2023 North Dakota Human Rights Film & Arts Festival Program : simplebooklet.com

JOIN THE FESTIVAL HOW TO JOIN US ACCESSIBILITY The Human Family presents the 2023 North Dakota Human Rights Film and Arts Festival The festival opens January 10 2023 in Fargo North Dakota and closes January 6 2024 in Jamestown North Dakota The festival includes art exhibitions artist receptions and film screenings throughout the state A full schedule is available in this program guide and online Certain films filmmaker Q A s and recorded panel discussions are available via the festival s virtual por tal PASSES AND INDIVIDUAL TICKETS In 2023 all in person and online events are free and open to the public Seating to events can be reserved online When reserving your pass or ticket please consider also making a tax deductible donation to the North Dakota Human Rights Film and Arts Festival Your support helps bring important relevant human rights and social justice based films to the northern communities of North Dakota All events are held in ADA compliant facilities Closed captioning is available for certain films and for prerecorded panel discussions and artist and filmmaker Q As Certain venues are equipped with audio amplification headsets When available ASL interpretors will participate in festival events If you have a specific accommodations the festival can accommodate email ADA human family org WATCHING ONLINE The festival is available online via Eventive which allows you to screen films on demand to your television desktop or via your tablet or mobile phone The online festival is available at https watch eventive org ndhrff23 You can also find a link to the online festival on our main website at www ndhrff org Create Your Log in When you make your first reservation of a pass or individual ticket you will be asked to create an Eventive log in You will need this to sign in on your devices to watch 6 Once you ve created your login and reserved a pass or ticket simply go to the film or program you would like to view and click Unlock You ll have immediate access to the film on any of your devices Watch on Your Television Eventive allows you to screen the films in the festival via your television several ways If you re an AppleTV or Roku device user you can download the Eventive App from the app store to your device Once the application is installed you ll receive instructions on how to link your device with your online profile Once you hit play you have three days to begin watching a film Once you hit play you have 48 hours to watch that feature or shorts package You can pause stop and restart at any time during that time period You can only watch from one device at a time If you are experiencing technical difficulties click on Need Help from your browser Artwork films and interactive media in the festival have not been rated for content Viewer discretion is advised CONNECT WITH US Alternatively you can cast from your browser to your SmartTV The Human Family presents The North Dakota Human Rights Film and Arts Festival Please note that you must first unlock content on a computer or mobile device before you can view it via either of the apps www Human Family org www NDHRFF org NDHRFF human family org Don t use an AppleTV or Roku device No problem You can still experience the festival from your desktop laptop tablet or mobile device Phone 701 205 0248 Fax 701 212 4197 Please Remember Due to licensing restrictions certain films may be limited to their screening radius or screening time 417 Main Ave Suite 401 Fargo ND 58103 7

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Art Exhibition Fargo North Dakota Plains Art Museum January 10 30 2023 Open during normal museum hours Free to the public RSVP Artist Reception Fargo North Dakota Plains Art Museum January 19 6 30 8 00 p m Free to the public RSVP Art Exhibition Grand Forks North Dakota UND Empire Gallery February 6 March 3 Open during normal gallery hours Free to the public RSVP Art Exhibition Minot North Dakota Taube Museum of Art June 7 July 6 Open during normal museum hours Free to the public RSVP Artist Reception Minot North Dakota Taube Museum of Art July 6 5 00 7 00 p m Free to the public RSVP Art Exhibition Williston North Dakota James Memorial Art Center September 5 September 29 Open during normal gallery hours Free to the public RSVP Artist Reception Williston North Dakota James Memorial Art Center September 22 7 00 8 30 p m Free to the public RSVP Art Exhibition Bismarck North Dakota Bismarck Downtown Artist Co Op October 6 October 28 Open during normal Co Op hours Free to the public RSVP Artist Reception Bismarck North Dakota Bismarck Downtown Artist Co Op October 6 6 30 8 00 p m Free to the public RSVP Experimental Animated Film Screening Bismarck North Dakota Bismarck Public Library October 28 10 00 a m Free to the public RSVP Opening Ceremony Awards Presentation Fargo North Dakota November 7 6 30 8 30 p m Free to the public RSVP Film Festival Fargo North Dakota Fargo Theatre November 8 11 Free to the public RSVP Film Festival Grand Forks North Dakota Empire Arts Center November 13 6 30 8 30 p m Free to the public RSVP Film Festival Bismarck North Dakota Bismarck Public Library November 13 6 30 8 30 p m Free to the public RSVP Art Exhibition Jamestown North Dakota The Arts Center December 7 2023 January 6 2024 Open during normal gallery hours Free to the public RSVP SCHEDULE 8 9

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THANK YOU FROM THE FESTIVAL As a not for profit organization individual donors granting organizations and support from state wide organizations are the bedrock of The Human Family and the North Dakota Human Rights Film and Arts Festival We center conversations around and amplify the voices of those who have been systemically underrepresented so that residents of North Dakota gain a deeper understanding of the historical underpinnings of urgent contemporary human rights civil rights and social justice issues We believe that engagement with difficult conversations through film and art cultivates learning and compassion amplifies the voice of underrepresented artists and promotes diversity This festival encourages community change through empathy understanding and perspective shifting From all of us to all of you thank you for your support of our work PROGRAM GRANTORS INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT 10 11

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2023 INVITED ARTIST by Hillary Kempenich 1ED In 2021 the North Dakota Human Rights Film and Arts Festival introduced an Invited Artists program Through the program the exhibition seeks out those artists creating relevant social justice work and invites them to exhibit their work Invited artists receive an honorarium in support of their work and humanitarian efforts The 2023 Invited Artist is Hillary Kempenich Award winning artist Hillary Kempenich a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa is a multi disciplinary artist cultural bearer and advocate emphasizing her work to empower Indigenous people Kempenich has immersed herself into sustaining her small business and continues her passion for community work Raised on the Turtle Mountain reservation Kempenich continues to advocate for better educational health and cultural standards through her work in both urban and rural communities Kempenich is fluent in many mediums with a collaborative style influenced by her independent spirit as a creative woman and her deep connection to her culture Memories traditions and stories are continually incorporated into Kempenich s work to empower and honor Indigenous women youth and fellow LGBTQIA Two Spirit peoples Kempenich comes from a family of strong artist abilities of which are strong influences within her work While holding on to the ties to the Turtle Mountains Kempenich works on developing her trades with her own personal style 16 She has a growing list of group and solo shows collaborations as well as receiving recognition nationwide The beginning of Kempenich s career was marked by awards from the National Indian Child Welfare Association Native Arts Gathering and the First Peoples Fund Kempenich received a second place ribbon in the prestigious SWAIA s Indian Market in 2018 Her artwork has recently been published in the Finish the Fight a book written by New York Times author Veronica Chambers Finish the Fight are chronicles of Black Indigenous and People of Color suffragists whose stories may have gone untold Her work continues to be featured in private collections museums and galleries throughout the United States The U S Department of Interior Museum and Secretary of Art has acquired the piece Resilience A Portrait of Zitkala Sa in Washington D C to be part of their permanent collection and catalog Kempenich holds a bachelor s degree from University of North Dakota She serves on the Grand Forks Foundation for Education Alumni Network board of directors and the North Dakota Indian Business Alliance board of directors She also serves as an arts and cultural consultant and has started the wearable art line Zazegaa Designs by Hillary Kempenich Kempenich lives in Grand Forks North Dakota with her family 17

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PUBLIC ARTS PROJECT The Aunties Dandelion 1EQ Oddside Arts 1EDQ This public arts project will be available to engage at each of the exhibition location throughout North Dakota The Aunties Dandelion is a media arts organization and a transformative space informed by traditional Onkwehon we original peoples teachings We are a collective of storytellers who are co creating and revitalizing an expansive global community through stories of land language and relationships Oddside Arts is a cultural arts not for profit that fosters a space for Afro descendants most especially women gender expansive and LGTBQ folks to theorize create and contribute to the development of the equitable future PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT As part of the North Dakota Human Rights Film and Arts Festival The Aunties Dandelion and Oddside Arts invite the public to participate in a collaborative art project as well as the viewing of the two films VeRONAka produced by The Aunties Dandelion and Rahyne produced by Oddside Arts This public arts program will see embroidery and beading kits travel from community to community as participants create collaborative pieces from screen grabs from the two short films 22 Participants are invited to follow video instructions to create their own embroidery kit using free materials These individual embroideries created by individuals throughout the state will be assembled into a single art piece that will be unveiled in December 2023 in Jamestown at The Arts Center Participants are encouraged to share their creations on Instagram and Facebook tagging the film and arts festival film festival The Aunties Dandelion and Oddside Arts themes of naming identity language healing and ceremony in our communities revitalizes community through stories of land language and relationships This public arts project is supported in part by the Arts Midwest GIG Fund a program of Arts Midwest that is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts with additional contributions from the North Dakota Council on the Arts Through the films and art engagement this multicommunity collaborative art project explores the 23

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THE NORTHERN MIRROR by Red River Creatives Collective 1EDQ The Red River Creatives Collective RRCC is a fluid umbrella entity for the Northern Minnesota and North Dakota arts scene operating out of the Fargo Moorhead area This is intended to be a community driven long term organizing space focused on prioritizing and uplifting disenfranchised voices and creating solidarity among creatives Through both print and online publication of The Northern Mirror we strive to create a platform for experimental and under represented artists in all disciplines visual art film music writing etc as well as a way to disseminate information regarding community resources and cultural and educational opportunities The safety well being and privacy of those submitting to our publication is of great importance to us We vow to never willfully dox or snitch on those wishing to remain anonymous in any aspect of their submissions We value our partnerships with local area organizations and small businesses to help distribute our publication and broaden our reach We would like to recognize that this organization is completely volunteer run and that our labor the labor of those submitting goes toward the greater good by building a stronger community network for creatives in our area RRCC strives to be an unconventional multidisciplinary arts organization that does not conform to the status quo Our work is the building up and promoting of creators without the oppressive and classist nature of institutions and the mainstream arts sector We aim for flexibility and the ability to adapt to our changing community needs We the workers are victims of the tyranny of police state violence We aspire towards forgiveness of our oppressors 26 and abusers while holding them accountable for wrongdoings We lean in to compassion to heal grow and thrive We believe in the power of collaborative relationships within and across communities to build a better vision for tomorrow Who better to create that vision than artists PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT Red River Creatives Collective and The North Dakota Human Rights Film and Arts Festival have collaborated for the Winter 2023 issue of The Northern Mirror In November and December of 2022 artist were invited to submit their work The issue was curated and printed in January 2023 and collects work from artists from around the region with creative pieces addressing current social and community issues Physical copies of the Winter 2023 issue can be picked up at the exhibition while supplies last A digital version of the zine is available at online at the Red River Creatives Collective s website 27

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A PLACE TO REST by Paul Noot Paul Noot received his BFA from the University of North Dakota and his MFA from Brooklyn College in New York Noot grew up in the Valley City Marion area of North Dakota He has worked with the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC and North Dakota Museum of Art in Grand Forks and is currently the head of the Visual Arts department at Bismarck High School He also has taught classes for Sleepy Hollow Summer Arts International Music Camp Theo Art School Bismarck Downtown Artist Cooperative and Continuing Education courses for the University of North Dakota Noot is a founding member of the Bismarck Downtown Artist Cooperative where you can find his art and at Gallery 4 in Fargo Paul has exhibited in the region and is the recipient of several art awards In 2002 he was awarded the Citation Award from Bismarck Art Galleries Association in 2004 the KXMB Spirit Award and 2005 06 the Golden Apple Award and in 2009 the BAGA Volunteer Award He was a winner in the Millennium Art Trail Project in 2002 and the Lewis Clark Banner contest in 2003 Recently he was awarded the 2017 ND Governor s Award for the Arts in Art Education Paul has been in several regional art exhibits and his work is in public and private collections In 20132014 Paul s art was part of an exhibit called Put A Bird On It Recent commissioned work can be seen at the Pirogue Grille Bismarck and a two hundredfoot mural in Valley City and a mural in Bismarck s art alley He also painted a horse for Easter Seals of North Dakota a mini bus for American Cancer Society of North Dakota and a child statue for Manchester House of Bismarck ARTIST S STATEMENT Couch homeless is modern homelessness and the U S government refuses to recognize it as such 62 of it is hidden and usually starts with youth Even though they have a roof over their head doesn t mean they have safety stability or a secure place to live This painting symbolizes a house shape and the state of North Dakota The ravens depict the fear and depression that individuals experience Sometimes outside appearances seem perfect and beautiful the inside is a darkness that takes control 36 37

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ANOTHER DAY by Kayla Branstetter Kayla Branstetter is a published writer and an award winning artist from Missouri While growing up she split her time between rural Missouri and the suburbs of Denver With her feet in two worlds she became adept at connecting with people from diverse backgrounds She has a passion for breaking through barriers to achieve gender equality and amplifying marginalized voices She is currently working on a nonfiction book where women tell their stories about abortion birth and infertility Branstetter is also an educator She is currently a professor of English at Crowder College In her previous work as a high school teacher she mentored and championed teens helping them find their voices She envisions a world where barriers to education and medical care are eliminated for all people Comprehensive education that engages youth in seeing different points of view builds empathy Empathy is the key to reducing harassment and assault She holds a MALS degree in Art Literature and Culture from the University of Denver 40 ARTIST S STATEMENT I m currently writing a nonfiction book about women s reproductive rights Choices introduces readers to a group of twenty five women from diverse backgrounds who span many socioeconomic groups a variety of sexualities gender identities and who all come from vastly different upbringings but who share a past full of the trauma that can come with women s reproductive issues sexual safety and the precarious nature of making one s own choices as a woman Told through these women s eyes in interviews turned memoirs the book weaves important cultural and own voices perspectives into the tales exposing the often forgotten human aspect of the feminist and women s issues movements These stories also reveal raw real and sometimes difficult details of what women suffer through and survive in their daily lives things that so many in our society want to shy away from talking about This painting Another Day is a reflection of those women the diversity vulnerability and complexity of women s everyday lives This is a painting that showcases women s ability to multitask and carry on with their lives during the worst of times 41

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INCOMMUNICABLE by Rhoda Elmi Rhoda Elmi originally from Somalia has lived in many countries spanning three different continents She has worked in early education for over ten years and has seen the disparities in access to quality affordable early education within the community Elmi uses her unique skill set and expertise to create a culturally honoring center She pours her heart into her work with the children and their families She believes barriers people face can be like brick walls they don t come down easily but with active removal it is possible In the same way we should be fighting to bring down barriers preventing equity These barriers are like walls that can be brought down and we should all be fighting for equity We must fight for equity in education wealth and the opportunity to achieve everyone s full potential Outside of work her joy is found in art and cooking She learned to paint in the last couple of years and found the hidden artist inside that was waiting to tell stories through art Rhoda s work in various communities and deep care for people who are oppressed and voiceless shows in her art Her vision is to tell visual stories that represent a multitude of women and children who live under fear ARTIST S STATEMENT A depiction of a strong hand silencing a distraught woman forcefully Who will hear her story What can she say How can she escape her fear of speaking about her struggles 48 49

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JAZZ FAN by Beth Diane Bradley Beth Diane Bradley is a self taught painter who learned about art by studying art history and photojournalism while attending college She has written about art and artists for local publications been a lifelong photo enthusiast and always been a gallery rat but never thought she could paint Four years ago she found the courage to pick up a paintbrush and now she can t put it down She lives in Fargo 52 ARTIST S STATEMENT I was in Duluth on business twenty some years ago and had an experience I ve never forgotten I had some free time from the conference I was attending and went for a walk in Canal Park where a jazz quartet was playing I sat down in one of the rows of chairs set up for people to stop and enjoy the performance A few minutes later a homeless man approached me and asked if he could sit down and listen to the music His face was weathered by years of exposure and bore a large scar His blue eyes peered out from under two winter hats one on top of the other on a hot August afternoon revealing his beautiful gentle spirit I didn t have my purse with me on that walk but I m sure he was in need of many things Most of the people he encountered who were not homeless themselves were probably providing a bowl of soup or a place to spend the night as part of their job or volunteer duties All I could offer him was the dignity and respect most of us take for granted He was a person just like me who had a job a family and enjoyed listening to live jazz in the park He probably spent the bulk of his time just trying to survive and was either invisible or pitied by most people he encountered But that day he spent a few minutes doing something he enjoyed prior to losing his identity and becoming part of the homeless population And for me it was a spiritual moment of connecting with another human being someone I may have passed by any other day I m so glad he sat down next to me because we were close enough to engage in a conversation He told me about his daughter I told him about my sons We talked about the weather 53

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STARFULL TEHRAN by Farnaz Pourkashef ARTIST S STATEMENT Tehran How beautiful is your name How many stars shine in your sky every night Moonlit in midnights Chitgar Farnaz Pourkashef is a creative artistic and curious Graphic Designer with a talent for thinking outside the box and coming up with innovative ideas and designs As an Iranian woman artist she is trying to do her best in providing excellent service to all customers and doing my own art styles Lavizan and Darband It evokes an earthly paradise in my mind Stars twinkling She graduated with a good Class degree in M A Handicrafts from Art University of Tehran and subsequently have worked in the Art and design industry for the past 5 years and Tehran sleeps slowly I created this painting in remembrance of the brave women of my country 56 57

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AMERICAN SUNRISE ECHO by Karen Perry Karen Perry is an artist and educator She lives in Northeastern North Dakota and splits her time between her farm ranch and the city of West Fargo Perry is interested in sharing ways with others to create a personal expression using all media and materials She believes the world would be a better place if through art making everyone took time to make their own impressions of the things they care about 62 ARTIST S STATEMENT In reading Joy Harjo s poem An American Sunrise I immediately recognized the ode to Gwendolyn Brooks poem The Pool Players Seven at the Golden Shovel We Real Cool Many decades ago I read Brooks poem and was entranced by the enjambment of the lines succinctly conveying a picture of the disenfranchised inner city youth in America I was raised in a town in Wyoming and lived literally on the wrong side of the tracks My town grew around a refinery where my father worked The oil and freight trains divided us from the main town of a different name We were called a derogatory name that we turned into a badge of honor but the message of our social status followed us through school As a teacher Brooks poem reinforced that I would respect every student s circumstances Harjo s poem American Sunrise attests that there is and perhaps will always be youth in that pool hall expressing their realities fears and dreams In America we base our equality on documents such as the Constitution treaties and other legal documents Documents are symbols of power and fear My American Sunrise contains charms to represent hopes and dreams existing still within the document the Declaration of Independence affirming that those goals are still evasive for many 63

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AMERICAN SACRIFICE by Kenneth W Andersen Gun violence has become common place Thoughts and prayers doesn t get the job done Why do we need assault style weapons Why do we need to carry weapons for self protection The issue is we don t need either The wannabe heroes have no clue what it is truly like to point a weapon at another I do have compassion I feel bad when they wet their pants I m all for hunting and the shooting sports I have done both I have been doing various forms of art therapy for 60 years 72 ARTIST S STATEMENT Not for Sale However the title and image are available for licensing The title would work quite well as a chant at political rallies or as a campaign slogan The image could be used on a campaign poster Vote for Congressperson XX I have a A rating from the NRA If the political candidate has an A rating this candidate would surely receive a A rating Gun rights organizations could offer the poster as a gift in a membership drive These are just a couple of examples I am certain more possibilities exist Operators are standing by to take your orders Gun violence has become common place Thoughts and prayers do not get the job done Why do we need assault style weapons Why do we need to carry weapons for self protection We do not need either The wannabe heroes have no clue what it is like to point a weapon at another and how you become hardened I do have compassion I feel bad when they wet their pants I am all for hunting and the shooting sports I do both This project is the collaboration of several individuals The youngest a first grader and the oldest is quite old The handprints names and drawings are from real students The bullet holes and brass cartridges are NATO rounds fired from an assault style rifle 1 800 SAC RIFI ext CE When children die they do not grow old 73

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GOLGOTHA VEGAS by Adam Bursack 1ED Adam Bursack is a self taught multidisciplinary artist and photographer from Fargo ND His recent works have focused on mixed media pieces based on his own photography manipulated digitally until the images are in an abstract form The pieces are often printed and then further added to physically with paint and other elements He has also worked recently in sculpture based around unconventional materials In addition to visual art Adam is a musician and DJ and he often works musical themes into his artwork His work has been displayed at galleries including the Plains Art Museum Fargo Taube Museum of Art Minot Rourke Art Museum Moorhead Gallery 4 Fargo The Spirit Room Fargo including the 2021 solo exhibition Contaminated Nightmares and many other venues His public radio program Adam s Archive on KNNZ 89 1 FM often focuses on local art and music 80 ARTIST S STATEMENT When the time came for the crucifixion of women those in power chose Las Vegas as the venue Nowhere else seemed quite as American 81

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internal hyperactivity by Frances Taylor Frances Taylor is a line artist currently living in Bismarck ND Using ink charcoal and oil pastel they frequently work with lines as they transform the clutter and confusion of my mind into digestible fragments and scenes Though the process is often disjointed the outcome is cathartic 84 ARTIST S STATEMENT Hearing words like executive dysfunction forgetfulness and internal hyperactivity I never thought they would apply to me or knew what the process of getting diagnosed with ADHD later in life would look like but within the last months I started to notice how much it clicked with my life brain and art I decided to create a piece that reflected my own internal hyperactivity utilizing retrospective artifacts from my past like pins pieces of fabric and writing in order to showcase the disparity between the diagnosis and treatment of men with ADHD and of women with ADHD not discounting the stigma that surrounds people in the LGBTQIA2S and BIPOC communities with ADHD instead of being noticeably hyperactive like boys girls are often more inattentive and females that do go undiagnosed are more likely to develop depression anxiety and substance abuse issues This lack of visibility often perpetuates shame and guilt cycles which I allude to in the noisy journal like scribblings and the use of heavy lines in this piece For instance I ve viewed symptoms like difficulty in concentrating disorganization and issues with memory as signs of laziness overt lack of motivation or flaws in myself when they are oftentimes a sign pointing towards a neurobiological issue ADHD is often all consuming and unforgiving for myself and others which is why bringing awareness to the diagnosis and treatment of it is crucial By and large women often go undiagnosed and untreated in their youth and later in life because ADHD symptomatically looks different for them 85

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I CAN T BREATHE by Anthony Faris James Anthony Faris is a sculptor writer photographer and mixed media artist from Southeast Georgia living and working in Fargo ND Mr Faris graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design with a BFA in Photography In 2014 Mr Faris completed his M F A from Georgia Southern University in 3D Art Mr Faris is a co founding member of the Stillmoreroots group a rural arts advocacy group He has worked in community development as Education and Outreach Director for Gallery RFD and Director of Downtown Development for the City of Swainsboro He currently serves as Gallery Coordinator and Curator of Collections for North Dakota State University He also teaches the BFA Capstone in Visual Arts which is heavily focused on research presentation and entrepreneurship 88 ARTIST S STATEMENT Hearing words like executive dysfunction forgetfulness and internal hyperactivity I never thought they would apply to me or knew what the pinstead of being noticeably hyperactive like boys girls are often more inattentive and females that do go undiagnosed are more likely to develop depression asue ADHD is often all consuming and unforgiving for myself and others which is why bringing awareness to the diagnosis and treatment of it is crucial 89

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RUTH BADER by Melissa Kugler Melissa Kugler grew up in Fergus Falls What really got her into discovering her passion for painting and including different things into her mixed media art was painting with her niece s watercolor palette Eventually painting with watercolor led to exploring acrylics and other medias When asked to describe her art Kugler said the word that comes to mind is unique And unique it is as she included puzzle pieces as part of the images in her artwork while making sure it all just flows together well Kugler said she was inspired to include puzzle pieces into her art after she had created a piece inspired by one of her favorite artists Jackson Pollock who was a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement While she waited for the painting to dry she decided to put a puzzle together It was there the idea to add a puzzle bit to the art piece she was working on formed Since then she has visited several thrift stores and shops in search of different kinds of puzzles she can use in her art creations The pieces are then glued onto her art piece Although Kugler has sold many of her art creations over the years art is more than a simple hobby to her It s a way of life in which she can express herself She finds painting and creating different projects very therapeutic whether she has had a rough day or is full of joy Creating is simply peaceful 92 While Kugler creates a variety of art pieces she especially likes to combine portrait style with abstract art in different colors Art is something that comes naturally to her She has never attended any art workshops But as time goes by and the more she explores and discovers new themes her skills and talent increases Besides creating her own art Kugler teaches art classes to children at a local fitness center In her free time besides painting Kugler enjoys spending time with her family hiking doing yoga playing board games paddle boarding snowshoeing and returning to her hometown Fergus Falls in the summer and spending time by the local lake ARTIST S STATEMENT Ruth Bader Ginsburg was inspiring in countless ways to countless people Someone as large as her in reputation is viewed almost more like a work of art with all the foibles and fortes that comes within a person During the pandemic I started using jigsaw puzzles in my art pieces This particular piece of Ruth s face I first painted in watercolor then I turned the watercolor I painted into a puzzle and integrated it into an art piece on canvas I believe we are all made up of pieces that come together perfectly to make up who we are 93

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PLASTIC OCEAN WAVE by Angie Swiec Q Angie Swiec is a visual artist who lives and creates in Bismarck ND Her work focuses on the environment activism and beauty 96 ARTIST S STATEMENT The Oceans are filled with plastic waste The Great Pacific Garbage Dump exists as a mass of churning plastic trash We see images of animal carcasses filled with plastic and are horrified by images of live sea animals trapped in plastic trash We re now learning that micro plastics exist in human bodies as well Scientists study it and we know of it yet we continue to use disposable plastic because it s so convenient and the problem is too big Do we consider the waters and the animals when we use a bag plastic straw or buy that next plastic toy A mindless decision of a few seconds will affect ecosystems for hundreds if not thousands of years as it decomposes As a surfer I am connected to the water I consider the things I buy Yet as much as I try I am not free of plastic in my life With my piece I hope people will make the connection between our plastic habits our environment and ultimately our health I hope people become conscious of what they re consuming the trash they re creating and how it eventually ends up in our waters For people to care they must fall in love a little I hope this image of a wave can inspire beauty and awe and bring awareness to the plastic problem affecting our oceans This piece is made entirely from plastic nets from the grocery store onions lemons and avocados Do we really need those items in plastic nets By boycotting their products can consumers get producers to change their packaging Can we come up with creative solutions to make a healthy environment an achievable human right 97

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THE IMPRESSION OF WORDS by Rebecca Martens Rebecca Martens is a sculpture student at Minnesota State University Moorhead Her making process is expansive with an emphasis in metal She grew up in a welding shop metal is material I am comfortable with Her industrial background allows her to make a visual statement She enjoys playing with scale and proportion in my artwork Martens first learned to weld when she was twelve along with that her love of metal started to form 100 ARTIST S STATEMENT This piece is about the impression words can have on someone Often people say things to one another without thinking about the effects it will have on that person People are shaped by the different life experiences they go through and the words that go with those experiences Most people don t share these things with others but they are often still visible 101

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TORRENTE DE AGUA by Lourdes J Hawley Lourdes Hawley is originally from Quito Ecuador and came to the US as a student She is a graphic designer visual artist and live in Fargo N D Hawley likes to create images that touch her emotions her feelings and her love for humanity and nature This involves a process that sends color in a general direction but rarely with a specific idea of what will turn up in the finished piece As Hawley starts applying more color and detail she feels that the work begins to take on a personality and that it will let her know what else it needs and what to do next The blending of the images with the background helps me convey a sense of belonging that we and nature have with the environment The use of color on the other hand expresses my own playfulness and control of the media 104 ARTIST S STATEMENT come from a country where water cannot be taken for granted despite its abundance There is a rainy season there are rivers falls lakes snowcapped mountains and yet people cannot drink water from the tap with confidence To make matters worse in the event of a drought water and electricity are immediately rationed nations have been especially hard hit This is not just a number these are children mourned by parents these are spouses older parents family and friends This is a worldwide crisis My background gives me a heighten awareness of these dire straits and a sense of urgency while living in a country where only one state out of 50 mentions water as a human right The water crisis in the world has claimed almost 3 and a half million lives every single year African 105

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SPECTRUM WATCHING by Katherine Shehadeh 1 QD Katherine Shehadeh is an artist writer and attorney who resides with her family in Miami Florida Her artwork has appeared in juried exhibitions and literary journals throughout the US Find her on Instagram katherinesarts or on the www at katherinesar ts com 108 ARTIST S STATEMENT Genocide as defined by Article 2 of the Geneva Convention means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy in whole or in part a national ethnical racial or religious group as such a Killing members of the group b Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group c Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part d Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group e Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group Contrary to popular belief genocide requires no mass murder or destruction of a country or its people to exist Although common usage and misunderstanding of the term suggests that it may only be used in these extreme cases understanding this distinction is important in order to stop its reoccurrence throughout the world and prevent genocide once and for all SPECTRUM WATCHING is a multimedia visual artwork that consists of a View Master photo attached with a reel of mixed media images paint digital media This piece highlights the various justifications sometimes referred to as rainbow washing or by applicable color i e pinkwashing greenwashing etc that stop us from speaking openly about ongoing oppression and genocide My intention for this piece is to show how these deflections keep humanity from coming together meaningfully to end genocide once and for all This piece was inspired by the book Queer Palestine and the Empire Critique by Sa ed Atshan which particularly focuses on pinkwashing activities that are used to justify human rights abuses against the Palestinian people Looking beyond Palestine the same can be seen in other contexts where those who have no interest in stopping human suffering and crimes against humanity often use justifications for oppressive action or to position themselves as morally superior I believe that we must see these deflections for what they are and consider how nothing will actually stop genocide until we make any justification or excuse for it off limits Until then what exists is genocide but in pink More information on the different types of washing activities can be found at https decolonizepalestine com rainbow washing 109

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TOMORROW by Janelle Stoneking 1 QD Janelle Carlson Stoneking is an educator and visual artist residing in Dickinson ND She received a B S in Elementary Education from Dickinson State University in 2001 as well as an A S degree in Developmental Disabilities from Minot State University Janelle has worked for ABLE Inc supporting people with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities for 25 years life experiences and bring people together through her work One thing she s learned is that no matter our backgrounds cultures experiences financial status abilities or disabilities we as humans all share the same emotions We all know what it s like to experience great joy be filled with rage or feel tremendous shame It is our human emotions that unify us Being of service is important to her as she serves on various boards and committees across the state advocating for change including serving as Board Chair for Community Action Partnership in Regions 1 8 She is currently working diligently as President of the new non profit SW Art Gallery and Science Center to bring a creative center to North Dakota s Region 8 Janelle enjoys expressing herself through art journaling on canvas finding unique ways to depict Janelle states I love the process of creating I scour for interesting newspaper headlines or make my own papers tearing them up then designing on canvas to make something beautiful layer upon layer To me it s a mirror of this life journey We become who we are through layers of experiences and I m excited to keep adding more depth to my story bringing joy and thoughtfulness to others Janelle is supported by her husband Bobby Stoneking and 3 children Jackson Grayson and Ellie 112 ARTIST S STATEMENT and help others as seen at the top of the piece It is Y she has had to go through difficult times Tomorrow is a journey of finding oneself through the most difficult times It is the hope of what tomorrow might bring when the heaviness of today is all that is felt How do we continue down the road when the path is unclear as there is no map guiding us through what life brings The piece was created to depict the mental health cycle that we all go through How do we overcome self doubt in a world where we can be so easily judged misunderstood or marginalized In this piece feelings of heaviness consume her as seen along the base of the work where it feels that every day is sure to be a disappointment As the piece circles closer to her heart the hope of a better tomorrow is there as she plans for a way to find strength and move forward She just keeps telling herself that tomorrow is a new day encouraging herself to think of the future Today is a new beginning where she learns to find a new place for her pain a way to use it to share her story On the back of her mind she is motivated to succeed but the reality is that she is only one day one decision one moment away from repeating the cycle and again falling into those feelings of selfdefeat This work was created using newspaper headlines oil rig maps from SW North Dakota acrylic paint gouache colored pencils paint pens tissue papers of paint and magazine text pulled by gelli plate and an old Huckleberry Finn edition from 1955 She is so beautiful if only she could see it I hope that through this piece we can all recognize the power of our emotions as we often cage ourselves by holding onto the pain of the past or uncertainty It is when we can accept these feelings and own our story that we can use our gifts to be our true selves 113

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YOUTHFUL SPIRIT by Alaki Ajang Alaki Ajang was born in raised in Fargo North Dakota He is currently pursuing a major in civil engineering with a minor in art His plan is to pursue art full time once he graduates a particular issue In other words how the different languages these mediums create can be used to harmonies with each other resulting in a more comprehensive experience He is a multidisciplinary artist that incorporates mediums such as spoken word drawing painting and film in order to display to the audience the many different angles and dimensions it takes to look at Alaki s bodies of work typically contain exaggerated human figures to enhance it s expression As well as containing particular objects in background 116 ARTIST S STATEMENT Youthful Spirit encapsulates the spirit of a child in his adolescence about to embark on life There are three paths he is standing at the intersection of The first path is a dark one beneath him which he has already walked representing the dark path he is walking out of The second path is a straight pathway with overwhelming riches coming from the mind This can be viewed as the easy path but it spirals into darkness The last path comes from the heart This path contains many twists and turns with many milestones and obstacles in the journey representing the difficulty of life I created this piece for the future of this world for the black and brown kids Because kids have a unique way of seeing as they grow and embark on their own journey I desire them to pick up more from the piece and grow with it 117

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HOME IS WHERE THE BUFFALO USED TO BE by Delia Touch Delia Touch she they is a Quilter Printmaker and Bookmaker from Spirit Lake Nation She received her BFA from Minnesota State University Moorhead Delia is currently an MFA candidate in the Print Media Department receiving the Gilbert Fellowship at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills Michigan Her art practice involves collaborating Indigenous influences nuances and craft with traditional and contemporary print based methods 120 ARTIST S STATEMENT This structure of the artist book was influenced by the migration of the American Bison and how that migration coincided with Indigenous migrations The structure of the book can be altered to portray different views of migration was where the buffalo were or rather where they used to be Native people weren t the only living thing to face colonial genocide The American bison population was decimated to control and force Indigenous peoples onto reservations The buffalo no longer roam where they used to and neither do Indigenous people My people followed the buffalo they were and are an integral part of our culture Home for us 121

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BLEED THE SAME by Carlos Roybal Carlos Roybal is am from the San Luis Valley a little desert in southern Colorado He grew up in a small town and attended college at the University of Colorado at Boulder where he studied Physiology Illness forced him to put a pause on my education He and his wife now live in Fargo ND where he has enrolled at North Dakota State University and study ar t helped him see problems not just within my communities but other disenfranchised communities We have similar experiences in the fabric of the country we all call home These pieces were made during the largest civil rights movement of my generation thus far and the most unprecedented pandemic of the globalized world Roybal is a Tewa and Mexican and his art pieces reflect the lessons learned walking the line between those communities The feeling of displacement 126 ARTIST S STATEMENT The abuse African American men face at the hands of law enforcement reached such a point we underwent my generation s largest civil rights movement This piece was made during the Black Lives Matter movement 127

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CROSSHAIRS by Kevin R Tengesdal Kevin R Tengesdal is a gay Christian creative living in Bismarck North Dakota He was born and raised on a farm in North Dakota and his parents were immediate descendants of Norwegian immigrants Kevin is a Navy veteran discharged before the Don t Ask Don t Tell policy He holds a bachelor s degree in Biblical Languages and Biblical Studies from Columbia International University in South Carolina and studied abroad in Jerusalem for a year He has lived across the four corners of the lower United States Kevin works with the Bismarck Veterans Memorial Public Library as their Community Relations Coordinator producing social media and promotional design work He is also obtaining his master s degree in Social Work through the University of North Dakota Kevin carries twenty five years of creative design history in print newspaper advertising and nonprofit industries Much of his early pre professional work consisted of hand lettered posters and banners His professional experience includes layouts for books and magazines newspaper and magazine advertising design local and national political campaigns and most everything in between Another creative facet of Kevin is his thespian side Over forty years Kevin has performed in almost fifty different productions with community theatre groups in videos and commercials and for modeling His start with human rights advocacy work began as a charter member of the group which founded Dakota OutRight an LGBT advocacy group in 130 Bismarck Kevin has testified numerous years before legislative committees advocating for bills calling for the end of discrimination against LGBT residents of North Dakota Other advocacy work includes many published letters to the editor He has sat on different state and local advocacy boards In 2016 Kevin represented as one of the North Dakota Democratic NPL LGBT Caucus delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia Kevin authored the 2018 Democratic NPL Human Rights state platform He established the Facebook page Prairie Rainbow as a ministry of defense and encouragement for gay Christians and their allies across North Dakota He formed a correlating Facebook discussion group ND Gay Christians Allies He has designed hundreds of social statement art pieces for social media to encourage and challenge others to know that they are not alone Themes for these digital pieces include the Christian faith LGBTQ2 topics current events and mental health To commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Stonewall Riots Kevin designed a new Stonewall50 Inclusion Pride flag and produced a video presenting the process He sells a number of his designs on various products in his online store with Zazzle 131

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KEELY DU by Jeff Knight Jeff Knight is an Assistant Professor at the School of Visual Arts at North Dakota State University He is experienced in the creative field having worked as a professional graphic designer for over 15 years He graduated with a BA from Concordia College Communications Studio Art and furthered his education by earning an MFA in Graphic Design at the Savannah College of Art and Design SCAD He has worked at agencies both large and small and has taught college design classes He was as a fulltime and part time professor of graphic design for six years at Concordia College He has created successful work for brands ranging from large international businesses like Bobcat Doosan and Microsoft to local communitysupporting startups like Scoop N Dough Theatre B and Twenty Below Coffee Co In his spare time Jeff is an arts advocate He cohosts the Fargo chapter of CreativeMornings and is the creator of Albino Buffalo a sticker art vending machine project He finished a year serving as President of AAF ND in 2017 18 He loves foosball and loves all kinds of cereal but his absolute favorite cereal might have crunchberries He lives with his wife her two kids and their two cats 134 ARTIST S STATEMENT The work I m submitting is entitled Keely Du It is a visual response to the written script Keely and Du by Jane Martin This story is about two adult women and their relationship with one another from two different sides of the issue of abortion They are forced to exist together in the most challenging of situations and realize they may have more in common than they realize But when pushed too far a pinnacle moment dictates their fate This show was performed by Theatre B in Moorhead MN during their 20th Season of 202223 The image I designed using digital design software was used to promote that show and deliver hints as to the subject matter without expressing a specific side or how each theme in the show is connected It is for the viewer and ultimately the audience to decide their own interpretation of the events in the play As I began this work the overturning of Roe v Wade was signed the morning I met with the play s director to discuss her vision and how it was to be performed It was a heavy morning and the news caused many women I know much pain to learn how their rights were being stripped away and body autonomy was now in jeopardy While I cannot know their pain I can continue to spread the message about how the topic of human rights and specifically bodily rights for women in the United States are still very important topics to discuss 135

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NO MORE STOLEN SISTERS by Carlos Roybal Carlos Roybal is am from the San Luis Valley a little desert in southern Colorado He grew up in a small town and attended college at the University of Colorado at Boulder where he studied Physiology Illness forced him to put a pause on my education He and his wife now live in Fargo ND where he has enrolled at North Dakota State University and study ar t helped him see problems not just within my communities but other disenfranchised communities We have similar experiences in the fabric of the country we all call home These pieces were made during the largest civil rights movement of my generation thus far and the most unprecedented pandemic of the globalized world Roybal is a Tewa and Mexican and his art pieces reflect the lessons learned walking the line between those communities The feeling of displacement 138 ARTIST S STATEMENT Within the First Nation and Native American communities lies a major problem that is largely ignored by the Department of Justice NamUs and the media Sisters are being stripped from their communities A grassroots movement Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women is trying to affect change at an executive level I made this piece to shine a light on this movement and the problems women in these communities face In 2016 5 712 Native American and Alaska Native women were reported missing through the Department of Justice s federal missing person database A mere 116 cases were logged by NamUs 139

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SAFETY NET by Rebecca Oehler Rebecca Oehler is a visual artist whose work focuses on mental health and feminist issues Her practice includes printmaking photography drawing textiles and sculpture In 2020 Oehler graduated from Minnesota State University Moorhead with a BFA in Studio Art with a double emphasis in printmaking and photography and a Minor in Art History 142 ARTIST S STATEMENT Now that Roe v Wade has been overturned the right to an abortion is decided by individual states which has led to a patchwork of abortion access across the country and leaves many people with limited to no access to necessary healthcare This reversal of the 50 year old precedent has created an increase in people seeking medication abortion a safe and effective way for people up to eleven weeks pregnant to have an abortion often in the comfort of their own homes net for those seeking an abortion even as hostile states continue their attempts to limit access I created this print of the pill packet that contains the single mifepristone and the four misoprostol to highlight the importance of these pills and show what the majority of abortions look like The packet is made up of the stereotypically gendered colors of pink and blue with purple where they overlap to show that abortion impacts people of all genders not just cisgender women and that the denial of the fundamental right to our own bodies leads to negative repercussions for all of us Mifepristone and misoprostol the pills used for a medication abortion have become a sort of safety 143

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THE TRUTH by Fatemeh Mohammadi Fatemeh Mohammadi is a female artist from Iran She illustrated a world where is rooted in myths and her ancestors All of these have become to the collection with links of memories Her works has been strengthened by the support has come from many years of research Using symbols and signs has always one of her biggest interests and she has tried in all of her art to express special concepts 146 ARTIST S STATEMENT Geographical determinism places people in situations that are influenced by schools of thought and religious orientations Adjacency with missionaries and promoters of ideas and religions has unconsciously turned people into their followers And the weirdest followers are women who proudly shout out being the second gender It is strange that all the prophets were men 147

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BEAR PAW TATTOOS by Ryan Netterville Background Ryan Netterville At age 28 Shane Netterville was shot and killed by a Fargo Police Officer just a few weeks before his birthday Following the shooting this past summer his brother Ryan Netterville created this artwork in Shane s honor Shane Netterville my brother was killed by Officer Adam O Brien of the Fargo Police Department on July 8 2022 Shane was 28 years old and it was weeks before his 29th birthday My sister said maybe we d get the tattoo like his was I drew these tattoos in memory of him to raise awareness and call for justice for his murder and show how the system works doing shady shit 152 ARTIST S STATEMENT Shane had two bear paws on his chest I was talking about it to my sister and in memory of him I will get this on my chest whenever I can afford to get it done I might tweak it and make it more simple The other bear paw with all the initials that s the last of us that are still alive Gary Matt me Jolissa and Maven We re the perfect number now to fit on the five finger parts That s the rest of the kids that are still alive 153

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ONE TIME I HAD A BRAIN AND IT WENT CRAZY by Kimble Bromley Kimble A Bromley received his B A in Psychology and Sociology from Buena Vista College an M A in Painting at the University of Northern Iowa and his M F A in Painting from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale IL Kim has been teaching painting drawing and art history at NDSU for the past 25 years Chicago series a Moby Dick series a pond series and most recently a series of paintings of Monet s gardens at Giverny France Kim is also known for his Creativity Enhancement Workshop where he uses hypnosis to assist participants to be more open to their creativity Kim has served as a visiting artist internationally nationally and regionally Over the years he has painted a number of series of paintings including a 162 ARTIST S STATEMENT One Time I Had a Brain and It went Crazy was painted in relation to the cultural events of the time specifically the Columbine school shooting My daughter Emily was in grade school at the time She wrote in one of the picture books she created One time I had a brain and it went crazy Along with the graffiti I painted from a wall in Chicago I felt her statement was a well thought out sentiment of what was happening at the time and chose to include it on the wall It makes a great title as well 163

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WITHOUT A CHOICE Gaurav Datta Gaurav Datta is a postdoctoral researcher in neuroscience at the University of North Dakota He s from India and joined UND in 2017 Apart from biomedical sciences he has also been trained in Transcultural Psychiatry and Narrative Medicine from McGill and Columbia University respectively which takes shape in the form of ethnographic research among people with HIV AIDS and those recovering from substance use in India He is particularly interested in the use of visual methods for research and representation 172 ARTIST S STATEMENT These photographs represent the exchanges between the author and people from the unhoused community in Grand Forks North Dakota It was the numbness that I remember the author recollects about his first winter here for which he was totally unprepared the numbness that started with the hands and ultimately began to cloud my thoughts the sheer desperation to find a warm place At that time it was the people I met in the bus shelters who showed me the tricks to survive this cold and perhaps that was what bonded us together Together as they explored the town and the author learnt as much about the reality of being unhoused in America as he did about the nuances of Midwest American existence In return he told his friends about his life in India and the ongoing struggle for independence in Kashmir a region between India and Pakistan By overlaying images of the Gospel booklets distributed to the unhoused community and that of the KashmiriAmerican poet Agha Shahid Ali on photographs made in and around Grand Forks the author hopes to communicate a more sensitive and meditative perspective on the notion of home and expanded awareness of the community in North Dakota 173

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WOMAN LIFE FREEDOM by Parnian Pourmovahed Parnian Pourmovahed was born in 1991 in Yazd Iran After completing her secondary degree in Graphic Design from School of art she ranked between first 50 in entrance exam of Iranian Public Universities After graduation she has participated in several domestic and foriegn exhibitions such as Rumi s Poems illustration exhibition in Ax gallery Berlin and first annual national illustration week in Ayeh gallery of Soore University Tehran Pourmovahed studied Photography in Tehran University of Art which is one of the top ranked art universities in Iranian national universities and received her bachelor s degree in 2013 Because of her enthusiasm for visual art I continued her postgraduate study in Illustration in same university and gained my master s degree in 2017 She is interested in Iranian art and history and tries to use these elements in her works However these days Iranian brave women and men are creating new era which is exceptional in my country s human rights movement 178 ARTIST S STATEMENT These days Iranian women are fighting for their primary rights and they protest with loud voice that they don t want mandatory Hijab They have demonstrated this with cutting their hair and burning their scarves in the streets Also Iranian men are supporting women protesters and accompany them in demonstrations One of the most significant aspect of this movement is the unity of ethnic groups such as kurd baluch lor fars etc they are shouting their rights hand in hand As an artist I have a duty to record their courage and honor so I dedicated my art work to the brave Iranian women and men WOMAN LIFE FREEDOM The main slogan of Iranian women s movement 179

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LACK OF MOTIVATION by Anonymous ARTIST S STATEMENT Recently as the women s revolution gets started in Iran against the government I started to do what artists should do create and let the artwork speak I m talking about the bronze woman figure named lack of motivation we ve had a lack of freedom of speech lack of freedom of choice in many things and creating restrictions on women to erase them and silence their voices since many years ago So I had this idea and sketch in my notebook 3 years ago but I hadn t had the motivation to create it because if I want it to be shown in any galleries or festivals in our country it would be rejected for nudity and I should be careful about its statement and it should be indirectly so I was slow paced in sculpting it In September 2022 when I saw the courage of the people whose slogan was women life freedom I got motivated and I said to myself this is the right time and I can be the voice of our women who are demanding their freedom through art While there is no freedom where you are locked up and you are only stuck in hope You sacrifice your motivation and wait 184 185

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WHERE THE SPIRIT MEETS THE BONE by Jeremy Colbert Jeremy Colbert is a Senior Lecturer of Art in Sculpture Ceramics and Foundations at The University of Kentucky Born and raised in Oklahoma he received his B A in Studio Art from Southeastern Oklahoma State University in 1999 and his M F A in Sculpture and Ceramics at Florida State University in 2002 He taught sculpture at Florida State University The University of South Alabama before becoming the Facilities Specialist in Sculpture and Ceramics at the University of Kentucky from 2008 to 2015 In 2016 he was promoted to a Lecturer of Art and gives lectures and demonstrations in a variety of process including patinas powder coating molding and casting techniques to sculpture classes He also teaches Metal Casting Blacksmithing Drawing and Three Dimensional Design as well as BFA practicum course to prepare students for technical assistantships as well as maintain sculpture and ceramic facilities including equipment and operation budget for Sculpture Area Jeremy s art has been shown nationally and internationally including Oklahoma Texas Florida Alabama Louisiana New Jersey Georgia Iowa Missouri Illinois Delaware New Mexico North 188 Dakota South Dakota Pennsylvania Germany and Paraguay His art has always been about personal expression with multiple levels of communication The right material and image in the right context say the right thing It is all about connecting to the viewer in a visual conversation ARTIST S STATEMENT The house form is made from Stainless Steel that is polished to reflect the viewer into the work or its own environment The house is propped up by the end of the Damascus bone like handle connected to the side of the house form It represents the door to enter thoughts and feelings of the overall house No house situation or person is perfect and this tilt represents this flaw in stability The Lucinda Williams song Compassion is based on a poem her father had written about compassion for others because you never know what they may be going through This work is a personal reflection on this song and its meaning The song states you don t know what wars are going on down there where the spirit meets the bone In many ways we all have our battles we are fighting through inside and sometimes outside On the other side of the house a brass colored cast iron skull like pin is secured into a bar across the form It is a safety bar or latch to keep out things or in that are unwanted to getting in or out We truly don t know what wars are going on down where the spirit meets the bone and where the spirit meets the bone 189

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decolonizingPRIDE by Penny Kagigebi Penny Kagigebi White Earth Ojibwe firstgeneration descendant creates traditional and contemporary Ojibwe art focusing on birchbark basketry and quillboxes A QUEER2 Spirit activist she seeks QUEER2 Spirit cultural reclamation with the understanding that nothing is ever really lost everything needed has been left for us and in us She describes herself as an advocate for joy and Mino Bimaadiziwin good life good health through Ojibwe Culture and Arts 194 ARTIST S STATEMENT decolonizingPRIDE calls out to today s 2 Spirit leaders teachers healers and artists Remote and isolated rural places like reservations are dangerous for our 2 Spirit relatives Indigenous queer youth are 2 5 times more likely to report a suicide attempt compared to White non Hispanic LGBTQ youth and nearly half report being physically harmed or threatened November 2020 The Trevor Project to step forward reclaiming both our ancient knowledge and internal knowing through art conversation and community building to build a safer world for our youth today and for generations to come Mainstream LGBTQ Pride has failed Indigenous queer youth This birchbark basket incorporates new materials and processes to queer an ancient utility item My recent work uses a sewing machine to sew ribbon onto birchbark and then porcupine quills are set through both ribbon and birchbark in a new and unique process Queering my art in this way has provided a platform to offer conversation to spark Queer2 Spirit cultural reclamation hoping my visibility can allow another to feel less isolated 195

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GATHERING OF MANY WAYS by Rick Kagigebi Rick Kagigebi Lac Courte Oreille Ojibwe Please allow me to explain why blankets Blankets are a core element in Indigenous cultural life Blankets are shelter warmth an expression of generosity a place of safety Spouses are wrapped in a blanket at a wedding ceremony Within ceremony blankets are sent out to carry healing to distant communities imbued with medicine and prayers for long good lives When we die we are again wrapped in a blanket as we begin our journey home in 1980 I made my first blanket for giveaway for healing Hundreds upon hundreds of blankets followed Previously limiting my work to ceremony gifts or private commissions I began to show my blankets publicly in 2018 I create appliqu d mural blankets where a story is told conveying Ojibwe cultural values What s most rewarding is people waking up the stories within themselves and to the beauty in Ojibwe culture Going to ceremony as a teenager with my father 198 ARTIST S STATEMENT Through the creation of this blanket I sought to provide protection for Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women Girls and Two Spirit The name Gathering of Many Ways represents the multiple layers of intention needed heart thought words and actions through ceremony and healing Our relatives are under fire They are abused Gone missing Murdered It is time to Step up To defend Protect Care for Heal The Gathering of Many Ways calls in our cultural helpers They bring Support Safety Love 199

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LOVED BEYOND WORDS by Agnes Yellow Bear Agnes Yellow Bear is Plains Cree from Kawacatoose First Nation Saskatchewan Canada Agnes is a wife mother Grassroots Organizer activist and owner designer of ReeCreeations Agnes is an MMIP family member the daughter of a Residential school survivor and Sixties Scoop survivor She uses her lived experiences to advocate for MMIP and Orange Shirt Day her work has been highlighted Nationally Agnes combines her passion for sewing and social justice issues as a way to empower Indigenous People and spark meaningful conversations Her appliqu work has been featured in magazines most notably the ribbon skirt worn by Secretary Of Interior Deb Haaland during her swearing in ceremony which received National attention Agnes has created a ribbon skirt that has been said to be an iconic symbol in the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples movement she has created over 350 for MMIP family members advocates and politicians across Turtle Island ARTIST S STATEMENT The hyper sexualization erasure and negative stereotypes in media portrayal of Indigenous women have greatly impacted how we are seen when we are victims of violence For decades when 202 an Indigenous woman goes missing there is media silence When an Indigenous woman is murdered the media uses dehumanizing words and blame the victim This bias and use of violent language place Indigenous women at greater risk of being targets of violent crimes It is largely due to a lack of social and historical context to explain the cause of the circumstances that Indigenous People live under Indigenous families of the Missing and Murdered have had to fight to be heard This dress was made to combat those negative words and views that the media police and society have said about our beautiful resilient relatives In honor of all Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Girls and Two Spirit relatives I have made this jingle dress that expresses the love families of the missing and murdered carry daily This dress has red jingles and words given to me by family members in honor of their daughters mothers sisters nieces and aunts This is the way we see our loved ones the way we love them unconditionally and eternally Our love gives us strength and courage our love is stronger than any negative thought or comment We are their voice we are each other s strength Please say her name In honor of the families that contributed words to this dress Karen White Geraldine Hendrickson Ashley Morin Amber Redman Nadine Machiskinick Kelly Goforth Annie Mae Pictou Aquash Serenity McKay Lakota Renville Janice Houle Favel Eva Taysup Alyssa Mclemore Leona Kinsey Janine Wesaquate Oakes Selena Not Afraid Eleanor Laney Ewenin And Esther Smith who was found safe in 2020 after being missing for 14 years Say their names Ninaskomtin Hiy hiy 203

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MASHKIKIIWAABIGWANIIN MEDICINE FLOWERS CANISTER SET by Penny Kagigebi Penny Kagigebi White Earth Ojibwe firstgeneration descendant creates traditional and contemporary Ojibwe art focusing on birchbark basketry and quillboxes A QUEER2 Spirit activist she seeks QUEER2 Spirit cultural reclamation with the understanding that nothing is ever really lost everything needed has been left for us and in us She describes herself as an advocate for joy and Mino Bimaadiziwin good life good health through Ojibwe Culture and Arts 206 ARTIST S STATEMENT individuality found in each human being Quillboxes have been made as storage containers by Woodlands Indians since the beginning of time birch bark preserving foods and medicines sweet grass coils repelling insects and porcupine quill embroidered designs labeling the contents This mini quillbox canister set is designed around and titled Medicine Flowers to honor the good medicine of mashkiki strength of the earth The varied trails chasing around each canister represent Ojibwe cultural respect for the differences and My focus on traditional art is an act of revolution Defiance and cultural reclamation in the face of genocide My grandfather and mother were firstand second generation children of reservation policies deprivation boarding schools It s a miracle I m able to live in a traditional way to practice Ojibwe cultural lifeways to harvest birch bark and make art with porcupine quills these gifts pass through me to generations to come 207

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STILL HERE by Agnes Yellow Bear Agnes Yellow Bear is Plains Cree from Kawacatoose First Nation Saskatchewan Canada Agnes is a wife mother Grassroots Organizer activist and owner designer of ReeCreeations Agnes is an MMIP family member the daughter of a Residential school survivor and Sixties Scoop survivor She uses her lived experiences to advocate for MMIP and Orange Shirt Day her work has been highlighted Nationally Agnes combines her passion for sewing and social justice issues as a way to empower Indigenous People and spark meaningful conversations Her appliqu work has been featured in magazines most notably the ribbon skirt worn by Secretary Of Interior Deb Haaland during her swearing in ceremony which received National attention Agnes has created a ribbon skirt that has been said to be an iconic symbol in the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples movement she has created over 350 for MMIP family members advocates and politicians across Turtle Island ARTIST S STATEMENT This dress is meant to express the beauty of what it means when reminding the world that We Are Still Here 210 The Bear represents Protection medicine and healing The Buffalo models generosity abundance and respect The turtle represents the stability we get from our home mother earth The stars remind us that we are connected to the beauty we see in the skies at night We are but a speck of stardust in an ever changing Universe My People refer to themselves as Nehiyaw the People of the Four meaning four ways of knowing the world The fourth way is spiritual I was taught to see the world in a spiritual sense that all things are connected in my language it is called wahkohtowin that we are related to all things the trees the animals the plants the birds the rocks the air the Earth everything All things hold the sacred life of the Creator in them This dress is a homage to the fact that Indigenous Peoples are still here despite the genocide targeted at us in the Americas We have withstood war and economic depletion In my area the killing of the buffalo In other areas it is the salmon intergenerational trauma from 150 years of boarding schools the loss of land and being placed on reservations Assimilation tactics have affected us but they have not erased us We are responsible to our future generations to be good land stewards The women of Indigenous Peoples have embodied moral courage to keep our people alive We have lived with wahkohtowin with all creation since time immemorial Honoring the land as sacred honors life as sacred The basic understanding is that the honor of one is the honor of all and the hurt of one is the hurt of all We are still here There is strength in who we are not because of what we have endured but because of how we survived Through the love of our ancestors and connection to these lands In the spirit of my grandmothers my mother my daughters and the matriarchs of all Indigenous People may we keep moral courage alive in future generations so that the world may be a better place We are all connected Wahkohtowin 211

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THIS IS A HARD PLACE TO LEAVE by Rebecca Oehler Rebecca Oehler is a visual artist whose work focuses on mental health and feminist issues Her practice includes printmaking photography drawing textiles and sculpture In 2020 Oehler graduated from Minnesota State University Moorhead with a BFA in Studio Art with a double emphasis in printmaking and photography and a Minor in Art History 214 ARTIST S STATEMENT My current body of work is a form of selfportraiture a visual representation of my mental health and an exploration of the dissonance between comfort and anxiety I use repetition across mediums including printmaking drawing fiber arts and sculpture to mark my presence and to instill in others a sense of unease The physical act of repetitive mark making is a form of comfort for myself in its predictability and seriality while the visual result generates unease within the viewer This anxiety is thus in contrast with the calming sense of comfort and connection found in familiar objects Soft fabric and embroidery evoke a sense of safety and domesticity while the paper bag an everyday object both ephemeral and disposable is given a heightened importance urging the viewer to look closer and pay attention to what is often overlooked 215

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ABORTION MADE ME A BETTER MOTHER Anonymous Medium Written word Poetry ARTIST S STATEMENT This is a collaborative piece created by two women who both at different stages of their lives faced an unexpected pregnancy The fact that they both had the CHOICE allowed them to process the experience and make a decision that affected the rest of their lives One of them chose to go forward The other decided it was not the right time yet becoming a good mother had to wait This piece is dedicated to all women who have made the choice Because it is a woman s right to decide A ROOM WITHOUT A VIEW Rhonda Gilbertson Evans Medium Written word Essay Country United States Location Moorhead Minnesota Rhonda Jo Gilbertson Evans is a punk Rock poet essayist and spoken word Artist from Moorhead Minnesota She is the proud partner of Brian mother of two phenomenal women and grandmother of 6 Rhonda spends her time working with children with special needs and continues to fight homelessness and economic insecurity in the community In her spare time she gets in as much trouble as possible ARTIST S STATEMENT This work is an expression of the intense emotional interactions between a Learner experiencing deaf blindness and his Educator It explores communicative intent active listening cultural competence and the absolute love of a child It asks the audience to get on the express train uptown in rush hour traffic You need to get there fast It isn t necessarily pretty Or how you wanted to arrive But it s an exhilarating ride 220 221

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CAMP Liz Minette Medium Written word Poetry Country United States Location Esko Minnesota Liz Minette lives and gardens in Esko Minnesota She write in response to social issues that concern her ARTIST S STATEMENT I wrote Camp in response to reading an article in the local newspaper about the removal of a woman s campsite in the city The article stated she was devastated to come back to it being removed her home being thrown into a dumpster after she spent the night in a warmer place I wrote this piece as a reflection of how homelessness is sometimes addressed by concerned parties patriarchal knot Farah Art Griffin Medium Written word Poetry Country United States Location Burbank California Farah Art Griffin is a recipient of the Altman Writers of Color Scholarship from the Hudson Valley Writers Center and a grant from the Writers Happiness Movement Her work appears in The American Journal of Poetry The New Verse News Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival Haiku Invitational and elsewhere She holds a master s degree in Arts in Education from Harvard University ARTIST S STATEMENT This poem is a reflection on patriarchy of the last name and its construct of gender dominance 222 223

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PUT DOWN YOUR GUN Kelly Kaur Medium Written word Poetry Country Canada Location Calgary Alberta Kelly Kaur s novel Letters to Singapore was published by Stonehouse publishing May 1 2022 It was launched in Canada and at the S E Asia s Ubud Writers Festival Her poems and works have been published internationally Here are some of them Understorey Magazine Blindman Session Beer Cans Best Asian Stories 2020 Let In the Light Asia Anthology Best Asian Poetry 2021 2022 International Human Rights Arts Festival New York 2021and 2022 The North Dakota Human Rights Arts Festival Traveling Exhibition Jan to Nov 2022 Growing Up Indian Singapore Anthology 2022 and Landed Transformative Stories of Canadian Immigrant Women September 2022 Kelly s poem The Justice of Death was awarded Honorable Mention in the Creators of Justice Literary Awards International Human Rights Art Festival New York Her story The Kitchen is Her Home published in Fragmented Voice Heart h Home Anthology Fragmented Voice Press United Kingdom October 2021 was nominated for the Pushcart Prize 2022 Her works are on the Lunar Codex project her poem A Singaporean s Love Affair is going to the moon on the NOVA Mission on the NOVA time capsule in 2022 Letters to Singapore will also be going to the moon on the Griffin Mission on the Polaris time capsule in 2023 2024 224 PRAYER FOR CHILDREN AT THE BORDER Karen Van Fossan Medium Written word Poetry Country United States Location Fargo North Dakota Karen Van Fossan is an abolitionist minister licensed professional counselor and lifelong writer As director of Authentic Ministry she is devoted to collective liberation and embodied spirituality Her memoir A Fire at the Center Collective Liberation and the Uneasy Question of Whiteness is due for release from Skinner House Books in fall of 2023 Van Fossan is honored to have received the Archibald Bush Artist Fellowship as a playwright having plays produced in New York Chicago Standing Rock the Twin Cities and various locations across North Dakota Her writing has been featured in Northern Narratives On Second Thought Cairns Art Journal We Moon Anthology Eager for English Arts Dakota Exhibition and others As a screenwriter and co director she has had films featured at the Human Rights Film Festival Standing Rock Film Festival Fargo Film Festival and North Dakota Human Rights Film Arts Festival As a writer for children and young adults she was also fortunate to receive the Emily Award at a recent UND Children s Writers Conference Beloved matriarch to her rambunctious chosen family she lives near the Red River of the North in Fargo North Dakota ARTIST S STATEMENT This poem is rooted in deep concern about U S imperialism which dehumanizes all human beings in different ways and to different degrees manifesting in injustice against immigrants migrants and refugees I have used the form of prayer because in my experience prayer can support people to clarify our visions and move from personal intention to collective action 225

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SOLIDARITY IS NOT A FAVOR Karen Van Fossan Medium Written word Poetry Country United States Location Fargo North Dakota Karen Van Fossan is an abolitionist minister licensed professional counselor and lifelong writer As director of Authentic Ministry she is devoted to collective liberation and embodied spirituality Her memoir A Fire at the Center Collective Liberation and the Uneasy Question of Whiteness is due for release from Skinner House Books in fall of 2023 Van Fossan is honored to have received the Archibald Bush Artist Fellowship as a playwright having plays produced in New York Chicago Standing Rock the Twin Cities and various locations across North Dakota Her writing has been featured in Northern Narratives On Second Thought Cairns Art Journal We Moon Anthology Eager for English Arts Dakota Exhibition and others As a screenwriter and co director she has had films featured at the Human Rights Film Festival Standing Rock Film Festival Fargo Film Festival and North Dakota Human Rights Film Arts Festival As a writer for children and young adults she was also fortunate to receive the Emily Award at a recent UND Children s Writers Conference Beloved matriarch to her rambunctious chosen family she lives near the Red River of the North in Fargo North Dakota ARTIST S STATEMENT This poem was inspired by the Water Protector movement at Standing Rock and life at Oceti Sakowin Camp the most life giving community I have ever experienced 226 THE HYMEN TEST Kelly Kaur Medium Written word Poetry Country Canada Location Calgary Alberta Kelly Kaur s novel Letters to Singapore was published by Stonehouse publishing May 1 2022 It was launched in Canada and at the S E Asia s Ubud Writers Festival Her poems and works have been published internationally Here are some of them Understorey Magazine Blindman Session Beer Cans Best Asian Stories 2020 Let In the Light Asia Anthology Best Asian Poetry 2021 2022 International Human Rights Arts Festival New York 2021and 2022 The North Dakota Human Rights Arts Festival Traveling Exhibition Jan to Nov 2022 Growing Up Indian Singapore Anthology 2022 and Landed Transformative Stories of Canadian Immigrant Women September 2022 Kelly s poem The Justice of Death was awarded Honorable Mention in the Creators of Justice Literary Awards International Human Rights Art Festival New York Her story The Kitchen is Her Home published in Fragmented Voice Heart h Home Anthology Fragmented Voice Press United Kingdom October 2021 was nominated for the Pushcart Prize 2022 Her works are on the Lunar Codex project her poem A Singaporean s Love Affair is going to the moon on the NOVA Mission on the NOVA time capsule in 2022 Letters to Singapore will also be going to the moon on the Griffin Mission on the Polaris time capsule in 2023 2024 227

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A BOY OF MAY Directed by Seung il Chon 1E Chon Seung il graduated from College of Fine Arts Seoul National University and Graduated from Dongguk University Graduate School He is an animation and automata director at Automata Factory Chon Seung il created the independent animations Tomorrow Human 1994 Pencil Story 1995 Circulation 1996 We Love You 1997 MIMESIS TV 2000 Cosmic Tree 2003 Cold Blood 2004 Memory of May 2007 My War 2013 Korean GENOCIDE 2021 Expanded Coexistence 2022 His animation has been shown at world renowned film festivals including the Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen Tehran International Short Film Festival Rome Independent Film Festival Ottawa International Animation Festival International Short Film Festival Berlin International Festival of Animated Films AniFest Trebon Hiroshima International Animation Festival Busan International Film Festival Jeonju International Film Festival Seoul Independent Film Festival Hong Kong World Film Festival and has won several awards 234 DIRECTOR S STATEMENT Among the victims of the May 18 Gwangju Democratic Uprising in 1980 57 were teenagers Their small bodies which had not grown up were stabbed wildly by countless guns and knives and their dead bodies were trampled on by soldiers Jeon Jae soo a fourth year elementary school student and Bang Gwang beom a first year middle school student were two of them Why did martial law forces have to kill even young children There was no reason for the children to die This film tries to remember this fact and keep it in mind 235

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PLUS Directed by Bohdan Romanko 1E Bohdan Romanko is the Founder and Creative Director of the Ukrainian Non Profit entitled UAID Under Bohdan s leadership he has established a thriving group of volunteers who support Ukrainian heroes From the first day of the full scale Russian attack on Ukraine everyone in UAID decided to be useful They started volunteering to provide people with much needed equipment and supplies Recently they created a charity to amplify their efforts to help and raise funds They support their compatriots on the front line because Ukraine s victory on the battlefield is the primary ground for our country s further existence Despite war raging Romanko is a Senior UX designer at Pixetic and an experienced interface specialist with a demonstrated history of working in the computer software industry He is a strong arts and design professional skilled in User Experience UX Product design User Interface Design and Graphic Design Romanko received his Masters Degree from the prestigious Lviv National Academy of Arts in Lviv Ukraine 242 DIRECTOR S STATEMENT Basically speaking volunteering helped me pull myself together and take my mind off how fucked up my world had become due to the Russian attack on my homeland I wanted to help in some way any way I m far from being a good warrior However going to work and paying taxes didn t seem enough to me The phrase everyone should just do their own thing sounds like an excuse to me I felt it was necessary to join the fight Ukrainians are one big family and if everyone in the country spent at least an hour a day working towards our victory we would be carrying the planet not the other way around The short film Plus came out of UAID s website a short interactive piece created to raise awareness and solicit donations for the men and women fighting for Ukraine against the Russian attack Plus was never shot as a short film Instead the story was uniquely crafted using computer code The cinematic world was designed using artificial intelligence to innovatively re create imagery from the war as an experiment in new age Experimentalism The story and characters depicted in the film are fictional derived from real life Ukrainian heroes fighting on the front lines and the passionate people volunteering to support them in the rear Under the tutelage of Kevin Cooper an American filmmaker we re designed the interactive Plus to create a novel stand alone short film that is yet another form of self expression of the tragedy of this war which will be used to further sound the alarm about Ruscism or P roughly translated as Russian fascism the culmination of extreme right wing values that now form the Russian war ideology and its terroristic attack on Ukraine Plus is our way of adding our voices to the world s discourse by speaking out as loudly and passionately as possible about the murders and trauma brought down on our people by Russian criminals We know that time will not judge Russia kindly but the war is still here still happening People are being injured and dying daily 243

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THE BLACK DISQUISITION Directed by Quincy G Ledbetter Producer Emily McCann Lesser Yuki Maekawa Ledbetter Dashiell Robb Screenwriter Quincy G Ledbetter Key Cast Haley Webb Zainab Jah Rusty Schwimmer Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine Terrance Broughton Jr The Black Disquisition is an affecting true story of the traumatic event in a boy s life that fractures his self image and the difficult conversation his parents must have with him about race in America With its avant garde narrative structure and rotoscope animation this film illuminates how a brief childhood encounter can alter a life well into adulthood The Black Disquisition is an affecting true story of the traumatic event in a boy s life that fractures his self image and the difficult conversation his parents must have with him about race in America With its avant garde narrative structure and rotoscope animation this film illuminates how a brief childhood encounter can alter a life well into adulthood Year 2021 Running time 10 minutes Country United States Language English 1 244 245

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THE BLACK DISQUISITION Directed by Quincy G Ledbetter 1 Quincy Ledbetter is an award winning filmmaker photographer and musician who focuses primarily in narrative documentary and experimental film As a jack of all trades he writes directs photographs edits and composes music for his films Quincy couldn t afford film school so he bought a camera and taught himself how to make films through hands on experimentation while learning the tricks of the trade through books Google and Youtube produced shot and edited original content From there Ledbetter did a short freelance stint at NPR developing new shows and then moved on to work as a Video Director Editor at Mic After that he landed at HuffPost as a Video Director and Senior Video Editor Most recently Quincey won the Project CRE8 competition by BET and Paramount Players to direct my forthcoming feature film Alieu the Dreamer He took the leap into digital media as a Video Producer Editor at Mashable where he conceived 246 DIRECTOR S STATEMENT America loves her heroes After the Twin Towers fell we built a beautiful monument erected The Freedom Tower and lauded our inherent tenacity For every war we have fought Hollywood shows us images of soldiers laying their lives on the frontlines for freedom and for country When we remember the Civil Rights Movement we are shown images of a civil people marching in the streets amplifying a dream But there swept under America s rug are the untold stories about those who battle the lasting effects of trauma stories about a lifetime of healing The Black Disquisition tells the story of a boy affected and of a man affected It is the story of a different kind of hero one whose self love was stripped away and began a lifelong journey to take it back The film is told from my perspective as a young boy We use rotoscope animation to heighten the imaginative nature of a child s mind providing a sense of combined realism and surrealism The sets were designed in 3D space to give the film its own texture that goes beyond the constraints of 2D animation and live footage Then the backgrounds were painted over by talented black artists to implement their own texture and perspective Racism is a systemic issue so we tend to only view it as a fight against external sources but we often forget about how it affects us internally With all the love I have to give Quincy G Ledbetter 247

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BAD CHILD Directed by Nicole Emil ana Mendez 1 Nicole Emil ana Mendez is a filmmaker and visual artist with a background in contemporary figurative painting Born in Key West Florida and moving many times as a child she grew up with a love for people watching in ever changing environments A survivor of childhood sexual trauma her work focuses heavily on the emotions of young girls and their interactions with the world around them Mendez only recently discovered her love for filmmaking while attending graduate school Her first short film The Dress screened on five continents and won several small awards She just completed her second short film Bad Child a documentary about childhood sexual abuse Between projects Mendez freelances as an editor wedding videographer and film colorist Mendez has exhibited her artwork around the country She has had work featured at the Oceanside Museum of Art has been published in several local magazines throughout southern California and has had her work discussed on KPBS Midday Edition Her original paintings are in private collections throughout the United States Canada Sweden Iceland and Germany 252 DIRECTOR S STATEMENT Bad Child is about the more intimate less visible outcomes caused by enduring repeated childhood sexual abuse It is about my own history and I ve combined poetic experimental and traditional techniques to express that which is inherently unrepresentable trauma The layers of images sounds and animation convey the complexity of living with trauma and work together to overstimulate the viewer The constant music and dialogue create a sense of anxiety as it carries on with little reprieve At the same time the somewhat obscured speech as I address my parents mirrors my current relationship with them especially after learning that the abuse was more extensive than I previously recalled Although it isn t completely clear in the film numerous other isolated occasions of abuse occurred between the ages of six and fourteen after listening to the details repeatedly I thought them too disturbing to include Reviewing ten hours of interview footage of myself while editing was traumatizing and listening to my words repeatedly while trying to decide what was important was very difficult In addition I was filming during a pandemic with a high risk child Where some interviews had to be moved due to illness others could not be scheduled or rescheduled To limit exposure I built sets at home I completed all filming as a one person camera crew including my own interviews While conceptualizing this film I was inspired by Jonathan Caouette s Tarnation Susan Hiller s PSI GIRLS and Gillian Wearing s use of masks Although I initially intended for the structure to be highly experimental after my parents refused to be interviewed for the film I pivoted to a more poetic approach During the production phase I decided to report the man who repeatedly abused me as a child This made completing Bad Child more difficult as I was constantly emotionally drained from the process Although I encountered personal and logistical challenges I felt strongly about completing this film and submitting it to festivals I sold off several of my old paintings to raise money for festival submissions to get Bad Child in front of as many people as possible I made every effort to create a film that told a story while presenting critical information to caregivers of abused children My relationship with my parents is past the point of repair but that doesn t mean other families can t heal from abuse Ultimately I hope my film helps with that healing 253

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JUMPING FENCES ART HEALING AND BECOMING CHICANO Directed by Alfred M Hernandez 1 Alfred Hernandez s work stems from decades of creative exploration and practices from experimental animation to conceptual performance art When it comes to creativity and the artist s life he makes no major distinction between what one might call high art and a movie or snapshot All of these taken as a whole reflect an approach to living creatively while utilizing the various genres of filmmaking and photography as a way of self reflection and self growth Starting with animation as a young man it was clear to Hernandez that there was an exciting benefit to art making especially when the artist is in control of all aspects of the practices from idea to final editing and even acting and design These one might say are the languages of creativity and the universal vocabulary in which human beings relate His interest in art making coincided with his interest in psychology and spirituality culminated in his later years and works with social and cultural inquiry Hernandez s interest has less to do with trying to create new genres and rather use and blend genres with fluidity Images and stories blend and flow as in Surrealism and dreams His work also reflects in many ways the Chicano experience There are themes and perspectives unique in what can be termed Chicano Art that can be found Hernandez s work connection to nature resistance to oppression traditional Mexican Chicano iconography regard for the family and for community 256 DIRECTOR S STATEMENT Jumping Fences is a film that tracks the emotional journey and healing of a young Chicano man The youth is troubled riddled with inner conflicts and a restless body filled with pain He is doing his best to release himself and integrate this energy within him and the holding patterns of his mind and body which he adopted from his fenced off boxed in environment It is a symbolic story in the sense of dreams where each character and place and object in the dream reflect the psyche of the dreamer I wanted to fill the film with the psychological practices that I was learning while telling the story as well of colonization and oppression and internalized oppression This is a story about a Chicano male body and psyche going through a process that ultimately integrates him with the healing power of nature itself This film continues an interest I had of taking a look at the body in the environment while contrasting the natural environment with the man made modern environment an environment that evolved from colonial ideas about land and society This is the first film where I use my own body as a subject for imagery and character as I don several masks and play the main character For me this film was a kind of ritual a gestalt therapy where I interact with the forces of oppression within me while taking walks through Golden Gate Park with masks and camera equipment The filmmaker goes on the same journey as the character of the film in a sense The filmmaking itself becomes a vehicle for healing I was living in the Mission District in San Francisco at the time and I had witnessed several acts of violence in the streets that left me feeling baffled and wanting to understand violence I decided to look at my own experience with violence and thought I would look at the violence in my own home a violence that was used as a form of punishment but left me an unresolved tension in my body I wanted to use this video as a way of forgiving my father by looking at the generational aspect of the use of violence which stemmed perhaps from the early histories of genocide and slavery and punishment of Native people of the Americas Jumping Fences was funded by ITVS and the Corporation of Public Broadcasting and shown on various PBS stations in the United States and was features as part of ITVS s American Independents series 257

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MIGRANTS Directed by Masoud Ahmadi Producer Mohammad Shokravi Screenwriter Masoud Ahmadi Key Cast Shima Poursahmedin Ghazaal Rafiee Shiva Bafahm Amin Dowlatkhah Sara Zarei Mobina Kheiri Maryam Dehghani Seest thou not that they wander distracted in every valley Migrants follows fifteen different individuals yet does not tell their stories We have fifteen stories but not told This film in a way is a cinematic interpretation of Jerzy Grotowski s poor theatre Poor in everything Regardless of its production condition everything that we see in the film is simultaneously in it and it is not We encounter a bird that both is and is not A train that passes and does not A car that drives by and does not An explosion that occurs and does not And a people who exist and do not This is what migration is You leave your place of birth but you are as if still there You go somewhere else you feel yourself physically somewhere else but have left behind your real self Year 2021 Running time 85 minutes Country Iran Q 258 259

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MIGRANTS Directed by Masoud Ahmadi Q Masoud Ahmadi was born on 1981 in Shiraz which is the city of Hafez and Saadia home to great poets with global fame and of course the city of Persepolis Ahmadi started filmmaking 23 years ago starting with short films that achieved success in numerous festivals Then he came into making documentary and experimental films He also has extensive experience in theater both in as director and playwriter fields Ahmadi s award winning work has been performed in several festivals to much aclaim Ahmadi combined his experiences to make his first feature film in a complete experimental atmosphere In today s current geography he and his team felt an obligation to innovate poor cinema appealing to poor theater that Jerzy Grotowski innovated before Through that work Migrants was born 260 DIRECTOR S STATEMENT Migrants is the acquaintance story of past and today of my land People struggling to migrate from their home country under any circumstance Migration is easy for some and hard for others 261

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SEED POLLINATE BLOOM Directed by Katrina Brook Flores Jonathan Woods Katrina Brook Flores is an Indigenous Xicanx multimedia and multi practice artist born in Wisconsin with creative rootedness in visual arts poetry and Hip Hop cultural practice through Breakin and Spoken Word Their work addresses the meaning of boundaryspanning border crossing and binary breaking through experiencing the way colonial systems hierarchical institutions gendered constructs and conquer and divide tactics have hurt Indigenous communities and natural ecosystems globally They seeks to offer solutions healings and hope in calling forward a re claimed and re imagined future rooted in joyful ways of being and ancestral teachings Flores is a graduate from UW Madison While at UW Madison they served in multiple roles including the Arts In Education Director for OMAI First Wave as well as the Co Director of Breakin The Law International Festival of Urban Movement After moving to Chicago Flores served as the Community Programs Director for RedMoon Theater Associate Curator for The B Series at the Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago and Chief Operating Officer of The 264 Firehouse Community Arts Center in the Chicago neighborhood of North Lawndale Currently Flores serves as co founder of GIT Productions with Macca Malik Michael Manuel In 2020 El La Katrina became a new mother to Marcelino Nibi Taw and a Dark Matter ArtistIn Residence at Elastic Arts in Chicago During their residence at Elastic Arts and Dark Matter in 2020 2021 they developed their 2 directorial and screenplay debuts SEED POLLINATE BLOOM and ASSAMAN Wolof word for The Cosmos Jonathan Woods is a Chicago based artist specializing in film direction improvised motion visual performance and music production His early fascination with both surrealist and African means of expression has fueled his visionary work for over 20 years He has worked with artists as diverse as Public Enemy Wesley Snipes Composers Nicole Mitchell Ben Lamar Gay Angel Bat Dawid Woods is also a founding partner and Executive at indie production and distribution company AuspiceNOW 265

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STUDIO WITH A VIEW Directed by Mara Wollong Mara Wollong is a filmmaker and artist based in New York City She is making her directorial debut with Studio with a View for which she also served as cinematographer and editor An immigrant from Germany Wollong moved to the city to complete her education and never left She works as a film editor and loves experimenting with different forms of storytelling Wollong also shoots produces writes and creates art mostly on found objects Her current work in progress is a pop art series entitled Monsters Everywhere 268 DIRECTOR S STATEMENT What initially inspired me to make this film was the many extraordinary ways New York became unrecognizable in the early days of the pandemic As the city reached a standstill my perspective of it also shifted dramatically Like most non essential workers I spent a lot of time at home and experienced the city and my immediate neighborhood in whole new ways This idea of shifting perspectives is at the heart of Studio with a View and the reason I chose to shoot it from one single point of view As my apartment window became my window to the world extraordinary things happened below representing not only one city block but also the larger social political and economic crises currently unfolding I like to think of Studio with a View as a visual poem or a kind of dance and purposely provided little narrative guidance Thus I hope to invite the audience on a journey of their own making one that reflects both their own experiences and the historical forces of our time 269

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THE HUNDRED YEARS BINGE Directed by Pamela Falkenberg Jack Cochran 1EQD Pamela Falkenberg is an independent filmmaker who received her PhD from the University of Iowa and taught at Northern Illinois University St Mary s College and the University of Notre Dame She directed the largest student film society in the US while she was at the University of Iowa and also ran films series for the Snite Museum of Art in South Bend IN Her experimental film with Dan Curry Open Territory received an individual filmmaker grant from the National Endowment for the Arts as well as grants from the Center for New Television and the Indiana Arts Council OT screened at the Pacific Film Archives as well at numerous film festivals including the AFI Video Festival and was nominated for a regional Emmy Her other films include museum installations scholarly academic hybrid works shown at film conferences and a documentary commissioned by the Peace Institute at the University of Notre Dame She is an occasional contributor to Moving Poems Magazine Jack Cochran is an independent filmmaker who has produced directed or shot a variety of experimental and personal projects As a DP he has extensive experience shooting commercials independent features and documentaries His varied commercial client list includes BMW Ford Nissan Fujifilm Iomega Corum Watches and Forte Hotels His features and documentaries have shown at the Sundance Raindance Telluride Tribeca Edinburgh Chicago Houston and Taos film Festivals winning several honors His commercials and documentaries have won Silver Lions from Cannes a BAFTA British Academy Award Peabody Awards and Cable Aces Some notable credits Director of Photography on Brian Griffin s Claustrofoamia 276 Cinematography for Antony Thomas Tank Man Director Cinematographer of Viento Nocturno and Cinematographer of Ramin Niami s feature film Paris Jack was trained at the University of Iowa Creative Writers Workshop as well as the University of Iowa film studies program DIRECTOR S STATEMENT For over seven years Jack Cochran and Pamela Falkenberg have been making personal films together again under the name Outlier Moving Pictures They hope their work will prove worthy of the name avoiding the usual patterns and approaching their subject matter from the margins which sounds better than saying that as filmmakers they re oddballs and cranks Pam and Jack met in graduate school and made films together when they were young Jack went on to become a professional cinematographer working out of LA and London while Pam stayed in the Midwest where she was a college professor and independent filmmaker before dropping out to work in visual display Jack and Pam co direct the films they make together and they collaborate fully even when they divide up the credits Their poetry films usually start with a poem often but not always one of Jack s poems the exact process depends on the project and remains open to experiment so our body of work is somewhat disparate and hard to categorize Some of our eclectic interests include collage found footage and repurposing the film essay and film poetry image capturing and post production techniques that reveal what cannot be seen with the eyes alone e g high shutter speeds moving cameras infrared photography green screen and digital layering the environment landscapes and the ways humans mark them human rights social justice and postmodern melodrama which they think of as analogous to a script Jack has written poetry all his life but he never knew what to do with it until he shared his notebooks with Pam who said You re a filmmaker shouldn t your poems be films Pam and Jack both want to make lots of different kinds of films together but Pam is especially proud to have been the one who suggested that Jack s poems should come to life as films They are both delighted that making films of Jack s poems has led to interesting collaborations with other poets and filmmakers 277

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THE SPACE BETWEEN US Directed by Gabriel Diamond 1 Born and raised in Berkeley and Oakland Gabriel Diamond is the staff filmmaker for the Skoll Foundation where he documents the work of visionaries and social entrepreneurs His subjects have included Malala Al Gore Kofi Annan Bono Jimmy Carter Annie Lennox and many more In his work he strives to promote empathy magic between strangers and inspiring ideas When not making films you can often find him exploring various conscious dance modalities DIRECTOR S STATEMENT The idea for this film had been brewing in my mind for years The urge came from my own inquiry into how I wanted to show up for racial justice as a white CIS man and a filmmaker and dancer I wanted to find a way to create a space for all the messiness minefields fragility anger resentment rage trauma and fear to be expressed and witnessed in an intimate setting We re often encouraged to have uncomfortable conversations around race but are rarely shown how those can actually be and even more rarely given the opportunity to have those conversations In the midsts of the collective trauma and reckoning following George Flyd s murder I knew there was a huge amount of pent up energy around a need for racial healing but a lot of fear of not getting it right I wanted to find out what would it be like to have a Black and White dancer and take turns asking each other deeply personal vulnerable questions bearing witness and then dancing their responses I wanted to be sure that the performers were going into the situation not only fully aware of 280 these risks but willing to name them openly So it was crucial that there was a certain level of trust that they would have with me as the director in the filmmaking and editing process and between each other While helping to create the films for the 2021 Virtual Skoll World Forum with the theme of Closing The Distance I pitched this idea and my colleagues at the Skoll Foundation and they gave me a green light to produce the film I knew Sarah Crowell a bit from a weekly Soul Motion dance we were part of led by Valerie Chafograck Sarah was an activist educator community leader and dancer When I mentioned her name Keith was very enthusiastic as they d known each other for nearly 20 years but only marginally So there was a history and mutual respect but they d never worked together or gotten to know each other deeply I had met Keith Hennesey over 20 years ago when he choreographed a piece I was acting in at New Conservatory Theatre Center in San Francisco We were Facebook friends and over the years and I d admired the fierce and direct way he showed up for anti racist work particularly his disdain for playing into White fragility When I shared this idea with him he immediately cautioned me about how this was a highly charged experiment loaded with potential for harm that the dancers would come into the situation with very different vulnerabilities power dynamics and risks What each dancer would stand to gain from the experience was also very different We talked through all sorts of potential pitfalls and and eventually he came to agree that despite it being full of potential for harm the idea had promise if we could find the right people I reached out to Sarah with the idea She d recently seen my short film Dance With Me where I was blindfolded inviting strangers to dance and was moved by it and told me Yeah I ll work with this guy Sarah Keith and I had a series of conversations about the process They agreed to not know the questions ahead of time and that I would whisper the question to one of them so there could be an honest reaction spontaneously on camera and no responses would be prepared I was really nervous sharing the final film with Sarah and Keith but they both loved it and are excited to help share the story of how this kind of dialog and experience can be a tool for racial healing 281

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TranStyX Directed by Moncef Zahrouni 1EQ My grandmother is a gifted storyteller she matte painted a world of fantasy during my childhood and opened its doors to me every night I make movies to perpetuate her tradition of storytelling reinventing the world and colliding ideospheres 284 DIRECTOR S STATEMENT TranStyX is openly straightforwardly and unapologetically Queer in a country that criminalizes gender identities and sexual orientations that trespass the binary norm TranStyX is an inclusive work of art emerging from the local community and its allies a tribute to all those who left us too early while trying to elbow their way toward the light at the high end of the dark tunnel a personal yet universal story of a struggle with a bittersweet local taste 285

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THE MISSISSIPPI Directed by Keely Kernan 1 Keely Kernan is an award winning filmmaker and photographer who grew up in the Appalachian mountains of southern Pennsylvania She has traveled extensively both nationally and internationally to produce work for a variety of media outlets and non p rofits Her work focuses on topics such as the environment the natural resources that we use daily globalization identity and community Her work also explores the construction of identity and how our external landscapes shape and transform us She is a recipient of the 2018 Princess Grace Award in film Kernan has produced work for publications such as the Guardian The Huffington Post and CCTV Africa She has also screened and exhibited work at the DC Environmental Film Festival Carnegie Institution for Science Big Sky Documentary Film Festival Bright Lights Film Series partnering with MIT s Women Take the Reel Film Festival American Conservation Film Festival Environmental Film Festival at Yale SlamDance Film Festival The Natural Resources Defense Council and The Gordon Parks Museum 290 DIRECTOR S STATEMENT The Mississippi is an interactive self guided journey that brings to the forefront issues at the heart of American society today such as social and economic struggle and cultural and environmental sustainability The disparity between which communities are impacted by poor environmental quality social inequity issues of water quality and environmental disasters are woven within the landscape of the river We can only begin to address these issues by learning about the physical environment we inhabit and how we are connected to it rural and urban communities Native American reservations communities of color northern and southern places of heritage and culture and through the farmlands of the midwest as it makes its way to the Gulf of Mexico The Mississippi utilizes interactive components documentary storytelling to create a sensory and place based experience Traveling provides an immersive learning experience that is personal and intimate For this reason the project is designed as a journey down the river that explores how the river is a place of value Thousands of tributaries unite to create the main artery of the river The Mississippi flows through 291

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MAHARAJA S CHILDREN A BRAVE BUNCH IN INDIA Directed by Tomasz Patryk Stankiewicz 1E Tomasz Stankiewicz Director DOP Screenwriter studied film directing at the Warsaw Film School Cinematographer and coeditor of Invisible In 2015 he directed hybrid documentary for children A Brave Bunch the Uprising through Children s Eyes aired by TVP ABC channel and used as primary education tool in over 250 Polish schools and abroad The film was screened at numerous film festivals on four continents and won 9 international awards including Best Documentary Award at 18th Olympia IFF in Greece Best Documentary Short Award in Seoul Guro IFF in South Korea Best Children Film Award in Jaipur FF Best Documentary Award at Assam FF 294 DIRECTOR S STATEMENT We tell the story from the perspective of 12year old Wieslaw The documentary follows the convention of returning to childhood with an air of adventure The story is told by comic animations videos and archives The story includes interactive maps of Eurasia which show Wiesio s journey from his home in Poland through his family s exile to a Siberian village to his new home in India The webdoc s turning points are in the form of animation films some black and white some full of colour depending on the depicted events Some of the memories from the Camp for the Polish Children in Balachadi are filmed with child actors and included as short film impressions The project includes downloadable lesson plans in Polish 295

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FACE ON A COIN Performed by Brayden Ryle 1M Brayden Ryle is a teen music sensation with a smooth voice full of emotion as he sings the lyrics to They Rage On by Dan Seals in his latest YouTube video Brayden s newest music video release received over 1 000 views on YouTube in just the first couple of days Collectively Brayden has been featured in videos on YouTube that total 10 million views and growing The latest music video is a cover of They Rage On that was recorded at Big Matador Recording studio Brayden is an actor and singer who has received numerous awards including Best Original Song from the FAB Chart Music Awards for his collaboration with Jadyn Rylee called Only You He s also been nominated for 4 Josie Awards with winners to be announced in November 2020 As a freshman in high school he is making a splash in country music and in the pop music world As his fanbase expands around the country and internationally this young musician has an incredibly bright future in the music industry His performance on camera and on stage is magnetic and draws the audience in It s no wonder that the fans go crazy for every new song he puts out 300 Face On a Coin Verse 1 In a great migration ten thousand years ago Across the frozen tundra the eastbound migrants flowed They settled lakes and prairie each nation every tribe Taking harvest from the fertile land the moon to keep their time Verse 3 The great chiefs were made famous in western tv lore White men were captivated by the feathers brave chiefs wore A Manifest of Destiny and the bloodshed it defends For bounties placed on native heads a coin can t make amends Bridge Verse 2 Another wave of migrants came to escape or pioneer They crossed a great sea westward to face a new frontier Disease and rifles laid waste as men claimed new terrain Their carnage rolled through like a wave and left a timeless stain Lone Horn and Tecumseh shed blood upon the soil In war with migrants from the east the victors claimed the spoils Repeat Chorus Chorus The birth of this great nation brought death to many more The smoking of a peace pipe replaced by guns and war Blood stained the sacred ground at Wounded Knee and Big Horn The buriel mounds could not be healed with a Chief s face on a coin 301

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SHOW ME THE VISION Performed by OVISION 1Q Eclectic art in a concept album isn t the most common way to approach music in 2022 This didn t stop the creators of OVISION when it came to truly expressing themselves with music A musical journey into the world of new jazz hip hop experimental soul and progressive rock OVISION aims to leave its listeners perplexed in an overdose of creative influx leaving them with something close to a spiritual experience A project that you would have to use a lot of imagination to conceive produced by one of the greatest funk musicians in Italian history Stefano de Donato alongside a 21 year old Italian AmericanMoroccan Spanish singer songwriter in Roc Flowers Collaborations with some of the most renowned jazz musicians in Europe with Fabrizio Bosso on the trumpet and Max Ionata on the saxophone The album is complimented by Leonardo Volo a magician on the keys Toti Panazanelli a guitar dragon and Francesco Cherubini a human drum machine that could make J Dilla jealous This collective of artists were the ingredients necessary in the recipe for a plate of OVISION The idea for OVISION came naturally executive producer MR QJP had a vision to create an album with the inspiration of what Miles Davis would have produced in 2022 this was the seed that began to spread it roots and from this seed the OVISION tree was born The seed was planted and Roc Flowers along with Stefano de Donato got to work on what would slowly turn into OVISION As Roc Flowers singersongwriter producer says the writing of OVISION was a trance we can try to be as commercial and 304 unpoetic as possible on a press release but the truth is I was spiritually somewhere else when I wrote this album Flowers mentions a vision presenting itself before him while writing the first song of the project Show me the Vision A blue woman surrounded by circles that s what wrote Show me the Vision that s where the entire idea of OVISION came from With this lyrical seed envisioned De Donato continued to produce transcending instrumentals that Flowers continued to express this mystical vision on God is Blue The Veil More than 3D And I know we re birthed and the overall concept of the album began to take place The water drop in the intro of the album God is Blue represents the process of writing this album says Flowers It started from a small vision and it continued to grow it s like we got in tune with some ideas floating in the air and somehow recorded Ovision began to also curate the instrumental side of the album tracks like Mood Variations 5D and I m From another Planet were born an indeed they do sound like they are from another planet weaving psychedelic jazz into afrobeat styled grooves the music is fit for anything from reflection on a rainy night to dancing while surrounded friends De Donato continued to polish the instrumental side of things along with the creative input of QJP and Flowers The collaborating musicians did their part and the album flowed into its finishing steps after a couple of recording sessions from the Canary Islands to London to Florence and Rome Italy the album was finished I have recorded platinum and gold albums but nothing has ever fulfilled me as much as this project This really is something special mentioned De Donato typical the hardest of music critics I am really proud of this work I can die happy OVISION is believing OVISION is manifesting dreams OVISION is infinite creativity in the air grabbing what s mystical and trying our best to turn it into something somewhat material says Flowers This is the first album of the OVISION collective an artistic concept fueled by Mr QJP and Roc Flowers that plans to create much more music in the future Music breaks the barrier of language their is no box no limits The goal is to create until we can create no more states Mr QJP driven on pushing this album to the public it deserves and eager to inspire new ideas for more music in the near future 305

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STAY ALIVE MY SON CHAPTER ONE Directed by Victoria Bousis EQC In her 20 s Victoria Bousis started as a career prosecutor for the Attorney General of Illinois to bring justice to the disenfranchised Later as a producer for over a decade she transcended social political and geographical barriers to bring powerful messages about the human experience to global audiences with notable films showcased at Venice TIFF and Sundance Victoria followed technological advances and embraced VR and narrative gaming to speak to future generations In 2018 Victoria earned a Master s in Media Technology and Innovation from MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology converging cinema gaming and neuroscience to deliver powerful character driven stories to be experienced by audiences with agency Stay Alive My Son is her directorial debut officially selected in Cannes development showcase in 2020 and now in Venice In 2022 honored as a pioneering woman in Virtual Production by the Hollywood Production Association Victoria founded UME a creative and technology based game company to pioneer the future of storytelling across all mediums and platforms for film series and VR AR experiences made in the Unreal Game Engine Globally Victoria has received notable awards wins and nominations for her pioneering vision including WINNING Best Director and Best Revolutionary Director Nominations for Best Director Best Debut Director 310 DIRECTOR S STATEMENT Nine years after finding the book in Cambodia I was inspired by Pin Yathay s quest for closure and salvation for abandoning his son I wanted to break the rules of tradition medium via technology while preserving the power of cinematic storytelling via VR I saw great potential in immersive tech s ability to invoke complex emotions of joy grief guilt and empowerment in the virtual world less provoking via traditional mediums to inspire people I believe great strength and power exists in the human spirit to face and triumph over adversity and positively impact our world In the context of this experience one of these missions is to change in narrative of family separation in the real world The narrative of family separation has been discussed but unification is not politically challenged or effectively achieved leaving parents and children with the trauma of separation including the Jewish Holocaust Syria America Mexico and now Ukraine By merging powerful storytelling and technology I wanted audiences to experience but also be compelled to act to preserve family unity I saw the power in creating a digital human of Yathay to humanize the experience deepening the purpose of this story By heightening the Player s sensory experience and deepening the interactions with Yathay the Player is urged to help this father find peace while solidifying the traumatic narrative of family separation and highlighting the need for unification Ultimately for me this is an inspirational story about the strength of the human spirit and the power of familial love The unbreakable bond between a parent and child and a love that endures the impossible 311

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WATER COLTAN Directed by Daniel K tter 1 Daniel K tter Germany 1975 is a documentary filmmaker and theater director His research based works alternate between media and institutional contexts They have been shown worldwide at film festivals in galleries and theaters Since 2007 visual research on urbanization and political landscapes leads him to the African continent and the Middle East His major works include the film and performance series state theatre about urban conditions of performativity in the cities of Lagos Tehran Berlin Detroit Beirut M nchengladbach 2009 2014 the research exhibition and film project CHINAFRIKA 2013 2019 and the film trilogy Hashti Tehran 2017 Special Award of the German Short Film Award Desert View 2018 and Rift Finfinnee 2020 DEFA Award DOK Leipzig about urban peripheries in Tehran Cairo and Addis Ababa Since 2019 Daniel K tter was working on the series of spatial performances and 360 films landscapes and bodies on the consequences of extractivism in Germany West Papua and Democratic Republic of Congo His 360 film Water Coltan 2021 is premiered at IDFA DocLab Competition 314 315