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DocuClub in January!

Our January DocuClub will take place on THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 7 p.m., at 92YTribeca, located at 200 Hudson (at Canal). (We had previously announced a January 12 date, but please make note of this change.)

In January, we are excited to workshop two short films: An Imaginary Thing by Reva Goldberg and Sonny by Christina Antonakos-Wallace.

Reva Goldberg’s An Imaginary Thing is an intimate portrait of passionate children’s theater director Bill Bartlett and his unique gift for unlocking the creativity of troubled kids. An independent educator outside the New York City school system, Bill believes meaningful experiences in the performing arts are critical for children in crisis — encouraging their natural impulses towards creativity, community and self-expression when they might otherwise be snuffed out forever. The short follows Bill over the course of one summer when he is invited to put on an original play, by and for kids, in a prestigious theater festival. He is determined to include some children he has worked with in homeless shelters in his cast, but this goal forces him to face profound personal and professional challenges.

Director/Producer Reva Goldberg is, by day, the Communications and Fellowships Manager at Cinereach, a New York City not-for-profit film foundation and production company that champions vital stories, artfully told. There she handles all public communications, as well as serving on the grants selection committee, and heading up a fellowship program that provides a grant and four months of advising to emerging filmmakers producing socially conscious short films. Before joining Cinereach, she was a producer at Pureland Pictures where she produced the documentary All of Us, which aired on Showtime in 2008 in connection with World AIDS Day. Goldberg also co-produced Pureland’s Toe to Toe, a narrative feature that premiered at Sundance 2009. In 2004, she was Associate Producer of an Emmy-nominated History Channel documentary on the 9/11 Commission (produced by CBS). She has worked with TLC, UPN, Discovery, The Travel Channel, Washington Square Films/Arts, Cronkite Productions and the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. She is a graduate of the SI Newhouse School at Syracuse University. An Imaginary Thing is Goldberg’s first independent documentary as both Producer and Director.

Co-Producer Kacie Barton is the in-house coordinator and live action specialist at Imaginary Forces, a design/commercial production house based in New York and Los Angeles. Prior to this, she has worn many hats, from Production Manager to Second Second Assistant Director on the films Toe to Toe, A Kiss for Jed Wood, and Today’s Special, among others. She has directed and produced music videos and other promotional pieces for bands and artists and her work has been featured on MTV.com. She was a production and office manager at Pureland Pictures, where she managed grantwriting and distribution for the company’s social-issue documentaries, including All of Us. She is a graduate of the SI Newhouse School at Syracuse University.

In Sonny (working title) by Christina Antonakos-Wallace, we meet Sonny Singh, a Brooklyn-based activist and full-time musician who hopes to be “the first dude in a turban” on MTV. His dream changes, however, when his poised-for-success rock band insists on recording lyrics insulting religious people. Growing up in Charlotte, North Carolina, Sonny and his brother were the only Sikh boys, and he has faced discrimination his whole life. Because his Sikh faith is intimately tied to his musical path and work for social justice, Sonny feels he has no choice but to quit the band. In figuring out his next move, he decides to work as an organizer for the Sikh Coalition. Heading an anti-bullying campaign in New York City schools, he tries to help combat the bigotry he experienced as a young person. Still, working in his own community presents new challenges, and Sonny will have to come to terms with whether or not he can pursue a music career that won’t betray his ideals.

Christina Antonakos-Wallace is a documentary filmmaker and activist based in Brooklyn, NY. In 2006, she graduated at the top of her class at the New School and Parsons School of Design with a B.F.A. in Fine Arts and Video, and a B.A. in Sociology. Her honors include MTV’s “Fight for Your Rights” scholarship and a Fellowship from Humanity in Action. Her varied experiences include assisting filmmaker Barbara Hammer, and interning with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, in Berlin. Currently, she produces videos for NGOs, and teaches media literacy and video production to high school students with the organization Global Action Project. Sonny is a short film featuring one of the protagonists of her feature documentary, With Wings And Roots, in production.

Demonstrating enormous talent and stamina, Cheree Dillon is the Editor for both of our featured shorts. Dillon’s most recent feature documentary is Nicole Opper’s Off and Running, a co-production of ITVS and The National Black Programming Consortium. The film premiered at Tribeca in 2009 and went on to screen at Silverdocs (WGA Screenplay Award), Outfest (Jury Prize for Outstanding Documentary), and was broadcast on PBS’s P.O.V. in 2010. Dillon began her career as a commercial editor in Chicago and her first foray into short films was editing Lessons for Girls, which premiered on The Education Channel and also played at Belgium’s International Film Festival. Since moving to New York, she has edited social issue documentaries for a variety of non-profits including V.O.W. (Voices of Women of Color with HIV/AIDS), Passionists of Harlem, New York Women’s HIV Collaborative, and The American Jewish World Service, along with teaching youth media classes around the city. She was Editor/Producer of Song of Hannah, distributed by The National Center for Jewish Film and Avoda Arts. She also edited the award-winning short comedy His Name is Cosmo, which ran in festivals around the world and won three audience awards for Best Short. Her other broadcast experience includes editing for NBC’s The Today Show, The Science Channel’s Exploring Time, PBS’s History Detectives, and other works for the Discovery Channel, HBO, HGTV, and NYC-TV.

Our moderator will be Angela Tucker. A Brooklyn based filmmaker and writer, Tucker was the Director of Production at www.bigmouthfilms.org, a social issue documentary production company that is a project of Arts Engine, Inc. There, she produced Pushing the Elephant (IDFA, Independent Lens), the Emmy-nominated documentary Deadline (NBC), Election Day (PBS’ POV) and Beyond the Steps: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (Great Performances). She directed two pieces for The National Black Programming Consortium and ITVS’ Initiative, The Masculinity Project, entitled Invisible Men and a fiction short film, The Birthday Girl. She directs and produces educational videos for non-profit organizations such as Johns Hopkins Medical Center’s Project Restore and GLSEN, in addition to producing spots for Nickelodeon. She is currently finishing her feature-length directorial debut, (A)sexual, which was featured in last month’s DocuClub.

Admission at 92YTribeca is free for current DocuClub members and $8 for non-members.

If you’re planning to attend, please RSVP to docuclub@artsengine.net.

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And finally, this performance video: