awarded to Buenos Días, Seguimos en Guerra (Hello, Our War Continues) by Anita Blumer (watch a trailer here). The film focuses on Guatemala and the war-like conditions that prevail in the wake of a civil war as the state remains undercut by organized crime. Guatemala has one of the highest murder rates on the American continent and violence claims more than ten lives a day. The film documents urban crime and the people who struggle against it.
The Human Rights Films Network (HRFN)
Since 2004, this film festival network has aimed to promote the protection of human rights on a global level. The network now brings together more than twenty festivals in the world, some of which are backed by major international human rights protection organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
The network strives for better distribution of human rights films and intends to endorse the emergence of new film festivals on human rights, especially in developing countries. Every year, the HRFN attracts a combined audience of more than 200,000 viewers worldwide.
More information can be found at their website, www.festival-droitsdelhomme.org.

The Robben Island Singers movie trailer has been selected to kick off the Jubilee Film Festival in Selma, Alabama on March 6th.
The Festival Co-Directors, Erica Henry, (representing the Voting Rights Museum in Selma) will screen the trailer to introduce the theme of this year’s festival: struggle in the American South and South Africa.
Winnie Mandela will be the keynote speaker in this festival which culminates with a celebratory crossing of the Edmund Pettis Bridge, commemorating the 45th anniversary of the famous civil rights march.
Visit selmajubilee.com for more information about the festival, and robbenislandsingers.com for more information about Groundswell’s film and concert project featuring Robben Island Singers.

In true Groundswell fashion, Haitian-born professor Cécile Accilienn is leading a lecture-film series entitled, “Haiti in our Backyard” at Columbus State University in Georgia.
The series, which started January 26th, creates a forum for students and activists interested in contributing to the relief efforts following the recent earthquake in Haiti. Likewise, Accilienn aims to go beyond the present crisis and break down commonplace Haitian stereotypes.
Accilien said rebuilding Haiti will take decades. “It’s important to not forget Haiti after the media leave.”In addition to educating local residents, the “Haiti in our Backyard” series will cover the many opportunities to join with others around the world to contribute to the rebuilding process in whatever capacity in they can, Accilien said. For more information, see this report.