Program 11: 'Freedom Waders', 'Retorno', 'Breaking the Chains of Addiction'

Freedom Waders: The Struggle to Integrate Chicago's Rainbow Beach - Freedom Waders tells a long-forgotten chapter of the civil rights movement. In 1960, Velma Murphy, President of the South Side NAACP Youth Council, began dating Norman Hill, a prominent civil rights activist. Inspired by sit-in campaigns of the South, the young couple organized wade-ins at Chicago's Rainbow Beach, braving mob violence.

The pair would go on to hold leadership positions in the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and Norman would act as National Staff Coordinator for the 1963 March on Washington. After over 60 years of marriage, the couple reflects on how the summer of 1960 forever changed their lives. (2023, 15m, Director: Alex Hinton)

Retorno (Return) - Isabel Maria Tejera Gutierrez has been away from her country for over 25 years. The years were marked by a relentless battle for citizenship, one she had almost given up on. Finally, her dream became a reality and, without a word to her family in the Dominican Republic, she booked a ticket back home. The film follows Isabel's story, as her daughter Pamela, documents their experience. (2025, 29m, U.S./Dominican Republic, Pamela Ysabel Rozon)
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Breaking the Chains of Addiction is a sensitively told and emotionally charged documentary that takes viewers deep inside the lived experience of drug and alcohol addiction. Told in their own words, the film follows a diverse mix of people from different walks of life, each with a unique recovery journey, from chaotic relapses to long-term sobriety, faith-based healing, rehab and other interventions, through to losing loved ones to addiction.

Now in recovery or being more healed after bereavement, every one of them is giving back by working in the recovery field or volunteering to support others facing the same battles.

Authentic, honest, and deeply human, this is a film about survival, reconnection, and the power of people helping people to turn their pain into power. (2025, 29m, U.K., Director: Judi Alston)
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