Innocent Until Proven Guilty

(67 minutes, 1999)

Directed by: Kirsten Johnson
Produced by: Katy Chevigny and Julia Pimsleur
Camera by: John Foster
Music by: Bill Toles
Edited by: Sikay Tang
Executive Produced by: St. Clair Bourne

Innocent Until Proven Guilty is a one-hour documentary that takes a critical look at the U.S. criminal justice system through the eyes of a young black public defender in Washington, DC. At a time when an astonishing number of African-American men are under criminal justice supervision (as many as 1 in 3), this informative film questions why we have a generation of men behind bars.

Innocent Until Proven Guilty introduces James Forman, Jr., a 31-year-old public defender who is the son of civil rights leader Jim Forman, (executive director of SNCC, the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee). Following in the family’s tradition of political activism, James Forman is on the frontlines of the what he believes to be today’s civil rights movement: defending young black men and women who cannot afford representation and trying to help them break an ongoing cycle of crime and incarceration. This verité film documents Forman’s work at the Public Defender Service and at an alternative high school for juvenile ex-offenders, which he co-founded. Through an in-depth look at Forman’s efforts, Innocent Until Proven Guilty sheds light on the criminalization of African American juveniles caught up in the legal system.

• World premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival, 1999. Screenings at the Mill Valley Film Festival, Smithsonian Institute, Urbanworld Film Festival (Honorary Prize, Best Documentary). Nominated by the International Documentary Association (IDA) for the Pare Lorentz Award. Winner of the PASS Award by the National Coalition on Crime and Delinquency, and a Cine Golden Eagle.
• Broadcast on HBO Signature, 1999. Distributed by Filmakers Library.
• Funding provided by the Ford Foundation, the Open Society Institute, the Funding Exchange/ Paul Robeson Fund for Independent Media and the Jerome Foundation.

Currently available in the Arts Engine store.

Brother Born Again

(76 minutes, 2000)

Directed by: Julia Pimsleur
Produced by: Katy Chevigny and Julia Pimsleur
Associate Produced by: Elizabeth Adams
Camera by: Kirsten Johnson
Music by: John Kimbrough
Edited by: Linda Hattendorf

Brother Born Again is an intimate documentary about Julia Pimsleur’s attempt to reconnect with her only brother, Marc, a born again Christian who spent ten years living with his spiritual family on a remote island in Alaska. Julia, a bisexual Jewish New Yorker, travels to Alaska to try to understand why Marc dropped out of college and converted to Christianity. Alternately funny and poignant, the film explores family dynamics, as well as the definition of family itself.

• World Premiere at the South by Southwest Film Festival, 2001. Also shown at IFP’s Independent Night; Toronto’s InsideOut Film Festival; LA OUTFEST; the Boston Jewish Film Festival and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; The Brooklyn Museum; the San Francisco, San Diego, Denver Jewish Film Festivals, as well as the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh Lesbian and Gay Film Festivals.
• Broadcast in 2001 on public television. Distributed by New Day Films.
• Funded by ET Harmax Foundation, the Wexner Center for the Arts and generous individuals.

Currently available in the Arts Engine store.

Outside Looking In

(57 minutes, 2001)

Directed by: Phil Bertelsen
Produced by: Katy Chevigny
Co-Produced by: Dallas Brennan
Camera by: John Foster and Alejandro Smith
Music by: Erin O'Hara
Edited by: Emma Joan Morris
Executive Produced by: Quincy Jones Media Group

Outside Looking In: Transracial Adoption in America will be airing on Airing on KCSM in San Francisco Oakland San Jose CA and KRSC in Tulsa OK. Check your local listing for date & time. Ths is part of The National Black Programming Consortium’s 18.5 hours of Programs about the Black Experience this September on PBS. For more information on public television broadcasts in your area, check www.itvs.org/outsidelookingin.

Outside Looking In: Transracial Adoption in America introduces three families with transracially adopted children of three different generations, growing up in three different regions of the country.

As both adoptee and filmmaker, the director, Phil Bertelsen provides a unique perspective that goes beyond the personal. He shares his own adoption story as he examines his 11-year-old nephew’s adoption (the second generation of transracial adoptions for the Bertelsen family). Phil encourages his nephew Philip to explore and proclaim a black identity of his own, with results that convey important lessons of identity and self-awareness to both uncle and nephew separately. The film also records a rare and emotionally powerful moment - the exchange of a baby from birth parent to adoptive parent - as it reveals the dramatic story of a Midwestern white couple adopting a black baby today.

As America struggles to understand and address its own racial history, Outside Looking In captures the complexity of being physically bonded to one race and emotionally bonded to another. The film supplies a voice to those directly affected by adoption and explores larger topics facing our society: race, family and identity.

• World Premiere at the Hollywood Black Film Festival, 2002. Screened at Riverside Church, NY, Harlem Film Festival, Newark Black Film Festival, Hollywood Black Film Festival, San Francisco Black Film Festival and Roxbury Film Festival. A selection of National Video Resources’ Viewing Race series.
• Broadcast on public television in 2002.
• A Presentation of the Independent Television Service. Additional funding provided by the National Black Programming Consortium.

Currently available in the Arts Engine store.

Journey to the West

(58 minutes, 2001)

Directed by: Katy Chevigny
Produced by: Katy Chevigny and Julia Pimsleur
Co-Produced by: Dallas Brennan
Camera by: Kirsten Johnson
Music by: Jason Kao Hwang
Edited by: Li-Shin Yu

Journey to the West examines the roots of traditional Chinese medicine, its incarnation in modern-day China, and its adaptation in the United States. Rare footage of traditional medical practices in the People’s Republic of China is intercut with interviews of some of the leading Chinese medical practitioners here in the United States.

Conceived and shot over a period of three years, Journey to the West is an insightful investigation of the connection between art, culture and medicine. The film introduces a few of the diverse people who are devoted to this medical practice, including Dr. Ho, a self-taught herbalist living in the foothills of the Himalayas; Wu Zhongxian, a martial arts master who performs a wide range of indigenous Chinese healing methods; and students attending a modern-day Chinese medical school in Shanghai. Back in the U.S., teachers, students and practitioners of Chinese medicine working in California and New York showcase their work in contemporary Chinese medicine. Journey to the West offers a unique perspective on a growing cross-cultural phenomenon.

• World Premiere at the Asia Society, New York, 2001. Screened in Hong Kong, Portland, Seattle, and San Francisco.
• Distributed by Wellspring Media.
• Funded by the Donnet Fund and Wellspring Media.

Currently available in the Arts Engine store.

Nuyorican Dream

(82 minutes, 2000)

Directed by: Laurie Collyer
Produced by: Katy Chevigny, Laurie Collyer and Julia Pimsleur
Associate Produced by: Robert Torres
Camera by: Aurora Agüero, Victoria Garza, Jaime Reyes
Edited by: Allan Title
Executive Produced by: John Leguizamo and Jellybean Benitez

Nuyorican Dream chronicles the struggles and aspirations of a New York Puerto Rican family as they contend with the devastating effects of urban poverty. The film follows Robert Torres, Marta’s eldest son and the only one of his family to finish high school and college. College was supposed to lead to the American Dream, but the experience of transcending class has had the result of alienating Robert from his family.

Nuyorican Dream captures harrowing images of a family in crisis. Sisters Beti and Tati struggle with devastating drug addictions, brother Danny spends half his life in prison, and mother Marta supports the entire extended family through welfare and selling homemade pasteles and used clothing on the street. What emerges most strongly about the Gutierrez family is the fierce love and support that sustains them. Nuyorican Dream is not just about “making it” in America, but about making it with the family intact.

 
• World Premiere at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival. Winner of: the Audience Award at LA OUTFEST and at the New York Latino Film Festival, and the Joris Ivens Award at the Cinema du Reel Festival. Nominated by the International Documentary Association (IDA) in the Best Documentary category. Screened at dozens of film festivals worldwide.
 
• Broadcast on Cinemax ReelLife in 2000. Distributed by California Newsreel.
 
• Funded by the Jerome Foundation, the Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation, the Playboy Foundation, the Bay Area Video Coalition and the Women in Film Foundation.

Currently available in the Arts Engine store.