Together, these films explore the enduring fight for freedom and accountability in American society, from the courtroom to the newsroom, and illuminate the resilience of those who speak truth to power. Through their stories, audiences are invited to reflect on the ways courage, creativity, and persistence can shape a more just, expressive, and compassionate world. The evening will close with a special talkback with Amy Goodman, filmmakers Yoruba Richen, Carl Deal, and Tia Lessin, moderated by Nermeen Shaikh.

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ABOUT FREE JOAN LITTLE

FREE JOAN LITTLE tells the story of the landmark 1975 murder trial of the first woman in U.S. history to be acquitted for using deadly force to resist sexual assault. At 20 years old, Joan (pronounced Jo-Ann) Little was incarcerated in North Carolina when she killed a white jailer who she said tried to rape her. Her trial drew national attention, becoming a rallying point for civil rights, women’s rights and prison reform. The case brought together activists including Angela Davis and Rosa Parks, and catalyzed a national conversation about sexual assault and racial justice. Little’s fight for freedom remains a defining moment in American legal and social history.

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ABOUT STEAL THIS STORY, PLEASE!

Undeterred by armed soldiers, smooth-talking politicians, and riot police, journalist Amy Goodman has reported some of the most consequential stories of our time. STEAL THIS STORY, PLEASE! is a gripping portrait of the trailblazer whose unwavering commitment to truth-telling spans three decades of turbulent history. From the frontlines of global conflicts to the organized chaos of her daily news show Democracy Now!, Goodman broadcasts stories and voices routinely silenced by commercial media. 

Oscar-nominated filmmakers Carl Deal and Tia Lessin (Trouble the Water, The Janes) take us behind the scenes with the warm, wisecracking granddaughter of an Orthodox rabbi — raised in a tradition of asking hard questions – as she navigates a news landscape reshaped by technology, corporate consolidation, and political assaults on truth itself. Urgent, provocative and unexpectedly funny, Steal This Story, Please! is both a call to action and a celebration of resistance, posing the question: what happens to democracy when the press surrenders to power?

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ABOUT FALL OF FREEDOM

Fall of Freedom is an urgent call to the arts community to unite in defiance of authoritarian forces sweeping the nation. In response, artists are rising together - not in silence, but in music, movement, and creation - to remind us that art makes us free.

Fall of Freedom is both a national call to action and a celebration - here, joy becomes an act of defiance, tenderness becomes truth, and art becomes our response to fear.

Launching November 21 - 22, 2025, Fall of Freedom will unfold across the United States in a national weekend of art and action. The initiative will be hosted in theaters, museums, libraries, concert halls, and community spaces, featuring performances, exhibitions, readings, and gatherings that highlight the power of free expression. For participating venues, artist lineups, and ways to get involved, visit falloffreedom.com.

This is a seated event. If you require accessibility accommodations, please email boxoffice@nationalsawdust.org.

ABOUT YORUBA RICHEN (Director and Producer of FREE JOAN LITTLE)

Director and Producer Yoruba Richen is an award-winning documentary filmmaker who won a Trailblazer Award from Black Public Media. Her most recent film, “American Coup: Wilmington 1898,” was nominated for a Peabody Award. Her film “The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks” won a Peabody Award, a Gracie Award, and was honored by the Television Academy. Other recent works include the Emmy-nominated films “American Reckoning” and “How It Feels to Be Free.” Her film “The Killing of Breonna Taylor” won an NAACP Image Award. Yoruba is the founding director of the Documentary program at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.

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ABOUT TIA LESSIN AND CARL DEAL (Directors and Producers of STEAL THIS STORY, PLEASE!)

TIA LESSIN and CARL DEAL made the critically acclaimed feature documentary TROUBLE THE WATER, about survivors of Hurricane Katrina, which was nominated for an Academy Award and won the Gotham Independent Film Award and Sundance Grand Jury Prize. Their second feature, CITIZEN KOCH, documenting the origins of the MAGA movement and the extremist takeover of the Republican Party in the Midwest, premiered in competition at Sundance and was shortlisted for an Oscar.

Most recently, Lessin directed THE JANES, a film about the underground abortion service in 1960s Chicago, for HBO Original Documentaries, along with Emma Pildes. After its premiere in competition at Sundance, THE JANES was awarded three Emmy Awards (Outstanding Documentary, Best Social Issue Documentary, and Best Directors), the DuPont Columbia Journalism Award, and was on the 2023 Oscar shortlist.

Lessin and Deal’s first film collaborations together were on Academy Award®-winning BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE and FAHRENHEIT 9/11, winner of the Palme d'Or (she as supervising producer, he as archival producer). They went on to produce Michael Moore’s CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY, WHERE TO INVADE NEXT, and FAHRENHEIT 11/9.

In television, Lessin’s documentary short A FAMILY DIVIDED, about the FBI’s targeting of a Pakistani family after September 11th, aired on Bill Moyers Journal (PBS). She was awarded the Sidney Hillman Prize for Broadcast Journalism for BEHIND THE LABELS (Oxygen), about labor trafficking in the garment industry, produced in partnership with the human rights group WITNESS. She also line-produced Martin Scorsese’s Grammy Award-winning NO DIRECTION HOME: BOB DYLAN (PBS). Her work on the groundbreaking satirical series The Awful Truth (Bravo/BBC) earned her two Primetime Emmy nominations and one arrest.

Before making films, Lessin worked as a labor organizer and Deal worked as an investigative journalist and television news producer. They first joined forces on a campaign to expose and disrupt the illegal US wars in Central America.

Lessin is a recipient of the Women of Worth Vision Award from L’Oréal Paris and Women in Film, The Ridenhour Prize, The Reel Women Direct Award for Excellence in Directing by a Woman, and the Black Lily Lifetime Achievement Award. She and Deal are past fellows of the Open Society Institute, the Sundance Institute and are Creative Capital fellows. They are members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, the Directors Guild of America, and the Writers Guild of America.

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ABOUT AMY GOODMAN

Amy Goodman is an award-winning investigative journalist and syndicated columnist, author, and host and executive producer of Democracy Now!, which airs on more than 1,500 public television and radio stations worldwide.

Goodman is a recipient of the George Polk Award, Robert F. Kennedy Prize for International Reporting, the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award, the Society for Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi Award for Excellence, American Women in Radio and Television Gracie Award, the Paley Center for Media’s She’s Made It Award, and the Overseas Press Club Award.

The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard honored Goodman with the 2014 I.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence Lifetime Achievement Award. She is the first journalist to receive the Right Livelihood Award, widely known as the 'Alternative Nobel Prize' for “developing an innovative model of truly independent grassroots political journalism that brings to millions of people the alternative voices that are often excluded by the mainstream media.” She is also the first co-recipient of the Park Center for Independent Media’s Izzy Award, named for the great muckraking journalist I.F. Stone, and was later inducted into the Park Center’s I.F. Stone Hall of Fame.

Goodman was awarded the Puffin/Nation Prize for Creative Citizenship and has received awards from the Associated Press, United Press International, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and Project Censored. Goodman received the first ever Communication for Peace Award from the World Association for Christian Communication. She was also honored by the National Council of Teachers of English with the George Orwell Award for Distinguished Contribution to Honesty and Clarity in Public Language and received the James Aronson Award for Social Justice Reporting.

Goodman is the author of six New York Times bestsellers: “Democracy Now!: Twenty Years Covering the Movements Changing America,” co-written with David Goodman and Denis Moynihan (2016); “The Silenced Majority: Stories of Uprisings, Occupations, Resistance, and Hope” (2012);  “Breaking the Sound Barrier” (with a preface by Bill Moyers), (2009); “Standing up to the Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times” co-written with David Goodman (2008);  “Static: Government Liars, Media Cheerleaders, and the People who Fight Back” co-written with David Goodman (2006); and “The Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers, and the Media That Love Them” co-written with David Goodman (2004).

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‍ABOUT NERMEEN SHAIKH (MODERATOR)

Nermeen Shaikh is a co-host and senior producer at Democracy Now! She worked briefly at Al Jazeera English in Washington, D.C. before joining Democracy Now! in 2011.

She serves on the Board of Directors of the Nobel Women’s Initiative.

She was previously the Managing Editor at Asia Society and a researcher at the International Institute for Environment and Development in London. She has also worked at development and research organizations in Islamabad and Tehran.

Shaikh is the author of The Present as History: Critical Perspectives on Global Power (Columbia University Press) and the editor of Slums, Security and Shelter in Pakistan (Vanguard Books).

She has been an invited speaker on issues ranging from global politics and independent media to psychoanalysis and literature at venues including the United Nations, the psychoanalysis division of the American Psychological Association, and the European Association for Commonwealth Literature. She has presented a TEDx talk in Budapest and been a featured speaker at the Toronto International Film Festival.

She has also served on the jury of the Covering Climate Now Journalism Awards.

In addition, Shaikh has appeared in contemporary art exhibitions including at the Guggenheim Museum in New York as an interpreter/participant in Tino Sehgal’s “This Progress” and as an actor in Philippe Parreno’s film installation, “The Crowd” at the Park Avenue Armory.

She starred in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s short film as “the Radio” in the 2020 series titled “Homemade”.

Shaikh has a B.A. (Honours) in political studies from Queen’s University and an M.Phil. in Social and Political Sciences from Cambridge University.