Filmmakers and Producers

Ira McKinley

Ira McKinley (Producer/Director) is an Air Force veteran trained as a Medical Material Handler, he started his activism early on when he participated in Act Up in Ithaca, NY, in the 1980’s. During the winters of 2007/2008 he started a Homeless Arts Showcase inspired by his fifteen years being homeless himself in Northampton’s Pulaski Park. Ira won Northampton Arts Council’s grant for an “Emerging Film Maker” (2009); as well as Producer of the Year for Northampton Community Television (2009). Ira continues his activism by engaging in food justice and independent media productions within a network of organizations and individuals seeking social justice across New York State.

AVAILABLE FROM TWN

The Throwaways
Bhawin Suchak & Ira McKinley
Producer: Bhawin Suchak & Ira McKinley, Executive Producer: Sam Pollard
2014, 62 min., Color, US
THE THROWAWAYS is a personal exploration of the devastating impact of police brutality and mass incarceration on the black community told through the eyes of formerly incarcerated activist Ira McKinley. With a raw and powerful urgency, the film speaks directly to the national movement that is rising...

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TWN acknowledges that in New York we are on the unceded territory of the Lenni Lenape, Canarsie, Shinecock, and Munsee peoples and challenges the harm that continues to be inflicted upon Indigenous and People of Color communities here and abroad, which is why we all need to be part of the struggle for rights, equality and justice.

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