LAJFF - Heaven is a Traffic Jam on the 405 / STICHERS: Tapestry of Spirit

2018 Academy Award Winner for Best Documentary Short!

An extraordinary documentary portrait of LA artist Mindy Alper, whose astonishing body of work reveals a lifetime of struggle with debilitating mental illness and family dysfunction. Her only consistent means of communicating has been to channel her self-awareness into remarkable drawings and sculpture. Through an examination of her work, interviews, and the building of an eight foot papier-mache bust we learn how she has emerged from a life of darkness to a life that includes love, trust and laughter. From director Frank Stiefel (Ingelore, 2008).

Q&A with the director Frank Stiefel & Mindy Alper.
Community Partners: International Documentary Association & MorningStar Commission

Preceded by

STITCHERS: Tapestry of Spirit
Documentary Short/Canada/2017/15 minutes
Directed by Tassie Notar

One woman’s ambitious project to create the entire Torah, in needlepoint. Over 1,000 stitchers in almost 20 countries, are each stitching a portion, in the hope that the final work will become a inspiring traveling museum exhibit.