“Congratulations on being selected for the 2026 Little Venice Film Festival. Your film stood out in a highly competitive category.” - LVFF

I’m deeply grateful to announce that DRY BONES has officially been selected for the Little Venice Film Festival in London April 2026! It will be up for consideration in the highly competitive category of Disability Experience in documentary film.

I’ll have more details in the coming weeks, but for now I wanted to take a moment to share a quick reflection. I’ll keep this short because I know folks attention spans come at a premium these days :)

As many of you know, making this film has been a long and tireless journey. So many people helped bring this story to life, including Ike Maxwell, Darlene Sanders, and many others featured in the film.

Sean Arnold, my co-producer has shown incredible acumen for collaborating and producing a timely and important story about Black life in rust belt Ohio—not to mention his ongoing patience with me as we journeyed through the independent filmmaking process together. For anyone who has ever made an independent film, you know the experience is like building a plane as you fly it, and I couldn’t have asked for a better co-pilot. Thank you, Sean!

Thanks also to Kent State University for their financial support during the 11th hour of post-production, which helped immensely get us over the finish line. To all of my colleagues who beared with me as this process seemingly dragged along, your support has not gone unnoticed :)

This is our very first festival laurel (woot!). So, that only means we’ll be relishing the moment for the time being. We’ll continue to keep you posted on dates and other opportunities where you can view the film.

In the meantime, learn more about the film, watch the trailer, and take a peek at a recent presentation I gave at Kent State University on “Teaching Documentary Storytelling Through Local History: Lessons from DRY BONES”

Love and solidarity,

Tara

For Your Consideration…

Teaching Dry Bones