Description:
When
Van Hoang, a Vietnamese immigrant and nail salon owner, sees her
American dream crumble as she discovers that her health problems,
including two miscarriages, are the result of toxic chemicals in the
products used in her salon, she unwittingly becomes involved in the
fight for safe cosmetics. In Painted Nails, we witness Van’s
transformation from a self-described shy woman who speaks minimal
English to a forthright advocate who testifies before Congress. In
Washington, DC, at hearings for the Safe Cosmetics and Personal Care
Products Act, Van, now a few months’ pregnant, steps forward to
speak out not only for workers in nail salons, most of whom are Asian
immigrants, but for all people exposed to the toxic chemicals in
personal care products.
Biography: Dianne
Griffin as producer and director of the documentary White
Hotel followed an American HIV research team to Eritrea, Africa.
Her father’s death as the filming began quickly shattered her
objectivity and the documentary shifted from journalistic inquiry
into an intimate investigation of her own capacities to love, suffer
and forgive. White Hotel was chosen to open the New Director
Series at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and was shown at
Harvard Film Archive and the United Nations Association Film Festival
(UNAFF) at Stanford University. White Hotel was also selected
to join the permanent documentary collection at the Library of
Congress in Washington, DC. Dianne line-produced Michael Moore’s The Big One, was second unit director on the feature film What
About Cuba? produced for Yahoo!’s Dawn of Streaming Media, and
directed and produced documentaries for UNDP and WGF. Dianne chairs
the United Nations Association Film Festival Jury, is on the Board of
Feed Educate and Employ South Africa and teaches documentary
filmmaking.
Erica
Jordan picked up her first 16mm film camera and never looked
back. She gained early recognition with her first short film Dance
for One. She went on to receive the Best Emerging Filmmaker Award
at Rivertown Film Festival for her film Walls of Sand, about
the friendship between two women, an undocumented Iranian and an
agoraphobic American, and their search for freedom. Walls of Sand won Honorable Mention at Slamdance Film Festival and gained
international attention as the first feature film selected to stream
over the Internet. Film Threat selected In the Wake, as one of
the best independent feature films of 2001. Erica’s documentary In
Plain Sight premiered at Mill Valley Film Festival. She is
returning to this story to travel again with renowned photographer
Lisa Kristine on the front-lines of modern-day slavery.
