Our Posts from April 2022

Heather Courtney

FEB 22, 2019: Directing Vérité Documentaries
FEB 21, 2019: THE UNAFRAID

Heather Courtney, Filmmaker

Heather Courtney is a Guggenheim fellow and an Emmy-winning filmmaker. Her film WHERE SOLDIERS COME FROM, won an Emmy, an Independent Spirit Award, and a SXSW Jury Award. The film received positive reviews from the New York Times and the Washington Post, and was broadcast nationally on the PBS program POV. It made several Top 10 films of 2011 lists, including Salon’s Best Non-fiction, and was supported by many grants and fellowships including from ITVS, the Sundance Documentary Fund, the United States Artists Fellowship, and POV/American Documentary. Heather was also a fellow at the Sundance Edit and Story Lab. She has directed and produced several other documentary films including award-winners LETTERS FROM THE OTHER SIDE and LOS TRABAJADORES/THE WORKERS, which both focused on immigration issues, and were broadcast nationally on PBS. She has been funded by ITVS, the Sundance Documentary Fund, the Ford Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, Latino Public Broadcasting, and the Austin Film Society, as well as a Fulbright Fellowship and an International Documentary Association award. Courtney’s film THE UNAFRAID (2018) co-directed with Anayansi Prado, received the Kathleen Bryan Edwards award for Human Rights at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, and was the closing night film of the Human Rights Watch Film Festival in New York.

Jeff Adachi

MAY 5, 2022: Ricochet

Jeff Adachi (Director/Producer) was a social justice advocate and filmmaker, writing and directing two PBS award winning films, “The Slanted Screen: Asian Men in Film & Television” and “You Don’t Know Jack Soo” and the acclaimed short film “Racial Facial,” a short film about the history of racism in the United States. Jeff’s previous film “Defender” was selected to premiere at a sold-out screening at the SF International Film Festival and won the Best Documentary film award at the Independent Television Festival in Vermont in 2017.

eff served as the elected Public Defender of the City and County of San Francisco from 2002-2019 and worked as a deputy public defender and Chief Attorney in San Francisco for 15 years prior to his election. His office provided legal representation to over 20,000 people each year, mostly of color. Through his legal work and activism, Jeff was a strong advocate for the civil rights of all America.

RICOCHET

(Jeff Adachi and Chihiro Wimbush, 2021)

SUN, MAY 15, 2022, 5pm

The Loft Cinema / FREE

In Person: Followed by discussion with San Francisco Public Defenders Francisco Ugarte and Matt Gonzalez, and Pima County Justice For All campaign leaders Margo Cowan and Isabel Garcia, as well as filmmaker Chihiro Wimbush.

RICOCHET trailer from Jeff Adachi on Vimeo.

RICOCHET tells the story of the trial of an undocumented immigrant, Jose Inés Garcia Zaraté, for the accidental shooting of a young woman in San Francisco in July of 2015. The incident gains national attention when Donald Trump exploits it on the campaign trail, fueling the anti-immigration movement that propels him to the presidency. At the same time, the national media makes the story a referendum on San Francisco’s sanctuary city policy. So the stakes are high when the trial finally begins in Fall 2017, with the defense led by two San Francisco public defenders: Chief Attorney Matt Gonzalez and Francisco Ugarte, head of the office’s Immigration Defense Unit.

Awards

Jason D. Mak Award for Social Justice | DisOrient Asian American Film Festival
Audience Award for Best Documentary | CAAMFest
Opening Night Film | DisOrient Asian American Film Festival
Special Recognition for Best Editing | Thin Line Fest

Reviews

“Their story is so heartbreaking, but the fact that it was used as an anti-immigrant stance, as opposed to an anti-gun stance is shows to me the power structures that are alive.”
– Miko Lee, Co-Host Apex Express

“Ricochet provides a framework to intelligently and rationally frame the question of how and why immigrants are often scapegoated and why this case became a vehicle for politicians such as President Trump to further their anti-immigration policies.”
– Jeff Adachi, Co-Director/Producer

»more info at the film website
»CHIHIRO WIMBUSH bio