(Hate) Machine

More About (Hate) Machine from Director Phil Caron The concept for (Hate) Machine came out of the…
Official selection of the Sixth Annual Festival

A Loud Color

More About A Loud Color from Producer & Director Brent Joseph I was asked by Tim Ryan…
Official selection of the Eighth Annual Festival

A Nomad’s Life

More About A Nomad’s Life from Director Lynn True A Nomad’s Life was conceived as part of…
Official selection of the Eighth Annual Festival

African Underground: Hip Hop in Senegal

More About African Underground: Hip Hop in Senegal from Director Ben Herson I was inspired to make…
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.

Argentina Turning Around

More About Argentina Turning Around from Director Melissa Young In the 1990s, Argentina embraced globalization. Instead of…
Official selection of the Eighth Annual Festival

Asparagus! (A Stalk-umentary)

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

Books Not Bars

More About Books Not Bars from WITNESS Public spending to support increased incarceration is booming while spending…
Official selection of the Fourth Annual Festival

Bread

More About Bread from Director Marcelo Bukin The idea forBread was born in Guatemala while shooting a…
Official selection of the Sixth Annual Festival

Broken Limbs: Searching for the New American Farmer

More About Broken Limbs: Searching For The American Farmer from Directors and Producers Jamie Howell and Guy…
Official selection of the Media That Matters: Good Food

By-Standing: The Beginning of an American Lifetime

More About By-Standing: The Beginning of an American Lifetime from Director Karen Lin By-Standing is the collision…
Official selection of the Seventh Annual Festival

Day Job

Filmmaker Sara Hopman

From the beginning, filmmaking and positive social change have always gone hand-in-hand for me. After working with non-profit organizations such as Environment California, the Human Rights Campaign, and CalPIRG, I was further inspired to use my strengths in filmmaking to help facilitate progress in our communities. In October of 2009, I had the opportunity to create a film that could make such an impact—Day Job.

We’ve all seen day laborers standing and waiting in public places, but most of us pass by without thinking twice. I wanted to discover the story behind these workers—who are they and what are their lives like? This is a current, pressing issue, commonly ignored by the media; this is a group of people with little to no voice in our society; this is happening right now, in my city, and many cities across the country.

During the making of my film, I found Faye, a temporary employer of laborers. She has an extraordinary perspective that I felt I had to share with the world. With the help of four translators, which included two crewmembers, I was able to record the images and voices of a shunned community, for all the world to see.

Dedicated to My Family

More About Dedicated to My Family from youth Director Nicole Sobottke Hello, I’m the filmmaker of Dedicated…
Official selection of the Fourth Annual Festival

Denied

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.

Diana

More About Diana from Director Brynmore Williams We were approached by MTV to help create a documentary…
Official selection of the Eighth Annual Festival

E-Waste

More About E-Waste from Producers at GOOD Magazine If the transition from 386 to 486 resonates loudly…
Official selection of the Eighth Annual Festival

Esmeraldas: Petroleum and Poverty

Esmeraldas: Petroleum and Poverty was directed by Joshua Holst, a life-long student of the environment and human…
Official selection of the Third Annual Festival

Every Third Bite

More About Every Third Bite from the Meerkat Media Collective Two years ago, honeybees started to disappear.…
Official selection of the Eighth Annual Festival

Everybody’s Nuts

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.

Eyes on the Fair Use of the Prize

More About Eyes On The Fair Use Of The Prize from Director/Producer Jacob Caggiano Eyes On The…
Official selection of the Sixth Annual Festival

Hammoudi

More About Hammoudi from Producer Tima Khalil I first read an article on Mohammad’s story in a…
Official selection of the Eighth Annual Festival

How Wal-Mart Came to Haslett

More About How Wal-Mart Came To Haslett from Director and Producer Meerkat Media Collective In the fall…
Official selection of the Sixth Annual Festival

In Transit

More About In Transit from Directors and Producers Bent Jorgen Perlmutt, Nelson Walker III and Louis Abelman…
Official selection of the Sixth Annual Festival

La Hoja

More about La Hoja from Director Gabrielle Weiss I was approached by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis…
Official selection of the Ninth Annual Festival

Lessons from a Tailor

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.

Locusts

More about Locusts from Producer and Performer Invincible Finale and I spent several years developing the song…
Official selection of the Ninth Annual Festival

Looking Back

More about Looking Back from Director Emile Bokaer I learned about Albert Lewis while reading a newspaper…
Official selection of the Ninth Annual Festival

Massacre at Murambi

More About Massacre at Murambi from Director & Producer Sam Kauffmann During the genocide in Rwanda in…
Official selection of the Seventh Annual Festival

No Child

More About No Child from Director Gabe Cheifetz No Child was a difficult piece to make.  We…
Official selection of the Sixth Annual Festival

No One Bothered

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.

Novela, Novela

More About Novela, Novela from Director Elizabeth Miller I first met Virginia Lacayo and Amy Bank, Executive…
Official selection of the Fourth Annual Festival

Perversion of Justice

More About Perversion of Justice from Director Melissa Mummert I worked as a chaplain intern at a…
Official selection of the Eighth Annual Festival

POPaganda: The Art and Subversion of Ron English

More About POPaganda: The Art & Subversion of Ron English Ron English first gained fame in 1982…
Official selection of the Fourth Annual Festival

Power Up

More About Power Up from Director & Producer Sverre Fredriksen Power Up is an animated short film…
Official selection of the Seventh Annual Festival

Rapping at Fear

More About Rapping At Fear from Producer Listen Up! Beyond Borders: Personal Stories from a Small Planet…
Official selection of the Seventh Annual Festival

Recycle

More About Recycle from Directors and Producers Vasco Lucas Nunes and Ondi Timoner Recycle is a portrait…
Official selection of the Sixth Annual Festival

Seeds of Hope: South Africa

More About Seeds of Hope: South Africa from the Director Sarah Hesterman Seeds of Hope was produced…
Official selection of the Fourth Annual Festival

Shades of the Border

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.

Something’s Moving

More About Something’s Moving from Director Randy Vasquez Imagine being taken from your family before the age…
Official selection of the Eighth Annual Festival

Still Standing

More About Still Standing from Producer EVC Youth Organizers Television (YO-TV) In December 2005, the EVC Youth…
Official selection of the Seventh Annual Festival

Struggling to Survive

More About Struggling to Survive from Producer Appalshop Struggling to Survive was produced during the Summer of…
Official selection of the Fourth Annual Festival

The Last Town

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. 

The Luckiest Nut In The World

More About The Luckiest Nut in the World from Director Emily James I had been reading a…
Official selection of the Media That Matters: Good Food

The Rules of the Game

More About The Rules of the Game from Directors and Producers Garance Burke and Monica Lam Garance…
Official selection of the Sixth Annual Festival

Uninsured in the Mississippi Delta

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.

Water Warriors

More About Water Warriors from Director and Producer Liz Miller Water is quickly becoming the liquid gold…
Official selection of the Media That Matters: Good Food

We are the Zaballeen

More About We are the Zaballeen from Director Mai Iskander “If there weren’t any garbage collectors, Cairo…
Official selection of the Seventh Annual Festival

Why Do White People Have Black Spots?

More about More about Why Do White People Have Black Spots? from Anya Kandel This film is…
Official selection of the Ninth Annual Festival

World On Fire

A Message from Sarah McLachlan Sarah McLachlan wrote us this message about her music video and participation…
Official selection of the Fifth Annual Festival