2019 MINORITY HEALTH FILM FESTIVAL

The 2019 Minority Health Film Festival would not have been the huge success it was without your support and attendance! 

 

 

 

 

PRESENTED BY:

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Inspired by health-related conversations happening across the nation, the Minority Health Film Festival was created to extend those conversations in Milwaukee communities. The first of its kind in the country, this four-day event features unique film selections, community forums, and an interactive health fair, all related to information about the health statuses of racial ethnic minority populations.

Topics include:

Legacies of Mistrust: Health Care and Medical Research in Communities of Color • Mental Health Awareness • Faith and Healthcare • Healthy Relationships • Healthy Eating • Child Development and  Maternal Wellbeing • Healthcare Access • Housing, Finance, Employment, and Economic Development

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For information about sponsorship and community partnership opportunities, contact Cultures and Communities Director Geraud Blanks, at geraud@mkefilm.org.

 

CHECK OUT THE ENTIRE FESTIVAL SCHEDULE HERE!

DOWNLOAD THE MINORITY HEALTH FILM FESTIVAL PROGRAM BOOK HERE!

2019 HIGHLIGHTS

 

Let's Talk Mental Health
A Conversation with Charlamagne tha God

Community Partner: Milwaukee Urban League of Young Professionals

Charlamagne Tha God is best known for being co-host of the nationally syndicated hip-hop iHeartRadio program The Breakfast Club. He is also a social media influencer; an executive producer with his own production company, CThaGod World; and co-host of the popular podcast Brilliant Idiots. Born and raised in Moncks Corner in South Carolina, Charlamagne quickly rose to become one of today’s most unique and compelling media personalities. His point of view and provocative celebrity interviews help drive the daily national conversation about issues related to hip-hop, race, society, and politics. He is the author of the New York Times Best Seller Black Privilege: Opportunity Comes to Those Who Create It and Shook One: Anxiety Playing Tricks on Me. Charlamagne is the executive producer and creator of shows such as On the Run Eatin' with N.O.R.E., In Session Live with Dr. Jess, and Uncommon Sense. He has also been a leading force progressing the mental health discussion in America.

 


Mind & Body 
Conversations with STYLES P

Whether a part of acclaimed rap trio The LOX, or as a solo artist, Styles’ (aka David Styles) razor-sharp slick talk has created a cult-like following within the hip-hop and “gangsta” rap community. Looking to balance to his fast-paced rapper lifestyle, Styles, began supplementing his diet with juicing ten years ago. As co-owner of Juices for Life, a local juice bar that serves up natural and healthy beverages, Styles promotes the benefits of juicing to communities of color, a commitment to the health and wellness movement he takes very seriously.

Featured panels

Juicing For Life
Saturday, September 14 // 3pm
Kenilworth Square East Building, room TBD​

Community Partner: The Human Trafficking Task Force of Greater Milwaukee

The Art of Mental Health
Sunday, September 15 // 1pm
Kenilworth Square East Building, room TBD​

Community Partner: Beans and Barley

 

Legacies of Mistrust
A Conversation with Harriet Washington
Sponsored by All of Us Research Program - Medical College of Wisconsin

Harriet Washington is an award-winning medical writer and editor, and the author of the best-selling book, Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present. In her work, she focuses mainly on bioethics; the history of medicine; African-American health issues; and the intersection of medicine, ethics, and culture. 

The first social history of medical research with African Americans, Medical Apartheid won the National Book Critics Circle Nonfiction Award, a PEN award, 2007 Gustavus Myers Award, and Nonfiction Award of the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. In her latest book, Infectious Madness, Washington looks at the connection between germs and mental illness, revealing that schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, Alzheimer’s, and anorexia also may be caused by bacteria, parasites, or viruses.

 

THE FILMS

 

SAVE ME
USA / 2019 / 61 mins.
 

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Sponsored by Hmong Wisconsin Chamber of Commerce!

What began as a Hmong-American play presented at UW-Milwaukee in 2018 by local Southeastern Milwaukee students has become an essential work of art, exploring issues of mental and emotional health in Milwaukee’s Hmong community. Save Me features a young Hmong girl who loses her mother and falls into depression until she meets a mysterious person who teaches her to find acceptance. The film reveals the challenges of living between the two worlds of Hmong and Western life.

 

 

UNBROKEN GLASS
USA / 2016 / 57 mins. / DIR. Dinesh Sabu

When he was six years old, Dinesh Das Sabu’s parents died. Raised by his older siblings, he had little idea who his parents were or where he came from. Through making Unbroken Glass, he attempts to piece together their story and his own. Uncovering a silenced family history and disturbing truths, Dinesh and his siblings must finally reconcile the past, confronting the trauma of losing their parents and the specter of mental illness.

 

 

RESILIENCE
USA / 2016 / 60 mins. / DIR. James Redford
Sponsored by SaintA

An exploration into the developments of medical studies where conditions like heart disease can be linked to childhood experiences, Resilience provides the basis for a new understanding of what our culture is facing and how to best treat families dealing with "toxic stress."

 

SALUD SIN PAPELES: HEALTH UNDOCUMENTED
USA / 2017 / 80 mins. / DIR. Juan Freitez

Sparked by a neo-Nazi march, a ragtag group of activists organize the community to build a free clinic for undocumented immigrants, breaking the cycle of oppression perpetuated by healthcare disparities.

 

 

THE INTERRUPTERS
UK / 2011 / 125 mins. / DIR Steve James
Sponsored by Kohl's

Profiling a year in the life of a city grappling with urban violence, The Interrupters follows members of the activist group CeaseFire as they work to curb violence in their Chicago neighborhoods by intervening in street fights and showing youths a better way to resolve conflicts.

 

 

A TOUCH OF SUGAR
USA / 2019 / 45 mins. / DIR. Ani Simon-Kennedy
Sponsored by The Dohmen Company Foundation

Told through the voices of people united in their struggle with this chronic disease, A Touch of Sugar dives into the diabetes healthcare epidemic that affects every community in the United States.

 

 

SPILLED MILK
USA / 2016 / 84 mins. / DIR. Jaqai Mickelsen
 

Spilled Milk captures straight talk from doctors about the inexperience many hospital staffers have with Sickle Cell and the consequent stigmas that can plague African Americans seeking treatment for pain.

 

 

THE INVISIBLE VEGAN
USA / 2019 / 90 mins. / DIR Jasmine Leyva
Sponsored by The Dohmen Company Foundation

Foregrounding the health and wellness possibilities enabled by plant-based vegan diets and lifestyle choices, The Invisible Vegan explores the problem of unhealthy dietary patterns in the African American community.

 

ATTENDING FILMMAKERS

 

Dinesh Sabu  -  UNBROKEN GLASS

Currently attending Stanford University’s Documentary Film and Video MFA program, Dinesh Sabu is known for his work on Thax and Hearing Images and his debut feature Unbroken Glass, which confronts Sabu’s memories of his parents’ volatile relationship, his mother’s suicide after a fifteen-year struggle with schizophrenia, and the trauma of being orphaned. The critically acclaimed film won Sabu a “Best Director” award at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival in 2017.

 

Jasmine Leyva - THE INVISIBLE VEGAN

Jasmine Leyva has worked as an associate producer on an NAACP winning docuseries entitled Unsung, and a writer/producer on Being for the Centric television channel, a docuseries highlighting dynamic entertainers in film and music. Her first feature-length documentary, The Invisible Vegan chronicles how African American eating habits have been debased by a chain of oppression stemming from slavery, economics, and modern agribusiness.

 

Jaqai Mickelsen – SPILLED MILK

A longtime professional graphic artist and cartoon illustrator, Jaqai Mickelsen uprooted his life to make his first feature film Spilled Milk. The documentary about the physical and emotional suffering his best friend Omar Beach—who serves as a producer and editor on the project—endured as Sickle Cell Disease survivor was so daunting Mickelsen left his position as Creative Director of The Marcus Buckingham Company, a prestigious management and consulting firm in Beverly Hills, California, to complete the film.

 

Juan Freitez - SALUD SIN PAPELES: HEALTH UNDOCUMENTED

Human rights and immigration are recurring topics in the work of Juan Freitez, a Venezuelan filmmaker and video journalist based in Michigan. An immigrant himself, Freitez fundamentally understands firsthand the difficulties and discrimination facing migrant populations. His first feature-length film, HealthUndocumented is supported by the prestigious Artist Research and Development Grant from The Arizona Commission on the Arts and The National Endowment for the Arts. The film has screened internationally as an official selection in the Global Peace Film Festival 2018, the Freedom Film Festival 2018 (Malaysia & Singapore), and the International Human Rights Film Festival of Valencia 2019.