Eight documentaries addressing hot-button issues captured around the nation and the world.
This is the 7th annual exhibition of Social Documentation (Soc Doc) thesis films. The program has become increasingly popular in the Santa Cruz community, attracting an audience of over 300 people each year. This year’s edition spotlights food justice, immigration, women's rights, the criminal justice system, and other social and environmental issues.
The screening is free and open to the public.
Three of the documentaries were filmed internationally: WHOSE SERENGETI? explores a collision of agendas driving development, conservation, and globalization at the site of a proposed highway through the Serengeti National Park; LAAL PARI: NOT A FAIRY TALE addresses women’s participation in politics at the grassroots level in rural India; and GUAJIROS follows two Haitian students as they explore Cuba’s world-renowned agricultural system. GROWING PEOPLE examines the lives of three sisters as they reconnect to their heritage through their work on a farm in Hawaii. LONCHE follows two different food trucks on their daily routines in the Pájaro Valley and Silicon Valley, each catering to a vastly different clientele. VIDA DIFERIDA (Life, Deferred) tells a coming-of-age story of an undocumented teenager in New Mexico and her road to finding the future she dreams of in the only country she has ever known. Two films shine a critical spotlight on our criminal justice system: COMRADE SUNSHINE, which focuses on a re-entry program for prisoners in Baltimore; and GHOSTS OF MARCH 21, which explores the underlying contradictions behind a deadly shoot-out in Oakland.
The filmmakers and some of the main characters will be there present after the screenings for questions.
FILM DESCRIPTIONS
Comrade Sunshine by Cameron Granadino
Set in Baltimore, Comrade Sunshine focuses on the friendship between Dominique Stevenson, whose Friend of a Friend program helps men in prison through peer mentoring, and Wahid Shakur, a recently released 20-year-old now working with her to help build community. As she attempts to guide him in making a smooth transition back into society, Wahid faces the new challenge of life on parole. Dominique, meanwhile, continues to raise questions about the dire impacts of incarceration.
The Ghosts of March 21 by Sam Stoker
This interrogation of a day in the life of Oakland, California, is focused on March 21, 2009, when a shoot-out between a young man named Lovell Mixon and members of the Oakland Police Department resulted in the death of Mixon himself and four Oakland police officers. Intimately following the day's events this documentary examination of an explosive event's underlying contradictions seeks to challenge the mainstream narrative of the shoot-out and to raise important questions about one of America's most salient institutions.
Growing People by Dana Forsberg
Three sisters – Miki, Uilani, and Sheila Arasato–are empowered as they reconnect to their heritage through their work at MA`O Organic Farms in the community of Wai`anae in O`ahu, Hawai`i. Its groundbreaking youth leadership program combines a revival of precolonial Hawai`ian food practices with a path to a college degree. MA`O offers all three a way to escape from stereotypes of underachievement and crime into an environmentally – and socially – sustainable future for their family and community.
Guajiros by Kati Greaney
Through the eyes of Ernst Jean-Baptiste and Welbry DeLince, a pair of young Haitian agronomists trained in Cuba, we explore the island's world-renowned agricultural model. Touring the island in their final months before returning home, the two interview a wide range of farmers about their practices. Traveling by horse, bus, and truck, they enjoy local meals and rituals as they consider whether Cuban techniques of sustainable farming can be transplanted to the Haitian food system.
Laal Pari: Not a Fairy Tale by Sadia Halima
In the male-dominated political world of Bihar, India, Laal Pari has become a force to be reckoned with. Self-motivated and self-taught, this elected leader fights to change the playing field for women’s participation in politics at the grassroots level. Even illiteracy didn't get in her way: Pari utilizes experiential knowledge to devise innovative and effective ways to combat the misogyny prevalent in her community. However, success has not come without obstacles: patriarchal bureaucracies and gender violence threaten to derail her accomplishments and blunt her victory.
Lonche by Claire Weissbluth
This tale of two taco trucks interweaves the narratives of J&S Catering, a traditional lunch truck roaming the fields of the Pájaro Valley, and Takoz Mod Mex, a gourmet food truck serving the high-tech companies of Silicon Valley. Following the restaurants-on-wheels on their daily routes, we witness the dedication and struggle that it takes to feed a hungry workforce in wildly different communities. Far more than a study of tacos and burritos, Lonche offers an intimate look at family, labor, and sacrifice.
Vida Diferida (Life, Deferred) by Brenda Avila-Hanna
Vanessa, a teenager born in Mexico, has lived in the United States with her family since she was six years old. Once an excelling middle-school student with big dreams of becoming a doctor, Vanessa begins to be haunted by her undocumented status as she reaches high school. Reconsidering her aspirations, Vanessa begins to give up on academics. Then, in the summer of 2012, Washington approves the "Deferred Action" policy that might grant Vanessa immunity from being deported for the next two years, allow her to get a job and to apply to college. Now what?
Whose Serengeti? by Samantha Stevens
A journey through Tanzania and Kenya becomes the occasion to explore a collision of agendas driving development, conservation, and globalization at the sites of a proposed highway through the Serengeti National Park. Despite strong opposition from the international community, the Tanzanian government pushes its plans for the road, in the name of economic development. Conservationists, safari guides, and Masai leaders all oppose the road. Rumors of Chinese involvement swirl, further heightening concerns over underlying motivations and environmental implications. This documentary investigates the meanings of the Serengeti, ultimately questioning who should get to decide its fate.
show less
This is the 7th annual exhibition of Social Documentation (Soc Doc) thesis films. The program has become increasingly popular in the Santa Cruz community, attracting an audience of over 300 people each year. This year’s edition spotlights food justice, immigration, women's rights, the criminal justice system, and other social and environmental issues.
The screening is free and open to the public.
Three of the documentaries were filmed internationally: WHOSE SERENGETI? explores a collision of agendas driving development, conservation, and globalization at the site of a proposed highway through the Serengeti National Park; LAAL PARI: NOT A FAIRY TALE addresses women’s participation in politics at the grassroots level in rural India; and GUAJIROS follows two Haitian students as they explore Cuba’s world-renowned agricultural system. GROWING PEOPLE examines the lives of three sisters as they reconnect to their heritage through their work on a farm in Hawaii. LONCHE follows two different food trucks on their daily routines in the Pájaro Valley and Silicon Valley, each catering to a vastly different clientele. VIDA DIFERIDA (Life, Deferred) tells a coming-of-age story of an undocumented teenager in New Mexico and her road to finding the future she dreams of in the only country she has ever known. Two films shine a critical spotlight on our criminal justice system: COMRADE SUNSHINE, which focuses on a re-entry program for prisoners in Baltimore; and GHOSTS OF MARCH 21, which explores the underlying contradictions behind a deadly shoot-out in Oakland.
The filmmakers and some of the main characters will be there present after the screenings for questions.
FILM DESCRIPTIONS
Comrade Sunshine by Cameron Granadino
Set in Baltimore, Comrade Sunshine focuses on the friendship between Dominique Stevenson, whose Friend of a Friend program helps men in prison through peer mentoring, and Wahid Shakur, a recently released 20-year-old now working with her to help build community. As she attempts to guide him in making a smooth transition back into society, Wahid faces the new challenge of life on parole. Dominique, meanwhile, continues to raise questions about the dire impacts of incarceration.
The Ghosts of March 21 by Sam Stoker
This interrogation of a day in the life of Oakland, California, is focused on March 21, 2009, when a shoot-out between a young man named Lovell Mixon and members of the Oakland Police Department resulted in the death of Mixon himself and four Oakland police officers. Intimately following the day's events this documentary examination of an explosive event's underlying contradictions seeks to challenge the mainstream narrative of the shoot-out and to raise important questions about one of America's most salient institutions.
Growing People by Dana Forsberg
Three sisters – Miki, Uilani, and Sheila Arasato–are empowered as they reconnect to their heritage through their work at MA`O Organic Farms in the community of Wai`anae in O`ahu, Hawai`i. Its groundbreaking youth leadership program combines a revival of precolonial Hawai`ian food practices with a path to a college degree. MA`O offers all three a way to escape from stereotypes of underachievement and crime into an environmentally – and socially – sustainable future for their family and community.
Guajiros by Kati Greaney
Through the eyes of Ernst Jean-Baptiste and Welbry DeLince, a pair of young Haitian agronomists trained in Cuba, we explore the island's world-renowned agricultural model. Touring the island in their final months before returning home, the two interview a wide range of farmers about their practices. Traveling by horse, bus, and truck, they enjoy local meals and rituals as they consider whether Cuban techniques of sustainable farming can be transplanted to the Haitian food system.
Laal Pari: Not a Fairy Tale by Sadia Halima
In the male-dominated political world of Bihar, India, Laal Pari has become a force to be reckoned with. Self-motivated and self-taught, this elected leader fights to change the playing field for women’s participation in politics at the grassroots level. Even illiteracy didn't get in her way: Pari utilizes experiential knowledge to devise innovative and effective ways to combat the misogyny prevalent in her community. However, success has not come without obstacles: patriarchal bureaucracies and gender violence threaten to derail her accomplishments and blunt her victory.
Lonche by Claire Weissbluth
This tale of two taco trucks interweaves the narratives of J&S Catering, a traditional lunch truck roaming the fields of the Pájaro Valley, and Takoz Mod Mex, a gourmet food truck serving the high-tech companies of Silicon Valley. Following the restaurants-on-wheels on their daily routes, we witness the dedication and struggle that it takes to feed a hungry workforce in wildly different communities. Far more than a study of tacos and burritos, Lonche offers an intimate look at family, labor, and sacrifice.
Vida Diferida (Life, Deferred) by Brenda Avila-Hanna
Vanessa, a teenager born in Mexico, has lived in the United States with her family since she was six years old. Once an excelling middle-school student with big dreams of becoming a doctor, Vanessa begins to be haunted by her undocumented status as she reaches high school. Reconsidering her aspirations, Vanessa begins to give up on academics. Then, in the summer of 2012, Washington approves the "Deferred Action" policy that might grant Vanessa immunity from being deported for the next two years, allow her to get a job and to apply to college. Now what?
Whose Serengeti? by Samantha Stevens
A journey through Tanzania and Kenya becomes the occasion to explore a collision of agendas driving development, conservation, and globalization at the sites of a proposed highway through the Serengeti National Park. Despite strong opposition from the international community, the Tanzanian government pushes its plans for the road, in the name of economic development. Conservationists, safari guides, and Masai leaders all oppose the road. Rumors of Chinese involvement swirl, further heightening concerns over underlying motivations and environmental implications. This documentary investigates the meanings of the Serengeti, ultimately questioning who should get to decide its fate.
Eight documentaries addressing hot-button issues captured around the nation and the world.
This is the 7th annual exhibition of Social Documentation (Soc Doc) thesis films. The program has become increasingly popular in the Santa Cruz community, attracting an audience of over 300 people each year. This year’s edition spotlights food justice, immigration, women's rights, the criminal justice system, and other social and environmental issues.
The screening is free and open to the public.
Three of the documentaries were filmed internationally: WHOSE SERENGETI? explores a collision of agendas driving development, conservation, and globalization at the site of a proposed highway through the Serengeti National Park; LAAL PARI: NOT A FAIRY TALE addresses women’s participation in politics at the grassroots level in rural India; and GUAJIROS follows two Haitian students as they explore Cuba’s world-renowned agricultural system. GROWING PEOPLE examines the lives of three sisters as they reconnect to their heritage through their work on a farm in Hawaii. LONCHE follows two different food trucks on their daily routines in the Pájaro Valley and Silicon Valley, each catering to a vastly different clientele. VIDA DIFERIDA (Life, Deferred) tells a coming-of-age story of an undocumented teenager in New Mexico and her road to finding the future she dreams of in the only country she has ever known. Two films shine a critical spotlight on our criminal justice system: COMRADE SUNSHINE, which focuses on a re-entry program for prisoners in Baltimore; and GHOSTS OF MARCH 21, which explores the underlying contradictions behind a deadly shoot-out in Oakland.
The filmmakers and some of the main characters will be there present after the screenings for questions.
FILM DESCRIPTIONS
Comrade Sunshine by Cameron Granadino
Set in Baltimore, Comrade Sunshine focuses on the friendship between Dominique Stevenson, whose Friend of a Friend program helps men in prison through peer mentoring, and Wahid Shakur, a recently released 20-year-old now working with her to help build community. As she attempts to guide him in making a smooth transition back into society, Wahid faces the new challenge of life on parole. Dominique, meanwhile, continues to raise questions about the dire impacts of incarceration.
The Ghosts of March 21 by Sam Stoker
This interrogation of a day in the life of Oakland, California, is focused on March 21, 2009, when a shoot-out between a young man named Lovell Mixon and members of the Oakland Police Department resulted in the death of Mixon himself and four Oakland police officers. Intimately following the day's events this documentary examination of an explosive event's underlying contradictions seeks to challenge the mainstream narrative of the shoot-out and to raise important questions about one of America's most salient institutions.
Growing People by Dana Forsberg
Three sisters – Miki, Uilani, and Sheila Arasato–are empowered as they reconnect to their heritage through their work at MA`O Organic Farms in the community of Wai`anae in O`ahu, Hawai`i. Its groundbreaking youth leadership program combines a revival of precolonial Hawai`ian food practices with a path to a college degree. MA`O offers all three a way to escape from stereotypes of underachievement and crime into an environmentally – and socially – sustainable future for their family and community.
Guajiros by Kati Greaney
Through the eyes of Ernst Jean-Baptiste and Welbry DeLince, a pair of young Haitian agronomists trained in Cuba, we explore the island's world-renowned agricultural model. Touring the island in their final months before returning home, the two interview a wide range of farmers about their practices. Traveling by horse, bus, and truck, they enjoy local meals and rituals as they consider whether Cuban techniques of sustainable farming can be transplanted to the Haitian food system.
Laal Pari: Not a Fairy Tale by Sadia Halima
In the male-dominated political world of Bihar, India, Laal Pari has become a force to be reckoned with. Self-motivated and self-taught, this elected leader fights to change the playing field for women’s participation in politics at the grassroots level. Even illiteracy didn't get in her way: Pari utilizes experiential knowledge to devise innovative and effective ways to combat the misogyny prevalent in her community. However, success has not come without obstacles: patriarchal bureaucracies and gender violence threaten to derail her accomplishments and blunt her victory.
Lonche by Claire Weissbluth
This tale of two taco trucks interweaves the narratives of J&S Catering, a traditional lunch truck roaming the fields of the Pájaro Valley, and Takoz Mod Mex, a gourmet food truck serving the high-tech companies of Silicon Valley. Following the restaurants-on-wheels on their daily routes, we witness the dedication and struggle that it takes to feed a hungry workforce in wildly different communities. Far more than a study of tacos and burritos, Lonche offers an intimate look at family, labor, and sacrifice.
Vida Diferida (Life, Deferred) by Brenda Avila-Hanna
Vanessa, a teenager born in Mexico, has lived in the United States with her family since she was six years old. Once an excelling middle-school student with big dreams of becoming a doctor, Vanessa begins to be haunted by her undocumented status as she reaches high school. Reconsidering her aspirations, Vanessa begins to give up on academics. Then, in the summer of 2012, Washington approves the "Deferred Action" policy that might grant Vanessa immunity from being deported for the next two years, allow her to get a job and to apply to college. Now what?
Whose Serengeti? by Samantha Stevens
A journey through Tanzania and Kenya becomes the occasion to explore a collision of agendas driving development, conservation, and globalization at the sites of a proposed highway through the Serengeti National Park. Despite strong opposition from the international community, the Tanzanian government pushes its plans for the road, in the name of economic development. Conservationists, safari guides, and Masai leaders all oppose the road. Rumors of Chinese involvement swirl, further heightening concerns over underlying motivations and environmental implications. This documentary investigates the meanings of the Serengeti, ultimately questioning who should get to decide its fate.
read more
This is the 7th annual exhibition of Social Documentation (Soc Doc) thesis films. The program has become increasingly popular in the Santa Cruz community, attracting an audience of over 300 people each year. This year’s edition spotlights food justice, immigration, women's rights, the criminal justice system, and other social and environmental issues.
The screening is free and open to the public.
Three of the documentaries were filmed internationally: WHOSE SERENGETI? explores a collision of agendas driving development, conservation, and globalization at the site of a proposed highway through the Serengeti National Park; LAAL PARI: NOT A FAIRY TALE addresses women’s participation in politics at the grassroots level in rural India; and GUAJIROS follows two Haitian students as they explore Cuba’s world-renowned agricultural system. GROWING PEOPLE examines the lives of three sisters as they reconnect to their heritage through their work on a farm in Hawaii. LONCHE follows two different food trucks on their daily routines in the Pájaro Valley and Silicon Valley, each catering to a vastly different clientele. VIDA DIFERIDA (Life, Deferred) tells a coming-of-age story of an undocumented teenager in New Mexico and her road to finding the future she dreams of in the only country she has ever known. Two films shine a critical spotlight on our criminal justice system: COMRADE SUNSHINE, which focuses on a re-entry program for prisoners in Baltimore; and GHOSTS OF MARCH 21, which explores the underlying contradictions behind a deadly shoot-out in Oakland.
The filmmakers and some of the main characters will be there present after the screenings for questions.
FILM DESCRIPTIONS
Comrade Sunshine by Cameron Granadino
Set in Baltimore, Comrade Sunshine focuses on the friendship between Dominique Stevenson, whose Friend of a Friend program helps men in prison through peer mentoring, and Wahid Shakur, a recently released 20-year-old now working with her to help build community. As she attempts to guide him in making a smooth transition back into society, Wahid faces the new challenge of life on parole. Dominique, meanwhile, continues to raise questions about the dire impacts of incarceration.
The Ghosts of March 21 by Sam Stoker
This interrogation of a day in the life of Oakland, California, is focused on March 21, 2009, when a shoot-out between a young man named Lovell Mixon and members of the Oakland Police Department resulted in the death of Mixon himself and four Oakland police officers. Intimately following the day's events this documentary examination of an explosive event's underlying contradictions seeks to challenge the mainstream narrative of the shoot-out and to raise important questions about one of America's most salient institutions.
Growing People by Dana Forsberg
Three sisters – Miki, Uilani, and Sheila Arasato–are empowered as they reconnect to their heritage through their work at MA`O Organic Farms in the community of Wai`anae in O`ahu, Hawai`i. Its groundbreaking youth leadership program combines a revival of precolonial Hawai`ian food practices with a path to a college degree. MA`O offers all three a way to escape from stereotypes of underachievement and crime into an environmentally – and socially – sustainable future for their family and community.
Guajiros by Kati Greaney
Through the eyes of Ernst Jean-Baptiste and Welbry DeLince, a pair of young Haitian agronomists trained in Cuba, we explore the island's world-renowned agricultural model. Touring the island in their final months before returning home, the two interview a wide range of farmers about their practices. Traveling by horse, bus, and truck, they enjoy local meals and rituals as they consider whether Cuban techniques of sustainable farming can be transplanted to the Haitian food system.
Laal Pari: Not a Fairy Tale by Sadia Halima
In the male-dominated political world of Bihar, India, Laal Pari has become a force to be reckoned with. Self-motivated and self-taught, this elected leader fights to change the playing field for women’s participation in politics at the grassroots level. Even illiteracy didn't get in her way: Pari utilizes experiential knowledge to devise innovative and effective ways to combat the misogyny prevalent in her community. However, success has not come without obstacles: patriarchal bureaucracies and gender violence threaten to derail her accomplishments and blunt her victory.
Lonche by Claire Weissbluth
This tale of two taco trucks interweaves the narratives of J&S Catering, a traditional lunch truck roaming the fields of the Pájaro Valley, and Takoz Mod Mex, a gourmet food truck serving the high-tech companies of Silicon Valley. Following the restaurants-on-wheels on their daily routes, we witness the dedication and struggle that it takes to feed a hungry workforce in wildly different communities. Far more than a study of tacos and burritos, Lonche offers an intimate look at family, labor, and sacrifice.
Vida Diferida (Life, Deferred) by Brenda Avila-Hanna
Vanessa, a teenager born in Mexico, has lived in the United States with her family since she was six years old. Once an excelling middle-school student with big dreams of becoming a doctor, Vanessa begins to be haunted by her undocumented status as she reaches high school. Reconsidering her aspirations, Vanessa begins to give up on academics. Then, in the summer of 2012, Washington approves the "Deferred Action" policy that might grant Vanessa immunity from being deported for the next two years, allow her to get a job and to apply to college. Now what?
Whose Serengeti? by Samantha Stevens
A journey through Tanzania and Kenya becomes the occasion to explore a collision of agendas driving development, conservation, and globalization at the sites of a proposed highway through the Serengeti National Park. Despite strong opposition from the international community, the Tanzanian government pushes its plans for the road, in the name of economic development. Conservationists, safari guides, and Masai leaders all oppose the road. Rumors of Chinese involvement swirl, further heightening concerns over underlying motivations and environmental implications. This documentary investigates the meanings of the Serengeti, ultimately questioning who should get to decide its fate.
show less
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1124 Pacific Avenue, Santa Cruz, CA 95060
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