UNAFF 2023: Session 15
HE HAD WINGS 6:30 PM
Director: Jeanne Marie Hallacy
Producer: Gregg Butensky
Description:
He Had Wings presents a portrait of the prolific artist, Ronnie Goodman, and the impact of his creative activism to stand for social justice. He Had Wings provides insight into the trauma and resilience of Ronnie’s journey as one of the thousands experiencing homelessness in San Francisco. The film shows how people like him, and his friend, Alton “Coach” McSween can have a positive impact on those who battle the crisis currently affecting the wealthy City by the Bay.
Biography:
Jeanne Hallacy’s films are used for human rights education and advocacy. Hallacy develops relationships with her subjects to open their worlds through her lens; she can interview government ministers and slum dwellers and get a story. Her cross-cultural communications skills are an asset to covering issues from refugees to labor rights to people living with HIV. Based in Southeast Asia for decades, she worked with AsiaWorks Television, a regional production company to produce feature news for global broadcasters and advocacy videos for United Nations agencies and international NGOs.
Gregg Butensky is an avid traveler and longtime Burma activist. He established a public lending library in the Philippines and is a co-founder of the non-profit Ethical Traveler. Gregg co-founded Kirana Productions with Jeanne in 2018 and serves as Kirana’s Operations Director. In addition to being an Associate Producer and second cameraman for Mother, Daughter, Sister, Gregg worked with Jeanne on Better Homes, Better Lives, Tackling TB in Yangon, Sittwe, This Kind of Love, and Into The Current: Burma’s Political Prisoners.
WHEN WE WERE BULLIES 7:10 PM
Director/Producer: Jay Rosenblatt
Description:
When We Were Bullies begins with a mind boggling “coincidence” from 25 years ago which ultimately leads the filmmaker to track down his 5th grade class (and 5th grade teacher) to see what they remember of a bullying incident from 50 years ago. In a playful yet poignant way, he begins to understand his complicity and the bully in all of us.
Biography:
Jay Rosenblatt is an internationally recognized artist who has been working as an independent filmmaker since 1980 and has completed over twenty-five films. His work explores our emotional and psychological cores. They are personal in their content yet universal in their appeal. Jay’s films have received over 100 awards and have screened throughout the world. A selection of his films had theatrical runs at the Film Forum in New York and at theaters around the country. In October 2010, he had a feature length program of recent work screen for a week at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Eight of his films have been at the Sundance Film Festival and several of his films have shown on HBO/Cinemax, the Independent Film Channel and the Sundance Channel. Articles about his work have appeared in the Sunday NY Times Arts & Leisure section, the LA Times, the NY Times, Filmmaker magazine and the Village Voice. Jay is a recipient of a Guggenheim, USA Artists and a Rockefeller Fellowship. Jay is originally from New York and has lived in San Francisco for many years. He has been a film and video production instructor since 1989 at various film schools in the Bay Area, including Stanford University, S.F. State University, and the San Francisco Art Institute. Since 2010 he is the Program Director of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. He has a Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology and, in a former life, worked as a therapist.
Presented as part of United Nations Association Film Festival.
