PhotoSynthesis Productions and the Dorothy Cotton Institute today announced their film, MOVE WHEN THE SPIRIT SAYS MOVE: THE LEGACY OF DOROTHY FOREMAN COTTON, will have its Ithaca premiere at the 26th Edition of the Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival on Saturday, March 25 at 7 pm ET at Cinemapolis.
The SOLD OUT festival screening on the 25th will be directly followed by a two-week theatre run at Cinemapolis - get tickets here.
The documentary, which chronicles and celebrates the civil rights work and accomplishments of Dorothy Foreman Cotton, is directed by Ithaca residents Ry Ferro '14 and Deborah C. Hoard.
MOVE WHEN THE SPIRIT SAYS MOVE: THE LEGACY OF DOROTHY FOREMAN COTTON chronicles the remarkable work of Cotton, who was the only woman on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s executive staff, and who lived the last 25 years of her life in Ithaca. The film includes insights, commentary, reflections, and recounts from notables such as Andrew Young, LaTosha Brown, and Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson as well as many Ithaca colleagues and friends such as Nia Nunn, Sean Eversely Bradwell, Cal Walker, Laura Branca and Margo Hittleman. The sound track for the film features orginal music by local musicians Michale Stark, Zaun Marshburn, and Singtrece McLaurin as well as the Dorothy Cotton Jubilee Singers.
Cotton spearheaded and served as the Education Director for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)’s Citizen Education Program (CEP), which taught thousands of marginalized African Americans critical skills. The program traveled across the South recruiting adults to participate in literacy, voter registration, and fundamentals of citizenship training. It was, as Andrew Young describes it in the film, the foundation upon which the Civil Rights movement was built.
"It is time for everyone to know who Dorothy Cotton was,” said Ry Ferro, director and editor. “We are honored to bring Dorothy’s story to the world during a time when democracy is being threatened,” said Deborah Hoard, producer and director. “Her legacy can help us to recognize our power as citizens and use it to bring about the change we seek.”
About PhotoSynthesis Productions
Based in downtown Ithaca, PhotoSynthesis Productions (PSP) is dedicated to using the power of film for education and social justice. For more than 30 years they have produced long- and short-form films that reach international audiences with diverse messages of equity and positive change. Their work has won over 200 national and international awards and screened at festivals and in theaters worldwide, and is widely lauded for its visual excellence, educational value, and emotional impact.
About The Dorothy Cotton Institute
The Dorothy Cotton Institute (DCI) was founded by Cotton and colleagues in Ithaca, in 2007. The organization offers education and training based on the philosophy and practices of nonviolence, reconciliation, restoration, and grassroots leadership development. Cotton insisted that DCI’s work not be a monument to her work in the ‘60s and ‘70s, but instead be relevant to contemporary issues and bring visibility to 21st century efforts for justice and freedom, civic engagement, and social transformation. DCI’s work encourages people to believe in themselves, speak up, and stop waiting for somebody else to make things better.
About Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival
The Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival (FLEFF) at Ithaca College embraces and interrogates sustainability across all of its forms: economic, social, ecological, political, cultural, technological, and aesthetic. The festival is in the spirit of UNESCO’s initiative on sustainable development. This initiative has redefined and expanded environmental issues to explore the international interconnections between war, disease, health, genocide, the land, water, air, food, education, technology, cultural heritage, and diversity. Through film, video, new media, installation, performance, panels, roundtables, interviews, talkbacks, presentations, convenings, and congresses, FLEFF engages interdisciplinary dialogue and vigorous debate. FLEFF links the local with the global. And it showcases Ithaca College as a regional, national, and international hub for thinking differently—in new ways, interfaces, and forms—about the environment and sustainability.
Theatre: Cinemapolis, 120 East Green St, Ithaca, NY 14850