We talk about “TRUST: Second Acts in Young Lives,” a new documentary where a young Latina immigrant works with an Illinois based theater company to create a play from her harrowing true-life story.

“TRUST: Second Acts in Young Lives” aired on PBS WORLD America ReFramed series on October 29, 2013. Watch the full documentary here: TRUST: Second Acts in Young Lives.

Nancy Kelly is a director, writer, and producer. She has collaborated with editor and producer Kenji Yamamoto to create a documentary trilogy about the transformative power of art. The trilogy includes: “TRUST: Second Acts in Young Lives” follows a Honduran teen whose real life story of trauma is unveiled in a daring original play performed by immigrant teenage members of Chicago’s Albany Park Theater Project; “Smitten,” examines art collector Rene di Rosa, who is smitten by art; and “Downside Up,” a film about how America’s largest museum of contemporary art, MASS MoCA, revived Kelly’s dying home town.  She also directed and produced the narrative feature “Thousand Pieces of Gold,” starring Rosalind Chao and Chris Cooper, which was developed through the Sundance Institute. Photo courtesy of Amy Braswell.

Jesse Carlo is a seasoned artist practitioner and scholar with over 20 years of experience in performance, direction, choreography and interdisciplinary arts education. Jesse is currently a faculty member in the Arts & Humanities at Miami Dade College and completing his Ph.D. in Humanities & Culture at Union Institute & University. Jesse is passionate about the ways the arts serve as a linguistic medium that surpasses the cerebral intellectual processes by simultaneously engaging the mind, body and spirit of the arts practitioner and observer. He firmly believes that through the arts we find healing and build solidarity.

Marlin currently lives in the greater Chicago area. Photo courtesy of Amy Braswell.