FOSTER

ADMISSION:
Admission is free. Reservations required. RSVP beginning Wednesday, March 6, at 9 a.m.

USC Students, Staff, and Faculty: RSVP
USC Alumni: RSVP
General Public: RSVP

DESCRIPTION:
Oscar-winning filmmakers Mark Jonathan Harris and Deborah Oppenheimer go beyond the sensational headlines and stereotypes to take an unprecedented look at America’s child-welfare system. Filmed over a year and a half in Los Angeles, home to the largest county foster-care system in the nation, FOSTER dispels myths and reveals truths about foster care through five moving and illuminating stories that provide an inside look at the L.A. County Department of Children and Family Services. Following a screening of FOSTER, the filmmakers will speak with a social worker who grew up in foster care and faculty from the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work and Keck School of Medicine of USC in a thoughtful panel discussion reflecting on the problems and possibilities of the foster-care system today.

Bios:
Mark Jonathan Harris is an award-winning documentarian whose films address some of the most important and challenging issues of our time, from The Redwoods to Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport, both of which won Academy Awards. His HBO documentary Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives was nominated for an Emmy. He is a Distinguished Professor at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. (Amazon author page, IMDb, USC faculty profile)

Deborah Oppenheimer is a film and television producer who worked with Mark Jonathan Harris on the Oscar-winning Into the Arms of Strangers.

Additional Links:
Cinema Escapist interview with Mark Jonathan Harris

Presented by USC Visions and Voices: The Arts and Humanities Initiative. Organized by Mark Jonathan Harris (Cinematic Arts) and Vandana Jerath (Clinical Pediatrics).