Documentary film directors Rebecca Dreyfus (Stolen,) Henry Corra (Same Sex America,) and Rudi Schwab (Closed on Sundays) sit down with moderator Ellie Lee to discuss the pros and cons involved in making their films in Boston, and the particular challenges of dealing with such hot-button topics as (unsolved) art museum robberies; the debate about same sex marriage; and the recent controversy over church closings. Co-presented by The Independent Film Festival of Boston and The LEF Foundation.
![henry_corra.jpg](https://cdn.grove.wgbh.org/dims4/default/03b2238/2147483647/strip/true/crop/144x144+0+0/resize/70x70!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fk1-prod-gbh.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2Fmedia%2Fspeaker_headshots%2Fhenry_corra.jpg)
Henry Corra is a New York City based documentary filmmaker best known for his highly acclaimed films *Umbrellas* (1995), *George *(2000), *Frames* (2004), *Same Sex America* (2005) and the Emmy-nominated film *NY77: The Coolest Year in Hell* (2007). In 1994 Corra launched his own production company, Corra Films Inc. Corra Films, located in the heart of downtown Manhattan, draws on the talents of some of New York's most innovative and original filmmakers, editors, artists, musicians and designers who share a commitment to exploring and expanding the boundaries of documentary film language and the nonfiction narrative approach. Corra's films have been exhibited worldwide in theatrical venues in New York City, San Francisco, Paris and Berlin, and in broadcast venues including HBO, SHOWTIME, LOGO, CBS, PBS, VH1, ARTE and CHANNEL 4.
![Ellie_Lee.jpg](https://cdn.grove.wgbh.org/dims4/default/3b48ebd/2147483647/strip/true/crop/120x120+0+0/resize/70x70!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fk1-prod-gbh.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2Fmedia%2Fspeaker_headshots%2FEllie_Lee.jpg)
Born in Hong Kong and raised in Boston, Ellie Lee is one of those artists to whom pushing boundaries seems second nature. An animator with two award-winning shorts, Lee is also a seasoned documentarian. Her striking, charcoal-animated documentary, *Repetition Compulsion*, dealing with abused women, went on to become the first animated film to be broadcast on the acclaimed PBS documentary series, P.O.V. "It was conceived originally as a documentary, but the animation came about because I had these skills and abilities in that field and that seemed like the best way to tell the story, with the movement of the charcoal drawings capturing the violence without needing to actually show the women's faces." In 2000, Lee made the transition to live action, fiction narrative with her latest work, the haunting and elegiac short, *Dog Days*, a cautionary tale that takes place in a futuristic wasteland. "With Dog Days I really felt that my past as an animator and studying doc filmmaking at Harvard really came together to help make it a better film, says Lee. The film took top honors at the 2000 Hamptons and Florida Film Festivals, and is currently running on IFC.