We are thrilled to announce that this Spring 2024, we are piloting a curriculum based on A PLACE TO BREATHE, in partnership with University of California San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine, City College of San Francisco (CCSF), and the Academy of Chinese Culture and Health Sciences (ACCHS). This groundbreaking course will bring Community Health Worker, Health Interpreter, and Acupuncture students into the same classroom as Medical, Nursing, Pharmacy, and Dental students to address health inequities by preparing future healthcare workers to collaborate in culturally responsive, non-hierarchical, integrative teams that center the wisdom and resilience of patients and communities. Our diverse interprofessional team has spent two years building the film's curriculum and the partnerships to make this possible, supported by seed funding from the California Health Care Foundation and UCSF Medical School’s Innovations Grant. In the near future, the curriculum will become available for free nationally in the hope of encouraging institutions around the country to build similar bridges for interprofessional learning and true community-based healthcare.
A PLACE TO BREATHE is now available for home streaming on-demand via Good Docs! See below for their educational screening opportunities. También, hay disponible una versión de la película con subtítulos en español!
Thanks to all who attended our in-person screening on June 27th 2022 at The New Parkway Theater in Oakland, CA in honor of World Refugee & Immigrant Day!
A PLACE TO BREATHE began broadcasting on Public Television Stations nationwide in Fall 2021! Northern California Public Media has partnered with us to bring the film to American Public Television for national distribution. Visit APT's site to search for the film's broadcast dates in your area!
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Please contact our Educational Distributor Good Docs to set up screenings at Universities, Medical Schools, High Schools, Libraries, and other educational settings!
Visit: https://gooddocs.net/products/a-place-to-breathe
Good Docs also features the film's Director/Producer Michelle Grace Steinberg as part of their Good Talks platform, where you can request her as a speaker on the film and her work as an integrative health practitioner in immigrant communities, alongside with the film's participants speaking on their personal experiences. Following an A PLACE TO BREATHE screening as part of the Trauma Research Foundation's film festival, Michelle recently joined the film's Rodrigue Kalambayi in a conversation with renowned author and physician Bessel van der Kolk and the foundation's co-founder Licia Sky.
FILM SYNOPSIS
Rodrigue is a newly arrived refugee from war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo (via Uganda), who, along with his mother and six siblings, is struggling to adapt to life in Lowell, Massachusetts. Training to become a community health worker at the local clinic, he ultimately aspires to be a social worker to help his community heal from trauma. Socheat, a Cambodian immigrant, seeks tools to combat the stress of supporting her aging parents, teenage daughter, and disabled brother on a manicurist’s salary. The entire family experiences the benefits of meditation classes and culturally tailored wellness approaches at the health center. Sue, a nurse to both families, examines the continued impact of her own traumatic experiences, thriving in the U.S. after surviving the genocide in Cambodia and now supporting others to do the same.
Across the country in Oakland, California, Edgar and Yania, a young couple from Mexico and Uruguay, provide healing to their community through outreach to day laborers and Spanish-language yoga classes. Their aspirations to become a social worker and a nurse are threatened by possible deportation due to their tenuous immigration status under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). At the same health clinic, Norma, a Guatemalan immigrant, provides interpretation into her community’s indigenous Mayan language, while she watches new arrivals from her homeland fight for asylum and safety.
Common ground and chance connection join these unique stories as the film humanizes those who have migrated here, sharing their wisdom and perspectives that enrich and strengthen our communities. This is more critical than ever with the devastating effects that COVID-19 is having on communities of color and immigrant populations. A PLACE TO BREATHE moves audiences to envision new understandings of wellness for all.
Check out Director/Producer Michelle Grace Steinberg and Producer Robyn Bykofsky on a recent episode of the Bitch Talk Podcast!
For more details on the clinics featured in the project see:
Lowell Community Health Center/Metta Health Center
Like the film on Facebook and follow us on Instagram.
Director/Producer - Michelle Grace Steinberg
Producer - Robyn Bykofsky
Cinematographer and Editor - Michelle Grace Steinberg
Co-Editor - Shirley Gutierrez
Animators - Héloïse Dorsan Rachet, Anna Benner
Composer - E.E. Bradman
Our fiscal sponsor is Filmmaker's Collaborative SF