Presented By: Wallace House Center for Journalists
The Ann Arbor Premiere of 17 BLOCKS
Wallace House Presents the Ann Arbor premiere of 17 BLOCKS and Q&A with filmmaker Davy Rothbart and members of the Sanford family
A Premiere Screening and Conversation
In 1999, filmmaker Davy Rothbart gave nine-year-old Emmanual Sanford-Durant a camera. The boy and his family began filming their daily lives in America’s most dangerous neighborhood — just 17 blocks behind the U.S. Capitol. Together, Davy and the Sanfords kept filming and collaborating for 20 years. This critically acclaimed documentary illuminates a nation’s ongoing crisis through one family’s raw, stirring and deeply personal saga.
About the filmmaker
A native of Ann Arbor, Davy Rothbart is a 2024-25 Knight-Wallace Fellow, Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, bestselling author, journalist, creator of Found Magazine and frequent contributor to public radio’s “This American Life.”
His previous documentary “Medora,” about a resilient high-school basketball team in a dwindling Indiana town, based on The New York Times story by Pulitzer Prize winner John Branch, was executive produced by Steve Buscemi and Stanley Tucci, and premiered at the 2013 SXSW Film Festival.
Rothbart’s work has appeared in The New York Times, New York Magazine, The California Sunday Magazine, GQ and Grantland, while his stories on “This American Life” have amassed more than 30 million listeners. Rothbart is the author of the bestselling essay collection “My Heart Is an Idiot,” and he contributed writing to the Oscar-winning short “The Neighbor’s Window.” He is also the founder of Washington To Washington, an annual hiking adventure for kids from underserved communities.
In 1999, filmmaker Davy Rothbart gave nine-year-old Emmanual Sanford-Durant a camera. The boy and his family began filming their daily lives in America’s most dangerous neighborhood — just 17 blocks behind the U.S. Capitol. Together, Davy and the Sanfords kept filming and collaborating for 20 years. This critically acclaimed documentary illuminates a nation’s ongoing crisis through one family’s raw, stirring and deeply personal saga.
About the filmmaker
A native of Ann Arbor, Davy Rothbart is a 2024-25 Knight-Wallace Fellow, Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, bestselling author, journalist, creator of Found Magazine and frequent contributor to public radio’s “This American Life.”
His previous documentary “Medora,” about a resilient high-school basketball team in a dwindling Indiana town, based on The New York Times story by Pulitzer Prize winner John Branch, was executive produced by Steve Buscemi and Stanley Tucci, and premiered at the 2013 SXSW Film Festival.
Rothbart’s work has appeared in The New York Times, New York Magazine, The California Sunday Magazine, GQ and Grantland, while his stories on “This American Life” have amassed more than 30 million listeners. Rothbart is the author of the bestselling essay collection “My Heart Is an Idiot,” and he contributed writing to the Oscar-winning short “The Neighbor’s Window.” He is also the founder of Washington To Washington, an annual hiking adventure for kids from underserved communities.
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