Firelight Media at Big Sky Documentary Film Festival
Firelight Media is proud to be represented at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, the premier venue for non-fiction film in the American West. The 2021 Festival will take place virtually and will run from February 19–28.
Official Selections at the 2021 Festival include films by Firelight Media Documentary Lab alumni Sian-Pierre Regis and Ashley O’Shay, as well as the world premiere of MANZANAR DIVERTED: WHEN WATER BECOMES DUST, produced by Impact Producer Lab alum Jin Yoo-Kim.
Monika Navarro, Firelight Media’s senior director of Artist Programs, will be featured on the panel “Kin Theory: Creating Community with Indigenous and BIPOC Filmmakers Across the Industry” alongside Documentary Lab Fellow Colleen Thurston. Navarro will also serve on the jury for the Mini Doc Competition, an Academy Award-qualifying competition for short non-fiction films under 15 minutes.
The Big Sky Pitch event will feature Documentary Lab alum Jon-Sesrie Goff on the jury, and will include pitches by Documentary Lab alum Hazel Gurland-Pooler and current fellow Patrick G. Lee.
Read on for more information about Big Sky Documentary Film Festival events featuring members of the Firelight Media community!
Monday, Feb. 22, 4pm ET | Panel: “Kin Theory: Creating Community with Indigenous and BIPOC Filmmakers Across the Industry”
The uniqueness of 2020, which included a global pandemic, distinct but overlapping human rights movements, and heart-filling cross-community mutual aid efforts, has deepened conversations about systemic inequities, including in the film industry. The need for capacity building, education and mentorship, resourcing, and distribution of work by Black, Indigenous, Latinx, undocumented, female, trans and nonbinary people, people with disabilities, and otherwise underrepresented artists has never been more prevalent. A session of deep and honest conversation about who’s doing the work to support Indigenous and Black filmmakers, as well as other creators of color, what’s still needed, and how we can work together to get there.
This panel will feature Monika Navarro, senior director of Artist Programs at Firelight Media, as well as Documentary Lab Fellow Colleen Thurston.
Friday, Feb. 26, 12pm — 5pm ET | Big Sky Pitch Event
The Big Sky Pitch is an opportunity for filmmaking teams to “pitch” their documentary work-in-progress to a panel of the top commissioning editors and funders for documentary film. This live-streamed pitch event will feature Documentary Lab alumni Jon-Sesrie Goff as a Jury member, and will feature pitches by Documentary Lab alum Hazel Gurland-Pooler and current fellow Patrick G. Lee.
Sunday, Feb. 21 — Wednesday, Feb. 24 | Screening: DUTY FREE, directed by Sian-Pierre Regis, Documentary Lab alum
At the age of 75, Rebecca is fired from her lifelong job as a hotel housekeeper. With scant savings after supporting two sons on her own, she struggles to find a new job and faces ageism in the process. Her son, Sian-Pierre, takes Rebecca on an unforgettable “bucket-list” adventure, and documents this bittersweet journey that uncovers the betrayals plaguing her past and the economic insecurity shaping not only her future, but that of an entire generation.
Tuesday, Feb. 23 — Friday, Feb. 26 | Screening: UNAPOLOGETIC, directed by Ashley O’Shay, Documentary Lab alum
After two police killings, Black millennial organizers challenge a Chicago administration complicit in state violence against Black residents. Told through the lens of Janaé and Bella, two fierce abolitionist leaders, UNAPOLOGETIC is a deep look into the Movement for Black Lives, from the police murder of Rekia Boyd to the election of Mayor Lori Lightfoot.
Friday, Feb. 26 — Sunday, Feb. 28 | WORLD PREMIERE: MANZANAR, DIVERTED: WHEN WATER BECOMES DUST, produced by Jin Yoo-Kim, Impact Producer Lab alum
A poetic story that travels from the snow-capped Sierras to the parched valley of Payahuunadü (“the land of flowing water”), weaving together memories of an intergenerational group of women from three communities who hold in common an ancestral connection to the water that trickles through deep fissures in the land. Native Americans, former Japanese-American WWII prisoners and environmentalists form an unexpected alliance to defend their water, their history, and their culture, from Los Angeles.
For more information about the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, including the full festival schedule, visit bigskyfilmfest.org.
For more information about Firelight Media, including our artist programs, visit firelightmedia.tv.
