Institute History
Description
Evan Rachel Wood is no stranger to the screen. From Westworld to her latest performance at the Sundance Film Festival in Miranda July’s Kajillionaire, audiences have watched her grow. But in this arrestingly intimate portrait of her experience as a domestic violence survivor turned activist, we finally hear her with the clarity she deserves. Academy Award–nominated director Amy Berg follows Wood and the coalition she builds at The Phoenix Act, tracking the political and community focus the actor has established in the aftermath of her trauma.
Wood lays bare her own history — not unfamiliar to the public, but told for the first time in Phoenix Rising in her own words, at her own pace. Playing out in the California State Assembly and criminal courts, Wood’s efforts to affect systemic changes for future survivors prove her resilience, resistance, and rise from the ashes. Berg’s return to the Sundance Film Festival (West of Memphis, 2012, This is Personal, 2018) interjects this starkly compassionate work into larger conversations around #MeToo, cancel culture, and celebrity with her signature care and orientation towards justice.
Contains discussions of sexual violence.