Kathleen Hughes: Last News

Abigail Disney has shut down Fork Films, the documentary and feature film company behind “Crip Camp,” “One Child Nation” and “The Tale,” a drama about sexual abuse that starred Laura Dern. As part of the closure, fewer than 10 positions have been eliminated. Abigail, a filmmaker and philanthropist, is also the granddaughter of Roy Disney, the co-founder of The Walt Disney Company. A spokesperson for Fork Films said the staff was notified of the closure in February, and have been working to wind down the company by Sept. 30, 2022. Disney’s most recent film, “The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales,” which she co-directed with Kathleen Hughes, debuted at the Sundance Film Festival and was recently released digitally. The film examines the issue of economic inequality and ballooning CEO compensation packages. The movie made headlines as Disney drilled down on the employment and union practices at the theme parks run by The Walt Disney Company. In the film and dozens of subsequent interviews, Disney has consistently and unflinchingly taken the company to task, describing the corporation’s promises of “upward mobility” as “neoliberal claptrap.”

Addie Morfoot Contributor Manhattan’s Downtown Community Television Center celebrated the opening of the media arts center’s long-anticipated nonprofit, 67-seat movie theater, Firehouse: DCTV’s Cinema for Documentary Film, on Tuesday.The only movie theater in New York City dedicated to screening documentaries, Firehouse is an official Academy Award-qualifying theater that will screen first-run films and curated programs.On Sept. 23, Abigail Disney and Kathleen Hughes’ self-distributed “The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales” about the growing inequalities in America and better pay for Disneyland cast members, will be the inaugural docu to play at Firehouse cinema. The week-long screening will serve as the film’s qualifying run in New York. Disney is set to appear in person for opening weekend Q&As.

Michaela Zee editor DCTV’s new documentary-dedicated theater, “Firehouse: DCTV’s Cinema for Documentary Film,” will open its doors Sept. 23. Located in DCTV’s historic Chinatown firehouse building in New York, the nonprofit theater will begin its opening week with an exclusive screening of Abigail Disney and Kathleen Hughes’ “The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales.” “I’m so excited that my new documentary, ‘The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales,’ will kick off the opening of DCTV’s Firehouse Cinema,” Disney said in a statement. “I can’t wait to meet the first audiences who will be enjoying and shaping this vital new addition to New York City’s arthouse film scene.”

Peter Debruge Chief Film CriticAt the same moment Disney-critical documentary “The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales” was premiering at the Sundance Film Festival, the media giant’s controversy du jour involved the treatment of dwarfs in its upcoming live-action “Snow White” remake. “Heigh-ho! Heigh-ho!” as the lyrics go. “We dig up diamonds by the score / A thousand rubies, sometimes more / Though we don’t know what we dig ’em for.” Turns out, the employees of Disneyland can say the same, generating enormous wealth for shareholders and CEOs while earning barely enough to feed their families — a situation Abigail Disney wants to do something about.The granddaughter of The Walt Disney Co.

Abigail E. Disney and Kathleen Hughes’ The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales and Amy Berg’s Phoenix Rising have been added to the Special Screenings section of the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, taking place virtually from January 20-30. The news from the Sundance Institute was accompanied by an announcement that single film ticket sales will open on January 13 at 10 a.m. MT.