ORANGE KITE PRODUCTIONS IS AN AWARD-WINNING INDEPENDENTLY OWNED AND OPERATED FILM COMPANY WHICH PROMOTES FEMINISTIC, HUMANISTIC, FORWARD-THINKING FILMS.
Being michelle
Award- Winning Feature Length Documentary
BEING MICHELLE follows the astounding journey of a deaf and disabled woman who survived incarceration under unimaginable circumstances by a system that refused to accommodate her needs as a deaf person with autism. Michelle’s trajectory changed when she met Kim Law, a blind volunteer life coach who teaches classes to people in prison. Today, outside of prison, Kim and Michelle are doing the difficult work of unraveling Michelle’s history, of telling the story of Michelle’s traumatic childhood and her adverse experiences in the criminal justice system. With the support of Kim, Michelle realizes her own voice and strength. Throughout the film Michelle’s artwork provides her own depiction of the trauma she survived as well as a means to her recovery. Ultimately, BEING MICHELLE is a story of redemption. It is about the bonds between women committed to thriving in a broken system, who are forging a path to healing that can only come through facing the truth and communicating it, together.
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics 2012 report, persons with disabilities are 2.5 times more likely to experience violent victimization than others and more than 6% of inmates in State and Federal Prison reported having a disability. The American Civil Liberties Union report, Caged In: The Devastating Harms of Solitary Confinement on Prisoners with Physical Disabilities, explains that prisoners with disabilities are often denied the services they are entitled to under the law and experience horrifying incidents of neglect and abuse in prison, including the common practice of being held in solitary confinement. BEING MICHELLE is an intimate portrait of Michelle’s experience within this system which must be changed.
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BEING MICHELLE is a fiscally sponsored project of Thriving Roots Initiative (TRI), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Contributions on behalf of BEING MICHELLE are payable to (TRI) and are tax deductible. www.thrivingrootsinitiative.org
Soul Strings
Short Documentary
Soul Strings is a short film which takes a glimpse into the life of Narayan Bhopa, a priest-singer of folk deities in Rajasthan, India. He is the last in his family to carry on the dying tradition, playing the Ravanahatha, one of the oldest string instruments in world history.
TRAILER COMING SOON!
About
Atin Mehra
Award-winning filmmaker Atin Mehra was born and raised in Varanasi, India and currently resides with his family in Los Angeles, CA. In 1999 Atin picked up his first camera and began taking photographs. Atin’s uncanny ability to connect with individuals from behind the lens eventually led him into filmmaking. His own struggles with abuse and discrimination in India draw him to stories of marginalized individuals and communities. Atin lived and worked in India until 2005, when he moved to the US with his wife and filmmaking partner, Mae Thornton Mehra. They have been producing social justice and impact driven films together for over 15 years at Orange Kite Productions. BEING MICHELLE (2022) is Atin’s directorial debut for which he is a 2022 Firelight Media Impact Campaign Fund Grantee.
Mae Thornton Mehra
Mae Thornton Mehra has been producing social justice and impact driven films with her husband and filmmaker, Atin Mehra at Orange Kite Productions for over 15 years. She prides herself on openly creative collaborations between film participants and diverse production teams as she believes that impact begins within the filmmaking process itself. In 2020, Mae and Atin co-founded the nonprofit Thriving Roots Initiative to further their work of social impact documentary filmmaking. Mae is Producer on BEING MICHELLE (2022), a documentary film that is helping to change the way Deaf and Disabled people are treated in criminal justice systems in the US and globally.
