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Award-Winning Documentary Set to Screen at Washington West Film Festival

By: Perpetuo Films

October 14, 2022

Oct. 14, 2022–Arlington, VA-based Perpetuo Films announced today the screening of its award-winning documentary Dani’s Twins at the Washington West Film Festival. Dani’s Twins will hit the screen at the Showplace Icon Theatre in Tysons Corner, VA, on Sat., Oct 15 at 3 pm. A post-film Q&A will feature film star and producer Dani Izzie and her husband Rudy, director and cinematographer Steve Dorst, and producer and impact producer Angie Gentile.

Set in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, Dani’s Twins follows the pregnancy and early parenting journey of Izzie, one of the few quadriplegics in the world ever to give birth to twins. Captured largely in cinema verité, the documentary depicts the ups and downs of Izzie’s story, from battling outdated perceptions of disability, to her harrowing race to the ER during Covid, to the giggles of her children in the rolling hills of Virginia.

“Sharing my journey was deeply empowering,” says Izzie. “As hard as it was to invite a film crew into something so intimate as my pregnancy, I knew I had to do it to build awareness about disabled pregnancy and parenting among people with and without disabilities. Breaking down misconceptions and amplifying awareness and access is what this is all about.”

Washington West-named one of MovieMaker Magazine’s “50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee”–donates 100% of its box office proceeds for causes such as childhood healthcare,
education, and wellbeing. The festival is partnering this year with Project Hope to deliver urgent assistance to Ukrainian families.

“Washington West is the type of festival filmmakers really care about-one that showcases great films while doing something to make the world a better place,” says Arlington, VA resident Dorst, Co-Founder & VP Production, Perpetuo Films. “We couldn’t be happier about being in this wonderfully creative and altruistic festival right in our backyard, sharing our one-in-a-billion story about love and disability justice.”

Since its world premiere in May at Mountainfilm Festival in Telluride, CO, Dani’s Twins has screened at Atlanta DocuFest, Venice Shorts, San Francisco Documentary Film Festival, Toronto International Women Film Festival (where it won “Best Film About Women”), Iowa Independent Film Festival, DC Shorts Film Festival (where it won the “Audience Award”), and Reel Abilities Pittsburgh (where it won the “Audience Award for Best Short”). The film made its LA debut in Sept. with a one one-week Oscar-qualifying theatrical run at the Lumiere Cinema in Beverly Hills, before heading to San Francisco for a special screening and disability roundtable discussion at the historic Castro Theatre (https://www.castrotheatre.com/disability-roundtable/).

In addition to Washington West, Dani’s Twins has a robust festival lineup through early 2023, including screenings at the Hungarian Disability Film Festival, Virginia Film Festival in Charlottesville, VA, Ojai Film Festival in Ojai, CA, and Oaxaca Film Festival in Mexico, among others.

Dani’s Twins was directed by Brad Allgood, known for his award-winning feature documentary “Landfill Harmonic,” which garnered over 40 festival wins in 250+ festivals and was acquired by HBO, and Steve Dorst, whose film “Shattered Sky” told the story of how America led the world to solve the biggest environmental crisis ever seen (the ozone crisis) and played on PBS.

The film was made possible in part through generous contributions from Magnetic Me, a clothing line for babies and moms, and Friendsheep, a fair trade producer of eco-friendly wool dryer balls.


DANI’S TWINS is the premiere release of PERPETUO FILMS, a studio that produces entertaining content for people who give a damn. Our active slate of programming includes DANI’S TWINS; PATROL, the battle to preserve Nicaragua’s rainforest from illegal cattle ranching; and EAT BITTER, the first English-language documentary out of the Central African Republic, capturing the tensions between Chinese migrants and local workers during a civil war. In 2021, our films secured grants and partnered with the biggest global names in nonfiction storytelling: Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), the Ford Foundation, the Sundance Institute, Mountainfilm, the European Union, Re:wild, Netflix Ambulante, DOC DEVELOPMENT AFRICA, Durban FilmMart, and others. Perpetuo Films aims to accelerate the web3 creator economy to amplify filmmaker autonomy, control, and ownership. PERPETUO FILMS: Story | Impact | #Film3.

CONTACT

Angie Gentile, VP, Impact and Engagement, Perpetuo Films, angie@perpetuofilms.org, +1-571-243-0972

RELATED LINKS

Facebook: http://facebook.com/DanisTwinsFilm
Website: http://DanisTwinsFilm.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/DanisTwinsFilm and https://www.instagram.com/daniizzie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DanisTwinsFilm
Dani’s blog: http://daniizzie.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/daniizzie

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