Synopsis
PhotoSynthesis Productions was founded in 1981 in upstate New York and flourishes today producing films and nurturing an innovative interdisciplinary arts collective. President and NYWIFT member Deborah C. Hoard is seeking funds to support a series of screenings, events and workshops in celebration of 45 Years of Documentary Storytelling, Community, and Social Justice.
The celebration will include
● 3 theatrical screenings of their work at Cinemapolis in downtown Ithaca,
● panels and speakers who connect the films with the issues raised by them,
● media literacy workshops for students and community members, and
● free online streaming of many of their films.
Events will focus on topics as diverse as the Civil Rights Movement, transracial adoption, human rights in SE Asia, and the challenges to the future of documentary filmmaking with the advent of AI. Activities will include collaborators, subjects, editors, composers, deepening the conversation and honoring community. The celebration will be spread over several months so that events can include both students and community members. Media literacy workshops will happen at the PhotoSynthesis studio and new creative space at the Media Arts Collective and Resource Exchange (MACRE).
The attached photo captures the intention of the celebration and the mission of PhotoSynthesis – to educate and inspire others to be leaders we are waiting for – to think of themselves as someone who has the power to change a situation.
President of PhotoSynthesis Productions
Deborah C. Hoard is the longtime President of PhotoSynthesis Productions, based in Ithaca, New York, and is dedicated to using the power of film for education and social justice. For more than four decades, she has produced and directed long- and short-form films that reach international audiences with messages of equity and positive change. Her work has won more than 200 national and international awards and has screened at film festivals and theaters, online, and on broadcast outlets worldwide.
Her documentary features ANGKOR AWAKENS: A Portrait of Cambodia and THEY CALL IT MYANMAR: Lifting the Curtain were named New York Times Critics’ Picks, and in 2012 Roger Ebert called THEY CALL IT MYANMAR “a thing of beauty… one of the best documentaries of the year.”
Hoard’s film MOVE WHEN THE SPIRIT SAYS MOVE: The Legacy of Dorothy Foreman Cotton chronicles the work of the only woman on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s executive staff. The film premiered at the Pan African Film Festival, won Best Documentary honors at festivals in Martha’s Vineyard, Berlin, and Detroit, and received the inaugural Andrew Young Cinema and Social Justice Award at the BronzeLens Film Festival in 2023.
Her documentary RE:THINKING: Education in America asks, “What if we taught students how to think instead of what to think?” Her narrative film CIVIL WARRIORS tells the true story of 26 Black men who enlisted in the U.S. Colored Troops during the Civil War; the film and its free accompanying curriculum are used in high schools nationwide.
Hoard recently released COLORS ON A WALL: A Tool for Social Justice, documenting the creation of a mural on the PhotoSynthesis studio building in downtown Ithaca, and is currently completing a film on the bottom-up growth of capitalism in China.
