Full Spectrum Features: The Community Storytellers program ( https://www.fullspectrumfeatures.com/community-storytellers ) works with Chicago-based storytellers to create films that reflect and impact their communities. The storytellers have a unique opportunity to work with the Full Spectrum team to produce and exhibit scripted short films that showcase community resilience and rebuilding. My story, Between the Silence, was one of three selected for 2022.
Film Synopsis: Despite a language barrier, two socially isolated, immigrant women find companionship while gardening and watching over their grandchildren in their backyards. With small acts of kindness and a desire for connection, the Polish and Indian grandmothers’ loneliness is alleviated by each other’s presence.
Between the Silence Full Spectrum Features: The Community Storytellers program ( https://www.fullspectrumfeatures.com/community-storytellers ) works with Chicago-based storytellers to create films that reflect and impact their communities. The storytellers have a unique opportunity to work with the Full Spectrum team to produce and exhibit scripted short films that showcase community resilience and rebuilding. My story, Between the Silence, was one of three selected for 2022. Film Synopsis: Despite a language barrier, two socially isolated, immigrant women find companionship while gardening and watching over their grandchildren in their backyards. With small acts of kindness and a desire for connection, the Polish and Indian grandmothers’ loneliness is alleviated by each other’s presence.
This story is based on my grandmother who immigrated to Chicago at the age of 70. Immigration can birth a space of understanding and familiarity between people from different parts of the world that transcends borders and cultures and creates new relationships. This is a visually engaging story that captures the universal desire for home through the lives of two displaced women.
Social Impact Campaign: The film premiered at the Gene Siskel Film Center on November 10, 2022 to a sold-out audience. ( https://www.wbez.org/events/wbez-and-full-spectrum-present-community-storytellers/2 11 ) The next phase of the project is to partner with civic and non-profit organizations to hold a few screenings in the community. Ideally, the screenings would be followed by a discussion or workshop that addresses the following:
- The growing epidemic of loneliness and isolation (especially among seniors)
- The price of immigration – How people from very different backgrounds can develop a friendship through small acts of kindness.
- Our common desire for home and community.
The interactive discussion/workshop would engage the participants on ways they can connect with people in their lives (work, neighbor, family, etc.) and create community with people who are not necessarily part of our “tribe.”