BendFilm is Highlighting a Nonprofit That Supports Abuse Survivors During a Year When That Work Became More Critical Than Ever

Central Oregon-based Saving Grace will be profiled in a documentary short for BendFilm’s annual fundraiser.

Movie - The Power of Film GIVING VOICE: A scene from BendFilm’s The Power of Film fundraising short, which features Bend-based nonprofit Saving Grace. (BendFilm)

“Bend is idyllic, but…” is a tailor-made framing device for social issues in Central Oregon.

Todd Looby, executive director of the BendFilm Festival, views this hook as a means of acknowledging, and then pushing past, the area’s well-earned typecasting as a natural paradise and tourism magnet. Of course, behind the perfect powder and the IPAs, its problems are as real and pressing as those found anywhere else.

“We’re not tone deaf in not knowing the reputation that Bend has in the state, if not the region, as far as being an outdoor mecca,” says Looby, who’s led BendFilm since 2014 and estimates the city’s nonprofit sector is, per capita, as “robust” as anywhere in the world. “Frankly, [we’re] not content to just be here to enjoy the outdoors.”

That mentality is a significant driver of BendFilm’s annual fundraiser, The Power of Film. Each spring, the organization partners with a local nonprofit to create a short film about the selected service’s work and mission. This year, the event’s focus is Saving Grace, a five-city-area nonprofit supporting survivors of intimate partner violence and sexual assault with shelter, counseling, safe visitation and more. The film premieres June 4 in a streamable program hosted by KTVZ’s Arielle Brumfield that also features a silent auction of several trip packages.

The documentary emphasizes the breadth of Saving Grace’s free and confidential services and how they critically assisted nearly a thousand Central Oregonians in 2020. Although spotlighting survivors without compromising their safety was a filmmaking challenge, Looby says there was an urgency in capturing Saving Grace’s sheltering and support work, particularly as the COVID-19 pandemic impacted domestic violence.

“The calls and reported incidents had gone down because people in those situations couldn’t get away to report,” Looby says. “[Saving Grace] knew that quickly.”

While the money raised this month supports BendFilm, Looby doesn’t underestimate what this professional media package has afforded previous nonprofit partners like Oregon Adaptive Sports, Bend Spay + Neuter Program, Healthy Beginnings, and Partners in Care.

“Once they craft the video, they have this thing forever,” he says. “They use it as a centerpiece of their own fundraisers. Anytime they want to introduce a new person to their organization, they’ll use this.”

Moreover, Looby views the creation of a short film, even if largely promotional, as aligning with the artistic mission of BendFilm. After all, awareness isn’t raised as dynamically or permanently in every medium.

“[Saving Grace] deals in subjects no human being jumps to talk about,” Looby says. “It’s not an easy story to tell in a pamphlet. In film, there’s an artful way to tell a hard story that ultimately provides hope.”

Like most Oregon arts organizations during the past 13 months, BendFilm was forced into creative improvisation and online platforming just to stay afloat. Last October’s BendFilm Festival reached 43 states and 37 countries digitally, while BendFilm also launched a virtual cinema, hosted drive-in screenings, and created a pop-up theater on an inflatable screen in the shared alley between the organization’s Tin Pan Theater and the San Simón bar.

As for the Bend film scene’s current temperature, Looby observes residents “itching” for a semblance of normalcy, since limited-capacity screenings at the Tin Pan have begun selling out. While 2021 still carries immense uncertainty, the spontaneity of the former indie filmmaker and his team won’t change all that much, even amid a comeback.

“You’d make all these plans and have to scrap them, but what I love about it, in a weird way, is just having a million plans,” Looby says. “There’s a big demand for what we do. There’s a bunch of different ways to meet that demand, so let’s try them all.”

SEE IT: Register for The Power of Film at bendfilm.org/poweroffilm. 6 pm Friday, June 4. Free.

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