LIVE from New Orleans: A synopsis of films and filmmakers at Netroots Nation 2018

Greet­ings again from the Pel­i­can State, where the thir­teenth annu­al Net­roots Nation is tak­ing place in the city of New Orleans. In addi­tion to the many train­ings and pan­el dis­cus­sions at this year’s con­ven­tion, there is also a screen­ing series of short and fea­ture length films. Before the screen­ing series kicked off, there was a cau­cus for film­mak­ers, pro­duc­ers, and fans of film to make connections.

Each per­son talked about the projects they are cur­rent­ly work­ing on and if there were things they could use help, as well as men­tion­ing any­thing they might be able to offer to oth­ers. I told every­one about my work review­ing doc­u­men­taries for the North­west Pro­gres­sive Insti­tute, which many thought was an inter­est­ing and unique beat for a pro­gres­sive pub­li­ca­tion like the Cas­ca­dia Advo­cate to have.

Shi­rah Ded­man, direc­tor of short film You a Nomad, about gen­tri­fi­ca­tion in Oak­land, Cal­i­for­nia, talked about the project and her desire to even­tu­al­ly make it into a fea­ture length film. The film is avail­able online as a five-part dig­i­tal series, which I’m plan­ning to watch and review after we return from New Orleans.

John Atlas, author of “Seeds of Change”, a book about the rise and fall of ACORN, dis­cussed the doc­u­men­tary film that was inspired by his book. “ACORN and the Fire Storm” debuted at Tribeca last year and was recent­ly fea­tured on PBS. It’s anoth­er film I’ll def­i­nite­ly be adding to my list of films to watch.

Oth­er films being screened at Net­roots include:

• Heal­ing Jus­tice, about the caus­es and con­se­quences of our bro­ken crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem, which is cost­ly and immoral;
• Under­cov­er in the Alt-Right, about a man who (brave­ly) lived with­in a white suprema­cist group for a year;
• No Choice, a series of short video por­traits about the chal­lenges faced by women seek­ing abor­tions in times and places where access to legal abor­tion is lim­it­ed or impossible;
• … and a film about com­mu­ni­ty orga­niz­ing and the con­tro­ver­sial founder of ACORN, Wade Rathke, titled The Orga­niz­er.

I won’t be able to watch any of these doc­u­men­tary films while at Net­roots Nation, as there are so many pan­els, train­ings, and cau­cus­es to go to, but I will keep these films in mind for future screen­ing and review.