180 Grand Ave Oakland
CA 94612
Join us as we toast our progress so far on A PLACE TO BREATHE – a film that tells the stories of immigrant and refugee health care providers and clients in Oakland, CA and Lowell, MA. The film explores culturally responsive integrative models in health care, following individuals and families from Mexico, Guatemala, Uruguay, Congo, and Cambodia.
Enjoy a special work-in-progress fundraising screening and meet the filmmakers and key players at Street Level Health Project, one of the clinics featured in the film.
Click here to watch a five minute introduction to the film.
Learn how your financial contribution can make a difference in raising awareness, expanding definitions of wellness, and supporting cross-pollination of best practices of culturally responsive, trauma-informed care. We look forward to welcoming you into our community, and hope also that you will utilize your own potential for advocacy whether as patients, providers, or community members.
6:30 pm: Reception*
7:15 pm: Filmmaker’s Introduction
7:30 pm: Work-in-Progress Screening
8:00 pm: Filmmaker Q&A
*Enjoy delicious fresh authentic Mexo-Californio cuisine from Oakland’s own Cocina Del Corazon, while quenching your thirst with wines from Dashe Cellars, and Oakland-brewed Old Kan Beer.
Not able to attend the event? Click here to support the completion of the film and the important work that Street Level Health Project provides to the Bay Area community. Donations are tax deductible.
About the Film:
A PLACE TO BREATHE weaves together immigrant and refugee stories anchored in two public health centers – Street Level Health Project in Oakland, California and Metta Health Center (a refugee-focused branch of Lowell Community Health Center) in Lowell, Massachusetts. Each has its own approach to “Whole Community” health care, which embraces the prominent role that communities play in creating diverse paths to wellbeing. The stories portrayed in our film provide powerful insight into how the current political climate impacts individuals as the uncertainty of immigration policy intersects with the future of healthcare. Yet it is the ways that communities move forward in spite of these threats, and the coping mechanisms that they develop, that are at the center of A PLACE TO BREATHE.
About the Filmmakers:
Michelle Grace Steinberg (Producer/Director) combines her sensibilities as a filmmaker and health care provider in her current film, A PLACE TO BREATHE (release date 2019), presented by her production company, Underexposed Films. Her previous films have aired on national public television, screened in a dozen film festivals internationally, and have been used as university curriculum. Michelle is also a nutritionist and herbalist at Street Level Health Project in Oakland, CA, where she works integratively with medical and mental health practitioners to provide free culturally responsive care to uninsured communities.
Robyn Bykofsky (Producer) is a filmmaker and educator who has spent 20 years teaching media and film production in underrepresented and misrepresented communities. In addition, she has designed sound for independent films that have screened at film festivals around the globe and was staff sound engineer at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Robyn received her BA in audio and video production from San Francisco State University and holds a Masters in Education with a focus in technology from Harvard Graduate School of Education.
About Street Level Health Project:
Street Level Health Project (SLHP) is an Oakland-based community center dedicated to improving the wellbeing of underinsured, uninsured, and recently arrived immigrants in Alameda County. The organization promotes self-sufficiency for marginalized people of color by creating equitable and dignified access to health and employment regardless of socioeconomic or immigration status. SLHP engages community in constructing collective power and leadership in order to advance a more just, inclusive, and empathetic society.