Rochester Independent Global Film Series - Documentary Section

"The Great Atchafalaya Basin" by Mark Knight

Efforts to save the Atchafalaya Basin are highlighted with stunning visuals of the largest wetland and swamp in the United States. Located in south central Louisiana, it is a combination of wetlands and river delta area where the Atchafalaya River and the Gulf of Mexico converge.

"Lament" by Kimberley Wells followed by Q & A

A poetic snapshot of a woman dealing with being separated from her family during the COVID-19 pandemic

"The College FKA Calhoun at Yale University" by Robert Menefee

Calhoun Residential College at Yale University was named for John C Calhoun, a leading proponent of slavery. On June 13, 2016, Corey Menafee, an African American kitchen worker at Calhoun Dining Hall, smashed a racist stained glass window depicting slaves in a cotton field. Mr Menafee’s act led to New Haven community protests which started out small, but over time grew to marches of hundreds of people. After more than thirty demonstrations, over eight months, on Feb.11, 2017, Yale University renamed Calhoun College. The name is now Grace Hopper College. The university held a name change celebration, but the New Haven activists were not invited or acknowledged.

I Sogni II - the life we live and the one we have forgotten by Mo Scarpelli

I SOGNI DI ROMA explores, in five parts, the resilience of our imagination in the unpredictable times of the COVID-19 pandemic, as told by the Romans through the dreams they’ve had during the first + strictest 50 days of quarantine.

The themes of each of the film pieces derive from notions in Carl Jung's memoir Memories, Dreams, Reflections. Jung knew that the psyche was distinctly more complicated and inaccessible than the body. But here in quarantine, in silence, perhaps things became more accessible, if we allowed them. What did our dreams from this unprecedented time, where primal fear and desire could scream to us in the silence, tell us then? What do they tell us now? Are we ready to listen?