Already the winner of Audience Awards from two film festivals, Emmy nominated filmmaker and Durham resident, George Kachadorian’s documentary film tells the story of aspiring fashion photographer Courtney Bent, whose career takes an unexpected turn when she discovers a hidden world of beauty at a center for people living with significant cerebral palsy and other disabilities. Courtney overcomes her own reservations and begins inventing accessible cameras for her new friends to take pictures of their world. Ernest 'EJ' James learns to snap photos with his tongue while dodging Boston traffic. Tom Herrick, who spent the first 18 years of his life confined to his bedroom, completely changes his self-concept-—he ceases to be a person with a handicap and becomes a person with a camera. Mary Jo Chaisson may be the most infectious, joyful character ever captured on film. And Tony Knight, a handsome, well spoken Jamaican native uses his photography to 'start the conversation' with a public afraid to approach him. The group's efforts snowball into an award winning photography program called “Picture This”—and become the backdrop for this eye-opening story about romance, daring, loss and laughter that will change what you thought you knew about living with a disability—and without one.

Sponsored by Virginia Kristl

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I Am a Man: From Memphis, a Lesson In Life
Memphis, USA 2008 Digital Projection 27 minutes In English
Director, Print Courtesy Jonathan Epstein
In 1968, thousands of African-American men marched through the streets of Memphis, demanding overdue respect with signs reading 'I Am a Man.' In the long shadow of the slaying of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the stories of the average men and women who made one of the civil rights movement's most pivotal, historic stands have been overlooked. Surrounded by the unique soul music that helped make Memphis world famous, I Am a Man inspiringly follows Elmore Nickleberry — one of the original 1968 protesters — who, at 77, is continuing to drive his trash truck through the streets of downtown Memphis.

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