FESTIVAL PREMIERE
DOC SHORT | USA | 19 MINUTES | English
The Big Idea: Indigenous Robotics
Director: Sarah Klein, Tom Mason
After Ojibwe native Danielle Boyer joined the robotics team in high school, she realized how out of reach robotics are for low-income families. Since then, she’s made it her mission to create free robot kits to connect other Indigenous youth to the tech skills that will shape their future.
CAST & CREDITS
Director
Sarah Klein, Tom Mason
Producer
Heather Martino
Directors Bio
Redglass co-founder Sarah Klein is an award-winning producer and director. Her early credits include the HBO documentary, Hard as Nails and the Arte film, The Good Mother. Redglass Pictures was formed in 2006 and since then, Klein has co-directed and produced many notable projects, including History of Memory for HP, and a series of short films for Ken Burns’ Cancer: The Emperor of Maladies, which won a DuPont Award. Among the many hats she wears at Redglass, Klein leads creative development and production. She has had the honor of interviewing: The Obamas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, John Kerry, Michael Chabon, Warren Buffett, and JJ Abrams, to name a few.
Tom Mason is the co-founder of Redglass, and in addition to co-directing and producing films with Klein, also serves as the principal of photography and post production. Mason’s cinematic approach to shorts comes from his deep roots in film and still photography, which he studied at Syracuse University. After receiving an Alexia Grant, Mason spent a year documenting the world of Russian adoption agencies. Some of the projects he has co-directed at Redglass include George Saunders: On Story and Ken Burns: On Story with the Atlantic, and How To Win An Election for The New York Times. In addition to his work at Redglass, Mason is also an adjunct professor of digital storytelling at Columbia University’s School of Journalism.
Directors Statement
As filmmakers we have spent most of our career telling the stories of people whose brilliant and often radical ideas reveal higher truths of the human experience. The series, The Big Idea, is no exception.
We spent over a year traveling the world to follow three innovators who are attempting to solve problems that have proven impossible for others to tackle. From Kitty Liao’s solution to keep vaccine temperatures stable in remote places, to Kimberly Seals-Allers anti-racist technology aimed at reducing Black maternal mortality rates to Danielle Boyer’s hands-on robot building kits for underserved native youth, these ideas are meant to challenge the status quo and ultimately save lives.
Within each of these incredibly personal stories of innovation we came to understand what motivates each of these remarkable women to risk everything to create change and witnessed what it takes to actually move the needle on society’s most complex and intractable problems. What we discovered in the process is that changing the world is extremely difficult, but for these exceptional women, there is no other option.
Showtimes
November 8th – December 31st
AMC The Grove 14
189 The Grove Dr
Los Angeles, CA 90036
Parking
At The Theatre
