Documentaries Find New Audience with LA Film Festival Placement

The LA Film Festival ended on June 26 with several awards and critical recognition and made sure that smaller movies like “Somewhere Between” and “Crime After Crime” were seen by an audience.

Both based on true stories, the documentaries took viewers to another area of life during the Film Festival and now have brand new followings. “Somewhere Between” is directed by Linda Goldstein Knowlton, a woman who adopted her daughter from China. The film is based on this aspect of her life, as it follows four teenage girls in different parts of America, all bonded by one thing—they were adopted from China as a baby.

Due to China’s controversial One Child Policy, these young girls could not be kept by their birth families, so they were raised in the United States. They completely adopt American culture with the love of “Sesame Street” and such, but eventually, they all start to wonder about their heritage.

Filmed all across the country, the documentary takes a closer look at their lives through their eyes as they struggle for acceptance and yearn to feel a full sense of belonging. The girls venture to Europe where they discover other young women in their same situation, and then they travel to China to find their birth parents, but the result is an eye-opening experience.

Knowlton is also known for her full-length documentary “The World According to Sesame Street,” where she co-directed and co-produced. She has also produced feature films in the fiction category like “Crazy in Alabama” and “Mumford.”

“Somwhere Between” won the Hot Docs Sundance Channel Audience Award, and “Crime After Crime” was recognized at the Sundance Film Festival, the San Francisco International Film Festival, the Los Angeles Film Festival and the Atlanta Jewish Festival. Set right in America, the documentary takes a closer look at the current judicial system and the many issues that it faces in modern day.

In 1983, Deborah Peagler was put in prison when found connected to the murder of her abusive boyfriend. After more than 26 years in jail, California passed a law allowing domestic violence survivors’ cases to be reopened. With little experience, Joshua Safran and Nadia Costa take on Peagler’s case.

Working to finally set her free from being wrongly accused of association with the murder, her two attorneys work tirelessly searching for new witnesses, new evidence and even more information from the men who committed the crime. Names a “must-see” by several film critics, “Crime After Crime” opens many eyes to the issues faced in the court of law.

For more information on these two documentaries, visit www.somewherebetweenmovie.com and www.crimeaftercrime.com.

In addition to these films, the LAFF acknowledged winners in various categories for achievements this year, allowing these smaller pieces a chance to shine in the spotlight. Winners included:

• Narrative Award – Stephane Lafleur for “Familiar Ground”
• Documentary Award – Beverly Kopf & Bobbie Birleffi for “Wish Me Away”
• Best Performance (Narrative) – Amber Sealey, Kent Osbourne, Amanda Street & Gabriel Diamond for “How to Cheat”
• Best Narrative Short Film – Saba Riazi’s “The Wind is Blowing on My Street”
• Best Documentary Short Film – Susan Koenen’s “I Am a Girl”
• Best Animated Short Film – Mikey Please’s “The Eagleman Stag”
• Audience Award (Narrative Feature) – “Attack the Block”
• Audience Award (Documentary Feature) – “Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest”
• Audience Award (International Feature) – “Senna”
• Audience Award (Best Short Film) – “Blind Date”
• Audience Awards (Music Video) – “Shake this Feeling” by Grum

“It was such a rich year in competition films, so our juries had really tough choices to make. The winning films are the cream of a particularly delicious crop, and we’re delighted that they reflect the Festival’s dedication to movies from all over the world,” said Festival Artistic Director David Ansen.

For more information, visit www.filmindependent.org.