Here I Am March 2, 2012

All Roads Film Project: Women Hold up Half the Sky

Director: Beck Cole
Australia I 2011 I 91 minutes
DC Premiere

Fresh out of prison, Karen finds herself on the streets with a burning desire to turn her life around, but she has no one to turn to for help. She eventually finds a shelter for women in recovery like herself, a safe place she considers to be a start to her new life. She quickly finds that this shelter may have been the easiest first step in a hard journey to recovery and renewal. Karen discovers that having desire alone is not necessarily enough to carry one through the ups and downs of starting anew. With the support of the shelter’s services, Karen begins the journey of reconnecting to her family by healing the estranged relationship with her mother and working to get custody of her daughter back. Thus she is propelled to face the most difficult truths of her past and these tattered relationships. But she’s determined not to give up; she knows her own strength and courage. Now she must use them to heal, recover, and carry forward to the new life she desires. Award-winning director Beck Cole’s first feature film, Here I Am is a moving and hopeful story about the inner strength and resilience of women.

There will be a discussion with the director following the screening.

Director:
Beck Cole is a writer and director and she lives in Alice Springs, Australia. Here I Am is her first feature film.

Beck shares a love for both drama and documentary and is currently working on a new script and trying her hand as a novelist. Documentaries written and directed by Beck include Making Samson & Delilah, the cheeky little sister of the feature film, award-winning Wirriya: Small Boy, The Lore of Love, and the acclaimed SBS history series First Australians: The Untold Story of Australia. Her drama Plains Empty, set in the remote South Australian township of Coober Pedy, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2005. The previous year her first short film, Flat, also screened at Sundance and the Edinburgh Film Festivals.

Beck was featured as one of seven filmmakers (including Jackie Chan and Apichatpong Weerasethakul) in the 5th Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art at the Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA), Queensland.

Official Website: http://events.nationalgeographic.com/events/films/2012/03/02/_here-i-am_/