- Welcome to POV.
I'm Pete Schwaba, host of PBS Wisconsin's Director's Cut.
Tonight, we bring you an inspiring story
of activism and defiance
from a marginalized group of nursing home residents
in the film Fire Through Dry Grass.
The COVID-19 pandemic was tough on everyone
in one way or the other, but for people in nursing homes,
lockdown was even more of a challenge,
especially for those dealing with disabilities.
Fire Through Dry Grass takes us inside the Coler nursing home
on Roosevelt Island in New York City.
The film covers in real time
the devastation residents experienced
inside the walls of Coler during quarantine,
thanks to the efforts of a handful of residents
who documented events and call themselves the Reality Poets.
The Reality Poets describe themselves
as a group of truth-telling artists
and gun violence survivors who met at the nursing home.
During the lockdown, residents experienced horrible conditions,
including being forced to room with COVID-positive patients
while refrigerated trailer morgues
hummed outside their windows.
How did they get their story out?
They strapped GoPro cameras to their wheelchairs
to record the activities in Coler
which contradicted what public officials were saying
about life inside.
Andres Jay Molina and Alexis Neophytides
shared directing credit.
Molina, who was a Coler resident and Reality Poet himself,
was born in the Dominican Republic
and moved to New York's Lower East Side.
To help support his family, he turned to selling drugs
and did time in prison.
Molina says he was inspired to make the film
during the pandemic
when they put someone with COVID in the same room with him,
despite his rare lung condition.
He has made it his mission to help those with disabilities,
and Fire Through Dry Grass is a big contribution.
Molina is a passionate filmmaker and has a love of animation,
which is used throughout the film.
And the Reality Poets' musical beats and rhythms
flow through the film,
providing a unique and homegrown soundtrack.
In addition to her directing duties,
Alexis Neophytides produced the film
and served as co-cinematographer with Molina.
She is an award-winning filmmaker
and also believes in giving a voice
to marginalized communities.
In her award-winning series Neighborhood Slice,
she explored people clinging to their homes and neighborhoods
despite gentrification in New York City.
Now, let's take a short trip back into very recent history
and let the Reality Poets show us their world
and their courage.
Fire Through Dry Grass starts now on PBS Wisconsin,
your home for independent film.