These films inspire me “to take bigger risks in my own life”.

Last night’s Screen&Discuss event at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston inspired conversation and motivation among museum-goers.

These films motivate me to have “more neighborhood conversations,” said one participant.

The three films — Borrowing Fire, Lift with Your Heart and Pulse of a Dream — proved to be an excellent means of kickstarting conversation around immigrant issues. Following the screening, NIRV filmmakers Braulio Tellez-Vilches (Cuba) and Kebrewosen Densamo (Ethiopia), film subject Jean Apollon (Haiti) and CSFilm Director Michael Sheridan (US) took the stage to facilitate a nearly hour-long discussion with the audience.

Selected Comments:

• After seeing these films, I “have more appreciation for the difficulties immigrants face when they come to this country”.
• I learned that the immigrant experience is “nuanced, emotional and filled with [both] isolation and connection”.
• I learned about how many immigrants must “start over” and adjust to “new surroundings, languages [and] careers”.
• These films inspire me “to take bigger risks in my own life”.
• These films helped me to see that we often “fear change” and “get stuck in careers and are afraid to try something new”.
• These films motivate me to have “more neighborhood conversations”.

Our Screen&Discuss events are making impact around the country and you can can organize a Screen&Discuss event in your community, too!

To learn about our upcoming events and new resources, be sure to subscribe to our mailing list. And in order to continue our public engagement Screen&Discuss tour through cities and towns around America, we need your support! Please donate to CSFilm today.

Many thanks to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Pieranna Cavalchini and Tiffany Shea-York for hosting and helping us organize this event.