Watch a good movie and help out your community at the same time. The UICA and Goodwill may be able to help you out with that. The organizations team up on Feb. 16 and 17 to screen the award-winning documentary Dark Days. The film focuses on an abandoned sub-section of the New York City underground railway system called the Freedom Tunnel, and follows a community of homeless people who populate it. Many of these people are actually helped out with the production of the movie by volunteering to be part of the film crew. The film sheds light on the struggles of an oft-overlooked homeless community, and explores themes of poverty, marginalization and survival.
Katie Johnson, the donations and media manager for Goodwill of Greater Grand Rapids, said screening the film will help show audiences the effects of poverty from a different angle and will leave a lasting impression with movie-goers.
"(The film) helps you realize there are people who are living in these situations and that there are opportunities to help those in your own community," Johnson said. "It's something very real, within the area that we live in as well."
Instead of paying cash for admission, tickets for each of the two screenings of Dark Days may be purchased by donating 10 items at the door to Goodwill. Not sure what to bring? Johnson assures moviegoers that all donations are appreciated.
"We are accepting absolutely everything," Johnson said. "Textiles, home goods, as well as blankets or items that might be useful to someone who is seeking shelter. We're also accepting non-perishable food items that we will be donating directly to a local community partner."
Instead of giving the donated items from the event directly to shelters and other community partners, Goodwill will be supplying vouchers so that these organizations can purchase the specific items they need.
After the movie, there will be an open Q&A session with Johnson and a representative from Goodwill's workforce development team, which helped place 842 participants into community employment last year alone. The forum is designed to further explore themes from the documentary and to highlight ways to give back to the homeless community in Grand Rapids.
"We do want to try to keep it open and really have an area where we can encourage everyone to share their perspectives and their thoughts after the film, and to ask questions both to us and some of the other community members that we'll be working with," Johnson said.
Nick Hartman, UICA film coordinator and self-professed thrifter, said Goodwill was the obvious choice for an organization to collaborate with on this project.
"I've always been a Goodwill fan," he said. "I literally spend a lot of my free time thrift shopping there and I know how much they contribute to the less fortunate. Overall, it just felt right to work with them so I reached out and proposed what I'd like to do and luckily, they loved the idea."
Hartman has high hopes for the event, and anticipates this could open up doors for similar collaborations down the road.
"I'd definitely like to see the UICA doing more events like this in future," Hartman said. "I mean overall, why wouldn't we? Giving back and helping others is what everyone should be doing and if we can continue to do so, then we will."
Arctic Thrills at Knickerbocker Theatre
If crisp wintry adventures do happen to be your thing, look no further than the Knickerbocker Theatre in downtown Holland. As part of an ongoing film series dedicated to highlighting independent cinema, Knickerbocker will screen the Greenlandic adventure-drama, Inuk.
Inuk follows the adventures of the main character of the same name as he traverses Greenland to leave behind abusive parents and start life anew at a children's home on an arctic island. His adventures take him north, where Inuk explores his Inuit roots, and is left under the tutelage of struggling bear hunter, Ikuma. Along the way, Inuk experiences his own bildungsroman-style journey into manhood, and rediscovers his Inuit heritage.
Made on a shoestring budget and largely comprised of a cast of nonprofessional local actors, Inuk is a surprise award-winning breakthrough film that embraces the tradition of independent cinema.
