On Sept. 11, Santa Barbara filmmaker Penny Little will premiere her new film, 9/11 Dust: a Healing Journey, in New York City as part of the Pause Press Play Project to benefit Art Studio World, a nonprofit program to empower young minds, provide healing and education to youth and families through the arts.
In addition to films, the Sept. 9-12 event will showcase a large gallery installation and exhibition that opened last year at LMNT Contemporary Art Space in Miami.
A centerpiece of the exhibit was “The Pause Towers” — a Twin Towers plexiglass sculpture filled with prescription bottles and medical packaging from 10 years of prescription-based treatments from health survivors of the World Trade Center illnesses.
The Global Movement and Art Studio Inc., a nonprofit organization, are collaborating for the event to bring greater awareness to the importance of art in healing.
In her 2006 film 9/11 Dust and Deceit, Little examined the questions of health problems suffered by first responders, volunteers and workers exposed for months to toxic dust.
“My followup film is about solutions and healing,” Little said. “I’m asking how those directly affected with 9/11-related illness, and all of us still grieving, can fully heal from 9/11. I wanted to know how the people I interviewed in 2004 and 2005 are doing so many years later and if they are getting the help they need.”
Little is using crowd-funding to fund the production of her film, and is hoping to raise the funds to cover her final production expenses through her Kickstarter appeal. This is a model that artists, filmmakers, authors, software designers, political campaigns, disaster relief and others have adopted, making use of social media networking.
“It’s not always easy being heard over the noise and volume on the Internet,” Little said. “With the economy and our world so mangled by war, policy makers and teflon criminals in high places, artists must always find creative ways to fund their passions.”
The film will preview at 8 p.m. Sept. 9, with a news conference at 1 p.m. Sept. 11 at the Kraft Center Gallery at Columbia University, 606 W. 115th St. in New York. Additional show times are to be determined for Sept. 11-12 at the gallery space.