Jillie Simon, writer, co-director, co-producer and actress for Hungry shared the following post: Thomas Simon (co-director/composer/editor/co-producer of "Hungry") brought to my attention stories of a couple of teachers around the country who found out that children in their classroom were going hungry, as a result of the cuts to the S.N.A.P. program in the Farm Bill, and took action, feeding them out of pocket. I thought that was a very important topic and story to put out there, so I wrote a narrative about a woman teacher who makes that discovery, and helps the kids in her school with her own money (though to her chagrin, she finds out that she and her husband had less in the bank than sh

What has become of our capacity to be affected by how another person lives? What are the various “occupy” groups from around the world trying to tell us? Making a commitment or joining a protest movement are not inborn human qualities but reactions that each and every one of us may have when confronted with a situation we live or discover via an individual, an organization or the media. Some of us, confronted by difficulties or hardship, feel defeated or overwhelmed. Others find means to fight back. In “I am NOT from Barcelona,” Alex is given the opportunity to join some of these resistors on a journey that exposes him to alternative views of the world and eventually will transform him. Comm

As the festival quickly approaches, SRFF has invited its filmmakers to blog about the behind-the-scenes process of making each film. This first entry is written by Mary Paley, producer, writer and director of The Neighborhood That Disappeared: WHY THIS FILM The Neighborhood That Disappeared spotlights the life-altering events surrounding a massive urban renewal project launched in 1962 by first term governor Nelson Rockefeller that sterilized the cultural and ethnic heart of Albany, NY, displacing 9% of the City's total population and approximately one-third of its ethnic population. Although the story was hiding in plain sight for 50 years, the deception and arrogance that motivated the sei

Critic Louis Proyect previews two films concerning the Armenian genocide from SRFF 2016. The article starts: As the founder of the SR film festivals, Nora Armani is blessed with an uncommon ability to curate some of the most important films being made today. As I have made clear in my survey of SR 2014 and SR 2015, these are films that are focused on the real problems of ordinary people and a welcome alternative to Cineplex escapism. It is not just that films about refugees or oppressed nationalities demand your attention as thinking and caring adults; it is that they are intensely dramatic as the struggles of refugees and the victims of national oppression tend to be. Read more about films