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Presbyterian Disaster Assistance

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) recognizes the value and importance of amplifying voices and stories. Using film as a resource to increase awareness on social justice issues, Counter Stories Productions (PDA’s Story Ministry) seeks to connect and equip communities while cultivating wider circles of engagement and action.

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“The power of these films to make what was happening in the news real and relational. It proved to me that these films were powerful and could motivate folks to action in a very real way.”
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Rev. Hardy Kim, Sunnyvale, CA

These award-winning documentary resources are available to congregations and communities to organize screenings and host conversations about important and timely issues. If you are interested in these resources or hosting a screening, below are links to trailers, film posters, descriptions, study guides, and links to the full films.

Contact us for additional information: PDA@pcusa.org

 

Community Engagement Model

We have found that gathering people in a room to watch these films can yield more community involvement than just watching them by yourself at home — for this very reason, we encourage screenings. 

This 12-minute video focuses on a film forum that was developed in Dayton, Ohio, using our films “Locked in a Box” and “To Breathe Free.” 

Trouble the Water: Conversations to Disrupt Racism and Dominance

“Trouble the Water: Conversations to Disrupt Racism and Dominance” is a free course and documentary series produced by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) for communities and congregations to facilitate conversation and engagement around the issues of race and racism.

Flint: The Poisoning of an American City

“Flint: The Poisoning of an American City” traces the timeline of the city’s interaction with the Flint River — from the continued abuse and neglect of both city infrastructure and environmental regulations, to subsequent population decline, through to Michigan’s 2013 appointing of outside emergency managers. This poisonous mix of factors created a crisis which has gone on for five years, resulting in record high levels of lead in the drinking water of the city.

The film intersperses with area residents (including parents, social workers, educators, pastors, and experts on water and health) with testimony at congressional and other oversight committee hearings to demonstrate how 100,000 people have been poisoned by lead, an irreversible affliction. No timeline exists for the remediation of the situation.

“Flint” explores the critical question of how this could happen in America and how this event should serve as a warning for the rest of the country. A recent report found that 5,300 American cities were found to be in violation of federal lead rules, and research published in USA Today detected excessive lead in nearly 2,000 public water systems across all 50 states. This documentary educates and inspires action, seeking to radically change how we view and value water.

This film is currently being screened around the country, see its website for details. It is available on Amazon Prime, Google Play, Apple TV+, and Video on Demand across major cable providers.

Locked in a Box

“Locked in a Box” is an award-winning short documentary that follows the stories of individuals held in the U.S. Immigration detention system and those who visit them. The film traces the lives of individuals who fled their homelands in search of safety and freedom only to end up in U.S. prisons under a mandatory bed quota system run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Since the 1990s, there has been a massive expansion of the immigration detention system up to 34,000 immigrants in detention on any given day in approximately 200 different facilities, many of which are for-profit prisons. “Locked in a Box” helps strip away the political rhetoric to see the human cost of detention.

“Locked” was an award winner for “Achievement in Documentary Film” from the Georgia Latino Film Alliance and Film Festival.

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance supports the development of visitation ministries, legal orientation programs, and community-based services to those who are released in partnership and collaboration with Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS). This film is the result of the collaboration between PDA and LIRS with local partners in the hope of inspiring its viewers toward action.