Four Short Films Premiere at Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) May 19
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 1, 2014
SEATTLE – Seattle University’s new Film & Family Homelessness Project premieres four short animated films about homelessness among Washington families on Monday, May 19, at 7 p.m., at the Harvard Exit Theater, 807 E. Roy St., Seattle, as part of SIFF. A trailer for the films and information about tickets for this free event are at AmericanRefugees.org. KIRO 97.3FM’s morning host and media critic Tom Tangney will moderate a Q&A with the filmmakers directly after the premiere. The films will be simultaneously available for online viewing at 7:00 p.m., May 19.
Five local award-winning filmmakers, Amy Enser, Drew Christie, Laura Jean Cronin, Neely Goniodsky , and Sihanouk Mariona, were chosen from among more than 50 applicants vying to create films that are entertaining, visually stunning, and highlight the real-life stories of thousands of Washington families experiencing poverty or homelessness.
“We chose the name, American Refugees, as a title for the series of shorts because it reflects the hidden homelessness of thousands of family members in Washington state who sometimes feel exiled from their communities,” explained project director Barry Mitzman, professor of strategic communications and director of the Center for Strategic Communications. “Telling these stories through animation not only provides a unique perspective on the causes of and solutions to family homelessness, but gives us a different way to outreach to our community and engage them in action.”
An after party follows the Q&A at the Daughters of the American Revolution hall across the street from the Harvard Exit. Tickets to the film are required for admission to the after party. YWCA’s Firesteel will be on hand to take photos of event goers in front of their choice of two animated stills from two of the films. Photos can be immediately shared out through social media. Partygoers can also see an actual Claymation set from one of the films.
About the Films
The Beast Inside, directed by Amy Enser and animated by Drew Christie, illustrates the viewpoint of a teenager in a homeless family, highlighting the difficulties of both being a teen and being homeless. Enser used her documentary background to find and conduct all the interviews for the story. Once the interviews were cut together, Christie took over using hand-drawn animation to illustrate this story through a muted warm color palette.
Home for Sale visualizes prospective buyers walking through an empty home, all the while seeing the family who once lived there and the moments that led to them losing their home. An oil painter physically painted the different, separate layers of the images, then the paintings were scanned and layered images were created and animated. In writing the film, Director Laura Jean Cronin drew on the personal experience of buying her first home and how it felt seeing foreclosed homes for sale.
The Smiths showcases the cycle of a family falling into homelessness and how they can move out of it if a compassionate, supportive community and resources are in place. Neely Goniodsky used a mixture of hand drawn animation, digital cut outs and painting to bring the story to life and did all of the animation herself.
Super Dads is a compilation of several different stories of homelessness as seen through the eyes of local fathers and their children. Sihanouk Mariona used stop-motion animation with clay to portray the daily hurdles these parents face in trying to provide for themselves and their children.
The project is funded by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and managed by Lindy Boustedt, an award-winning filmmaker who has worked at Seattle University (SU) since 2005. As project manager for SU’s Film & Family Homelessness Project, Boustedt uses her extensive and diverse filmmaking skills to produce the films and assist the filmmakers with other needs such as writing, developing storylines and managing post-production.
Each Fellow received a grant of $8,000. Seattle University students from the Digital Design, Film Studies and other programs have worked with the filmmakers as production assistants.
About Seattle University’s Center for Strategic Communications
The Center for Strategic Communications (CSC) focuses on public advocacy that advances the university’s mission to empower leaders for a just and humane world.
The CSC established its Project on Family Homelessness in late 2009 through a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Its goals are to increase public awareness and understanding of family homelessness and its causes and solutions, and to engage the public to end family homelessness. In 2010, the Center created the Journalism Fellowships on Family Homelessness, which yielded outstanding and unprecedented in-depth reporting by six different news organizations and independent journalists, and was commended by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. The Film & Family Homelessness Project is modeled after the Journalism Fellowships, with a similar goal of engaging the public to end family homelessness, using film as a powerful springboard for discussion and an inspiration to action.
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