Workshop presented by Rosemary McDonnell-Horita and xana lenore

Learn how to expand and queer impact by centering the needs of filmmakers, participants and/or actors throughout the life cycle of a film’s creation. The co-impact producers of Fire Through Dry Grass discuss disability justice and the care roots of this practice. Attendees will learn how to pivot creatively and constructively to minimize harm and thoughtfully address conflict during the filmmaking process.

Drawing from case studies of the impact campaigns behind Crip Camp (2020), Fire Through Dry Grass (2023), and Patrice: The Movie (2024), this workshop will also introduce the approach to UNBRAID: unravel, a short documentary in-post production, which invites an adoptee’s multiple mother figures to make a film about the labor and privilege of raising a family.

Attendees are encouraged to brainstorm impact approaches for their own existing projects and strengthen relationships with fellow participants to seed future collaboration.

Presenter Bios

Rosemary McDonnell-Horita (she/her) is a disabled Japanese-American woman living in the East Bay of California. She’s been supporting, advocating, and fiercely fighting for disability inclusion for 10+ years. In 2018 Rosemary ran Colorado’s inaugural Youth Leadership Forum for students with disabilities, in partnership with local independent living centers. Rosemary led the Impact Campaign for the Oscar-nominated documentary Crip Camp in 2020, Fire Through Dry Grass in 2023 and Patrice: The Movie in 2024. She’s currently an independent contractor and working on writing a cookbook titled Measuring Spoons: A Cookbook for Crips.

Alexandra Lenore Ashworth (they/ze, xana/Dzana) is a brown, Mad, Filipinx-american, Jewish filmmaker and writer currently pursuing an MFA in film at UC Santa Cruz. Dzana’s work addresses diaspora, kinship, and collective care. They were Co-Impact and Associate Producer for FIRE THROUGH DRY GRASS, a 2022 Fulbright-National Geographic Storytelling Fellow, and have produced for Art21, the MET, MOMA, and Brooklyn Museum. Zir poetry appears in YOU ARE HOLDING THIS, an abolitionist zine for and by adopted, fostered, and trafficked people. When they were 18, a reading of their play WONDERS appeared off-Broadway. Dzana is a proud member of Writers Guild of America (East), BGDM, and A-Doc.

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