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Over the course of 2020, public health, racial equity and authentic placemaking have surfaced as key issues in the San Diego-Tijuana region and across the country, as the coronavirus pandemic and nationwide protests have taken center stage.

Inocente Izucar is having a Zoom-era moment. On Dec. 9, 2020, she’ll participate in a rare, free screening of an Oscar-winning documentary. The virtual event will re-introduce viewers to the childhood of a wispy, face-painting, homeless artist with an old soul and a trove of talent. 

Does her name sound familiar?

Inocente’s first big spotlight moment came in 2013. Actor Jamie Fox clapped as co-presenter Kerry Washington announced the Academy Award winner for Best Documentary Short was…“Inocente,” co-created by Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine.  

San Diego native Deja Fields said Moxie Theatre changed her life six years ago when she was a junior at San Diego Creative and Performing Arts. The small Rolando theater with a mission to empower women in the theater and arts industry cast Fields as Ermina in "Crumbs from the Table of Joy.”

"Moxie helped fuel my career during a pivotal time in my life," she said. "It was the first role that I felt like a real actor. I was doing the work that I was called to do.”