Impossible Town: Film Screening and Panel Discussion

In partnership with the DC Environmental Film Festival, the Earth Commons and Georgetown Film and Media Studies will host a festival screening of IMPOSSIBLE TOWN, a story of personal ambitions in conflict with deep familial obligations set against the backdrop of loss, grief, and environmental injustice in rural Appalachia.

Join us at 5 pm for a reception in the Lohrfink Auditorium on Monday, March 25 followed by the film screening (93 minutes) and a panel featuring Meg Griffiths and Scott Faris, filmmakers, and the main subject in the film, Dr. Ayne Amjad.

RSVP for Tickets. Free with RSVP.

Synopsis:

When her father dies unexpectedly, Dr. Ayne Amjad is thrust to the helm of a decades-long struggle to aid a southern West Virginia town beset by cancer-causing chemicals. Haunted by her late father’s mandate to “help others” at all costs, Ayne is caught between her dream of raising a family and an audacious but all-consuming plan to relocate the town and bring closure to her father’s work.

Agenda

5:00 PM – Reception hosted by Georgetown University

5:45pm – Theater opens

6:00 PM – Introduction – Randall Amster

6:06 PM – Film starts (93 min.)

7:39 PM – Film ends; Lights up; Participants approach stage 

7:40 PM – Q&A/Panel (20-30 minutes)

Meg Griffiths and Scott Faris (co-directors) are the documentary filmmakers behind Universe Creative, a production company driven by social impact. Former journalists, teachers, and nonprofit leaders, Meg and Scott have collaborated on documentary films for the last decade with an emphasis on education, rural communities, and Indigenous issues. They are grantees of the International Documentary Association and the Redford Center and frequently collaborate with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other national foundations and nonprofits.