Films With A Mission For Good
Films of people dealing with war, immigration, human trafficking and other harsh realities of life were screened at the 2nd annual Flicks4Change film festival at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center.
The mission of the Sunday festival, said co-founder James Hawthorn, is to create “meaningful social change through the screening of socially conscious short films”…and to connect those who want to make a difference in the world. Hawthorn is a former resident of McLean, Va., and now works in the film industry in Los Angeles.
More than 100 people attended, including representatives of the organizations Innocents At Risk, In A Perfect World, The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, the McLean Project for the Arts, Black Lives Matter DC, the Arlington Academy of Hope, and CARE Action!
One documentary, “Phone Duty” showed a Ukrainian rebel fighter ordered to answer stacks of ringing cell telephones gathered from those killed in battle. His job: tell mothers and fathers that their sons would not be coming home.
In another documentary, professor and musician Nigel Osborne used music as therapy with Syrian refugee children who have fled to Lebanon.
A young Iraq vet struggling with emotional and physical trauma hiked on the Pacific Crest Trail in another film.
Flicks4Change will be in its 4th year in Los Angeles this month. It also is in Sydney, Australia, and will soon debut in Athens, Greece.
Major event sponsors included Total Wine & More, Barbara Hawthorn Interiors, the Ronald Reagan International Trade Center, TCMA, Charity: Water, and Minuteman Press of McLean.
Leonard Coleman & Blunt, a DC-area based band, performed during a reception. Each had major singing roles with The Platters, The Temptations and The Drifters.