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Film Festival Kicks off Building Change Convergence

Three Rivers Community Foundation (TRCF) announced plans for the Building Change Film Festival, presented as a feature component of its Building Change: A Convergence for Social Justice conference. The Film Festival is scheduled to run from October 12th through the 16th at venues that include Point Park University, the Creative and Performing Arts High School (CAPA), Black Box Theater, Kelly-Strayhorn Theater and the Andy Warhol Museum Theater.

“The mission of our Film Festival is to open each viewer’s eyes to inequities and social justice issues by screening films that celebrate struggle, demonstrate prevailing injustice and show possibilities for a better future,” said TRCF’s Executive Director Nick Palazzetti. “The Festival aligns closely with TRFC’s vision that arts can be a powerful vehicle for presenting and elevating awareness of human suffering, social inequities and persistent societal divisions.”

The festival, which is open to the public, will showcase both traditional and cutting-edge filmmaking using controversial documentary subjects and techniques to generate dialogue between diverse social interest groups. As many as 35 locally and nationally relevant social justice films are slated to be screened over a five-day span. Following each screening will be an interactive discussion between filmmakers and the viewing audience to explore the message and importance of each movie/documentary.

Keep an eye out for these films: YERT (Your Environmental Road Trip), directed by local filmmaker Mark Dixon.   Three friends began their year-long nation-wide road trip in Pittsburgh, PA to document environmental sustainability initiatives happening across all 50 states. It’s an uplifting portrayal of what we can do to make change.

Out in the Silence, directed by an Oil City native, Joe Wilson, is an inspiring documentary about courageous local residents confronting homophobia and the limitations of religion, tradition and the status quo in their conservative small town in the hills of western Pennsylvania.

View the full list of films on-line at www.buidlingchange.org.

Building Change: A Convergence for Social Justice will be held at the John Heinz Regional History Center in Pittsburgh from October 13th through October 15th.   The Film Festival is being held from October 12th through October 16th. Updated information on the event is available at http://www.buildingchangewpa.org/.

For more information on attending, sponsoring, presenting, planning, or volunteering for the Convergence, please contact the Three Rivers Community Foundation at: 412-243-9250; wpaterson@trcfwpa.org.

To learn more about Three Rivers Community Foundation, visit www.trcfwpa.org.

Sponsors of Building Change: A Convergence for Social Justice include: A.W. Mellon Educational & Charitable Trust at The Pittsburgh Foundation; American Eagle Outfitters; American Friends Service Committee, PA Program; The Buhl Foundation; FISA Foundation; The Funding Exchange, New York, NY; Sustainable Pittsburgh; United Steelworkers (USW); Women & Girls Foundation; and Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf.

Three Rivers Community Foundation promotes Change, not charity™, by funding and encouraging activism among community-based organizations in underserved areas of Southwestern Pennsylvania. It supports groups as they challenge attitudes, policies, or institutions as they work to promote social, economic, and racial justice. For more information, visit www.trcfwpa.org.

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