family_society

family & society


The following films from the multiple Media That Matters Film Festival collections explore the issue of family & society. For even more films on this issue, visit MediaRights.org.

A Girl Like Me

Color is more than skin deep for young African-American women struggling to define themselves.


Official selection of the Sixth Annual Festival

A Girl Named Kai


Official selection of the Fifth Annual Festival

A Loud Color


Official selection of the Eighth Annual Festival

A Nomad’s Life


Official selection of the Eighth Annual Festival

All That I Can Be

William, like many young Americans, feels that joining the military is his only way out of a dead-end job and a rough life.


Official selection of the Fifth Annual Festival

Aquafinito

Annalise Littman
Filmmaker
Annalise Littman

In high school, I was a member and co-president of WaterAid International, a club dedicated to educating people about the world water crisis and fundraising for water infrastructure projects in developing countries.

I attended a talk given by Deborah Lapidus of Corporate Accountability International (CAI) with my club and learned about the environmental and human rights problems associated with bottled water. I was in a teen film program at the Institute of Contemporary Art at the time. I was so blown away by Deborah’s talk that I decided to make a documentary about bottled water for my class project in the hopes that I could educate other people about what I had learned.

Deborah agreed to my filming her at a workshop she was giving, where I met Tina Clarke, Campaign Director for Massachusetts Clean Water Action. Tina agreed to be interviewed about corporation efforts to extract water for bottling purposes in Massachusetts.

I was invited by CAI to film a “Think Outside the Bottle” action at a Coke shareholders’ meeting in Wilmington, Delaware. I also interviewed someone from the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, who spoke about the high quality of Massachusetts tap water.

My film addresses the prevalence of bottled water, reasons people buy it and the environmental and social costs associated with it. Many people told me that they plan to stop drinking bottled water after seeing the film. Other people have either continued to drink bottled water or only stopped temporarily.


Official selection of the Tenth Annual Media That Matters

As We Sleep


Official selection of the Third Annual Festival

Ashray


Official selection of the Seventh Annual Festival

Asparagus! (A Stalk-umentary)

Journey to the “Asparagus Capital of the World” to discover why one little vegetable is so important.


Official selection of the Media That Matters: Good Food

Bad Choices


Official selection of the Fifth Annual Festival

Book ‘Em: Undereducated, Overincarcerated

In New Haven, Connecticut the pipeline from school to prison is shorter than you might think.


Official selection of the Sixth Annual Festival

Bread


Official selection of the Sixth Annual Festival

Denied

Julie Winokur
Filmmaker
Julie Winokur

When I met Sheila Wessenberg, she was living the American nightmare.

She had a potentially fatal illness, but because she was uninsured her life seemed expendable.

She said to me, “There is no reason why anyone should be shoved into homelessness and helplessness just to live.” She was referring to the fact that she could only get publicly funded health care if she gave up her home and her car. In the meantime, her doctor had abandoned her and she had already gone seven months with no chemotherapy.

I was so horrified by the real-life cost of poor public policy that I became obsessed with all the ‘Sheilas’ whose lives were on the line. I realized Sheila could be any one of us—could even be me. I wanted to shout from the highest rafter that she was being dealt one of the greatest injustices I had witnessed in the 20 years I’d been a journalist. 

We first published Shelia’s story in The New York Times Magazine. Readers were so shocked by her suffering that they donated over $50,000 in order to help the family stay afloat. Next, we published Sheila’s story in a book and exhibition called Denied, which was shared on Capitol Hill and toured to state capitols across the country.

But our work wasn’t done because U.S. health care policy hadn’t budged an inch. We decided we had to tell Sheila’s story in film so even more people could see the shocking truth. Considering the raging debate on health care reform in Washington now, inclusion in the Media That Matters Film Festival couldn’t be more relevant or more urgent.


Official selection of the Tenth Annual Media That Matters

Diana


Official selection of the Eighth Annual Festival

Everybody’s Nuts

Fabian Euresti
Filmmaker Fabian Euresti

In the beginning, my inspiration for making this piece was a way to escape summer doldrums. It was the summer between my second and final year as a grad student at Cal Arts. I was still months away from shooting my thesis and discovered my little point and shoot camera shot video. I started shooting around images around the house. The more images I shot, the more I started thinking about the accompanying narrative. And this is how the film’s narration was born. The more I kept thinking about what to say, the more I kept thinking of images I still needed to shoot. The film is ultimately a product of having been spent in the home and surrounding environment where the film takes place.


Official selection of the Media That Matters 11

Exiled in America


Official selection of the Ninth Annual Festival

Hammoudi


Official selection of the Eighth Annual Festival

Happy Ending


Official selection of the Fifth Annual Festival

Holla Back Dubai!


Official selection of the Third Annual Festival

Homecoming


Official selection of the Fifth Annual Festival

I Am Sean Bell

Stacey Muhammad
Filmmaker Stacey Muhammad

I’ve loved film for as long as I can remember. Initially, screenwriting was my interest; however, I wanted to see my ideas come to life beyond the writing. This led to a desire to acquire the skills needed to actually produce my own projects. So, I embarked upon the journey of studying and learning as much about the filmmaking process as I possibly could by attending film school, workshops, and anything else I could find.

First and foremost, I consider myself an activist, so I’m drawn to human issues and subjects that enlighten and uplift humanity while challenging us to examine our ideals and issues on this planet. I’ve always been drawn to documentary filmmaking, particularly as an activist. It’s a powerful way to communicate with an audience.
When I chose to do the Sean Bell film, I was extremely disturbed by the verdict and wanted to hear from the children, particularly young black boys, about their thoughts, fears and concerns regarding violence against black men. Most of the topics that interest me are those that give a voice to those often unheard populations of people, who indeed have stories to tell and victories to celebrate.

One thing that I’ve learned is that life is what it is—meaning, everything we do and experience is connected. Often, we try to compartmentalize our lives and deal with different aspects of our experience (be it our personal lives, our career, etc.). Filmmaking, for me, is a spiritual process and journey. I’ve been prepared through life experiences, for each and every topic I choose to explore.

So, my advice to any aspiring filmmaker would be to live your life with integrity, take care of yourself, learn as much about your craft as possible, commit to creating the life you desire and expect the universe to grant you everything you ask.


Official selection of the Tenth Annual Media That Matters

I Promise Africa


Official selection of the Fourth Annual Festival

I’m Not a Boy


Official selection of the Seventh Annual Festival

I’m Just Anneke

Jonathan Skurnik
Filmmaker Jonathan Skurnik

I’m Just Anneke is the first film in a four-part series of short films called The Youth and Gender Media Project designed to educate school communities about transgender and gender nonconforming youth. The first two films in the series are finished and the second two are in production. The completed films are already being used in schools and conferences throughout the U.S. to train administrators, teachers and students about the importance of protecting all children from harassment due to gender identity and expression.

Transgender and gender fluid youth are the most courageous people I have ever met. Despite overwhelming pressure to conform to an oppressive gender binary paradigm, they refuse to do it in order to be true to themselves. I wanted to pay tribute to these courageous young people and to inspire all of us to reconsider our own decisions about gender identity and expression.

Anneke is going into eighth grade in the fall of 2010 and I plan to film her over the course of her first year in high school. This footage will become a feature length documentary about Anneke’s life as she starts to take testosterone and begins a slow and thoughtful transition to fully embody her own unique gender identity.


Official selection of the Tenth Annual Media That Matters

Immersion


Official selection of the Ninth Annual Festival

In Transit


Official selection of the Sixth Annual Festival

iThemba


Official selection of the Fourth Annual Festival

Lean on Me


Official selection of the Fourth Annual Festival

Lessons from a Tailor

Galen Summer
Filmmaker Galen Summer

The inspiration for this film came directly from the man himself. When I first met Martin Greenfield at his factory, with the intention of interviewing him for a lifetime achievement award he was receiving for his efforts as an employer and business owner in Bushwick, Brooklyn, it became clear that there was more to his story than mere success in business.

Here was a man who had pulled himself up from tragedy and hardship, who had survived one of the most horrific events of the 20th century, the Nazi holocaust, and yet still possessed a lightness of spirit.

Here was a man who had mastered the art of the perfectly tailored, hand-made suit, and now that art was slowly being forgotten by the rest of the world.

Here was a man who at 80 years of age still seemed to be at the height of his powers, who possessed the confidence to dictate the style and fashions of the power elite, just as he had been doing for the past half a century.

It struck me as a unique opportunity to create a portrait of a person who had overcome great challenges in life, who had accumulated wisdom about clothes and about people, and who had become a humanitarian in the process.


Official selection of the Tenth Annual Media That Matters

Locusts


Official selection of the Ninth Annual Festival

Night Visions


Official selection of the Sixth Annual Festival

No Child


Official selection of the Sixth Annual Festival

No One Bothered

Josephine Boxwell
Filmmaker
Josephine Boxwell

Claire, an ex-police officer, and her partner Darren take us on a journey through some of the places they have called home—a rubbish bin fort, a parkland, public toilets, to name a few.

The couple lives in Bournemouth, England. When they first arrived in the seaside town, they begged for money in order to buy food. Eventually they became registered Big Issue magazine vendors. The Big Issue Foundation is an initiative that gives homeless and vulnerably housed people the opportunity to make a living by selling magazines to passersby. For Darren and Claire, selling The Big Issue is a step up from begging, but not a step away from the dangers and prejudices that come with being on the street. 

This short intends to illustrate that none of us are impervious to misfortune or mistakes; all of us are only a few steps away from the street. No One Bothered reminds us that even in societies where social security exists, many are left behind.


Official selection of the Tenth Annual Media That Matters

Novela, Novela


Official selection of the Fourth Annual Festival

Permission


Official selection of the Sixth Annual Festival

Rapping at Fear


Official selection of the Seventh Annual Festival

Rebel


Official selection of the Third Annual Festival

Shades of the Border

Julie Winokur
Filmmaker Patrick Smith

The racial issues that exist on the island of Hispaniola can hardly be described as “black and white.” Perceptions of race among Haitians and Dominicans have been evolving (or devolving) over several centuries of political, military, and social unrest, and can’t be consolidated into a brief explanation or short documentary. Thus, as a filmmaker from the United States, the intention for the film was not to create all-encompassing viewpoints, both Haitian and Dominican.

The initial idea for the documentary came from the story of an Austin woman who was unable to adopt two abandoned, Dominican-born, black children because their skin color (and lack of documentation) prevented them from getting Dominican citizenship. After some research, it was clear that this wasn’t an isolated incident, but that millions had been denied citizenship (and thus certain human rights), based on how “Haitian” they appeared to be and not based on where they were born.

Faced with the economic burden of providing for an entire population of illegal Haitians crossing the Dominican border, compacted by an already poverty-stricken population of Dominicans, the Dominican Republic strains to find a solution that isn’t “color-based.” Sadly, the peripheral effects of this issue are much more severe, often leading to violence, destruction of homes, inaccessible education, abusive working conditions, and the list goes on.

Shades of the Border explores a commonly-held notion from the Dominican media that race does not lay a role in the conflict, contrasted with an almost completely-inverse working-class opinion that the shade of someone’s skin on the island of Hispaniola speaks volumes about the individual.


Official selection of the Tenth Annual Media That Matters

Silence Speaks


Official selection of the Third Annual Festival

Storm


Official selection of the Third Annual Festival

Superstar


Official selection of the Seventh Annual Festival

System Failure


Official selection of the Fifth Annual Festival

Talking About It

Isaac Haney-Owens
Filmmaker Isaac Haney-Owens

I joined BAYCAT, a San Francisco nonprofit community media production company, in the fall of 2009. At that time, I was just finishing high school and wanted to learn how to make films. I became a young media producer at BAYCAT taking filmmaking classes and started to work on films. At the beginning I was reluctant to be in front of the camera, but with time and some training on production and acting for the camera, I was able to feel more at ease and became more confident. I was excited that BAYCAT then offered me an internship. While working on our 19th episode of BAYCAT’s youth produced
TV show “Zoom In”, we focused on interpretations of “Legacy”. We were asked to reflect on what others have left for us, and what we would like to leave behind for future generations. With some encouragement from Marco, the Program Director and the BAYCAT team, I took a chance and started working on TALKING ABOUT IT. The film provides people with a snapshot into my life, living with Asperger’s, and my art. Besides turning the camera on myself, I asked my mom Karen a few questions, and I also included some of my photographs at the end.


Official selection of the Media That Matters 11

The Last Town

Yan Chun Su
Filmmaker Yan Chun Su

In order to complete the Three Gorges Dam hydroelectric project in China, a total of sixteen historical towns, some with more than 2000 years of history had to be flooded. Kai Xian was the last of the 16 towns. Filmed in Kai Xian shortly before the final relocation, The Last Town is a portrait of the town and its residents as they ready (or not) themselves for the big move.

Facing widespread land disputes and unfair relocation assignment, many of the unprivileged residents had to deal with the hardship of not only leaving their homeland behind, but also how to make a decent living afterward. Dust-filled streets and crumbled houses provided the backdrop for stories of ordinary residents dealing with the uncertainty ahead.

I felt compelled to see what old Kai Xian looked like after I found out it was the last old town to be flooded for the Three Gorges Dam Project. What I saw was quite surreal. People burning door frames, window frames on the street, metal salvagers picking on piles of rubble, and the almost eerie contrast between ordinary, everyday activities and the fact that people there were going through a historical time—they were the witnesses and also part of a town’s more than one thousand years of history about to be flooded forever.

The residents still struggling to make the move discovered me very quickly on the street and I was able to record this small glimpse of their lives. It is hopeful that by having their voices recorded, their stories and situations could weigh in on future developments with such profound human impacts.
Old Kai Xian town was completely flooded in 2009. Corruption is still widespread.

Many people are struggling in the new city. In order to rake in as much profit as possible, contractors appointed by local government constructed sub-standard housing and immigrants with little financial and political backing were more likely to be assigned to live in those buildings. 


Official selection of the Tenth Annual Media That Matters

Uninsured in the Mississippi Delta

Katie Falkenberg
Filmmaker
Katie Falkenberg

At a time when the health care debate is at the forefront of the political agenda, Uninsured in the Mississippi Delta puts a human face on the struggles of the 46 million Americans surviving without health care.

The Mississippi Delta is one of the most impoverished and uninsured regions of the United States. The area also has soaring rates for diabetes, hypertension and stroke, and some of the highest mortality rates and lowest birth rates in the nation. The town of Greenville, Mississippi, in the heart of the Delta, has, on a per-capita basis, the highest number of uninsured households in the country. Contributing factors to this statistic include high unemployment rates, poverty,  business owners who cannot afford health insurance for their workers, and agricultural jobs that are often only seasonal. Those who have jobs that pay minimum wage cannot afford health insurance on their own.

Howard Moncrief and Edward Smith are among those living in the Delta struggling without health insurance. Both of these men, putting the needs of their children and families before their own, have gone without vital health care and medicines. They simply could not afford them.

Inspiration
I had been following the debate on the health care bill in Congress, and was moved by the stories I had heard from those who were struggling without insurance while working on a photo and video project about a Remote Area Medical (RAM) free health care clinic in Appalachia the year before. I knew that this year, with the health care issue being at the forefront of this administration’s agenda, I wanted to tell another story to put a human face with the statistics being talked about so frequently in the Capitol and on the news.

When I heard that 34% of the households in the impoverished Delta town of Greenville, Mississippi were living without health insurance, I knew that this was a story that needed to be told. As I began researching the story, I learned that the problem wasn’t just concentrated in Greenville; it extended throughout the entire Mississippi Delta region into the rural areas where poverty was rampant and there were few jobs.

Many of the folks who are patients at the two health care clinics I spent time in for this film—the Good Samaritan Health Clinic in Greenville, and the Tutwiler Clinic in Tutwiler—would go without the most basic and vital care if these clinics did not exist. This was a driving force behind my inspiration for this film: that, because of the cost of health care and insurance, people would have to go without the care they desperately need, were it not for these clinics.

Furthermore, it is not only the people in the Delta; it is the 46 million other Americans throughout the country.


Official selection of the Tenth Annual Media That Matters

Vision Test


Official selection of the Third Annual Festival

We Were Humans


Official selection of the Third Annual Festival

Will I Be Next?


Official selection of the Ninth Annual Festival

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