By Banker White | Director
Dear Friends and Supporters,
Anna and I have been busy traveling and sharing our new documentary Yo (Love is a Rebellious Bird). We were deeply honored by the response at recent screenings. In June alone, it has screened at five festivals on three continents and was honored with three awards, including the Audience Award at the Nantucket Film Festival!
It has been profoundly moving to watch audiences connect with Anna's beautiful friendship with this incredible woman. Interestingly, carrying Yo out into the world has brought us into a beautiful full-circle moment with he Genius of Marian. We were actually in production for both projects at the exact same time—roughly between 2009 and 2013.
While the two films are structurally and tonally quite different, their thematic DNA is completely intertwined. Both are deeply intimate portraits that explore the power of artistic creation, the complex dimensions of family, and what it means to hold onto a sense of self when facing the end of a life.
Lately, during our post-screening Q&As, I’ve been watching Anna answer questions about grieving and the grief process. One of the most beautiful reflections she has been sharing is how remarkably present Yo feels in our lives right now—a striking contrast to the years immediately following his passing, when she couldn't even bear to look at the footage we had filmed. It has been a powerful reminder that grief is never a static state, but an ever-changing process.
"Grief comes in waves, paroxysms, sudden apprehensions that weaken the knees and blind the eyes and obliterate the dailyness of life. Virtually everyone who has ever experienced grief has mentioned the waves." Joan Didion’s observation in The Year of Magical Thinking, a book that both Anna and I read at pivotal moments in our own grieving—Anna just after Yo’s passing, and myself after my mother's:Through these screenings, we are learning to navigate those waves alongside our audiences, finding that these films continue to live, breathe, and teach us new things years after the cameras stopped rolling.
A Beautiful Homecoming on Martha's Vineyard
With those overlapping themes of family and memory in mind, we recently had the immense privilege of bringing The Genius of Marian to our new island home community.
We partnered with the MV Center for Living for a special island screening this July. It was an incredibly moving evening. Sharing this personal story here, surrounded by our new friends and neighbors, many of whom have walked or are walking this small road, was special. The screening was followed by a rich Q&A and a panel discussion featuring local dementia and geriatric professionals, alongside local caregivers. Hearing the stories of local caretakers amplified the very heartbeat of what we tried to capture on film all those years ago, and we look forward to bringing more events like this to the island.
Thank you for your continued belief in our work and for helping us leverage the power of independent film to foster community healing and conversation. Please consider donating again to support our work.
Warmly,
Banker White
Co-Director / Filmmaker
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Thank you so much for being such an incredible and supportive community. We love reading your stories and reflections!
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