Family Dynamics: Q&A with MIRACLE FISHING director Miles Hargrove & THROUGH THE NIGHT director Loira Limbal and subjects Nunu and Patrick Hogan

On our final day of NFF NOW: AT HOME, enjoy these stories that celebrate family and community bonds.

MIRACLE FISHING: On September 23, 1994, American journalist Tom Hargrove was kidnapped outside his home in Cali, Colombia by separatist guerillas. His wife and two sons had no choice but to take matters into their own hands and negotiate directly for his release... and they kept a video diary of the entire process.

THROUGH THE NIGHT: An exploration of the personal cost of our modern economy through the stories of two working mothers and a child care provider whose lives intersect at a 24-hour daycare center.

Take a look at these final director Q&As and take advantage of your last chance to watch these intimate films by Miles Hargrove & Christopher Birge and Loira Limbal - through tonight, June 30, at 11:59pm EST!

For Science Lovers: Q&A with BABY GOD director Hannah Olson and LAPSIS writer/director Noah Hutton

Today we’re highlighting films at NFF NOW: AT HOME that explore the intersection of technology and ethics. These two thought-provoking films detail the far-reaching consequences of new technological developments.

BABY GOD: Hailed a miracle worker, Las Vegas fertility doctor Dr. Quincy Fortier practiced for decades. Now, with the advent of commercial DNA testing, his secret is out.

LAPSIS: In this sci-fi parable, deliveryman Ray Tincelli is struggling to support himself and his ailing younger brother. When he turns to a strange new corner of the gig economy, Ray faces a pivotal choice to either help his fellow workers or to get rich and get out.

Take a look at these two filmmaker Q&As, and catch these technologically-focused films through tomorrow, June 30, at NFF NOW: AT HOME!

For Music Lovers: Q&A with JIMMY CARTER: ROCK & ROLL PRESIDENT director Mary Wharton and RIVER CITY DRUMBEAT directors Marlon Johnson and Anne Flatté and producer Owsley Brown

For the music lovers: enjoy these two stories that share how the power of music brings us together.

JIMMY CARTER: ROCK & ROLL PRESIDENT: A testament to the power of music, JIMMY CARTER: ROCK & ROLL PRESIDENT traces how popular music helped propel Jimmy Carter into the White House and explores the significant role that music has played in President Carter's life and work.

RIVER CITY DRUMBEAT: For 30 years, Nardie White has dedicated his life to empowering African American youth in Louisville, Kentucky through his River City Drum Corps. With retirement approaching, he must train his successor in this powerful, uplifting story of music, love, and legacies.

Take a look at these two filmmaker Q&As, and watch these music-filled documentaries now through June 30 at NFF NOW: AT HOME!

For Art Lovers: Q&A with AGGIE director Catherine Gund and MADE YOU LOOK: A TRUE STORY ABOUT FAKE ART director Barry Avrich

Today we're profiling films for art lovers!

AGGIE explores the nexus of art, race, and justice through the story of art collector and philanthropist Agnes “Aggie” Gund, a true maverick who demonstrates the power of art to transform consciousness and inspire social change.

In MADE YOU LOOK: A TRUE STORY ABOUT FAKE ART, controversy erupts when an unassuming couple floods the American art market with a collection of fake art valued in the millions, bewildering the art world elite. This is an entertaining and suspenseful tale of an ingenious con that everyone wanted to believe was real.

Take a look at these filmmaker Q&As, and stream their films now through June 30 at NFF NOW: AT HOME!

NFF NOW: AT HOME Opening Night Q&A with BOYS STATE directors Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine

Boys State is an entertaining and revealing look at American democracy and political division, following a group of high school boys as they create a mock government at an annual civics program hosted by the American Legion in Austin, Texas.

Before NFF NOW: AT HOME opening night film BOYS STATE, Digital Operations Director Allyson Morgan talks with directors Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine. Take a look, and join us this evening for our one-night-only presentation of BOYS STATE!

Five Questions With... Irene Taylor Brodsky (MOONLIGHT SONATA: DEAFNESS IN THREE MOVEMENTS)

In MOONLIGHT SONATA: DEAFNESS IN THREE MOVEMENTS, filmmaker Irene Taylor Brodsky turns the camera on her own family to craft a moving, intergenerational exploration of living with deafness, as her teenage son grows up, and her parents confront growing older.

Hear more from Irene in the video below, and see the film on Wed, June 19 at 12:45pm and Thurs June 20 at 11:15am!

Five Questions With... Jenifer McShane (ERNIE & JOE)

Two compassionate officers with the San Antonio Police Department's innovative mental health unit divert people away from jail and into proper treatment, one 911 call at a time, in ERNIE & JOE by Jenifer McShane.

Read more with Jenifer below, and see ERNIE & JOE on Wed, June 19 at 3:15pm and Thurs, June 20 at 9:45am!

NFF: Can you talk a little bit about your relationship to this subject, and/or how you met Ernie and Joe?

JENIFER: While I was researching and making my last film MOTHERS OF BEDFORD it became  painfully clear to me how many people with mental health challenges are sitting behind bars.  When the work of Ernie and Joe and the rest of the SAPD mental health unit came to my attention I felt strongly it was a story that desperately needed to be told. I initially visited San Antonio and rode along with Ernie and Joe with no camera to get a clearer sense of the their work and who they were as people. I felt that these two officers were characters that an audience could connect with and their perspective would be a compelling way to reveal the wider story of our mental health crisis. 

NFF: How did you and EJ approach filming to capture what you wanted/needed while remaining respectful of your subjects?

JENIFER: From day one I wanted the experience to feel immersive without being exploitive. I wanted to illustrate how personal and intimate the rapport can be without intruding on the process or ruining the connection being developed between Ernie, Joe and the person in crisis. This was done in large part by getting excellent sound coverage and shooting from a respectful distance. 

NFF: Was anything off limits while filming was happening, or in your editing/assembly?

JENIFER: No, the access was excellent. I returned to ride with Ernie and Joe again and again over a 2 1/2 year period. The access made a huge impact on the intimacy of the story.

NFF: What are you working on currently, and/or where can we see more of your work?

JENIFER: I am researching a story about mental health treatment. ERNIE & JOE reveals the importance of decriminalizing mental illness and training law enforcement to recognize people in crisis and deescalate situations.  Now we need to find better treatments.

NFF: Why are you excited to screen in Nantucket, and/or what do you hope Nantucket audiences might relate to or takeaway from the film?

JENIFER: I am absolutely thrilled to be screening in Nantucket FF!  Several filmmakers have told me how wonderful the experience is. I have a never been to Nantucket before.  As a kid I hoped to visit some day and that day has finally arrived in the best possible way. 

Five Questions With... Dana Adam Shapiro, Director/Producer of DAUGHTERS OF THE SEXUAL REVOLUTION: THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE DALLAS COWBOYS CHEERLEADERS

This 2018 SXSW Special Jury Award-winning film is an entertaining and intriguing look at the iconic Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. Dana Adam Shapiro (Murderball, NFF 2005) explores the squad’s history and cultural impact in relation to America’s shifting views of women’s roles and sexual freedom in the 1970s. Former squad members—and, most notably, their outspoken, fiercely protective den mother, Suzanne Mitchell—offer unique perspective and explain how the cheerleaders balanced wholesomeness with empowered sexuality to become a pop-culture phenomenon, all while contending with sexism behind the scenes.

Read more with director/producer Dana Adam Shapiro below, and see DAUGHTERS OF THE SEXUAL REVOLUTION: THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE DALLAS COWBOYS CHEERLEADERS on Sat, June 23 at 6:30pm and/or Sun, June 24 at 6:15pm!

DANA ADAM SHAPIRO

NFF: Can you talk a little about why now seems like an appropriate cultural moment for this film?

DANA: When we started filming in January 2016, there was no President Trump, no #MeToo movement. Now, of course, we're in the middle of a gender revolution, and the NFL is in crisis.  I would love to say that we were prescient, but the truth is, we got lucky.  

NFF: How familiar were you with the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders before embarking on this film? How did you come to the story?

DANA: Not familiar at all.  I'm from Boston.  The film began at a party in Laurel Canyon on Super Bowl Sunday in 2015.  We were watching the Patriots play the Seahawks with my two-year-old son.  It was his very first football game so I was explaining all the different positions. That’s the quarterback—he throws the ball. There’s the coach—he calls the plays.  Then the camera panned over to the cheerleaders and I remember thinking: We still have cheerleaders?  It felt retro, kind of kitschy, and I wondered: How did all this start?  Nobody at the party had any idea, so I set out to find out how scantily-clad showgirls wound up on the sidelines of sporting events.  

Sure enough, my research led me to Dallas.  In the fall of 1972, nine years after the Kennedy assassination, the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders debuted at Texas Stadium, offering football fans “a little sex with their violence.” Meanwhile, across town, at the Dallas County Courthouse, a pregnant plaintiff known only as “Jane Roe” was about to ignite a culture war with a landmark Supreme Court decision giving women control over their own bodies for the first time ever.  And all of this was happening in the Baptist buckle of the Bible Belt at the height of the Sexual Revolution. 

There was a story here.  But it didn't become a film until we met Suzanne Mitchell, the mastermind — and matriarch -- of the squad from 1976-1989. 

NFF: What do you think about the current lawsuits and allegations in the professional cheerleading community, including the Cowboys?

DANA: I think it's about time.  

NFF: Did you face any particular challenges or surprises while filming?

DANA: We got a few calls from the Cowboys attorney.  I have since become an expert in the definition of "fair use."

NFF: Why are you excited to screen in Nantucket, and/or what do you hope Nantucket audiences might relate to or takeaway from the film?

DANA: I've been coming to Cape Cod since I was a little kid, my grandmother lived in Falmouth.  And my first film, MURDERBALL, played here in 2005.  So I couldn't be happier to be back.

As for what I hope audiences will take away...  My favorite reaction is when people come in with a lot of judgement about these women, thinking that they're just a bunch of red state, bubble-headed Barbie dolls.  I thought the same thing.  And it's very cathartic to be confronted with your own judgementalism.  

Five Questions With... Robert Greene, Director of BISBEE '17

Bisbee, Arizona, a former copper-mining town on the border with Mexico, has never reckoned with its dark past. In 1917, a strike by mine workers, many of them immigrants, was violently brought to an end with an illegal forced mass deportation. On the occasion of this tragedy's centenary, innovative nonfiction filmmaker Robert Greene (Kate Plays Christine, NFF 2016) collaborates with residents to confront this troubling episode through a town-wide reenactment, one that has haunting resonance with our present-day debates about immigration, unions, and corporate power.

Robert sent in this special video interview below - take a look, and check out BISBEE '17 on Sat, June 23 at 8:30pm and Sun, June 24 at 4pm!

Five Questions With... Rudy Valdez, Director of THE SENTENCE

Director Rudy Valdez’s sister, Cindy, a married mother of three young girls, long ago left a drug-dealing ex. Despite this, she receives a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison under conspiracy charges related to his crimes. Over a period of ten years, Rudy’s camera captures the moments in his nieces’ lives that Cindy is missing. This personal portrait of the devastating impact of draconian laws on families was an Audience Award winner at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

Read more with Rudy below, and see THE SENTENCE on Fri, June 22 at 2pm and Sat, June 23 at 10:30am!

RUDY VALDEZ

NFF: This film is obviously very personal to you - did you have any reservations about laying yourself and your family's story bare? 

RUDY: The film is very personal.  I certainly had reservations about telling such an intimate story, but ultimately felt like I would be doing my family a disservice if I didn’t share.  To me, this was only going to remain a terrible event in my family's history if we allowed it to be.  I wanted so much to make something good out of this.  I promised my family that I wouldn’t let this be in vain.

NFF: Did making the film change your relationship to your sister (or your family at large)?

RUDY: The film did not change our relationship - what you see on screen is what you get.

NFF: What would you want to tell audiences who want to get involved in a prison reform campaign or conversation?

RUDY: When audiences ask how they can get involved I often say pay attention to what you are voting for.  Read between the lines when people starting using rhetoric like “soft on crime” or “hard on crime”.  With that said, I also ask people that are moved by the film - that feel like this is a call to action for them - to fight! There are so many people in prison with stories just like my sister.  They don’t all have someone on the outside fighting for them.  Find someone and fight for them. 

NFF: Did you face any particular challenges or surprises when filming/assembling the film?

RUDY: No!

NFF: Why are you excited to screen in Nantucket, and/or what do you hope Nantucket audiences might relate to or takeaway from the film?

RUDY: I’m excited to screen and Nantucket because as a documentary filmmaker we often work in a vacuum.  Wondering if what we are making is going to resonate.  If it’s going to be seen at all. To be invited to such a wonderful film festival is an honor, and I can’t wait to share the story and see what the audience takes away from it.