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!

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