Sixty Six

an outreach exploring the intersection of Jewish values and family values.

Sixty Six reveals the inner journey of how a bar mitzvah boy discovers what it means to be a man and the impact his epiphanies have on his family and friends. Through laughter and tears, people of all ages walk away asking themselves the deeper questions about life, faith and family. Sixty Six is both profound and entertaining and is an excellent creative catalyst that will engage and inspire your members and their families.
The Sixty Six Outreach collaborates with leading Jewish organizations to support the educational programming for Jewish youth and families through the inspirational power of the film Sixty Six and its complimentary curricuum.

• Encourage a multigenerational and interdenominational dialogue about Jewish values.
• Engage the whole family in discovering what is most meaningful for them in their bar/bat mitzvah experience.
• Create an open forum for bar/bat mitzvah students to explore what Judaism has to say about the issues that are most relevant to them as pre-teens.

Dark Matter

an outreach exploring the relationship between science and art, and the unique pressures faced by students in the world of advanced degree academics.

Inspired by actual events, Dark Matter delves into the world of Liu Xing, a Chinese cosmology student pursuing a Ph.D. in the United States in the early 1990s. At first, his experience is a rush of expectation and optimism. But the story takes a harrowing turn as Liu Xing’s connections begin to unravel. He clings to the idea of American science as a free market of ideas, but in the end, his dissertation is rejected as result of professional jealousy. Left alone with his shattered dreams, Liu Xing becomes a ghost-like presence at the university and ultimately explodes in a final act of violence. www.darkmatterthefilm.com

Campus Violence Outreach:

With increasing frequency our educational communities are impacted by traumatic acts of campus violence. Through discussions about Dark Matter, students, parents, teachers, administrators, campus safety officers, and psychologists can explore the important questions on how to ensure safe and healthy campus life.

• How can we address the multi-dementional factors that lead to campus violence?
• What can we do to help students before problems arise?
• What ways can we create healthier campus communities?

“I wanted to explore in greater depth the forces that give rise to such violence. I tried to make a film to send a message to say that we have to find a way to prevent further tragedies from happening.”
~Chen Shi-Zheng, director of Dark Matter

Science Outreach:

Dark Matter has sparked a dynamic collaboration between Hollywood’s independent filmmakers and those pushing the boundaries of scientific knowledge. Fusing two worlds that are often separate, representatives from universities and science organizations are cooperating with award-winning artists in a joint exploration of the interplay between science and art:

• How can scientific inquiry help us understand human behavior?
• What’s the role of art in addressing the intense pressures in research environments?
• When does science become “art”? What is the role of creativity in scientific exploration?

We invite you to share in this amazing meeting of the screening room and the lab room where two great forces for understanding our world are joining hands to illuminate the mysteries and equations of the human heart.

Asian Cultural Outreach:

Asian Americans, especially first generation, face intense cultural challenges both in family life and society in general. We are creating a forum in which Asian Americans can voice what is often a private and internal struggle and support each other through common challenges.

• How can we help students balance family expectations with their American experience?
• What can be done to combat “model minority” steroetypes in order to address often unspoken challenges?

International Asian Students:

International students, as new immigrants, often experience difficulties integrating into American life and reconciling their ideas about the US with their real experiences in the US. We desire to break down cultural barriers, increase communication, and encourage mutual respect and support between Asian and American students on college campuses.

• How can we create a more open intercultural dialogue?
• What can be done to offer more support to foreign Asian students?

“When I arrived here I experienced a sense of dislocation and culture clash – sometimes humorous, sometimes heartbreaking – felt by many young Chinese students who come to this country, and by the film’s protagonist, Lui Xing. I see Dark Matter as an opportunity to explore the mysterious and powerful forces unleashed when a young Chinese immigrant strives to make his mark in a culture that is at once seductive and impenetrable.”
~Chen Shi-Zheng, director of Dark Matter

Dear Talula

In collaboration with HBO, an outreach promoting health and healing woman to woman.

Combining the power of Lori’s personal story and the expert knowledge of our partners, The Dear Talula Outreach Program has a twofold mission:

• Educate young women on the importance of breast health
• Create a supportive forum for women diagnosed to share the issues they face.

The Dear Talula Outreach Program was created as a collaboration between HBO, Lori Benson, Art Catalyst, Breastcancer.org, Young Survival Coalition, The Maurer Foundation, Sharsheret, Lee Denim Day, and The Healing Project.

To learn more about the amazing partners and how you can get involved with The Dear Talula Outreach Program go to www.deartalula.com/outreach.html.

To accomplish the goals we set out for the outreach program, we will create engaging and interactive materials that expound upon the themes raised in “Dear Talula”. In addition to dynamic content, we also seek to promote our organizational partners who provide women’s health support services. Through exposure for our partners included in our outreach materials, we will increase awareness for organizations that are doing instrumental work in advocating and educating for breast health both locally and nationally, as well as connect a diverse population of women to the important services our partners provide.

The Peace Tree

Fostering Mutual Respect and Cultural Appreciation

The Peace Tree is a heartwarming story of two young girls who want to celebrate each other’s holidays. The film takes us through a shared journey of discovery and reveals the social barriers that keep us apart.

Our outreach program is a year long elementary school program using the film and an original curriculum to help children and families create peace through mutual respect and cultural appreciation.

The educational outreach program for “The Peace Tree” is igniting a global youth-based peace movemet utilizing the award-winning film “The Peace Tree,” an interdisciplinary multicultural educational curriculum, and service projects to inspire and empower young people to act for peace in their local, national, and global communities. Art Catalyst collaborates with a network fo remarkable local, national, and global organizations promoting peace, diversity, mutual respect and understanding, and conflict resolution to mobilize youth around the world to spread a vision of peace and to lead service projects to help those in need.

Beyond the Call

ordinary people have the power to bring hope and healing to some of the most desperate places.

An Indiana Jones meets Mother Teresa adventure, three older men – former soldiers and modern-day knights - travel the world delivering life-saving humanitarian aid directly into the hands of civilians and doctors; in some of the most dangerous yet beautiful places on Earth, the front lines of war.

Our goal with the outreach initiative is to connect those who are inspired to action from the film to organizations that are making a difference in people’s lives.  In world where war and violence abound, human rights is one the most urgent needs of our time, and Beyond the Call is a powerful example of how ordinary people have the power to bring hope and healing to some of the most desperate places.

The Great New Wonderful

reaching out to those affected by 9/11 through exploring the often unpredictable nature of shock and trauma.

Inspired by “The Great New Wonderful,” the goal of the Outreach Program is to reach out to those affected by 9/11 and connect them to organizations that can help them.

To help address this pressing need, the filmmakers partnered with Art Catalyst, an organization dedicated to using the arts as a tool for education, activism, and public awareness, to create an outreach program which uses “The Great New Wonderful” as a vehicle for exploring the often unpredictable nature of shock and trauma.

In “The Great New Wonderful” 9/11 is an unseen force, never directly shown, yet an undeniable contributor to the complex emotions its characters are struggling with.

Director Danny Leiner explains, “I began developing the script in the spring of 2002. At that particular moment in time, the specter of 9/11 was inescapable. At times it was daunting, feeling like too much of a sacred cow for us to address. But it was unavoidable, and ultimately, it was galvanizing.”

As part of the outreach program, the filmmakers, actors, and non-profit organizations that helped in recovery efforts after September 11th sat down together to talk about the arts should play in helping 9/11 sufferers recuperate.

At the event, “Healing After 9/11: A Conversation with Artists and Activists”, Danny Leiner, producer Matt Tauber, and film actor/comedian Jim Gaffigan spoke with people affected by the attack and many 9/11 support organizations including:

• World Cares Center - September Space,
• The Arab American Family Support Center
• Mental Health Association of New York City - 9/11 Mental Health and Substance Abuse Program
• The Aircraft Casualty Emotional Support Services.

The filmmakers were also joined by artists whose paintings focus on healing after 9/11 – Loren Ellis and Melissa Reed of the art therapy organization Art for Healing.

9/11 support organizations have been quick to back the film and outreach program. Corey Wells Braun of Aircraft Casualty Emotional Support Services says, “Watching the film characters’ emotional struggle allows us to connect with our own.”

“Just like in the film, after 9/11 many people sense something is wrong but can’t articulate it,” said Janet Lemonnier of the 9/11 Mental Health and Substance Abuse Program, another partner in the outreach program.

This has been one of the biggest challenges in treating people suffering from shock – the effects often take years to surface and can be completely unconscious. That’s why harnessing the emotional power of films like “The Great New Wonderful” continues to be so important.

On the Outs

a Juvenile Justice outreach bringing hope to break the cycle of incarceration.

On the Outs is a feature film based on real life accounts of teenage girls who have been incarcerated. This urban drama shares the struggle of inner city youth and shows how one choice has the power to change your life.

For our outreach program, we partnered with 300 youth organizations nationwide. We designed a magazine with youth resources, curriculum for educators, and held workshops with incarcerated girls.

For current information on the On the Outs Project, please contact the Hip Hop Theater Festival.

Secrets of Columbine

an outreach learning from the Columbine tragedy to help prevent school violence.

Secrets of Columbine is a documentary theater play in which the script was compiled directly from interviews with the people of Littleton, Colorado. Through their own words they share what they hope other communities will learn from their tragic experience.

For our outreach program, we worked with 5th graders through a leadership program in their school. The students saw excerpts from the play and then worte their own documentary responses about violence in their own schools.