Despite the snow storm, we had a wonderful screening at MOMA

melis — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 13:27:55 +0000

February 25th, 2010

I love you New Yorkers. Thank you for coming to support The Visitors despite the weather.

Nicki and Angie -the characters from the film- were present during question and answer session. Nicki is still traveling to visit her husband. Thankfully he’s located in a correctional facility closer to NY now. We hope he’ll be home soon.

Angie’s husband is home. They’ve been happily together on the outside for 2 years now. He was also present during the screening.

nicki and melis

Visitors to be screened at MOMA on February 25th and February 26th

melis — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 02:26:47 +0000

http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/film_screenings/8802

Great screenings at Eastern, Woodbourne and Fishkill Correctional Facilities

melis — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 19:39:16 +0000

Our special thanks goes out to Exodus teacher Gordon Brown, counselor Ms. Fernandez and counselor Mr. Fields for facilitating these screenings. The film was very well received by the inmates and we’ve had very emotional question and answer sessions.

Along with the inmates who have seen the film, we are now thinking the ways how we can all work together so that The Visitors can be seen by all the inmates in NY State Prison system as well as the staff. More comments by the inmates will be posted soon but one of my favorite is this: ” Your film did honor the struggle without over sentimentalizing it.”

(These screenings were made possible through a NYSCA grant)

Visitors on the Documentary Channel

admin — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 22:44:42 +0000

Visitors will be airing on the documentary channel, here are the upcoming dates:

Feb. 14th (Sun) at 8pm
Feb. 14th (Sun) at 11pm
Mar. 04th (Thr) at 8:30pm
Mar. 04th (Thr) at 11:30pm
Mar. 30th (Tue) at 6:30pm
Apr. 05th (Mon) at 9:15pm

Read an interview with Visitors Director Melis Birder>>

Youtube video DOC. Channel Teaser

Best Documentary, Golden Orange Film Festival

melis — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:59:54 +0000

The Visitors shares the Best Documentary Award at Golden Orange Film Festival in Turkey.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/t.php?t=golden%20orange%202009

The Visitors wins The Honorable Mention at UrbanWorld Film Festival

melis — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 14:03:13 +0000

Thank you all for coming to see The Visitors at UrbanWorld.

Even though we’ve had all the technical nightmares occured during the screening, your support was so touching.

http://blogs.bet.com/entertainment/whattheflick/the-13th-urbanworld-film-festival-announces-2009-winners/

Visitors at Arthur Kill Correctional Facility at Staten Island

melis — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 21:15:25 +0000

On June 17th, we organized a screening at the Arthur Kill Correctional Facility to a group of inmates who were members of the “Lifers and Long Timers Group”. The screening turned out be a moving experience both for the inmates and myself. We received many insightful feedbacks and comments.

During the Q & A session, the inmates emphasized that “the film raised an awareness about the trials and the tribulations that their loved ones go through year after year thus giving them strength and hope to continue to do what’s right.”

The counselors who arranged the screening were also very supportive of the film. Few days following the screening, one of them told me that “the film created such a positive buzz at the facility that the men couldn’t stop talking about it. ”

Our next goal is to reach out to as many correctional facilities as possible.

Great Time at Full Frame

melis — Wed, 27 May 2009 20:43:44 +0000

We screened the film to a full house of 500 hundred people with a great response from the audience.

denise and i during q and a

our executive sam pollard and composers jay tran and rob friedman

denise's family and our editor Kim

The Visitors will have its premier at Full Frame Documentary Film Festival

melis — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 15:24:10 +0000

Yes. We have finally finished the film. And we’re having our world premiere on Friday April 3rd at Full Frame Film Festival Durham North Carolina.

We’re especially proud to be part of the festival as this year’s program is also honoring our late executive producer St. Clair Bourne with the 2009 Career Award.

Our main character Denise, her kids and her grandkids will also be there.
This will be fun!

VISITORS selected for IFP rough cut lab

melis — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:41:28 +0000

Melis Birder’s documentary in post-production “Visitors” has been selected for the IFP Rough Cut Lab that took place between 6-9 May, 2008 in New York. The workshop brought together the documentaries in progress as rough-cuts with the mentors of the industry.