Media Spotlight: “Fox Chase Boy”

 It’s hard to imagine turning a story of unspeakable childhood trauma into a film that can make you laugh and fill you with hope. But that’s exactly what writer, performer and filmmaker Gerad Argeros did with “Fox Chase Boy,” a short documentary based on his one-man show in which he confronts his trauma of being sexually abused as a child. In the early ’80s, when Gerad was 10 years old and served as an altar boy at St. Cecilia’s Catholic Church in the Northeast Philadelphia neighborhood of Fox Chase, he was sexually abused by The Rev. James Brzyski—one of the Philadelphia Archdiocese’s most brutal abusers, according to a 2005 grand jury report. Gerad stayed silent about his abuse for decades until the tragic deaths of two childhood friends, also victims of Brzyski’s, and the death of Brzyski (who evaded prosecution and died as a free man) moved him to speak out publicly. In 2017, he broke his… Read More

Last Spring, Emmy-nominated actor Jonathan Majors and his then-partner Grace Jabbari got into a domestic dispute that ended with Majors’ arrest. Shortly after the case made headlines a firestorm of online debate ensued. A groundswell of support grew for Majors—whose swift ascent to Hollywood stardom positioned him as an A-list celebrity—despite evidence of him assaulting and harassing Jabbari. But last month, Majors was found guilty of misdemeanor assault and harassment. After his conviction, Marvel Studios and The Walt Disney Company–which cast Majors as the villain in “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” and in the “Loki” series–dropped him from all future projects. The verdict, along with the announcement from Marvel Studios and The Walt Disney Company, intensified the scrutiny of Jabbari. In the eyes of the public, her claims cost Majors his career; she became the suspect, and he the victim.  Unfortunately, this is how conversations about domestic violence typically play out in the media. People pick sides in the aftermath of a domestic dispute, casting some people as villains but never stopping to unpack the circumstances that led to the behavior in the first place. “If that is the extent of the… Read More

Earlier this month, I went to see a great documentary at DOCNYC about "Daily Show" co-creator Lizz Winstead’s organization, Abortion Access Front. The film, “No One Asked You,” by Ruth Leitman, was funny, full of joy and love, and captured what most of media has missed during this chaotic unraveling of abortion protections in the U.S.—the humanity of the nurses, doctors and escorts who work at abortion clinics in battleground states. Read More

Eight days after Salvador Ramos turned 18, he walked into his former elementary school armed with a legally-purchased AR-15-style rifle and killed 19 children and two adults—all within about three minutes. The mass shooting happened on May 24, 2022, at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas; it’s now the second deadliest school shooting in the United States on record. One year after the massacre, FRONTLINE, Futuro Investigates and The Texas Tribune produced “After Uvalde,” an investigative documentary seeking answers about how it happened, the botched police response and Texas lawmakers’ failure to pass meaningful gun control laws. The film follows journalist Maria Hinojosa, who speaks with Uvalde community members reeling from the tragedy and government officials who are advocating for and against Senate Bill 145 and House Bill 2744, which aim to raise the legal age to purchase weapons like the AR-15 from 18 to 21. “We do everything to protect these guns. Let’s just try something to protect our children,” a parent of a child killed in the massacre said while testifying in court. Throughout the film, harrowing accounts of the mass shooting are met with disheartening pleas to restrict gun control laws, begging the… Read More

Question: Let’s say you’re at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, watching the premiere of a documentary about the power and promise of veganism. “A shocking new documentary that will change the way you look at meat,” reads one of the reviews. Immediately after exiting the film, do you: Read More

Throughout America today, headlines reveal political division, racial animus, and horrific episodes of gun violence sparked by xenophobic ideology. In mass media and through direct expression in social media dominated by angry political invective, it seems that America has never been more divided. Read More

Last week, in collaboration with Philanthropy New York and the Environmental Grantmakers Association, we held a special screening and discussion of the award-winning film Sea of Shadows, a new film by National Geographic that serves as a blueprint for how a conservation effort can come together in spite of widespread institutional corruption and dangerous cartels. In the Gulf of California, totoaba fish are being illegally overfished by Mexican cartels and Chinese traffickers because of a belief among some in China that their bladders possess healing powers. But the deadly methods of harvesting totoaba, also a critically endangered fish, are threatening to wipe out the vaquita—the world's smallest whale. In fact, it's estimated that fewer than 15 vaquitas remain. Sea of Shadows follows undercover investigators, environmentalists, journalists and the Mexican Navy in their efforts to rescue the vaquita from total extinction. Read More

Over the past eight years, the annual John P. McNulty Prize—awarded by the McNulty Foundation—has celebrated individuals who are using their exceptional leadership abilities, entrepreneurial spirit and private sector talents to make an impact on the world’s toughest challenges. Read More

Vince Stehle, our executive director, attends a lot of meetings and conferences throughout the year. Each time, he returns with something new: a connection, an idea for collaboration, a project worthy of more attention. Read More