jessicadevaney

We’re thrilled to premiere our latest film LIFE AFTER in the U.S. Documentary Competition at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. We’re grateful for the work, care and support of this entire film team — full credits and image description in the captions below. LIFE AFTER Directed by Reid Davenport Produced by Colleen Cassingham An ITVS Co-Production In 1983, a disabled Californian woman named Elizabeth Bouvia sought the “right to die,” igniting a national debate about autonomy, dignity, and the value of disabled lives. After years of courtroom trials, Bouvia disappeared from public view. Disabled director Reid Davenport investigates what happened to Bouvia and her story’s disturbing relevance today.

The world is so broken, but each member of this team challenges, inspires, and grounds me @multitudefilms

My new favorite place @trueloveseeds 🌱

I’ve been enchanted by the image of a timeline at picture lock ever since I started working in film. Each of these colors, rows, cuts, snippets of audio and image, lined up like organized confetti, representing countless decisions made, risks taken, pride swallowed, lessons learned, relationships built, emotions felt, lives changed. It’s an image of order from chaos that comforts my autistic brain and provides a memory in capsule form of the years leading up to this moment and the years following it. Making films takes tremendous commitment and I’m so proud of each and every person behind LIFE AFTER. I knew @multitudefilms had to be a part of this project from the first 90 secs of footage director @reidjdavenport showed me in 2020. I’ve loved watching the creative, ethical, and analytical partnership develop between Reid and producer @colleencassing - and how seamlessly they welcomed editor @donjbernier as they turned the corner to post-production ten months ago. 🪁🪁🪁

The biggest thanks to @seedkeeping + @vivien.sansour for the most special day harvesting and cooking Palestinian molikhya with old friends and new gems at @trueloveseeds farm. If you aren’t familiar with the Palestine Heirloom Seed Library, visit https://viviensansour.com/Palestine-Heirloom to learn more and get involved. Photos by @seedkeeping + me + community 🌿🪻🌱🍉

This is 42 🌟 What a fever dream A few days late, but so full of gratitude for all my dearests who made this such a special week. I had the gift of spending the actual day on the jury for @blackstarfest’s shorts competition - which reminded me what a gift it is to work in documentary and narrative change with my favorite humans @multitudefilms. And @julie_rodgers brought me coffee and GF donuts *in bed* to start the day and fuel the year 🥰 Amidst the devastation of bearing witness to, voicing dissent against, and blocking highways, occupying train stations, and filling the streets for Gaza and over 300 days of genocide, I do not take a birthday, safety, holding my beloveds, watching big-hearted films, or gathering with and nourishing friends for granted. This world has been robbed of 40k Palestinian lives in Gaza, while watching their deaths on livestream and we will never be the same. As I enter my 42nd year on this beautiful, broken planet, I am holding both the energy of those refusing genocide and resisting state violence as well as the silence of those comfortable in complicity.

We’re six months into 2024, and these are some of the books that have helped get me through 🫀 I’d love your recs for my queue

work/life/balance @multitudefilms

What a tremendous privilege to spend a week in Wyoming reflecting on the practice of producing, the potential of narrative change work, and the role of nonfiction storytelling in this bleak landscape - or “polycrisis,” as one fellow (@varsmerrone) aptly named the reality of multiple genocides, rising fascism, the climate emergency, and late stage capitalism. Congrats to the 2024 @sundanceorg Producers Fellows and deep gratitude to the Sundance DFP team on curating such a special group and nourishing program.

Palestine everywhere 🇵🇸

Parenting while producing ✨✨ My dearest @anbadan and co welcoming folks to see @multitudefilms newest short films - RECLAIM (directed/written by @jahchong @geetagandbhir) + LEADING (directed by @anothergracelee) - and produced by Anya, in partnership with @sesameworkshop + @pbs

This perfect little one has expanded my heart and breathed new life into my commitment to dismantling structures of violence and domination. Six months ago, I was lucky to be present for her birth - as she grows, I hope we can pass her a gentler world. 🌼 @anbadan 🌼 “The children are always ours, every single one of them.”