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Grantee: The Alliance for Media Arts + Culture

Project Title: Monday Movies: True Stories, Bold Visions
Year awarded: 2019, Round 3

Through Monday Movies, The Alliance for Media Arts + Culture intends to nurture the audiences for, and creators of, documentary film, photography and interactive new media. The Alliance is growing this existing film series to build audiences for multicultural storytelling, to catalyze quality media production in Spokane, to encourage museums and libraries to showcase cutting-edge cultural media art exhibitions, and for Spokane-area businesses and nonprofits to be able to expand their use of storytelling to deepen the impact of their own work.

With SAGA support, the Alliance will bring the highest quality nonfiction films to the city along with the diverse filmmakers who created them. They will present events with community partners that include post-screening conversations, workshops with local nonprofits, master classes for emerging filmmakers and one-on-one mentoring.

The regular Monday Movie screenings happen at the Magic Lantern, and the Alliance hopes to host a special summer event at the Bing. The attendant workshops and master classes would take place at venues around the Spokane region: filmmaker master classes at Gonzaga and the EWU film programs, to trainings at Community-Minded Television and KYRS, educator workshops at KSPS, youth mentoring at East Central Community Center and digital workshops at the Carl Maxey Center and native tribal programs — these are inclusive story workshops designed to catalyze personal and community storytelling projects, seed conversations across cultures and generations, and inspire creative collaborations that uplift and unite the Spokane community.

2020’s programming kicks off in January (Human Trafficking Awareness Month) with “Dreamcatcher” by Kim Longinotto. “Dreamcatcher” is a vivid portrait of Brenda Myers-Powell, a former prostitute, who helps women and young girls break the cycle of sexual abuse and exploitation. The film lays bare the hidden violence that devastates the lives of young women, their families, and the communities where they live. It is Brenda’s unflinching intervention that turns these desperate lives around.