THE FEELING OF HOME
Directed by Sara Terry
In White Sulphur Springs, Montana (population: 983), the RedAnts Pants Music Festival celebrates its tenth anniversary. This episode chronicles how one woman created an annual music festival that has transformed the community as it draws top headliners and audiences in the thousands. Red Ants Pants has helped bridge local political divides; brought economic growth to the region; provided a platform for emerging artists and Native American performers; and funded girl leadership programs.
Community First Premiere: July 24, 2025 at the Strand Theatre in White Sulphur Springs.
WE LIFT EACH OTHER
Directed by Lou Pepe
Under the guidance of founder Michelle Pearson, the dancers of Black Box Dance Theatre travel across North Carolina, employing modern dance as a means of building community and fostering resilience. Working primarily with active-duty military and their families, veterans, and people coping with PTSD—demographics often overlooked by the civilian population—this dance company harnesses the simple but transformative power of group movement to create a space for collective expression and the healing of trauma.
Community First Premiere: Veterans Day 2025, Asheville, NC, in collaboration with RiverRun Film Festival.
A VISION OF THE FUTURE
Directed by Melanie D’Andrea
Oakland, CA muralist Rachel Wolfe-Goldsmith uses large- scale images in public spaces to celebrate and give concrete shape and vision to the values her community cherishes: racial equality, social justice, and liberation. This episode follows Wolfe-Goldsmith through the design and execution of a community-based mural, documenting her efforts to collaborate with community members in visualizing their hopes for the future and in bringing those images to life, not just as artworks but as the realities of a strengthened and thriving community.
GROWING LEADERS
Directed by Kahlil Hudson
In Española, New Mexico, a town plagued by one of the highest rates of drug overdose deaths in the country, Moving Arts Española (MAE) operates with the belief that visual and performing arts education for students ages 3-18 gives Española’s youth both a safe haven from the dangers of their town as well as the leadership skills and vision to change the community’s narrative. MAE’s programs use the arts to nurture students’ creative, physical, academic, social, and emotional well-being and empower them as a source of strength in a community facing multi-generational challenges.
THE WISDOM OF COMMUNITY
Directed by Margaret Byrne
Profiles the In[HEIR]itance Theater Project and their work co-creating plays with South Side Chicago residents to address neighborhood issues and foster civic dialogue.
Members of Chicago’s South Side neighborhood invited In[HEIR]itance to be in residence, where they will be fostering civic discourse among various community stakeholders—long-time residents, recent ‘transplants’, law enforcement,and local government representatives. With the guidance of the In[HEIR]itance team, participants will then weave the content of these conversations together with ancient sacred narratives to create a theatrical experience, for the community and of the community, that reflects its members’ diverse backgrounds and perspectives.