Women Filmmakers: Immigrant Stories 2017 Screening – From Nowhere

Women Filmmakers: Immigrant Stories features shorts produced by NYWIFT as part of the Immigrant and FirstGeneration Women’s Media Workshop taught by Third World Newsreel and From Nowhere by Kate Ballen (Screenwriter/ Producer) and Matthew Newton (Director/ Screenwriter/Producer).

Immigrant and First Generation Women’s Media Production Workshop Films are three shorts made by 16 women who met for the first time and learned the basic of documentary storytelling and production in one 8 hour day on May 20th 2017. Over the course of the workshop, participants created their own short group documentary.

From Nowhere by Kate Ballen (Screenwriter/ Producer) and Matthew Newton (Director/ Screenwriter/Producer) is a film that follows three undocumented teenagers, a Dominican girl, an African boy and a Peruvian girl, on the verge of graduation from high school in the Bronx.

Date: Thursday, June 15th, 2017

Time: 6:30PM

Location: The Onderdonk House, 18-20 Flushing Ave, Ridgewood, NY 11385

Directions

Screening followed by a Q&A and reception with the filmmakers.
Free Admission. RSVP in advance to reserve seats.

From Nowhere
Kate Ballen (Screenwriter/Producer)
Matthew Newton (Director/Screenwriter/Producer)
2016, 1h 29mins
Three undocumented teenagers, a Dominican girl, an African boy and a Peruvian girl, are about to graduate high school in the Bronx, while working with a teacher and a lawyer to try to get their papers to stay in the USA. Forced to grow up prematurely and navigate problems most adults don’t even have to face, they’re really just American teenagers who want to be with their friends, fall in love, and push back against authority.

Narrative Spotlight Audience Award – SXSW
Special Jury Mention – Champs-Elysees Film Festival
Audience Award – Champs-Elysees Film Festival
Best Dramatic Feature Award – Byron Bay Film Festival

Trailer

Kate Ballen is an author and playwright. From Nowhere is inspired by her decade-long experience working at a Bronx high school, where she helped dozens of undocumented students navigate the immigration and college process. From Nowhere is loosely based on a play Ballen wrote that was performed at Soho Theatre/Fringe Encore, and that she and director Matthew Newton transformed into the feature film. Ballen has also been published widely. She was a journalist at Fortune Magazine for many years. She co-authored the book Parenting Your Toddler, a big seller that has been translated into many languages. From Nowhere marks her screenwriting and producing debut.

Matthew Newton is a critically acclaimed, award-winning director, writer and actor. After graduating from the National Institute Of Dramatic Art in Sydney he worked extensively as an actor in his native Australia, playing lead roles in the theater, on television and in films. His roles on television include starring as kingpin Terry Clark in the drama series Underbelly: A Tale Of Two Cities (which is the most successful Australian crime drama of all time) and playing Ka Jothee on the Syfy Network’s Farscape. Newton worked regularly in major roles for both the Sydney Theatre Company and the Melbourne Theatre Company, and played lead roles in over ten Australian films. Newton’s debut feature film as writer/director, Three Blind Mice, in which he also starred, premiered at the Toronto Film Festival (Indiewire said it was “more alive, full of emotional precision and brilliant performances, than almost any movie I saw at Toronto this year”).

Special Thanks to NYC Council Member Elizabeth Crowley

for Funding this Screening Series.