Jennifer Brea is a Harvard PhD student soon to be engaged to the love of her life when she’s struck down by a mysterious fever that leaves her bedridden. She becomes progressively ill, eventually losing the ability even to sit in a wheelchair, but doctors tell her it’s "all in her head." Unable to convey the seriousness and depth of her symptoms to her doctor, Jennifer begins a video diary on her iPhone that eventually becomes the feature documentary film Unrest.
Once Jennifer is diagnosed with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), commonly called chronic fatigue syndrome, she and her new husband, Omar, are left to grapple with how to live in the face of a lifelong illness. Refusing to accept the limitations of life in bed, Jennifer goes on an inspiring virtual voyage around the world where she finds a hidden community of millions who have disappeared from their own lives, confined to their homes and bedrooms by ME. These patients use the internet, Skype and Facebook to connect to each other — and to offer support and understanding.
Many ME patients have experienced uncertainty, confusion and even disbelief from the medical community and society as a whole. After all, it’s easy to ignore a disease when patients are too sick to leave their homes. In Unrest, Jennifer shares her pain and the most intimate moments of her life in order to offer hope and visibility to those who suffer alone in dark, silent rooms.At its core, Unrest is a love story. Though Jennifer and Omar may have to accept that they will never live the life they originally dreamed about, together they find resilience, strength, and meaning in their community and each other.
7:00 pm, THURSDAY, April 5th
Thank You For Coming
6 pm reception, 7:00pm film followed by panel and Q&A
Documentary filmmaker Sara Lamm discovered as an adult that she was conceived via sperm donor. She’s spent years looking for her biological father—chasing non-existent medical records, trolling the archives of the doctor who ran the fertility clinic, and tracking down class photographs from the medical school; it’s been eleven years since she learned the truth and she doesn’t have many leads.
Sara joins an online registry for donor conceived people and meets Jennifer, who was conceived at the same clinic, in the same year. The two women discover a number of similarities (height, seasonal allergies, a penchant for psychics), and decide to take a DNA test to see if they’re half-sisters. When they meet in Hawaii to determine the results, Sara brings her camera and for nearly two years after, documents their shared hunt for information.
Jennifer spends hours every day on the computer, toggling between DNA and ancestry databases, while Sara seeks out the edges of her family story--traveling up the coast of California to visit her non-biological, bird-watching father and across the country to her home state of North Carolina—where she makes a personal request of an elderly aunt, visits her mother’s graveside, and asks her mother’s longtime boyfriend what he knew about the donor.
THANK YOU FOR COMING makes unexpected connections between the wild roots of a banyan tree, the lonesome shadow of a kite, and the comedic potential of a turkey baster. It's both a genealogical detective story and a funny, poetic meditation on love, loss, friendship, and family.
Wednesday, April 25
"Connection In Crisis"
"A New Chance"
6:00pm VIP Reception For All Ticket Holders
7:00pm Films And Q&A With Filmmakers And Panelists
This show will sell out. Purchase Your Seat Early. Tickets $9.00 and $10.50
"Connection In Crisis" Director: Dennis Zaidi - Connection In Crisis was born in the aftermath of the school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, this remarkable team of psychological first aid trauma dogs, the K9 First Responsers, are called upon after America's worst tragedies. Led by Brad Cole and his en-captivating 150 pound dog Spartacus, the story culminates in a journey to Las Vegas to help firefighters and paramedics struggling to cope with the horrors they witnessed after the shooting outside the Mandalay Bay Hotel.
"A New Chance" Director: Sophia Silverman takes viewers on the intriguing journey through the day to day business of running a “no-kill” animal adoption program. The film provides an in-depth look at how these amazing dogs land in “kill-shelters” and how organizations like Bedford, New York’s A New Chance Animal Rescue have created an alternative, new “no-kill” foster home approach, placing animals into immediate loving care to prepare them for adoption into a permanent home. Also featured are long-term remedies such as public education and spay and neuter facilities. "A New Chance" features some of the most amazing and selfless volunteers across the country who dedicate and donate so much of their time to the plight of these inspiring rescue dogs and show us all why we should make a difference in the life of a dog. The creation of A New Chance Animal Rescue was inspired by the dream and dogged persistence of a teenage girl with a deep passion for saving the homeless and helpless dogs who suffer daily. At age 15, Ms. Silverman co-founded the Bedford based 501c3, A New Chance Animal Rescue, which as of Spring 2018, has rescued and found forever homes for over 600 dogs. Having five dogs of their own, and having fostered over 100 dogs since she was nine years old, Sophia Silverman convinced her family how important it was to give even more dogs a new chance. Thus, was born the idea and ultimately, in 2011. Sophia’s mom, Sharon Silverman, worked by her side; and with the unwavering efforts of a dedicated and active base of foster families, volunteers, donors and community supporters, A New Chance Animal Rescue has been able to save the lives of hundreds of dogs placing them in warm, loving, safe, and healthy environments.
POSTPONED
Rasheed - US Premiere 7:00pm Wed TBD
Screening And Q&A With Lebanese Filmmaker Samia Badih Complimentary Wine For Audience
Rasheed Director: Samia Badih 74 Samia Badih's film Rasheed documents the life of Badih's late uncle Rasheed Broum who was killed, at the age of 29, in an airstrike in the city of Sidon during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 – three years before she was born. More than 30 years after the tragedy, Samia goes on a quest to find out more about her uncle’s story of life and death, as it is told by the friends and family who survived him and knew him best, mainly his sister Rasha and his best friend Ghassan. At the heart of the film is the story Rashee'd sister, Rasha who has not coped well with her brother’s loss. Rasheed captures one of the many war stories from the southern city of Sidon, Lebanon through Badih’s own personal journey.
