"'States of Grace' transcends the story of one woman's injury and recovery. A beautifully honest movie that neither pities nor panders, it made me revisit what is essential about being human."
-BJ Miller, MD, Executive Director, Zen Hospice Project
"'States of Grace' is a deeply moving documentary. A must-see for anyone who has had to deal with issues of survival, recovery, and loss."
-Kaethe Weingarten, PhD, Founder and Director, The Witnessing Project;
Associate Clinical Professor of Psychology, Harvard Medical School, 1981-2013
San Francisco -- Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2014 -- Internationally recognized for showcasing the best in independent and world cinema, the Mill Valley Film Festival presents the world premiere of States of Grace, directed by Helen S. Cohen and Mark Lipman. States of Grace chronicles the journey of Dr. Grace Dammann and her family following her survival of a near-fatal head-on collision on the Golden Gate Bridge. The world premiere takes place on Oct. 5, 2014, at Cinéarts Sequoia Theater (5:15 p.m.) in Mill Valley; Dammann, her partner Nancy (Fu) Schroeder, and the filmmakers will be on hand for a post-screening Q&A and reception. Additional screenings will take place on Oct. 7, 2014, at the Rafael Film Center in San Rafael (2 p.m.) and Oct. 9, 2014, at the Sequoia (11:30 a.m.). San Francisco Zen Center has served as the film's fiscal sponsor throughout production and is the proud sponsor of its world premiere. For more information, please visit statesofgracefilm.com.
A revered physician, Dammann co-founded one of the first HIV/AIDS clinics for poor people in San Francisco at Laguna Honda Hospital and signed more than one thousand death certificates in the six-year period that marked the disease's deadliest era in the city. For her care with these patients, she was honored by the Dalai Lama at the Unsung Heroes of Compassion award ceremony in 2005. Her life changed forever in 2008 when a driver passed out at the wheel and veered across the divide on the Golden Gate Bridge, crashing head on into her car.
After seven weeks in a coma and twelve surgeries, Dammann awoke singing "You Are My Sunshine" and asking philosophical questions, indicating that her mental faculties were miraculously intact. Her body, however, was left shattered and severely disabled. Following thirteen months in rehabilitation hospitals, Dammann returned home to Green Gulch Farm, one of San Francisco Zen Center's three Zen Buddhist meditation centers, where she and longtime partner, Abiding Abbess Schroeder have lived for twenty years, along with their daughter Sabrina.
States of Grace follows the family as Dammann slowly comes to terms with her injuries and discovers new meaning in her radically altered life. Directors Cohen and Lipman, longtime friends of Dammann, were as unobtrusive and observational as possible in documenting this heart-wrenching journey. "We had a unique opportunity to capture the experience in an extremely personal and intimate way, given our history and closeness with the family," says Cohen. "They gave us uncensored access to their lives, and we showed up to bear witness to their unfolding new reality."
The poignant feature-length film offers a rare view of both caregiver and care receiver as they face triumphs and setbacks over a five-year period. As the only able-bodied person in their household, Schroeder tends to Dammann and their disabled teenage daughter Sabrina, who was born with cerebral palsy and is also wheelchair-bound. A formidable presence, Schroeder draws on her training as a Zen Buddhist priest, her dry sense of humor, and her own inner strength to care for Dammann. Their community also offers extraordinary compassion upon Dammann's return home. Tova Green, Vice President, San Francisco Zen Center, says: "The residents of Green Gulch Farm were honored to be able to support Grace and her family emotionally and in material ways during her inspiring recovery process. States of Grace offers a beautiful tribute to the power of community and spiritual practice in the recovery process."
Within the first year of her recovery, Dammann boldly decides to undergo two additional surgeries in hopes of being able to dress herself and walk again. Rehabilitation from the surgeries is long and painful, and she suffers a major setback after falling twice in the course of a few days. Dammann bristles at being so dependent on Schroeder and others for even the simplest of daily tasks. The feeling that she can't be of service -- such a central part of her identity as a physician, Buddhist, and mother -- starts to eat away at her. In one of the film's most dramatic moments, Dammann argues with Schroeder about her right to take her own life.
Her resilience ultimately prevails over her bouts of despair, however, as she draws on her experience as a patient to forge a new path as the first wheelchair-bound physician at Laguna Honda Hospital. Once again, Dammann is leading the way in compassionate medical care as she directs an innovative pain clinic.
Upon agreeing to make a documentary about her recovery, Dammann says she hoped it would be a way for something positive to come from the accident. "I went through the process thinking, 'This is Mark and Helen's story about my story, and hopefully we will all get something out of it,'" she says. "What I wanted to get was a teaching tool -- for medical students, for physicians, for physical therapists, and for family members who are dealing with caregiver and care receiver issues -- and, to that extent, my goals were totally met.
"Plus, the Board of Directors of the Golden Gate Bridge voted unanimously to build a median barrier," she adds. "That was one of my deepest hopes in the aftermath of the accident." A movable median barrier, designed to prevent head-on collisions, will be installed during a weekend closure -- the first in the bridge's history -- tentatively scheduled to start just after midnight on Jan. 10, 2015, and end at 4 a.m. on January 12.
About the Filmmakers
Helen S. Cohen (Producer/Director) is an award-winning producer and painter based in San Francisco. She is the co-creator of the acclaimed Respect for All Project, and her producing credits include the first three films in the Respect for All series: It's Elementary: Talking About Gay Issues in School (1996), the groundbreaking documentary that addresses anti-gay prejudice and explores how teachers can include discussions about LGBT people in their classrooms; That's a Family! (2000), where elementary school-age kids describe in their own words the many shapes that families take in today's diverse world; and Let's Get Real (2003), an in-depth look at name-calling and bullying in middle schools, told entirely from a youth perspective. Cohen has also directed, produced, and/or executive produced documentaries for public interest organizations, including Homes & Hands: Community Land Trusts in Action (1998) and Street of Dreams: Development Without Displacement in Communities of Color (2013).
Mark Lipman (Producer/Director/Cinematographer) is an award-winning filmmaker whose films have been broadcast nationally on public television. His producing credits include To Have and To Hold (1981), the first documentary to look at domestic violence through the experiences of men; Holding Ground: The Rebirth of Dudley Street (1996), a film about the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative's successful efforts to revitalize a Boston neighborhood devastated by redlining, arson, and illegal dumping; Father's Day (2003), an experimental documentary about the death of his father; Gaining Ground (2012), a sequel to Holding Ground that explores Dudley Street's success in preventing foreclosures and fostering youth leadership; and Street of Dreams: Development Without Displacement in Communities of Color (2013).
About the San Francisco Zen Center
San Francisco Zen Center was established in 1962 by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi and his American students. Suzuki Roshi is known to countless readers as the author of the modern spiritual classic, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind. The purpose of San Francisco Zen Center is to make accessible and embody the wisdom and compassion of the Buddha as expressed in the Soto Zen tradition established by Dogen Zenji in 13th-century Japan and conveyed to us by Suzuki Roshi and other Buddhist teachers. The Zen Center's practice flows from the insight that all beings are Buddha, and that sitting in meditation is itself the realization of Buddha nature, or enlightenment.
Today, San Francisco Zen Center is one of the largest Buddhist sanghas outside Asia. It has three practice places: City Center, in the vibrant heart of San Francisco; Green Gulch Farm, whose organic fields meet the ocean in Marin County; and Tassajara Zen Mountain Center -- the first Zen training monastery in the West -- in the Ventana Wilderness inland from Big Sur. These three complementary practice centers offer daily meditation, regular monastic retreats and practice periods, classes, lectures, and workshops. Zen Center is a practice place for a diverse population of students, visitors, lay people, priests, and monks guided by teachers who follow in Suzuki Roshi's style of warm hand and heart to warm hand and heart. Zen Center programs also reach out to the community, helping prisoners, the homeless, and those in recovery; protecting the environment; and working for peace. Suzuki Roshi's disciples and students of his disciples now lead dharma groups around the country.
In the spirit of Beginner's Mind, Zen Center has long been a quiet force of cultural dynamism and change, with a dedicated history of reconsidering conventional wisdom and pushing the boundaries of cultural traditions and modes of thinking.
About the 37th Mill Valley Film Festival
Presented by the California Film Institute, the 37th Mill Valley Film Festival runs October 2 - 12, 2014, at the CinéArts Sequoia (25 Throckmorton Ave., Mill Valley), Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center (1118 Fourth St., San Rafael), and other venues throughout the Bay Area. With a reputation for launching new films and creating awards season buzz, MVFF has earned a reputation as a "filmmakers' festival" by celebrating the best in American independent and world cinema, alongside high-profile and prestigious award contenders. MVFF welcomes more than two hundred filmmakers representing more than fifty countries. For tickets and additional information, please visit www.mvff.com or call 877.874.MVFF (6833).
Chatelin Bruno 
