Author Archive | Alex Kamody

Join us Friday, January 31st for a special, one-night-only event screening of 1-800-ON-HER-OWN, a documentary film celebrating the music of one of the most prolific singer-songwriters in folk-rock – Ani DiFranco!

At the event and all month long, we will be raising money for Emily’s List, an organization that works to elect Democratic pro-choice women up and down the ballot and across the country. So, anyone who’d like to donate can do so at The Athena during our normal lobby hours.

Click here to learn more about Emily’s List

Admission $8

About the film

Ani DiFranco crashed onto the music scene in the early ‘90s, a thundering new voice in the cultural wilderness, unapologetically bisexual, political and feminist. She toured relentlessly, thrashing out hundreds of frenzied shows that were part mosh pit, part hootenanny and part full-on tent revival, then selling cassette tapes from the trunk of her car to make it to the next gig.

Ani became a worldwide phenomenon when she beat the male-dominated music industry at its own game by founding Righteous Babe Records, the first “woman-run non-corporate queer-happy” label, still going strong after nearly 35 years. The press called her “an entrepreneurial wonder” and “the industry’s worst nightmare.” Prince called her “my hero.” Ani simply called herself a folk singer, dedicated to art, activism and staying true to herself, no matter the cost.

1-800-ON-HER-OWN takes us on a wild cinematic road trip, from DiFranco’s punk-folk past to her life today as she reinvents herself as a passionate activist and revered rock star. Throughout the ride, she’s brutally honest, famously foul-mouthed and totally hilarious. Her daily challenges resonate as we reveal both an enduring, inspiring musical icon and a very relatable contemporary “everywoman” with her own epic fails and hard-won victories.

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77 MIN

What can we do to come together as a nation?

Leadership Ohio invites you to explore this question on Saturday, February 1st from 1:00 – 3:30 p.m. with a special event screening of the documentary “Join Or Die”.

Across the country, people are wondering: What happened to America? Have we lost touch with our neighbors and shared destiny? If so, what is the cause? And most urgently: What can we do to come together?

Leadership Ohio, in partnership with Foundation for Appalachian Ohio, presents the new documentary “Join or Die,” highlighting the importance of clubs in creating community and strengthening democracy.

Come out to watch the film, hear from guest speakers, discuss the film’s themes, and learn about joining local clubs. Join In: Uniting Communities in Ohio is funded in part by the America 250-Ohio Commission. 

Register for a ticket at https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/gts5zaa

You will present your registration confirmation at the event and we will provide you with a free admission ticket in our lobby.

Schedule for the event:

Introduction:  1:00-1:20 p.m.

Film Screening:  1:20-2:50 p.m.

Q&A with Panel*:  2:50-3:30 p.m.

*The panel will include Matt Kaido (facilitator), Megan Macke, Kathy Fahl, and Kylie Bridgeman

About the film

In this feature documentary, follow the half-century story of America’s civic unraveling through the journey of legendary social scientist Robert Putnam, whose groundbreaking “Bowling Alone” research into America’s decades-long decline in community connections could hold the answers to our democracy’s present crisis.

Flanked by influential fans and scholars — from Hillary Clinton, Pete Buttigieg, and Surgeon General Vivek Murthy to Eddie Glaude Jr., Raj Chetty, and Priya Parker — as well as inspiring groups building community in neighborhoods across the country, join Bob as he explores three urgent civic questions: What makes democracy work? Why is American democracy in crisis? And, most importantly… What can we do about it?

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93 MIN

The E.W. Scripps School of Journalism and WOUB Public Media will sponsor a screening of the award-winning “FRONTLINE” documentary “Putin’s Attack on Ukraine: Documenting War Crimes“

The film has received these awards: three Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards (International Television, International Print and Grand Prize), Investigative Reporters and Editors Tom Renner Medal, Overseas Press Club Roy Rowan Award, and the Scripps Howard Excellence in National/International Investigative Reporting Ursula and Gilbert Farfel Prize

A Q&A session with the producers will follow.

Admission is FREE – Tickets are required

About the film

“FRONTLINE” and The Associated Press go inside Russia’s war on Ukraine, tracing a pattern of atrocities committed by Russian troops with a focus on the Kyiv suburbs, such as Bucha, where some of the most shocking carnage was found.

From award-winning director Tom Jennings, producer Annie Wong, AP global investigative reporter Erika Kinetz and her AP colleagues, the joint documentary draws on exclusive original footage, as well as interviews with Ukrainian citizens and prosecutors, top government officials and international war crimes experts.

FRONTLINE and the AP uncover exclusive and harrowing evidence that links possible war crimes in Bucha through the chain of command to one of Russia’s top generals — evidence that prosecutors hope might help build a case against Russian President Vladimir Putin in court. But the joint investigation also explores the challenges of trying to hold Putin and other Russian leaders to account.

[Description taken from PBS.org]

About the speakers

Tom Jennings

Tom Jennings is a native of Athens, Ohio, and holds a Master of Science degree from the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University. He has been making documentary films for 25 years for a variety of outlets but since 2009 has produced for PBS “FRONTLINE.” Jennings’ first “FRONTLINE” documentary, “Law and Disorder,” about police shootings in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, won the George Polk Award. He then directed “A Perfect Terrorist” and its sequel, “American Terrorist” (2011, 2015) and was a team producer on the landmark documentary series, “Money, Power & Wall Street” (2012). Jennings and wrote and directed “Being Mortal” (2015), with The New Yorker writer, and fellow Athenian, Atul Gawande. 

He directed “Right to Fail” (2019), about people with severe mental illness living independently, “Opioids, Inc.” (2020) and, with Jelani Cobb at Columbia University, produced “Whose Vote Counts,” which won the 2021 Peabody Award and National Association of Black Journalists Award. Jennings’ next film, “Boeing’s Fatal Flaw” (2021), an investigation with The New York Times into the 737-MAX airliner crashes, received an Emmy Award. In 2022, with producing partner Annie Wong and in collaboration with Erika Kinetz of the Associated Press, he made “Putin’s Attack on Ukraine: Documenting War Crimes,” a 90-minute investigation detailing Russian military atrocities. It received the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Grand Prize, The Overseas Press Club Award, the Investigative Reporters and Editors Award and was nominated for an Emmy for the best documentary of the year. 

With producing partner Annie Wong, Jennings is now making a film about global online violent extremism. 

In all, his work has received the Peabody Award, three Emmy Awards, the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, two George Polk Awards, the duPont-Columbia Award, the National Association of Black Journalists Award, two Overseas Press Club Awards, the Deadline Club Award, the Gerald Loeb Award, the Investigative Reporters and Editors Award, a Scripps Howard Farfel Prize and six Writers Guild of America Awards.

Erika Kinetz

Erika Kinetz is an investigative reporter for the Associated Press based in Rome. She worked with the PBS series “Frontline” and New York-based SITU Research as correspondent and a producer for “Putin’s Attack on Ukraine: Documenting War Crimes,” a 90-minute film, as well as “Crime Scene: Bucha,” a visual investigation of a Russian cleansing operation. Kinetz also helped establish War Crimes Watch Ukraine, a collaboration with PBS “Frontline” to gather, verify and document evidence of potential war crimes in Ukraine. This work won Overseas Press Club, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights and Scripps Howard Farfel Prize awards, among others, and was a finalist for an Emmy for Best Documentary. 

She lived in Asia for 15 years, winning awards for her work in China, India, Myanmar and Cambodia. Kinetz showed how China’s rise on Twitter has been powered by an army of fake accounts, uncovered labor abuses in Ivanka Trump’s China supply chain and broke news about transnational criminal networks, Myanmar’s crony businessmen, Cambodian slave labor and abuse in India’s microfinance industry. Before joining the AP, she wrote for The New York Times and contributed to The Washington Post, Newsweek, NPR, the International Herald Tribune and Harper’s magazine, among others. 

Kinetz has trained journalists from China, Turkey, Bosnia, Montenegro, Poland and the Czech Republic. She graduated summa cum laude from Amherst College.

Annie Wong

Annie Wong is an Emmy- award winning documentary producer and director.  

She started her career working at National Geographic Television and over the years produced a wide range of documentaries shown on PBS, Netflix, Discovery Channel and the Sundance Channel. Among the highlights, Wong has worked with Bill Moyers on his documentary series “Close to Home” about addiction and recovery. She directed, wrote and produced for the PBS series “Exposé: America’s Investigative Reports” and was a producer for the Academy Award-winning French filmmaking team Denis Poncet and Jean Xavier DeLestrade on “Sin City Law,” an 8-part verité series examining the criminal justice system in Las Vegas.  

In 2019, Wong joined Tom Jennings as a producing partner on a number of films for the PBS “Frontline” series: “Opioids, Inc.,” “Putin’s Attack on Ukraine: Documenting War Crimes,” “The Discord Leaks” and a current film on online violent extremists to be released in spring 2025.  

She has received an Emmy Award, an Overseas Press Club Award, the Scripps Howard Farfel Prize, the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, the Sigma Award, an International Documentary Association Award and the Gerald Loeb Award.

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84 MIN