Dory Previn: On My Way to Where

The Film:

Writing and singing the unvarnished truth about one’s buried secret life experiences is more common today than when Dory Previn wrote brilliant, disturbing, and darkly funny songs in the 1970s. Previn began as an Academy Award nominated lyricist for Hollywood musicals with songs for Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland & Dionne Warwick before a tabloid scandal and public breakdown led to her re-emergence as a cult artist in the Laurel Canyon scene. The film taps archives for a story in Previn’s voice. J. Smith-Cameron (SUCCESSION) reads the voices in Dory’s head from her journals.

The Panel:

A panel discussion with Co-Director Julia Greenberg, Animator Emily Hubley, and Jessie Roth, the Director of the Institute for the Development of Human Arts (IDHA), follows the screening. The panel will be moderated by Karin Jervert (artist and Mad Pride activist). The panel will discuss how artists can respectfully approach the representation of those who experience voices and visions in ways that encourage empowerment over discrimination. Done with curiosity and compassion for the diversity of the human mind, these works of art can serve to increase understanding and healing as well as community engagement and social justice in health.

Panelist Bios:

Karin Jevert (moderator) is an artist, writer, and Mad Pride activist. As a person with lived experience of voices and visions, she works to offer non-pathologizing frameworks for emotional distress and diversity of consciousness. Her work includes public speaking, workshops, essays, visual art, graphic narratives, and poetry that explores nature and the power of creative expression to transform trauma - particularly trauma experienced as a result of forced psychiatric treatment. Currently, Karin serves as the Mad in the World Liaison at Mad in America Foundation. She is the founder and teaching artist at Woodland Sunflower Collective, an organization that aims to reflect and nurture the creative intention of connection, healing, accountability, and sustainability through the arts. ]Her study and practice of Buddhism, Earth-based spirituality, and improvisational comedy find their way into her work as well. You can find out more about Karin Jervert and her work at woodlandsunflower.org

Emily Hubley has been making animated shorts for almost four decades. Her hand-drawn films explore personal memory and the turbulence of emotional life.  Her feature, The Toe Tactic premiered at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC in 2009. Recent projects include shorts, Faithy, hey (2019) and Brainworm Billy (2018) and Look Where You’re Going! (2020), a 100’ digital mural displayed on Broadway in Manhattan. She has contributed animation to the films, Vessel, Danny Says,  Blue Vinyl and Hedwig and the Angry Inch, among others. Ms. Hubley is currently developing a multi-screen installation project about her mother, filmmaker Faith Hubley, which includes six 45-minute loops combining 8400 self-portraits with varied sketches  and captions from Faith’s journals with stills and clips from her animated films.

Julia Greenberg co-wrote the hit off-Broadway rock opera PEOPLE ARE WRONG! with Robin Goldwasser, as well as the music for the off-Broadway play CAVEDWELLER with Stephen Trask. She has released two albums of original music: Past Your Eyes and Greenland, both produced by James Mastro. Her music has been featured on THIS AMERICAN LIFE, OXYGEN NETWORK, and ESPN, and Ronnie Spector recorded one of her songs. Julia interprets the music, and is curating the archives of, the late great Dory Previn, driven to share the magic of this under-known genius with the world. In addition to musical pursuits, Julia is a health justice advocate, fighting against pharma greed and for health equity for all.

Jessie Roth (she/her) is a writer, activist, and organizer with a decade of experience at the intersections of mental health and social justice. She is the Director and a longtime member of the Institute for the Development of Human Arts (IDHA), where she has led the development of education, community building, and movement building projects that bridge the perspectives of survivors, peers, practitioners, family members, and artists. Inspired by a mix of personal and family experiences, Jessie’s work is focused on the healing power of storytelling and the importance of cross-movement organizing for mental health liberation. Her writing has been published in the book We've Been Too Patient: An Anthology of Voices from Radical Mental Health, the Intima Journal of Narrative Medicine, and the Village Voice.