A Hand to hold
Told from alternating points of view, A HAND TO HOLD explores the connective thread of handholding between parent and child. When mother and child release hands – and enjoy the freedom that comes from letting go – they do so knowing they will always be joined.
Festival Screenings
The Team
Ali Clark - co-director, producer, animator
Ali Clark is an award-winning director and animator specializing in feature film title sequences, music videos, and short animated pieces. She loves to bring illustrations and stories to life and is fascinated with how simple animation can feel so alive, so human, and so relatable, representing an array of abstract human thoughts and emotions. Ali pursues animation projects of all kinds and enjoys collaborating with other filmmakers to create thoughtful and detail-oriented title sequences and 2D animation. Previous projects include ALABAMA SNAKE (HBO 2020), THE ORANGE YEARS (SXSW 2020 Title Competition), LOST WEEKEND (Tribeca 2019), A LIFE IN WAVES (SXSW 2017), and SKANKS (Slamdance 2014).
Stacey Davis - co-director, writer, producer
Stacey is an award-winning filmmaker and entertainment lawyer. She made her directorial debut in 2019 with her dramedy short CHERRY and the short documentary PIE IN THE PUSS: A BRIEF HISTORY OF PIEING IN FILM, with past screenings at DC Shorts, Edmonton Int'l Film Festival, BendFilm, Cucalorus Festival and others. Her debut film, THE SIBLING CODE (wrote/produced), screened at over a dozen film festivals, including Nantucket Film Festival. Davis’ most recent script, the political drama, THE PARTY, is in development. Her screwball comedy BURYING THE LEAD won Best Feature Screenplay at the 2017 Broad Humor Film Festival, and she has placed in the following competitions: Nicholl Fellowship; Page (Top 25 in Comedy) and Austin Film Festival. She has participated in Squaw Valley’s Screenwriting Conference, the Stowe Story Labs’ Narrative Lab as well as its Writer’s Retreat program.In various producer roles, her films include JOCKEY (Sundance 2021); SWAN SONG (SXSW 2021); SWORD OF TRUST (SXSW, dir. Lynn Shelton; starring Marc Maron), LITTLE SISTER (SXSW, named by “The New Yorker” as the best film of 2016); and 1985 (SXSW). As an entertainment lawyer, she’s represented A24, Tadmor Entertainment, Erwin Brothers Entertainment and others on a variety of projects, including MINARI, DEATH OF DICK LONG, I CAN ONLY IMAGINE, SUMMER ’03 and ONLY. Davis serves as the immediate past-President of the Board of Directors for The Sidewalk Film Center + Cinema and sits on the board of Stowe Story Labs.
Vero Vanblaere - illustrator
Véronique Vanblaere, a Belgian artist, moved to Birmingham, AL in 1996, where she started and ran Naked Art, a gallery that focuses on non-traditional and functional art. She recently closed it after 20 years to focus on her art.
Fiber art is a favorite, which includes sewing and creating wearable art, reworking and revamping jackets, dresses, shirts and other clothing with her original drawings on fabric and adding various elements and fabrics to give the garments a new style and life.
She constructs soft sculpture in the form of extravagant hats and luminaries which will often be part of art installations. She also works in mixed media on paper or canvas which sometimes morphs into much larger projects like murals for commercial establishments or private homes.
Véro writes and directs animation films featuring the characters from her drawings or puppets that she conceives and builds. She and other locals started "Pardon My Puppet", the Birmingham puppet guild, and creates shows for a variety of puppet mediums.
Her work has been featured at Miami Art Basel, Harvard University and the Cannes Film Festival