This yr’s Virginia Film Festival guarantees to spotlight, as traditional, a surprising number of cinematic accomplishments masking an array of themes and views.
When it involves providing tales that present what it means to reside with well being disparities, these do not disappoint.
Dani’s Twins
Dani Izzie, a Virginia resident, turned one of many first quadriplegics to provide beginning to twins in 2020. Her story compels us to contemplate how the problem of being a ladies with disabilities can impression households.
Stay Awake
We’re all acquainted with the headlines that accompany the opioid disaster. But this movie takes us deeper, telling the story of a household struggling beneath the load of drug habit in an genuine, stereotype-reversing approach.
Devil Put the Coal within the Ground
Public well being considerations present us a posh however essential reality: Our particular person expertise of well being and wellness interconnects to bigger cultural, company, and political contexts. This movies uncovers these connections as a part of the financial, environmental, and social impression of coal mining in Appalachia.
See Devil Put the Coal within the Ground
Clarissa’s Battle
This movie profiles Clarissa Doutherd, a single Black mom and activist residing in Oakland, California. After changing into unhoused along with her toddler son, Clarissa begins to champion childcare and preschool as a human proper. We see in her expertise a private well being disaster, proven as an element of sexism, racism, and poverty, with broad ramifications.
Local Feature
Not health-related, however of native curiosity: The Lives Between the Lines. This intimate, highly effective movie paperwork the inspiration for and development of the Memorial to Enslaved Laborers on the University of Virginia.