Filmmakers Spotlight: Co-Directors Clementine Malpas, Sam French and Producer Leslie Knott, WITH THIS BREATH I FLY

WITH THIS BREATH I FLY - Gulnaz and her daughter

At the height of the international occupation of Afghanistan, two women—Gulnaz, raped and impregnated by her uncle, and Farida, on the run from an abusive husband—are imprisoned on charges of “moral crimes” by an Afghan justice system that is supported by billions of dollars of aid money from the European Union. WITH THIS BREATH I FLY follows these two courageous women fighting for their freedom against a patriarchal Afghan society, while exposing the complicity of the European Union in censoring their voices, and how the international press—and the documentary itself—forever alters the course of their lives.

WITH THIS BREATH I FLY Co-Director Sam French accepts the Special Jury Award at SFF 2022 - Photo by Shane’s Maine Photography

WITH THIS BREATH I FLY is the winner of the Special Jury Award at Salem Film Fest 2022. The film screened in-person at Salem Film Fest and is available for streaming anywhere in the United States during the virtual portion of our festival which runs through Sunday, April 3.

Salem Film Fest is happy to be collaborating with Marblehead High School on some of this year’s Blog Posts and we are grateful to MHS Teacher Connor Ryan who has been working with his students in exploring this year’s festival.

This interview was written by Zoe, Summer, Caitlin, Cate, Arielle, Martha, Madeleine, Yasen, Celine, Lilly, Lia, Lauren, Griffen, and Griffin -- Marblehead High School's groundbreaking G block AP Language and Composition class.

Marblehead High School: How did you find this project? 

Leslie Knott: I had done a photo project in the women’s prison in Kabul for Grazia magazine and saw firsthand the desperate situation for women being held there for moral crimes. When Clem approached me with this idea for a film, I knew that this was an underreported and important story to tell.

MHS: How did you find these women to interview?

Clementine Malpas: We were given access to the prisons through the EU. We were free to walk around the prisons and talk to anyone who was interested in telling their story. Lots of women wanted to talk to us, and a few, including Gulnaz and Farida, were happy to be filmed.

MHS: Were there other women who weren’t in the documentary whose stories stood out to you? 

Producer Leslie Knott (L) and co-Director Clementine Malpas (R) - Courtesy Tiger Nest Films

CM: Yes, lots of women had really upsetting stories. We followed the case of a sixteen-year-old girl who was kidnapped from Kabul and taken to Parwan, raped and subsequently arrested for adultery. Unfortunately, we couldn’t include her in the final edit.

MHS: How did you initially begin working with/for the European Union?

CM: We were approached to apply for funding from the EU to make a film about women’s rights. We won the contract and pitched the story of moral crimes to them. They agreed on the story and helped with access to the prisons. Without them we would never have had the access.

MHS: How did the scope of the project change as your relationship with the EU changed?

CM: We followed the stories of the women for much longer than we would have, had the EU signed off on the film after the first edit. We would never have got the press coverage without the EU pulling their consent. It might have taken longer for Gulnaz to be freed. The film would have ended with Gulnaz and Farida still in prison. 

Sam French: We were prohibited from filming for a year after the EU told us we had to delete all our footage and blocked access to the prisons. But after the press started covering the story, it brought attention to the matter and helped pressure President Karzai to issue a Presidential pardon for Gulnaz. Because of the international attention on their decision to block the film, the EU ended up assigning full copyright of the film to us and we were able to continue filming. Because this behind-the-scenes drama directly affected our subjects, we felt like we had to include this storyline in the film. In doing so, the film raises larger questions of power and representation – who decides whose voices are heard, what role does the media have in exposing injustice and shaping the narrative, and what responsibility does the international community have to protect women’s rights in a country like Afghanistan.

MHS: How did you account for cultural differences while filming?

CM: Once the women had consented to being on camera, we made sure their families were also happy for them to be in the film. Families are the biggest threat to women when they came out of prison. As we were a female camera crew, we had a lot of freedom with the women and their families at home.

MHS: Did you have to make any accommodations? 

SF: We were very upfront about the filmmaking process to the women throughout the course of production, and clearly explained what we were trying to do in order for them to give informed consent.

MHS: Were there any special considerations?

SF: We had to respect the cultural separation of men and women in society, so we had to be very careful to have an all women crew when we were filming intimate verité scenes and interviews with the women.

WITH THIS BREATH I FLY - Gulnaz and the Uncle who raped her

MHS: Without giving anything away: were there any particular challenges in filming?

CM: Most importantly, we made sure to take into careful consideration the security of the women and to make sure that everyone was happy to be on camera. 

 Although we had very good access to the prisons at the start of filming, as time went on it became harder and harder to get in. Farida’s prison was a two and a half hour drive from Kabul, and we were often turned away when we arrived, or we had to spend hours drinking tea with the guards to be allowed in, or we were sent away and asked to come back another day. 

 It was even harder to get access to the male prisons, the courts and the women’s shelter. Often, we thought we had permission only to be turned away when we arrived. 

WITH THIS BREATH I FLY - Kabul

MHS: Were there any particular challenges in bringing this project to market?

SF: Accessing funding for a project like this is a challenge. After the dispute with the EU, we ran out of money, so we launched two crowdfunding campaigns over the course of a few years to raise enough money to finish the film.

MHS: We understand that your website is accepting donations for Women for Afghan Women. How is that going so far and how can people help?

SF: We have a link on our website where people can donate directly to Women for Afghan Women, an organization that helps women accused of moral crimes, and we are donating a portion of our proceeds to them as well.

WITH THIS BREATH I FLY streams at Salem Film Fest Monday, March 28 - Sunday, April 3. Purchase tickets to the film here.

Filmmaker Spotlight: Laura Lamanda, Director of LOST AND FOUND IN PARIS

LOST AND FOUND IN PARIS - Courtesy of Make Studio

All day long, people come to the reception desk at the Lost and Found Office in Paris. It's a never-ending flow. They want to retrieve their belongings and they're in a hurry. But finding what has been lost is not an easy task. It requires time. The time it takes to wait for their turn and fill out paperwork. Time to explain what has been lost. Time to find the item in the warehouse and send it back up the freight elevator. LOST AND FOUND IN PARIS takes place entirely inside this fascinating space, and takes the time to tell the stories of both those at a loss and those in charge of returning the objects we carry, cherish and misplace.

LOST AND FOUND IN PARIS screened in-person at Salem Film Fest and is available for streaming anywhere in the United States during the virtual portion of our festival which runs through Sunday, April 3.

Salem Film Fest is happy to be collaborating with Marblehead High School on some of this year’s Blog Posts and we are grateful to MHS Teacher Connor Ryan who has been working with his students in exploring this year’s festival.

This interview with Director Laura Lamanda was written by Zoe, Summer, Caitlin, Cate, Arielle, Martha, Madeleine, Yasen, Celine, Lilly, Lia, Lauren, Griffen, and Griffin -- Marblehead High School's grandest G block AP Language and Composition class.

Laura Lamanda

Marblehead High School: What inspired the film?

Laura Lamanda: Several summers ago everything was apparently going smoothly, when suddenly my things started getting lost. Everything: keys, books, identity cards, papers. My days were littered with small moments of mourning. And then, amid this uninterrupted stream of losses, the most serious incident occurred: I lost my laptop. When I found it again, several weeks later, at the Lost and Found Service, I was awestruck: strangers who owed me nothing had looked after me.

MHS: How did you choose your subjects?

LL: At the Lost and Found Service, the social mix of users is obvious. The loss concerns everyone, it does not discriminate. At the service counters, users follow one another at a steady pace and some of them only stay a few minutes before disappearing. This constraint forced me to be quick, to make choices very quickly.

LOST AND FOUND IN PARIS - Courtesy of Make Studio

MHS: Once chosen, how did you approach your subjects?

LL: I approached the users when I could read a strong emotion on their faces, when I had the feeling that something crucial was happening for them. My eyes were drawn to an almost solemn concentration when filling out the loss declaration, to agitated movements, or to strong apprehension during the exchanges with the agents.

MHS: Could you please discuss your choices regarding sound for this project?

LL: Since the Lost and Found is a very noisy place, we had to find an appropriate set up/technical solution. I wanted close and intimate voices, I wanted to isolate the noise of the objects handled by the agents of the service or by their owners. With Amaury Arboun, the sound engineer, we did some very precise location scouting and sound tests. In addition to the boom, we placed several microphones in the department in places where I knew we would be filming.

LOST AND FOUND IN PARIS - Courtesy of Make Studio

MHS: How did you create your voiceovers?

LL: When possible, we recorded the voice-overs in a small unoccupied room in the ward. I tried to create a quiet, protected environment, a cocoon in which the people being filmed could safely confide their words and vulnerability to us. With Marta Billingsley, the sound editor, we worked a lot on the sound rhythm of the film. Realistic soundscapes alternate with more muted and rarefied ones, such as during the voice-overs or during certain moments of fluctuation.

LOST AND FOUND IN PARIS - Courtesy of Make Studio

MHS: The film spends a lot of time focusing on the specifics of the Lost and Found Office. What was so intriguing about this location?

LL: When I went to find my computer, I discovered Rue des Morillons, this place devoted to loss. I loved spending time in the hall with its big windows and sturdy old furniture, where a crowd of bereft losers had wound up before me. I no longer wanted to leave this place. I wanted to stay there, surrounded by the others and their stories. I was intent on filming them.

LOST AND FOUND IN PARIS streams at Salem Film Fest Monday, March 28 - Sunday, April 3. Purchase tickets to the film here.

Filmmaker Spotlight: Diane Tsai, Director of BE OUR GUEST

The O’Leary Family - Courtesy of TIME Studios

In small-town New Hampshire, 8-year-old Ronan O’Leary and his family have made a commitment of radical generosity: welcoming strangers into their home and guiding them through their recovery from addiction. The guests share meals with the family and sometimes even bedrooms with the O’Leary children. This is the only life Ronan and his three older sisters have ever known. Every year, their mom asks them to choose whether or not to continue: “Are you willing to give up a year of your life, so that someone can have the rest of their life?” As the children enter adolescence, both the family and their guests are faced with difficult decisions about community, independence, and the real nature of altruism.

Salem Film Fest screening - Courtesy of Bobbie Bush Photography

BE OUR GUEST screened in-person at Salem Film Fest and is available for streaming anywhere in the United States during the virtual portion of our festival which runs through Sunday, April 3.

Salem Film Fest is happy to be collaborating with Marblehead High School on some of this year’s Blog Posts and we are grateful to MHS Teacher Connor Ryan who has been working with his students in exploring this year’s festival.

This interview with BE OUR GUEST Director Diane Tsai was written by Zoe, Summer, Caitlin, Cate, Arielle, Martha, Madeleine, Yasen, Celine, Lilly, Lia, Lauren, Griffen, and Griffin -- Marblehead High School's greatest G block AP Language and Composition class.

Diane Tsai - Courtesy of TIME Studios

Marblehead High School: How did you find the O'Learys? Were they initially interested? What were your initial hopes and concerns for the project?

Diane Tsai: I first met the O’Learys while reporting on a short video for TIME’s multimedia project on the opioid crisis (Editors note: Diane Tsai is a Senior Producer at TIME, a global news multimedia brand previously known to many when it published content as TIME Magazine). While observing their home, I was struck by how the O’Learys defied all my initial expectations. On that first trip, I surprised myself by immediately asking Lydia if she would be open to me coming back to continue filming. She said yes, amused that I found so many aspects of their lives worth documenting, because to them, it was just normal, everyday life.

My initial hopes were to simply convey what life was like in that house, because I felt that words wouldn’t be able to do it justice—I wanted others to be able to witness it for themselves. And it was apparent to me that the O’Learys had the potential to make a huge impact on the lives of the people who were living in their home, like Jenn, and I wanted to be able to watch how it unfolded. Were they naive in their ambitions, or were they onto something?

MHS: How did you make decisions about which aspects of peoples' lives to include or exclude? Were there scenes or interactions you omitted, and if so, how did you make those decisions?

DT: It was incredibly difficult to decide what to include and what to exclude. That’s the real challenge of editing, but it felt magnified when the footage spanned years and followed so many characters. We wanted to be able to share parts of everyone’s experiences, especially those who were so generous with their stories at such a difficult time in their lives. But it simply wasn’t possible, and got very confusing when we started introducing too many characters. Ultimately, in terms of the guests in the home, we wanted to depict individuals who could represent the range of journeys we witnessed. Jenn was always a clear main character, because she had such concrete goals, which she accomplished so gracefully. And Rich was representative of the people who passed through the O’Leary home who didn’t always see eye-to-eye with Jim and Lydia, and whose recovery story wasn’t a linear path.

BE OUR GUEST - Courtesy of TIME Studios

MHS: Do you think being filmed changed how the family and their guests interacted with one another? Was it difficult to get everyone's natural reactions as well as record everyone in the house interacting normally since they knew the camera was on them? How do you think the presence of the camera affected the day-to-day lives of the characters?

DT: I was very conscious of how the presence of my camera might affect the dynamics of the house, but it’s always surprising how easily people can adapt. They quickly became used to me hanging out around the house with a camera in hand, and I rarely felt that people weren’t being genuine. The few times I did get that sense, I would typically stop filming, because I think it’s very apparent onscreen when people are acting unnaturally for the camera.

MHS: How often and for how long did you film?

DT: The film spans more than three years, and I would try to visit once a month or once every two months, staying for a few days at a time. Once covid hit, it became difficult for me to travel, so our co-producer and cinematographer Jon Gourlay, who is based locally, was able to drop in for the day as needed.

Ronan - Courtesy of TIME Studios

MHS: A large part of the documentary focuses on Jennifer's journey. Is that something you, as a filmmaker, tried to anticipate? Similarly, did you anticipate that Ronan would be the dominant protagonist? How do you make those decisions?

DT: Very early on, I was struck by Jenn’s openness when talking about her struggle with addiction and admired her determination to reunite her family. The fact that Jenn found a home with the O’Learys when she was 7 months pregnant with nowhere else to go was such a remarkable story, I knew we had to keep following her journey.

With Ronan, it was a little less intentional at first, but came through in the initial footage of the house, even when I wasn’t sure who to focus on. I had always been intrigued by all four of the O’Leary children and their unconventional upbringing. While each family member has their moment in the film, Ronan began to stand out as the youngest child and only boy, who was just beginning to find his voice.

MHS: Do you keep in touch with the O'Learys?

DT: Yes, I love hearing updates on their ongoing home renovations, and am always curious to know who is currently at the house.

BE OUR GUEST streams at Salem Film Fest Monday, March 28 - Sunday, April 3. Purchase tickets to the film here.

Filmmaker Spotlight: Nadine Pequeneza, Director of LAST OF THE RIGHT WHALES

LAST OF THE RIGHT WHALES Director Nadine Pequeneza - Image courtesy of Dan Abravomici Photography

North Atlantic right whales are dying faster than they can reproduce. With less than 350 remaining, these great mammals rarely die of natural causes. Instead they are run over by ships or suffer lethal injuries from fishing gear. With unprecedented access to film the migration from their calving ground off the coast of Florida, to Cape Cod Bay and onward north to their shifting feeding grounds in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, LAST OF THE RIGHT WHALES brings a message of hope about a great creature on the brink of extinction. We bear witness to their struggle and see the promise of new fishing techniques that bring hope for their survival.

LAST OF THE RIGHT WHALES screens during the in-person portion of Salem Film Fest on Saturday, March 26 at 11am at the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) and streams during the virtual festival, Monday, March 28 - Sunday, April 3. SFF Program Director Jeff Schmidt caught up with Director Nadine Pequeneza ahead of the festival.

Jeff Schmidt: How did you become aware of the plight of North Atlantic right whales and when did you decide that you needed to make a film about them?

Nadine Pequeneza: It was the multiple deaths, 17 in a few short months, that grabbed my attention in 2017. At the time I had never heard of a North Atlantic right whale. When I learned it was us who were unintentionally killing them, I knew I had to tell their story. Living in cities as most of us do, often many kilometers from the ocean, it’s not surprising that we are disconnected from the marine world. But people only need to see what is happening to the North Atlantic right whale to feel a sense of responsibility for their plight.

JS: The whale imagery in the film is incredible. How did you manage to capture such stunning footage of these animals?

NP: Wildlife films are always challenging to make.  The footage is even more difficult to capture when the animal is critically endangered and inhabits the entire North Atlantic coast from Florida to the Gulf of St Lawrence – ‘needle in a haystack’ was said more than once during production. With less than 350 remaining, right whales are rightfully protected.  In order to approach the whales we required multiple, hard to get federal permits. We had to rely on aerial cinematography because diving with North Atlantic right whales is prohibited, which meant waiting for behaviours that happen on the surface of the ocean – mom’s nursing, skim feeding, social groups. All these stars had to align in order for us to capture the incredible images featured in Last of the Right Whales.

North Atlantic right whale fluke in the Gulf of St. Lawrence at sunset. Image courtesy of HitPlay Productions

JS: In a film like this, finding characters isn't enough as you also need to research the science and figure out how to present it on screen in a compelling way, how did you approach this?

NP: Scientists have been studying these whales since the ‘30s. They’ve been cataloging them and naming them and following their life history. They’re not just whales. They’re whales with family – with calves and grand-calves and they actually have documented those family lines and have seen similarities in where they go to calve and raise their young, and even where they might choose to feed. The scientists have such a close relationship with these whales; I wanted to convey that in the film and for the audience to also have that deep connection.

The film introduces viewers to heroes who have dedicated their time and sometimes their lives to the protection of the North Atlantic right whale. It also introduces us to two individual whales – Snow Cone and her new born calf. Over the course of the film, we see the close bond that forms between this mom-calf pair, a bond that is ultimately destroyed due to human activity. It’s next to impossible to watch their journey and not feel empathy for these whales. Oftentimes the way we connect with animals that are not people is to give them human characteristics. That was a central goal for me – to show people those human characteristics that all animals share. The bond between mother and child and mom and calf; that’s something that all mammals share.

JS: As a filmmaker, were there any moments during filming that stand out for you as particularly revelatory?

NP:: We captured something that has never been filmed before or even witnessed by scientists who have been studying this species for decades – a fresh entanglement in fishing gear.  We know it was recent because scientists had photographed the same North Atlantic right whale gear free just four hours earlier.  What we witnessed was the brutality of a fishing gear entanglement. 

The public hears reports and sees images of entangled whales often, 85% of the right whale population has been entangled, but seeing the immediate aftermath of an entanglement demonstrates the trauma of this interaction.  For six hours we filmed 5-year-old male, catalog #4615, struggling to free himself from a rope caught in his baleen, wrapped over the top of his head, and weighted on the other end by what was presumably a trap. 4615’s struggle to free himself is difficult, but critical to watch.  It is one of  the most memorable things I’ve ever filmed over the course of my 20-years making documentary films.

Wildlife Photographer Nick Hawkins documenting the necropsy of North Atlantic right whale Punctuation (#1281) on Miscou Island, NB. Image courtesy of HitPlay Productions

JS: What do you hope audiences will take away from your film and is there anything you would like to encourage them to do?

NP: First and foremost, I hope the audience will come go away with a new found love for North Atlantic right whales. I hope they will feel connected to them. I hope that they will feel empathy for Snow Cone and her calves – the one that died and the new one that’s miraculously just been born despite the mom coping with an ongoing entanglement.

I also hope that they will see solutions. That they will see that there is a possibility for us to correct our behaviours in a way that makes coexistence possible. The commitment and determination of the people featured in the film is inspiring. There’s a lot of fabulous work going on with engineers and fishers trying to develop safer ways of fishing. There’s been a lot of testing happening over the last four or five years. Some of these systems have been used successfully in other parts of the world for many years already. I’m very encouraged by the fact that people have been moving in this direction in Canada and the U.S.

The collaboration between the film’s impact partners who have joined forces to protect the North Atlantic right whale is powerful – IFAW, The Pew Charitable Trusts, Sierra Club Canada Foundation, Canadian Wildlife Federation, Canadian Whale Institute and Oceans North. People’s reaction to the film and their desire to get involved is palpable.I am hopeful that our species can do the right thing for these whales, for ourselves and the planet

LAST OF THE RIGHT WHALES screens in-person - Saturday, March 26 at 11am at the Peabody Essex Musem (PEM) - and streams Monday, March 28 - Sunday, April 3. Purchase tickets to the film here.

Filmmaker Spotlight: Regan Linton and Brian Malone, Co-Directors of IMPERFECT

IMPERFECT Co-Directors Brian Malone and Regan Linton

A theater troupe with all types of disabilities – from spinal cord injury to Parkinson’s Disease, cerebral palsy to autism – attempts to stage an unprecedented version of Kander, Ebb, and Fosse’s beloved musical Chicago. Capturing the raw, honest stories of these talented actors both inside their production process and their everyday lives, the film reveals a rare behind-the-scenes look at artists pushing to succeed, no matter the obstacles. IMPERFECT crushes stale notions of disability and affirms the human condition - in all its many forms.

IMPERFECT screens during the in-person portion of Salem Film Fest on Saturday, March 26 at 7pm at Endicott College’s Rose Theater in the Manninen Center for the Arts and streams during the virtual festival, Monday, March 28 - Sunday, April 3. SFF Program Director Jeff Schmidt caught up with Co-Directors Regan Linton and Brian Malone ahead of the film’s East Coast premiere.

Jeff Schmidt: What is the origin story of IMPERFECT - how did you meet each other?

Regan Linton: Brian was doing some educational videos for Craig Hospital, where I did my spinal cord injury rehab in Colorado after my injury. He heard I was an actor and invited me to do voice-over for the videos. We got to talking about Phamaly and my desire to make a documentary, and suddenly we found ourselves saying, let’s do this!

Brian Malone: We both thought there was a great untold story to tell around the Phamaly Theatre Company and its actors. I went to one of their productions... and that was it. Sold.

Megan, Mark and Erin

JS: Tell us about your collaboration process in making the film, as it is my understanding that this is the first time Regan has worked in the film medium.

RL: Yes, ironically, I started my college career in film production at USC. But a professor said, “You’ll never be a great filmmaker if you don’t have a good story to tell.” So I decided to leave film studies and center in the humanities, where I felt I could explore the world for good stories. A year later I was paralyzed, and then didn’t think that any artistic discipline - be it Theatre, film, etc - would be accessible to me. After I found Phamaly and got back into theatre, I still had the bug to make a film. I created a couple of smaller on camera projects, including a webseries with Phamaly. But I still wanted to do a larger project. I feel like I am adept at the aesthetics of storytelling and in film and theatre, but I needed a great “mechanic” to execute it. So Brian and I made a great team, as his technical experience complemented my awareness of the narrative. Our collaboration was a great example of the fruits of interdependence and contributing different skill sets.

JS: Brian, you have a lot of prior experience working in production, had you worked on any theater related projects before?

BM: IMPERFECT makes documentary number 23 for me. I had not done any theater-related work in film before. But, because of my sister, Beth being in the center of music theater, I've been around it in the outer orbit over the years. My closest theater was when I was shooting on my mom's VHS camcorder in college. I would steal Beth's music theater friends to make really bad horror movies. Inevitably, someone would end up getting stabbed by a pitchfork or an ax in the skull, wrapped around some flimsy plot with made up dialog. It was great fun!

I will say that even though this was Regan's first film effort, she already had a very high level of storytelling talent built in, from her theater experience, both acting and in directing plays. So, for us, the process was an easy transition. There were some mechanics along the way that are specific to documentary filmmaking that Regan had to learn along the way... but her instincts in mining out the value in our stories and our characters were spot on.

Adam sings

JS: Regan, you are actually featured in the film, serving at the time of filming as the Artistic Director of Phamaly Theatre Company. Can you talk about your personal connection to the story and how you felt about it while being filmed and then further into the filmmaking process?

RL: As a person with a visible disability, you learn to absorb the gaze of others all the time. I also developed an extraordinary amount of self awareness as I was completely re-learning everything about my body and how I would live in this world with a new identity. And being an actor enhanced my ability to do that in my life. So I felt pretty comfortable with just doing my thing while the camera was on, and I really had to focus on the tasks at hand with the production. Post production was the more challenging thing. At first I really didn’t want to be a subject of the film. But at a certain point I realized that the character of Regan was important to the story. I had to separate myself as the director from Regan the subject, and just think of what parts of her story we’re most supportive to the film.

JS: Brian, what were some of the challenges for you in making the film?

BM: Editing. We had so much good material, deciding what to keep and what to cut was, at time, painstaking. In the end, we really just had to ask ourselves about the content and ask if it helped propel the story forward or not. We joke that we could have made a miniseries out of the amount of footage we have.

Lenoard

JS: What do you hope audiences will take away from IMPERFECT?

RL: I hope it’s HUMANIZES people with disabilities, especially for those who don’t have a direct connection to disability in their personal lives. For folks with disabilities, life is just life, even if the spectrum of our daily experiences is higher stakes. But rather than be seen as humorous, joyful, compelling, our lives are often treated by nondisabled folks with fear, misunderstanding, and distance. Hopefully folks leave with a belief in what is possible, even when you think things are impossible. And with a desire to engage more deeply with folks who have disabilities…cuz otherwise you’re missing out!

IMPERFECT screens in-person - Saturday, March 26 at 7pm at Endicott College’s Rose Theater in the Manninen Center for the Arts - and streams Monday, March 28 - Sunday, April 3. Purchase tickets to the film here.

If you or a companion require wheelchair seating at our in-person screening, please email us at ticketing@salemfilmfest.com