4DWN is a service-driven, value-based, nonprofit organization and community resilience hub rooted in skate culture. It is headquartered in South Dallas, in one of the nation’s largest food, infrastructure, and recreational deserts. CEO and co-founder, Rob Cahill, makes it 4DWN’s mission to sustainably foster the health of kids, families, communities and environment providing free programs emphasizing recreation, education, cultivation and conservation.
 Guests in Attendance: Rob Cahill, Mike Crum & Theresa Tumminia (Subjects)

A skier contemplates his connection to skiing and the mountains. As he hurries through the streets of LA, his path takes a turn after bumping into a jazz musician who helps him discover the correlation between jazz and skiing – an expression of art, skiing, and black culture.
Guests in Attendance: Mallory R. Duncan (Director + Subject)

Batsies examines two women’s tender relationship with an animal that’s feared and loathed: the bat. We follow the journey of Dr. Weaver and Dr. Fritts as they conduct cutting-edge research throughout rural Texas, where wind turbines pose a new threat to bat populations. Through their research efforts, quirky friendship and shared bat obsession, Batsies is a fresh take on saving a creature that’s considered the ultimate outcast.
Guests in Attendance: Katy Baldock & Dr. Sarah Fritts (Producer + Subject)

Following the shorts block, the following guests from the films joined us on stage for a conversation:

Katy Baldock (Batsies), Dr. Sarah Fritts (Batsies), Mallory Duncan (The Blackcountry Journal), Theresa Tumminia (4DWN), Rob Cahill (4DWN), Mike Crum (4DWN)

When Abraham Alexander unspools his extraordinary life story, it becomes clear that he should always trust his instincts. Each time he has, something unknowable but amazing has happened for him. Born in Greece, where he spent the early part of his life with the Acropolis as his playground, Abraham was transplanted to Texas in the early 2000s at 11 years old to escape the ever present racial tension of his birthplace. Adopted in Texas after losing his mother in a car accident with a drunk driver, Abraham became a sports nut who excelled on the pitch and had first set his sights on a career in soccer. A torn ACL sidelined those ambitions but opened the door to a new path. A friend handed him a guitar during this downtime, and, without warning, his soul was unlocked. Songs he did not know that he had in him poured out. A series of increasingly incredible chance meetings — including a life-changing encounter with Leon Bridges — led him to nurture this newfound musical voraciousness. Those roads have converged on his forthcoming album Sea/Sons, out on Dualtone Records in 2023.Co-produced by Alexander with the help of several folks including Matt Pence and Brad Cook, the album is a lush, seductive affair that showcases the 31-year-old singer-songwriter’s beguiling voice — one which offers both honey and grit — and supple acoustic guitar work. The 11 tracks on Sea/Sons display a cool assuredness even as the songs themselves play with themes of loss, redemption, longing, anguish, and joy informed by a complex life of love and pain. There is a refreshing genre fluidity at play as elements of folk, pop, rock, R&B, gospel, and even electronic music meld and tangle. Ineffable backing vocals, sparse but rich arrangements, and a sense of emotional purpose draw the musical threads together into a cohesive whole that is simultaneously warm and cool. From open mics in Fort Worth, TX to recent stints on the road opening for Leon Bridges, Ani DiFranco, and Mavis Staples — an instructive trinity for his sound — Alexander is ready for the headlining spotlight and to articulate what many of us are feeling with Sea/Sons.