Some of the most exciting and educational parts of the Cleveland International Film Festival are the FilmForums - moderated panel discussions that offer audience members the opportunity to learn more about the issues brought up in the film they have just seen.
One such FilmForum took place after a screening of TRUST: Second Acts in Young Lives, a documentary by filmmaker Nancy Kelly. TRUST followed a group of teenagers who are members of the Albany Park Theater Project, an after-school program founded in 1997 by David Feiner and his late wife, Laura Wiley, that helps youngsters learn to express themselves by channeling their own stories into plays, which they help write, direct and perform for audiences. The particular story that TRUST tells is that of 18-year-old Marlin, an immigrant from Honduras who was brutally raped by two men when she was twelve, and later molested by her older brother. Through acting out this harrowing life story, Marlin is able to find some peace and closure, and inspire her peers - as well as the thousands of people who have seen this film - in the process.
WATCH: Five minutes with filmmaker Nancy Kelly
