Little Stones Documentary Screening and Artist Panel
April 20, 2018 at 7 pm
Eckhardt Gramatte Hall (3rd floor of Centennial Hall), University of Winnipeg, 515 Portage Avenue
Advanced tickets available for $15 at https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/little-stones-documentary-screening-and-artist-panel-tickets-43561588885 or $20 at the door
The Winnipeg Holistic Expressive Arts Therapy (WHEAT) Institute will host a community screening of the award-winning documentary film LITTLE STONES. Little Stones follows Brazilian graffiti artist Panmela Castro, Senegalese rap-singer Sister Fa, Indian dance therapist Sohini Chakraborty, and fashion designer Anna Taylor as they use their art to combat violence against women and to empower women and girls globally.
Directed and produced by EMMY® Award-winning filmmaker Sophia Kruz, Little Stones was filmed in Senegal, Kenya, Brazil, Germany, India and USA. The film won Best Foreign Documentary at the Female Eye Film Festival, Best Documentary at the Vail Film Festival, and an Award of Excellence from the Impact Docs Awards. A Q&A with the filmmaker, and local artists Jaime Black and Luna Wanda Galdames, will follow the screening. WHEAT is thrilled to host this community screening of Little Stones. As Director of WHEAT, Darci Adam, explains:
“WHEAT Institute is committed to the empowerment of women through therapeutic art-making. We recognize the power, necessity and beauty of art in social change. All income from this event go towards WHEAT scholarships including the Bea Anderson Memorial Scholarship for Artists and the Harry Bone Scholarship for Indigenous Students.”
Film Synopsis - From a graffiti artist speaking out against domestic violence in the favelas of Brazil to a dancer rehabilitating sex-trafficking survivors in India, Little Stones profiles four women, each of whom are contributing a stone to the mosaic of the women’s movement through their art. The film and accompanying education initiative have been designed to raise awareness about global women’s rights issues, and to celebrate creative, entrepreneurial, and arts-therapy based solutions to the most pressing challenges facing women globally.
About the title “Little Stones” - The film’s title comes from suffragist and women’s rights activist Alice Paul’s 1974 quote, “I always feel the movement is a sort of mosaic. Each of us puts in one little stone.” According to director Sophia Kruz:
“The sentiment, that we all have a role to play in the global fight for equal rights, to me perfectly encapsulated the work of each artist featured in the documentary, and my own goals for LITTLE STONES. I hope the documentary encourages creative dialogue and expression around issues of global gender based violence, and that through Driftseed, the 501c3 non-profit organization which Singh and I founded during production, we will continue to grow the mosaic of the women’s movement, stone by stone.”
About the women featured in Little Stones
1) Panmela Castro - www.panmelacastro.com
Brazilian graffiti artist Panmela Castro was named the best Artist of the Decade in 2010 at the Hutuz Awards. She has risen to the top of the male-dominated graffiti world in Brazil by charting her own path, and using street-art to raise awareness about an issue that hits very close to home: domestic violence.
2) Sohini Chakraborty - www.kolkatasanved.org
Sohini Chakraborty was a dancer and sociologist in 1996 when she began volunteering at a shelter for sex trafficking survivors in India. She knew instinctively that dance could help girls reclaim their bodies after the trauma of trafficking, and over the past 2 decades, Chakraborty has touched the lives of over 65,000 survivors throughout South-East Asia, training over 50 survivors to become professional dance movement therapists.
3) Sister Fa - www.sisterfa.com
Senegalese singer and activist Sister Fa is a survivor of childhood female genital mutilation. She’s now based in Berlin, but is a controversial figure throughout West-Africa, where she regularly tours, using her fame to spark a dialogue around genital mutilation, which is still too taboo to discuss in many communities.
4) Anna Taylor - www.judithandjames.com
American fashion designer Anna Taylor first moved to Kenya to work in Nairobi’s slums when she was in high school. There, she met an unemployed seamstress named Judith, whom she hired to sew her clothing designs. In 2011, Taylor founded Judith & James to train and employ impoverished Kenyan women to produce high fashion clothing. In 2013, at the age of 22, Taylor debuted her collection at New York Fashion Week.
About Director Sophia Kruz - Sophia Kruz is an EMMY® award-winning documentary filmmaker. Her work has screened at film festivals and museums globally, and broadcast nationally on PBS. In February, Kruz gave a TEDx talk about the film Little Stones and using art and culture to create social change. Her talk can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-96lxOpEyg
About Jaime Black – Jaime is an emerging, Metis multidisciplinary artist based in Winnipeg. She has taught in Opaskwayak Cree Nation in the Pas, Manitoba, has worked developing art curriculum for the Urban Shaman: Contemporary Aboriginal Art, and has long been involved in the Aboriginal writers and artists communities in Winnipeg. She is currently a mentee with Mentoring Artists for Women’s Art (MAWA). In her artwork, she attempts to create a dialogue around social and political events and issues, through provocation or creating space for reflection. She is particularly interested in feminism and Aboriginal social justice, and the possibilities for articulating linkages between and around these movements. Jaime is the artists behind the REDress Project, which focuses around the issue of missing or murdered Aboriginal women across Canada. http://www.redressproject.org/?page_id=27
About Luna Wanda Galdames - Luna is an interdisciplinary indigenous artist from Chile now living in Winnipeg, Manitoba. A primary focus of her work continues to be the human body and identity. As an immigrant to Canada she has been a participant and observer to how identity is attached to place, and her interest is in the results achieved by removing people/objects from specific spaces. She also founded the dream room project (La sala de los sueños Inc.) a Winnipeg-based, not-for-profit charitable organization helping children and youth heal from traumatic experiences through art by transforming bedrooms in homes, group homes, treatment centers, shelters and community-based healing centers into hope-filled spaces. http://www.thedreamroomproject.ca/
Watch the Little Stones trailer: https://vimeo.com/187500137
Purchase Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/little-stones-documentary-screening-and-artist-panel-tickets-43561588885or $20 at the door.
April 13, 2018