Genre
Synopsis
SINCE I BEEN DOWN tells the story of how racist policies targeting Black, Brown and poor youth as irredeemable super predators led these youth to gangs, violence and prison nearly 40 years latter these youth now adults create a true path to justice through education- transforming policies, our humanity and how we treat all of our children.
Bio
Gilda Sheppard is an award winning who has screened her short documentaries throughout the USA, internationally at Film Afrique at Cannes, in Ghana, West Africa, and in Berlin Germany at the International Black Film Festival. Sheppard is a 2017 Hedgebrook Fellow for documentary film and a 2019 recipient of an Artist Trust Fellowship. Since I Been Down (2020) is her first feature and first film accepted to major film festivals. Sheppard’s films offer healing, inspire hope and spotlight the triumph of the human spirit from people most vulnerable to the tests of time. Her shorts include stories of resilience of Liberian women and children refugees in Ghana; three generations of Black families in an urban neighborhood; and a film ethnography of stories from folklore started by Zora Neale Hurston in Alabama's AfricaTown.
Screening History
Cleveland International Film Festival 2020
DOC NYC 2020
Social Justice Film Festival 2020
Big Sky Documentary Film Festival 2021
Toronto Black Film Festival 2021
Awards History
DOC NYC 2020 - Audience Favorite and Top Vote Getter
Social Justice Film Festival 2020 - Feature Documentary Gold Prize
ThinLine Film Festival 2021 - Cinematography Award 2021
MovieMaker Production Services 2019 - Finalist
Credits
Editor - Saman Maydoan
Cinematographer - Cahn Nguyen
Producer - June Nho Ivers
