Gotham Alumni On Screen: March 2024
by The Gotham Staff on February 29, 2024 in Alumni on Screen
Welcome to Alumni on Screen, March 2024 edition! To champion and signal boost our Gotham-supported projects, at the top of each month we’ll have a rundown of alumni making their way into the world on screens both big and small.
MARCH 1
Our Father, the Devil
The Criterion Channel
“Ellie Foumbi’s elegant moral thriller is a grippingly intense exploration of trauma, revenge, and forgiveness that stands as one of the most exciting feature debuts in recent memory. Babetida Sadjo delivers a bravura performance as Marie, the head chef at a retirement home in small-town France, whose day-to-day life caring for residents, hanging out with her coworker and best friend, and teasing a potential new romance is disrupted by the arrival of Father Patrick (Souleymane Sy Savane), an African priest whom she recognizes from a terrifying episode in her homeland. As Father Patrick endears himself to those around her, Marie is forced to decide how to deal with this unwelcome reminder of her troubled past.” — The Criterion Channel
Directed by Ellie Foumbi.
Gotham Alum: Our Father, the Devil is an alum of the 2020 Biennale College-Cinema and the 2020 Gotham Week Project Market.
MARCH 5
93Queen
Brooklyn Academy of Music
“Set in the Hasidic enclave of Brooklyn’s Borough Park, this documentary follows a group of tenacious Hasidic women who challenge their community’s deeply entrenched patriarchy by creating the first all-female volunteer ambulance corps in New York City. With unprecedented access to the neighborhood’s inner politics, director Paula Eiselt offers a unique portrayal of empowered women changing their world from within.” — BAM
Directed by Paula Eiselt.
Gotham Alum: Commuted is an alum of the 2016 Project Market – Spotlight on Docs.
MARCH 5
A Revolution on Canvas
HBO/HBO Max
“Seminal Iranian modern artist and pro-democracy activist Nicky Nodjoumi fled Iran in 1980, joining his wife, Nahid, and daughter, Sara, in New York City. Forty years later, Sara begins an investigation to track down and reclaim her father’s lost artwork from Tehran. A Revolution on Canvas chronicles her search while examining religious and political extremism, the sacrifices of creative freedom and activism, and the enduring power of art.” — HBO
Directed by Sara Nodjoumi and Till Schauder.
Gotham Alum: A Revolution on Canvas is an alum of the 2020 Project Market – Spotlight on Docs and was also fiscally sponsored by The Gotham.
MARCH 8-14
Commuted
Firehouse Cinema
“In 1993, Danielle Metz was a twenty-six year old mother with two small children, who was labeled a drug kingpin by the US Government as a part of her husband’s drug ring. She was sentenced to triple life plus twenty years for nonviolent drug offenses, and sent more than two thousand miles from her family in New Orleans to serve our the remainder of her life in California at the Dublin Federal Correctional Institute. After serving twenty-three years in prison, Danielle’s sentence was commuted in 2016 by the Obama Administration as a part of the Clemency Initiative to address historically unfair sentencing practices during the “war on drugs.” Now back home, Danielle is trying to start life over again in her fifties while working to help other women avoid her fate. But perhaps Danielle’s toughest challenge of all is living the dream that kept her going while in prison – that of being a united family again with her two children.” — Firehouse Cinema
Directed by Nailah Jefferson.
Gotham Alum: Commuted is an alum of the 2019 Project Market – Spotlight on Docs.
MARCH 15-21
The Tuba Thieves
Brooklyn Academy of Music
“A slew of tubas were stolen from high schools across Southern California between 2011 and 2013. While reporters focused on the thieves, director Alison O’Daniel uses the tuba thefts as an opportunity to explore the roles of sound, power, and language in our conception of community. Prioritizing a d/Deaf/Hard of Hearing form of storytelling in which information collides and is allowed to be misunderstood, O’Daniel offers a truly incomparable, multi-sensory cinematic experience about what it means to listen in the modern world.” — BAM
Directed by Alison O’Daniel.
Gotham Alum: The Tuba Thieves is an alum of the 2020 Project Market – Spotlight on Docs.
March 18
Unseen
PBS POV
“As a blind, undocumented immigrant, Pedro faces uncertainty to obtain his college degree, become a social worker, and support his family. Through experimental cinematography and sound, unseen reimagines the accessibility of cinema, while exploring the intersections of immigration, disability, and mental health.” — PBS POV
Directed by Set Hernandez.
Gotham Alum: Unseen is an alum of the 2022 Project Market – Spotlight on Docs.
March 26
Transition
All Digital Platforms
“Conflict documentarian Jordan Bryon is invited by a Taliban Commander to film the daily life of a Taliban unit after the fall of Kabul for the New York Times. A stressful assignment for any documentarian, but this assignment proves to be particularly tumultuous because Bryon is in the process of a gender transition. Undergoing gender transition is stressful in the best of times, but doing so in Afghanistan during the Taliban’s takeover puts it on a whole other level. Bryon takes us through his transition from starting hormones to undergoing top surgery in Iran. And ultimately, through the complicated relationship he develops with the Taliban fighters he is embedded with.” — Tribeca Film Festival
Directed by Jordan Bryon and Monica Villamizar.
Gotham Alum: Monica Villamizar is a 2024 Documentary Development Initiative fellow.
You can find our month-by-month Alumni on Screen blog posts here.
If your project is an alumnus of The Gotham programs and is being released this month, and you do not see it listed here, please contact us at [email protected]