Chiquita Fields of Girl Scouts of Middle Tennessee talks with audience members after a screening of Troop 1500

Our Women’s Empowerment Screening was a spirited collaboration of organizations and individuals. Series partner Nashville Public Library hosted us in its elegant auditorium and conference center. Nashville Public Television and the Nashville Film Festival – under the leadership of President and CEO Beth Curley and Director Sallie Mayne — who were both in attendance — helped fill the audience with PBS enthusiasts and independent film lovers. And the organization, Hands On Nashville, supplied us with more than a dozen enthusiastic volunteers.

Between films, audience members had refreshments and stopped by some of the informational booths to learn more about Girl Scouts of Middle Tennessee; YWCA Nashville; Oasis Center, a safe haven for youth in crisis; IMF Penial Initiative, an anti-violence outreach organization; and My Global Voice, a nonprofit that advocates and raises awareness about international humanitarian issues.

Emily Thompson, a teenage independent filmmaker representing the Oasis Center, led the post-screening discussions for A Girl’s Life and Off and Running with poise and humor. An audience member addressed Emily’s claim that NYU film school may be a long shot, saying, “I went from Newark, New Jersey, to a Stanford PhD. If you can dream it, you can do it.”

We had same-sex couples in the crowd who were grateful to see the loving family portrayed in Off and Running. One of the couples said their own daughter’s friends at school considered her “lucky to have two moms.”

One of the most poignant comments arrived the next day via Facebook, about Lakshmi and Me. The commenter said, “I just scrubbed the kitchen floor on hands and knees, even though I own a mop. Not sure whether this is an attempt at kinship, empathy, absolution, or what — but Lakshmi has been with me all day.”

People are also taking action as a result of the event. A high school teacher called her principal from the library parking lot to ask about screening A Girl’s Life for students this fall. And, after Troop 1500 and a discussion led by the Girl Scouts of Middle Tennessee’s Phyllis Sutton and Chiquita Fields, audience members exchanged ideas and email addresses, excited about forming Girl Scout troops in neighborhoods that troop leaders typically avoid.

Al Gore presents filmmaker Mai Iskander with the REEL Current Award for extraordinary insight into global issues at the 2009 Nashville Film Festival.

Saturday, Community Cinema welcomed more than 125 people into Nashville Public Library’s downtown branch auditorium for a screening of Garbage Dreams. The event was a homecoming of sorts; Mai Iskander and her film were the talk of last year’s Nashville Film Festival (NaFF) when Al Gore presented Mai with the REEL Current Award for extraordinary insight into global issues. Because of Garbage Dreams, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation donated $1 million to benefit the Zaballeen, the “garbage people” profiled in the film. When announcing the grant, Garbage Dreams’ producers credited Nashville Film Festival and the REEL Current Award with part of the film’s success. As NaFF Director Sallie Mayne said, “We feel like a small but important part of its journey.”

Attendees make crafts from recycled materials including bottle caps that were made into refrigerator magnets.

Guests at the Community Cinema event attended a reception in the library’s art gallery, where they were invited to make crafts from recycled materials. We collected bottle caps from friends and the owner of The Basement, a popular live music venue. Guests made colorful refrigerator magnets from the previous night’s bottle caps, proving that trash can be beautiful. We also found a use for our leftover Community Cinema postcards; with some scissors and magnetic sheets, letters from the cards made interesting, imperfect magnetic poetry kits.

Our panel featured Sherif Barsoum, director of International Student and Scholar Services at Vanderbilt University; Jeffrey Ezell, education coordinator at Metro Beautification and Environment Commission; and Jennifer Hackett, recycling coordinator for Sustain VU, Vanderbilt University’s recycling program.

Each year, Sherif takes a student group to his native home, Cairo, where they visit the garbage village featured in the film. Sherif’s in-laws were with us at the screening, after arriving from Cairo late the night before. Moderator Jonathan Martin, co-anchor of WSMV’s Channel 4 News Today/Saturday, kept the discussion calm when a local environmental group leader unexpectedly took a seat on the panel, insisting he’d been invited, and used the opportunity to criticize our local and state government’s solid waste program.

Community Cinema is presented by Nashville Public Television, Nashville Public Library, Hands On Nashville, and new series partner Nashville Film Festival.

- Allison Inman
Regional Outreach Coordinator

Regional Outreach Coordinator Allison Inman with Dave Pomeroy, Kenny Walker, Craig Krampf, Teresa Davidson, Sam Rogers.

It was a coincidence (but not a surprise) that we had two rock drummers on our D TOUR panel in Music City. One, Craig Krampf, helps musicians find affordable health care as secretary/treasurer of the Nashville Musicians Association (formerly Nashville Association of Musicians). The other, Kenny Walker, is a kidney recipient who regularly shares his story in conjunction with the National Kidney Foundation of Middle Tennessee. Kenny’s experience was much like Pat Spurgeon’s––he was a drummer in a heavy metal band and was sidelined when his kidney failed. He also received a perfect-match kidney from a 19-year-old donor.

Between those two drummers––as well as Dave Pomeroy, president of the Nashville Musicians Association and NKFMT Executive Director Teresa Davidson and Program Director Samantha Rogers––we had mostly every angle of the film covered during our post-screening discussion. Kenny, Teresa and Samantha schooled us on organ donation, helping us understand both the urgent need for donors and the simple steps we can take to sign up. We discussed the importance of talking with family about an individual’s choice to be an organ donor (even if you’re signed up, they can overrule). Craig and Dave addressed musicians, letting them know their options for health care through their organization and national groups like the Future of Music Coalition. This is extra important because many musicians have trouble getting covered.

D TOUR is a powerful film, and I heard a lot of sniffles during the final 10 minutes. After the screening a woman said her aunt died while waiting for an organ transplant. She said that it’s one thing to know that donation is important and another to experience that urgency first hand––and that Pat’s experience on screen helps the viewer understand how that feels.

We measure the success of screenings in different ways. Here’s one: Yesterday, I got a Facebook friend request from someone who’d attended the screening.

I was pleased to see that her Saturday afternoon status was:

“I want everyone to do two things: 1. Watch the film D Tour on your local PBS this fall (check listings) 2. Have an honest conversation with yourself and your loved ones about being an organ donor. That is my Saturday soapbox .”

She has 947 friends.

Thank you, new Facebook friend Millie C., and thank you, NPT, Nashville Public Library, Hands On Nashville, National Musicians Association, National Kidney Foundation of Middle Tennessee. Thanks also to Grimey’s New and Preloved Music (where Nashvillians can buy Rogue Wave records) for the newsletter shout-out, the Nashville Scene for the film page pick, and Bongo Java for donating coffee.

- Allison Inman

Regional Outreach Coordinator

L to R: Rodney Britton from Galaxy Star Drug Awareness; Moderator Jonathan Martin from WSMV-TV; and Clemmie Greenlee from Galaxy Star Drug Awareness

Nashville’s to-capacity screening of CRIPS AND BLOODS: Made in America, was our most rewarding and interesting event. The film examines conditions that have led to the devastating gang violence among young African Americans growing up in South Los Angeles.

Police pressured us to cancel the event out of fear of violence. That’s not the response we envisioned for an event about peace, change and solutions. Of the nationwide events––where the local police were involved––Nashville’s police had the most serious reservations about holding the event.

Nashville has been making the “10 most violent” cities list [external link Forbes Magazine] and gang violence is a serious problem in the metro area, so I know police were just being cautious. The screening made people nervous and added a bit of tension to the night. Middle schoolers from Nashville’s All the Kings Men leadership program [external link] attended the event.

After the screening, panel member Clemmie Greenlee of Galaxy Star Drug Awareness –– a nonprofit that encourages youth to avoid violence [external link]–– introduced two former gang members she recruited to be peacemakers with her organization. They visit the streets with Clemmie, talking to young people about making positive choices.

Both young men discussed poverty and family instability that led them to gang life. Craig’s father is serving a life sentence, and Rodney’s father was killed when he was five. When an audience member asked Rodney how he got out of the gang, he carefully explained, “I’m not really out of the gang. I just changed my thinking and my behavior.”

Clemmie talked of life as an addict and mother by age 13 and decades in the cycle of poverty, violence and self destruction. Her only son was murdered by a rival gang member in 2003. Now Clemmie does all her work on the street and seems to know from experience that the solution is encouragement. She said  when she approaches kids on the corner, they expect criticism or a lecture. Instead, she tells them she loves them and believes in them, and she sees change beginning to happen.

Craig expressed concern that poor people are often isolated without access to events and activities. As a result, a martial arts teacher spoke to Clemmie afterward, offering to do free Tae Kwon Do workshops in North Nashville.

Clemmie addressed the police in the crowd and said the only way a discussion will have a real impact is if active gang members are allowed to attend without fear of arrest or harassment. She said she feels solutions can only come when their input is factored into the discussion.

We hope to hold a second, less formal screening open to active gang members. Clemmie is building a youth hangout in North Nashville where young people can take GED classes, meet with tutors and learn job skills. My dream screening for CRIPS & BLOODS: Made in America would be to invite the young people from the hangout to put an event together and lead a discussion with their peers.

Allison Inman
ITVS National Community Cinema Coordinator Southern Region
Volunteer at Nashville Public Television