2022 ReelAbilities Film Festival Denver

Heaven is a Traffic Jam on the 405 + Post Film Chat

Expired May 9, 2021 5:30 AM
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This film is offered with Open Captioning

This film version offers open captioning, which means all narration, dialogue, and verbal cues are reflected in English-language subtitles that are built into the film file. To access a version of this film with Audio Description, CLICK HERE


Synopsis: Mindy Alper, who has battled mental illness throughout her life, has created a body of artwork that depicts her journey through years of difficult treatments.


Winner, 2018 Academy Award for Best Documentary, Short Subject


Supplemental Program: Join us for a Creative Mindfulness workshop led by community partner Colorado Art Therapy Association. Click HERE


Image Description: Woman standing on a step-ladder next to a larger than life paper-mache bust of a woman with curly hair, glasses, and a blue-purple shawl. The subjects are standing in an alleyway in between a chain link fenced-in parking lot, and a brick wall. The roofs of surrounding buildings are behind them.


Sponsored by: Nancy Alterman


Community Partners:


Founded in 1872, Jewish Family Service of Colorado (JFS) is a nonsectarian, nonprofit human services agency serving Colorado. JFS believes in strengthening the community by providing vital services to vulnerable individuals and families. JFS offers a variety of programs to help those in need navigate life’s challenges through integrated support. The full continuum of care includes helping older adults stay supported, connected, and engaged as they age while maintaining a high quality of life; providing quality mental health counseling and case management to children, adults, immigrants, and refugees; offering training, job placement, and community enrichment to people with disabilities; and providing housing stability, employment support, and food security to individuals and families. Every year, the agency serves thousands of individuals and impacts more than 25,000 people of all faiths, races, ages, incomes, and abilities.

LOGO DESCRIPTION: Blue & grey text: Jewish Family Service - Jewish Disabilities Advocates


The Colorado Art Therapy Association, an affiliate of American Art Therapy Association, develops awareness of the practice and profession of art therapy throughout Colorado, maintains and improves standards of practice, and provides resources for its members and the general public.

LOGO DESCRIPTION: Blue and green text: Colorado Art Therapy Association. Two brush marks, one purple, one green, sit above the text.


NAMI Colorado is the State organization for the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization. NAMI’s mission is to build communities of recovery and hope by educating, supporting, and advocating for individuals affected by mental illness and their families. For more information and listing of our free programs visit www.namicolorado.org or call 303-321-3104. Join us May 22 for NAMI Walks Your Way - www.namiwalks.org/colorado

LOGO DESCRIPTION: An open yellow circle, with wavy lines inside sits next to text:NAMI. Below both objects reads: National Alliance on Mental Illness. This group of text is separated by a vertical blue line, followed by large text: Colorado. All text is blue.


Maria Droste Counseling Center in Denver is the collaboration of a non-profit organization and a group of independent practitioners in The Therapist Group, both with a passion for serving others. Building upon this power of community, the Maria Droste Board and MDCC Young Professionals Board support our organization’s growth with expertise, insight and creativity. Together, we provide access to mental health care for underserved populations and offer a training institute for psychotherapists.

Maria Droste’s unique model allows us to serve many parts of our community including children and adolescents, older adults, survivors of domestic violence and more. Utilizing a collaborative model, we are training new therapists through clinical experience at our various community sites, which allows us to have low cost services for Coloradans who need it most.


Our Mission:

Maria Droste Counseling Center has been formed out of the understanding that people need access to counseling regardless of their ability to pay. Our goal is to create a community mental health center where all Coloradans feel welcome and safe.

We are committed to serving others with enthusiasm, empathy and humility as we assist in creating a place of peace, love and harmony within others, ourselves and our community. We embrace and honor diversity in all its forms.

LOGO DESCRIPTION: A heart with red, greeen, and yellow sections, created from a ribbon connected in a never-ending twist-like knot. Text reads: Maria Droste Counseling Center: Colorado's Center for Mental Health.

  • Year
    2016
  • Runtime
    40 minutes
  • Language
    English
  • Country
    United States
  • Director
    Frank Stiefel
  • Producer
    John Marias, Frank Stiefel
  • Cinematographer
    Frank Stiefel
  • Editor
    Ting Poo
  • Composer
    Paul Maroon