"Downtown" at the MMA

The 9th Annual Sprout Film Festival, taking place at New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art in late April, will feature Downtown – Miasto Downów (Downtown) by Marta Dzido and Piotr Śliwowski.

Downtown is a documentary that focuses on the photography project by Oiko Petersen, who decided to use commercial-type aesthetics to photograph a dozen of people with Down syndrome. The photographed models, dressed in outfits specially designed by leading Polish designers, take on the roles of their dreams. The filmmakers spent eighteen months filming their subjects. Downtown was co-financed by the Polish Film Institute.

Organized annually since 2003, the Sprout Film Festival is dedicated to people with developmental disabilities. The creators of Sprout want to show the everyday life of people with developmental disabilities and their functioning within a community by presenting true portraits of people with developmental disabilities and focusing on issues important to this part of the population. The festival screenings showcase films aimed at overcoming stereotypes and promoting tolerance.

Downtown will screen in New York on April 29 alongside films from Argentina, Australia, the United States, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. A selection of films from the Sprout Film Festival will later tour the United States, screening in other major cities, including Portland and Orlando.

Further details about the Sprout Film Festival available at: www.gosprout.org.

Translated by Karolina Kołtun