Hungry Now: Documentary Film Premiere
Hungry Now: Documentary Film Premiere
Join us for the theatrical premiere of filmmaker Alan Kryszak’s Downeast Documentary Film “Hungry Now.”
“Hungry Now” brings you direct voices of “the hungry, the homeless and the helpers,” in a series of interviews with kids and adults who seem to walk their whole lives uphill, in a nation of wealth and promise. The film aligns with “Voices From the Barrens” on UMaine’s “Right to Food” film series. The film hopes to connect some dots between the struggling child & homeless adult, from food -insecure kids supported by parents & teachers, to the sketchy “shadow people” off the road.
Voices you’ve never heard before are here, the mic is on and it’s not what you expect: the Native American recalling a choice between school abuse or food; the young couple at the dumpster; the man in the dark hat by the abandoned gas station in Bangor, Maine; the man bundled into his wheelchair with everything he will ever own, by the Penobscot bridge, not asking you for a thing.
TALKBACK
After the film, there will be a talkback, including Bill Ray from Manna Ministries Food Pantry & Shelter, UMaine student film crew member Hannah Somers-Jones and the film’s director, Alan Kryszak.
FOOD DRIVE
If you’d like to make a contribution to our food drive, please bring a nonperishable food item to the event with you!
This is a free event
BACKGROUND
We’ve all driven right by them. We’ve all walked on by, crossing to the other side out of caution. Who are they? What do they want? How did children grow up only to climb through a dumpster for half-eaten food, & end their winter days in a tent in the richest country in the world?
“Hungry Now” hopes to connect a few dots, connecting the kids being cared for by teachers, to the sketchy shadows off the road. Voices you’ve never heard before are here, the mic is on and it’s not what you may expect to hear: the young couple by the dumpster; the man with the dark hat by the abandoned gas station in Bangor, Maine, the man bundled into his wheelchair with everything he will ever own, by the Penobscot bridge, not asking you for a thing.
These voices, including many of “The Helpers,” as Mr. Rogers called them, are contrasted by current Middle School students in the 2021 Cobscook TREE program, which applied a complete trauma-sensitive, educational wellness plan to children in Downeast Maine. This film is about childhood hunger and its memories, from the Mi Casa children’s shelter in El Salvador, feeding & educating homeless children, ages one-to-24, for 32 years, to Pleasant Point Passamaquoddy struggles, to Maine middle schoolers & adults who missed the benefits of a first world country.
The UMM Downweast Doc film crew and researchers are Sam LaRusse, Nicholas Sanborn, Amanda Sawyer, Robin Hadlock Seeley, Hannah Somers-Jones, Suzie Milkowich, Aiyla Petty, Amanda Quinn, Megan Racila, & Beth Staples. Kryszak’s first film:“Whatever Works: Exploring Opiate Addiction” premiered on MainePublic Television in 2017, winning an Excellence Award at the Docs Without Borders International Festival. “’Who Made You In America?” & “When The Chevy Breaks” (How Small Towns Fix Big Problems), also premiered on MPBN, featured on Morning Edition, The Portland Press Herald & Maine Today. The films are on the PBS website have been broadcast yearly. “Privacy & The Power of Secrets” premiered as finalist at The Hague Global Cinema Festival & Sweden Film Awards before the Boston premiere, where Peter Keough of the Globe wrote “Artful & engaging, it’s the way a movie like this should be made” (4- 24-21).”
COVID-19
Please note that we no longer have any COVID restrictions, but we encourage everyone to follow CDC Quarantine & Isolation recommendations. UMaine’s current COVID policies can be found here.