Tuesday, April 23, 2019
3 p.m. -- Screening and discussion with Academy Award® winning director Cynthia Wade, followed by a light reception. UAlbany Performing Arts Center, 1400 Washington Avenue, on the uptown campus.

A documentary by Cynthia Wade and Sasha Friedlander Woodard, GRIT chronicles a community�s response to one of the world�s largest man-made environmental disasters: a giant unstoppable mud volcano in Indonesia that has displaced 50,000 people.

The film follows Dian, a young girl who lost her home when the enormous tsunami of mud caused by natural gas drilling slammed into her village in 2006.

Twelve years later,while 16 villages lie buried under 60 feet of mud and the mud continues to explode every day, Dian’s awakening as a political activist pits her and her community against the drilling company.

GRIT was created in collaboration with the Sundance Institute. POV Magazine called it �an exquisitely shot film that draws upon the evocative power of manmade landscapes to create an eerie tale of what�s at stake for our planet.�

Co-director and producer Cynthia Wade�s previous film, FREEHELD, won 16 film awards, including an Academy Award�, and she is currently a producer on the fictionalized version starring Julianne Moore and Ellen Page. In 2013, Cynthia received her second Oscar� nomination for her documentary MONDAYS AT RACINE.

Wade's other directing credits include SHELTER DOGS, LIVING THE LEGACY, GROWING HOPE AGAINST HUNGER, BORN SWEET, and GRIST FOR THE MILL. Her 2014 ad campaign SELFIE, on behalf of Unilever’s Dove brand, was awarded a Clio Image Award and grabbed five million views within the first two weeks of being posted online.

Sasha Friedlander previously directed WHERE HEAVEN MEETS HELL, a feature length documentary set in East Java, Indonesia. The film won Best Feature Documentary Film at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival and Hawaii International Film Festival, and a Special Mention for Outstanding Cinematography at the LAAPFF.

The screening and reception are sponsored by University Auxiliary Services; the Center for Experiential Education; the College of Arts and Sciences and the departments of History, Art, and Documentary Studies Program; Rockefeller College�s Department of Political Science; the New York State Writers Institute; and WMHT-PBS.