Movies have the power to change lives, and in 2019, filmmaker Billie Melissa Rogan experienced this first hand after seeing Destin Daniel Cretton’s film Just Mercy, which altered the course of her life.
Now a graduate of The New School in New York City, where she was an Impact Entrepreneurship Fellow, Billie works with families who have loved ones on death row in the US to tell their stories through media. While there, she started her production company, 54:17 (https://www.fiftyfourseventeen.org/), which has produced short videos, research, and social media graphics in collaboration with lawyers and families in order to help tell stories of injustice.
She joins us to screen her short documentary “Fighting to Live, While Waiting to Die“, which tells the story of Billie Jerome Allen, who is currently on federal death row with a case of innocence. Following the screening, there will be a discussion on how media moves the needle in cases of injustice, the importance of building meaningful relationships as documentary filmmakers, and how we can all make a difference in the issues we care about with the skills we already have.
Duration: Approx. 60 minutes
Location: This talk will take place in the Marchesi Room at Cinema City’s John Hurt Centre – accessed via the courtyard.
Image of Billie Jerome Allen courtesy of the Students at Georgetown Prisons and Justice Initiative
