Underdogs — A Documentary on Second Chances with filmmaker Ashia Solei

Sunrise Center invites you to an inspiring evening featuring the award-winning documentary "Underdogs," by Director Ashia Solei, who will perform music from the film's soundtrack and lead the Q&A after the film event.

This powerful film tells the moving story of homeless dogs transformed into adoptable animals through prisoners' training efforts. Minimum-security prisoners care for and train homeless dogs with behavioral issues that made the dogs, until now, unadoptable. Inmates and dogs alike are changed through positive reinforcement training, a method that uses clear and consistent communication. The film inspired the drafting of Oregon legislation and has aired nationally on PBS stations and the WORLD Channel.

"When I read in my local paper about a neighboring town's prisoner dog program that offered a win-win situation, I knew I had found my subject. I enrolled in a documentary filmmaking class not knowing what story would emerge. Witnessing the dynamic of inmates training dogs through positive reinforcement was a privilege, and I saw how the animal-human bonds formed during this training created significant transformations, and I am grateful to the inmates who were generous in sharing their stories. I believe that the principles of positive reinforcement — clear, kind and consistent communication — is what created change. If families, workplaces, and communities embraced this level of communication, how would our world be transformed?

Filmed entirely in the Bay Area, Underdogs is a heartwarming journey of love, trust, and redemption—a must-see for animal lovers, advocates of rehabilitation, and anyone who believes in the power of second chances.

“I found the documentary inspiring and heart-warming. It displayed the powerful impact of unconditional love and how the importance a human-pet bond during the healing process of both can never be overestimated.”

-Dwayne Bright, KCET PBS Los Angeles, Senior Director, Programming.

"I was immediately charmed by UNDERDOG’s subjects – both human and canine – and the film’s poignant message that when presented with compassion, support, and an opportunity to help, people can transform their lives for the better.”

–Devin Karambelas, WETA PBS Washington D.C. VP, TV Programming and Operations

A preview of the film and soundtrack can be found at:

Host or Publisher Sunrise Center