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DocuClub Screenings: UP HEARTBREAK HILL

Our January DocuClub will take place on Wednesday, January 27, 7 p.m., at the 92YTribeca, located at 200 Hudson Street (at Canal). You can take the E, 1, or 6 trains to Canal.

We will screen a rough cut of UP HEARTBREAK HILL by Erica Scharf. The documentary chronicles the lives of Thomas, Tamara and Gabby—three Native American teenagers in Navajo, New Mexico—as they navigate their senior year at a reservation high school. As graduation nears, they must decide whether to stay in their community—a place inextricably woven into the fiber of their being—or leave in pursuit of opportunities elsewhere. Largely isolated from mainstream America, they hesitate to separate from their families and traditions, rooted to home in equal parts by love, obligation and fear. Tribal elders urge members of the younger generation to leave, acquire an education or learn a trade, and return home with the skills to help their people. But, with an unemployment rate near 58% and a per capita income under $4,600, Navajo has few prospects.  Thomas, Tamara and Gabby each bear amazing strength and promise, but all are products of their environment, and it is the same community that has set before them so many challenges that now asks them to become the leaders that will reshape the Navajo Nation. Their battles to shape their identities as both Native American and modern American lie at the heart of the film.

Director Erica Scharf has spent much of her career in documentary film and television. Most recently, she worked as an editor on Investigation Discovery’s documentary television series, THE SHIFT.  She has shot, produced and edited numerous episodes of THE FIRST 48 (A&E).  She directed and edited MARNEE: A GARAGE SALE RETROSPECTIVE, which was the First Place Winner at Movie Making Madness 2005, and edited CIY (Best Short Film, 2007 Aspen Shortsfest). Other credits include SWAT (A&E), MIAMI INK (TLC), and LAST SEEN ALIVE (Discovery). In 2005, Scharf was the Assistant Editor on GOD GREW TIRED OF US (Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award, 2006 Sundance Film Festival). Scharf is a graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and has a B.F.A. in Film and Television.

Producer Christina D. King’s body of work spans news, documentary, and film.  After producing broadcast news in her home state of Oklahoma, King went on to associate produce the documentaries ELECTION DAY (PBS), BAD BLOOD, and human rights projects for the ACLU. Recently, she line-produced WE SHALL REMAIN: TECUMSEH’s VISION directed by Chris Eyre and Ric Burns.  King also field produced for Michael Moore’s recent documentary, CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY. A Native American of Creek/Seminole/Sac & Fox descent, King has a B.A. in Film Studies and Mass Communication from the University of Tulsa.

Executive Producer Chris Eyre’s film EDGE OF AMERICA received a 2005 Peabody Award and he was recognized with a Directors Guild Award.  His first feature film, SMOKE SIGNALS, won the Audience Award and Eyre received the Filmmaker’s Trophy at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. His other credits include A THIEF OF TIME and SKINWALKERS for PBS’s MYSTERY!  In 1995, Eyre received a Rockefeller Foundation Intercultural Film Fellowship. A Cheyenne/Arapaho Native American, he earned his M.F.A. in Film and Television at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

Editor Cindy Lee has worked extensively in documentary and narrative film, television, and commercials.  Her feature editing credits include NO END IN SIGHT (Academy Award nominee 2008, New York Film Critics Circle 2007 Best Documentary, Sundance Special Jury Prize 2006), HOTEL GRAMERCY PARK (Special Jury Mention, Tribeca Film Festival 2008) and MANHATTAN, KANSAS (SXSW Film Festival 2006). She holds a B.A. from Wellesley College and an M.A. from Lund University in Sweden.

Editor Isaac Wayton honed his editorial skills while cutting short form documentary films, as well as various television and web projects. His documentary short, CHILDREN IN THE FIELDS (2004), has been used by multiple foundations to raise awareness about the lax child labor laws among migrant workers in the United States. He has collaborated with music artists Keith Urban and Sir Paul McCartney to create unique featurettes for the artists’ websites. His television credits include MYSTERY DIAGNOSES (Discovery Health), THE DETONATORS (Discovery), and IT TAKES A THIEF (Discovery).  Wayton received his B.F.A. in Film and Video from the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Our moderator will be filmmaker Almudena Carracedo. Born in Madrid, Carracedo is the Emmy-award winning Director and Producer of the documentary MADE IN L.A. Funded by ITVS, POV and the Sundance Documentary Fund, the film has received critical acclaim and international awards, including an Emmy Award, a Henry Hampton Award and a Special Mention of the Jury at the Valladolid International Film Festival. Her previous documentary on Tijuana as a border town, WELCOME, A DOCU-JOURNEY OF IMPRESSIONS, received the Sterling Award for Best Short Documentary at SILVERDOCS and screened in numerous national and international festivals. Carracedo is the 2008 recipient of NALIP‘s (National Association of Latino Independent Producers) ESTELA Award, and has served as a jury in several film festivals, including the SILVERDOCS, Valladolid International Film Festival and Santiago’s International Documentary Festival in Chile (FIDOCS). 

We will announce our rough cut soon. Stay tuned!

Admission is free for current DocuClub members and $8 for non-members.

Only DocuClub members who plan to attend need to RSVP at: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Membership is an annual $50 and it includes free admission to all DocuClub events. It takes five minutes to join online:

http://www.artsengine.net/store/items/docuclub_membership_individual_rate