IN DRY WATER, a Newsy documentary, directed by Kevin Clancy
Adama and Adja have a problem on their hands. Their country, Senegal, is running out of fish. As foreign trawlers and climate change cripple their stocks, the friends face a choice: Stay or follow the same trail as the fish.
WAITING FOR TEARAH, directed by Juliana Schatz
Waiting for Tearah is an intimate portrait of a mother struggling to find mental health care for her child. Shot over two years, this verité film tells the story of Shayna, a single parent of three girls on the brink of losing her home due to medical costs, while her eldest daughter, Tearah, waits for months in a psychiatric hospital. Day after day, Shayna navigates a complicated maze of government agencies as she fights for much-needed treatment for Tearah. Above all, Waiting for Tearah is about a mother’s love, and her unwillingness to give up on her daughter.
POPPY CRASH, directed by Andalusia Knoll Soloff - Work-In-Progress
As addiction to the opioid fentanyl surges in the U.S. causing an unprecedented number of overdoses, violence spikes in the mountains of Guerrero, Mexico. Fentanyl is cheaper and more potent, which has slashed natural opium prices, leaving the indigenous poppy farmers in Guerrero, left with few options for survival. Poppy Crash chronicles the stories of three indigenous farmers who worked in the opium harvest since they were children and suddenly had their livelihood ripped out from under them. Gustavo attempted to migrate to the U.S., and following his deportation, he joined the rank and file of a local crime group and now works as a hitman. Gutierrez, substituted poppy with corn, but with a 90% cut in profits, he can’t make ends meet. Yulis, a young mother, traveled thousands of miles from home, leaving her two young children behind to work as a migrant farmworker, but suffered from wage theft. Their dependence on the international drug economy and the volatile market has left these communities with an uncertain future where increased poverty and violence is evident.
