Jan 10: Art, Healing, and Public Health Film Festival presents “FREE”

Dance Mission’s COMHAR Festival presents
Art, Healing, and Public Health: A film festival
Jan 7-10, 2021

COVID-19 has magnified almost every existing structural inequality in our society. And yet, when it comes to health, people are still speaking about wellness as a question of personal rather than social responsibility.  Presented by Dance Mission’s COMHAR Festival, this four day film festival examines the intersection of health and socio-economic / racial inequities, and how art plays a critical role in the path towards wellness. Art does more than deliver a message. It is itself medicine.

Each day we will host a different free, online screening of a film that dives into these topics of art, healing, and public health.  Films will be shown via Zoom (registration required – see below) and also on Dance Brigade’s Dance Mission’s Facebook page.  Note: Zoom is recommended for best screening experience. Tickets are free. Donations gratefully accepted.

Schedule:
Jan 7 at 7pm PST: Unnatural Causes… Is inequality making us sick? A documentary by California Newsreel. Tickets.
Jan 8 at 7pm PST: reimagining the city as our own. A film by Skywatchers and Irene Gustafson. Tickets.
Jan 9 at 7pm PST: This Ain’t Your Mother’s Theater Company! A documentary by Bruce Schmiechen featuring the Medea Project. Tickets.
Jan 10 at 7pm PST: FREE: The Power of Performance. A documentary on Destiny Arts. Tickets.

This film festival is supported in part by the Kenneth Rainin Foundation and Grants for the Arts.

FREE: The Power of Performance
A film featuring Destiny Arts Center
56 min

Sunday, Jan 10 at 7pm

Watch trailer

FREE: The Power of Performance is an award-winning documentary film following five teenagers in Oakland, CA who use dance and spoken word to transcend the violence, broken families and poverty in their lives.

Central to the film are the stories of the five teens. Jamany, who once thought guns, violence, and drugs were the way to fit in, barely escapes juvenile hall. Nee Nee’s mother has breast cancer and struggles to pay the bills. Alaysia is trying to cope with a childhood rape. Omar, who has been through 11 foster homes, is faced with a devastating diagnosis. Tilly has little outlet for the pain of a difficult relationship with her girlfriend and resorts to cutting.

Yet as they unite beyond differences to create their production, the teens find voice and community, revealing how collaborative art can be a foundation for personal strength, liberation, and hope for the future.

TICKETS
REGISTER to watch this film via Zoom.
The film will also be shown on Dance Brigade’s Dance Mission’s Facebook Page. (Note: Zoom is best method to view film.)
The film is free. Donations gratefully accepted to support the work of the featured artists and Dance Mission.