IMMIGRANT FAMILIES TOGETHER is a rapid response group of volunteers who galvanized around the crisis provoked by the Zero Tolerance policy. Founded in New York City in June 2018, this growing network of Americans raise money to bond out parents and re-unite them with their children; they provide legal, medical, housing, clothing, and food for families as they proceed through their legal cases. They support over 100 reunited families while they recover from their detention trauma.
FILM:
The true story of a young mother from Guatemala whose children were taken from her and sent thousands of miles away after the President’s “zero-tolerance” immigration policy went into effect. In total, more than 2,300 children were separated from their parents. The President has since ordered a stop to that practice, and a court has said that migrant families must be brought back together. From Texas to New York, an underground railroad of women journey with Yeni Gonzalez in this emotional film.
For more information www.immigrantfamiliestogether.com
Meet Julie Schwietert Collazo, Co-founder
Julie Schwietert Collazo is a creative arts therapist, writer, editor, translator, and formerly, a social worker. She founded, along with her husband, Francisco Collazo, IMMIGRANT FAMILIES TOGETHER in response to the inhumane immigration policy separating families at the U.S./Mexico border. The organization pays bonds for parents in detention and works to reunite them with their children.
Yolanda F. Johnson, Soprano, in an active recitalist and lecturer on spirituals as related to the Underground Railroad and the works of women composers. Her album, Feel the Spirit! was released in 2011 and in 2014 she developed Music She Wrote, a celebration of women composers. She will sing the role Magda Sorrell, an immigrant mother in opera highlights from The Consul by Gian-Carlo Menotti at the Hudson River Museum’s Amphitheater on Saturday, August 10th.
Directed by Nancy Rhodes, Music Director Michael Eisenberg, and Set & Costumes by Andis Gjoni. Free & open to the public. https://www.hrm.org/amphitheater/
www.yolandafjohnson.com
Journey Within a Journey, premiered at the Asia Society in New York City and won the Best Script and Narration Award at the International film Festival in Portugal, as well as the Director’s Citation Award at the Black Maria Film Festival in New Jersey. A full-length feature film about life, death, and transformation, filmed entirely in Kerala, India, Neogy’s personal quest to seek understanding and renewal after the death of her father, resulted in a film that magically transports her audience to the ancient truths of her homeland.
Watch the trailer below
Manoshi Chitra Neogy, filmmaker, poet, performer, and author seeks to push the envelope of artistic expression. She has directed numerous documentaries and short films which have led to accolades for her intrepid films across the globe, including the acclaimed short Woman-Self, which received the Award for Best Rendition of Poetry in Motion and for Best Director at the South Asian Film Festival in NYC, the Festival of Vision in Colorado, the Women’s Film Festival in France, and the International short film festival in Montreal, and the docu-narrativeJourney within a Journey. She teaches Film as a Transformative Art at New York University, where she is known for her passion in helping her students emerge from themselves and into their own warrior’s walk. She is the author of Blood Words, A Warrior’s Walk, which was published in 2017.
Paradigm Shifts 2019
The screening of a unique and trailblazing film launched the Encompass 2019 Paradigm Shifts Music and Film Festival. This educational-outreach program focused on women who have contributed boundary-breaking research and new paradigm-thinking in the fields of science and the arts, while bringing awareness and knowledge of the interconnections of all life on our planet.
On Saturday, March 16 at 2:00 pm, Encompass in association with The Church of the Ascension presented the premiere screening in New York City of the new film by award-winning filmmaker
John Feldman:
