Los Angeles, CA — Sundance Institute with Hammer Museum will host a free, public, work-in-progress screening of Cooked by award-winning filmmaker Judith Helfand on Wednesday, May 16, 7:00 p.m. at Hammer Museum. Cooked examines the 1995 heat wave in Chicago, Illinois – one of the deadliest in U.S. history – and explores the politics of disaster. The film has been supported with a grant by the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program.
The screening will be followed by a moderated panel discussion addressing issues surrounding climate justice and offering local solutions to large-scale challenges. Participants will be Helfand, Dr. Alonzo Plough Director of Emergency Preparedness and Response, LA County Department of Public Health, Mike Blockstein of Public Matters group and Noreen McClendon of Concerned Citizens of South Los Angeles. Author and sociologist Rachel Morello-Frosch will moderate.
Helfand will also give a sneak peek of her trans-media project “Declare Home,” a new mapping tool for communities to re-invigorate and re-imagine their neighborhoods.
Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program work-in-progress screenings offer a behind-the-scenes look into the creative process and an opportunity to engage with the filmmaker. Cooked is among a range of powerful environmentally-based films the DFP has supported, including A Fierce Green Fire, Island President and When Two Worlds Collide.
All Hammer Museum Public Programs are free. Hammer members receive priority seating, subject to availability. Reservations not accepted, RSVPs not required. Hammer Museum is located at 10899 Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles, CA (Main Phone: 310.443.7000). Parking under the museum is available for $3 after 6:00 p.m.
This screening is supported by a grant from The James Irvine Foundation.
The Hammer Museum
The Hammer Museum explores the capacity of art to impact and illuminate our lives. Through its collections, exhibitions and programs, the Hammer examines the depth and diversity of artistic expression through the centuries with a special emphasis on art of our time. At the core of the Hammer’s mission is the recognition that artists play a crucial role in all aspects of human experience. The Hammer advances UCLA’s mission by contributing to the intellectual life of the University and the world beyond. www.hammer.ucla.edu
Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program
The Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program provides year-round support to nonfiction filmmakers worldwide. The program advances innovative nonfiction storytelling about a broad range of contemporary social issues, and promotes the exhibition of documentary films to audiences. Through the Sundance Documentary Fund, the Documentary Edit and Story Laboratory, Composers + Documentary Laboratory, Creative Producing Lab, as well as the Sundance Film Festival, the Sundance Creative Producing Summit and a variety of partnerships and international initiatives, the program provides a unique, global resource for contemporary independent documentary film. www.sundance.org/documentary
Sundance Institute
Sundance Institute is a global nonprofit organization founded by Robert Redford in 1981. Through its artistic development programs for directors, screenwriters, producers, composers and playwrights, the Institute seeks to discover and support independent film and theatre artists from the United States and around the world, and to introduce audiences to their new work. The Institute promotes independent storytelling to inform, inspire, and unite diverse populations around the globe. Internationally recognized for its annual Sundance Film Festival, Sundance Institute has nurtured such projects as Born into Brothels, Trouble the Water, Son of Babylon, Amreeka, An Inconvenient Truth, Spring Awakening, I Am My Own Wife, Light in the Piazza and Angels in America. www.sundance.org
