Makers
We Tell prefers to call the many people who worked on the media projects in this exhibition makers rather than filmmakers, video artists, or directors.
First, very few of these works were produced by one person, so the auteurist model is insufficient.
Second, most of these were produced by collaborative, collective, or cooperative teams where members had shifting roles and made different kinds of contributions.
Finally, we offer the proviso that this list is most likely not complete and will evolve as more research about each of these films and their participatory production process is uncovered. We provide this list to honor the people who contributed to these works.
The Activist Archivists is a collective of media archivists and academics utilizing all available digital tools to support individuals and communities in voicing their concerns and opinions. They share knowledge and provide assistance with archiving and preservation. They want to improve the... Read Full Bio
Adam Steig was part of the collaborative team that made Ain’t Nobody’s Business (NOVAC, 1978).
Adèle Naudé Santos collaborated with James Blue to produce the public television series The Invisible City: Houston’s Housing Crisis, Part 2: Messages (Southwest Alternative Media Project, 1979) in Houston, Texas. Born in South Africa, Santos is an architect and urban designer focused on low-income... Read Full Bio
Al Santana collaborated with Alonzo Speight to produce Military Options (Third World Newsreel, 2005) in New York City. He is an independent filmmaker and photographer with numerous award-winning documentaries, public affairs films, and videos aired on both network and public television. He has... Read Full Bio
Alonzo Speight collaborated with Al Santana to make Military Options (Third World Newsreel, 2005). “Rico” Speight is an independent producer/director/writer of film and theatre and also a film/video editor and educator. His production credits include documentaries, narratives, television... Read Full Bio
Amber Vigil was part of the Outta Your Backpack Workshop with Indigenous Youth that produced the animation Legend of the Weresheep (Outta Your Backpack, 2007) in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Ana Maria Garcia made La Operacion (Latin American Film Project, 1982) in Puerto Rico. She was one of the first women of color to work in independent documentary film.
Ana María is a Cuban-Puerto Rican director. García holds a PhD in Education from Harvard University, where she realized an... Read Full Bio
Andrés Nicolini is a producer and media consultant with a wide range of experience in non-fiction and fiction productions. His work has been shown in numerous festivals, television networks, and other venues nationally and internationally including PhillyCAM, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Los... Read Full Bio
Andrew Friend was a maker on I’m NOT on the Menu (Labor Beat, 2018) in Chicago, Illinois.
He also directed Schoolidarity (2014), a film that details the events of the 2012 Chicago Teachers Strike and the 2011 Wisconsin labor protests. Andrew is a filmmaker and cinematographer in Chicago. He is a... Read Full Bio
Anula Shetty was part of the collaborative team that made Books Through Bars (Scribe Video Center, 1997), in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Anula is a filmmaker drawn to stories of migration, ethnic heritage, and what it means to be 'native' and 'alien' in a foreign land. She is committed to... Read Full Bio
Founded in 1969 in Kentucky, Appalshop brings forth new and often unheard voices from the people of Appalachia and rural communities across America and abroad. Projects present stories that commercial media avoids, challenge stereotypes, support grassroots justice and equality, and celebrate... Read Full Bio
Aram (Sie Wai) Collier was part of the team that produced Who I Became (Vietnamese Youth Development Center, 2003) in San Francisco, California. Aram is a filmmaker, educator, and film festival programmer. He has a background in documentary, editing the award winning feature documentary Refugee and... Read Full Bio
Ariane Farnswoth was part of the Outta Your Backpack Media Workshop with Indigenous Youth that produced the animation Legend of the Weresheep (Outta Your Backpack Media, 2007) in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Located in Portland, Oregon, B Media focuses on collaborative media. B Media is part of Portland’s community media movement and is known for its place-based production and signature remix style. B Media works with local and national social justice organizations to produce films, providing high... Read Full Bio
Beverly Singer made Diabetes: Notes from Indian Country (2000) in Nebraska and South Dakota. Beverly is a documentary filmmaker from Santa Clara Pueblo whose visual interventions explore contemporary Indigenous peoples lives and perspectives. She is Associate Professor Emerita of Anthropology and... Read Full Bio
Big Noise Films is a non-profit media collective dedicated to producing beautiful, passionate, revolutionary images. Based in New York, their ground-breaking feature films, Zapatista (1998), Black and Gold (1999), and This Is What Democracy Looks Like (2000) have won awards at major film festivals... Read Full Bio
Black Lives Matter, also known as BLM or #BLM, is a global network of liberators who aim to localize Black power and intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities. With Black lives systemically and deliberately targeted, Black Lives Matter provides an empowering rallying cry and a... Read Full Bio
Based in Philadelphia PA, Books Through Bars is a volunteer-run organization that distributes free books and educational materials to incarcerated people in PA, NJ, NY, MD, DE, VA and WV. Each week, we receive hundreds of letters from prisoners requesting books. Each year they send over 8,000 book... Read Full Bio
BRIC TV is the first 24/7 television channel created by, for, and about Brooklyn, and serves as the borough's source for local news, Brooklyn culture, civic affairs, music, arts, sports, and technology. BRIC TV features programming produced and curated by BRIC, an arts and media nonprofit located... Read Full Bio
Burwell Ware participated as an actor in Survival Information Television: Must You Pay the Rent?(NOVAC, 1975) playing a landlord in that show. He was executive director of New Orleans Video Access (NOVAC) from 1974 to 1975 and also from 1979 to 1981.He also worked in development for the... Read Full Bio
Carlton Jones is a skilled and multi-talented videographer, digital photographer and lighting technician who has worked in the broadcast TV, film and as an educator with proven creative abilities from filming to producing meaningful videos. Also, he has been Scribe-based for 25 years and steeped in... Read Full Bio
Cathy Scott was part of the collective that produced Just Say No: The Gulf Crisis TV Project (Deep Dish TV and Paper Tiger Television, 1990).Catherine is an independent Director/Producer in Australia. She was a former member of the Paper Tiger TV collective for ten years in New York City. She was... Read Full Bio
Changing America was formed during the anti-globalization struggles of the late 1990s and early 2000s by the Communist Party of the USA (CPUSA). Their media presented a pro-working-class communist analysis of social movements. Changing America worked to organize coalitions of different independent... Read Full Bio
Cheryl Hess is a documentary filmmaker and DP based in Philadelphia. Her recent work includes Past/Presence: Saving the Spring Garden School which was the grand prize winner in the 2018 AIA Film Challenge. She is currently in post-production on a feature-length documentary Marriage Cops about a... Read Full Bio
Christi Cooper was part of the team that developed Stories of TRUST: Calling for Climate Recovery: TRUST Alaska (Our Children’s Trust and WITNESS, 2011) in Alaska. Christi holds a BA. in Microbiology, a PhD in Neuroscience, and an MFA in Science and Nature Filmmaking. Based in Montana, she has... Read Full Bio
Christine Choy made Inside Women Inside (Third World Newsreel, 1978). Originally trained as an architect, Christine Choy is an Academy Award nominated filmmaker for Who Killed Vincent Chin? (with Renee Tajima-Pena, 1987) who was instrumental to the founding and formation of Third World Newsreel. ... Read Full Bio
Chuck Amato was the host of Survival Information Television (SIT): Must You Pay the Rent? (NOVAC, 1975) and also served as the writer. He was a VISTA lawyer for the New Orleans Legal Assistance Corporation, an organization that helped people with housing problems among other civil matters.
Cindy Hing-Yuk Wong was part of the collaborative team that produced To the Point (Scribe Video Center, 1997). She is currently Professor of Media Studies at the College of Staten Island. Born and raised in Hong Kong her research experience in East Asia, Europe, Latin America and the United States... Read Full Bio
Copwatch Brooklyn, based on the organization of the same name started in Berkeley, California in 1990, protects the Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities from police brutality and harassment. It is a part of a network of activist organizations in the United States and Canada that observe and... Read Full Bio
Cynthia Maurizio collaborated with Christine Choy to make Inside Women Inside (Third World Newsreel, 1978) in North Carolina and New York. She is a professional film editor.
Dan Mohn collaborated with J. Benjamin Zickafoose to make The United Mineworkers of America: A House Divided (Appalshop, 1971).
David Meieran was one of the makers on Testing the Limits: NYC (Testing the Limits, 1987).
DeeDee Halleck is one of the founders of Paper Tiger Television and Deep Dish TV. She was part of the group that made Herb Schiller Reads The New York Times #3: The Sunday Times: 712 Pages of Waste (Paper Tiger Television, 1981) and Just Say No: The Gulf Crisis TV Project (Deep Dish TV and Paper... Read Full Bio
The first grassroots satellite network launched in 1986, Deep Dish TV is a video production and distribution laboratory. Seeking to democratize media, Deep Dish provides a national platform for thousands of community-based organizations, visual artists, programmers, and social activists. With... Read Full Bio
Dennis Hwang was part of the youth team that made Freedom on the Block? (Vietnamese Youth Development Corporation, 2004) in San Francisco, California.
Detroit Narrative Agency seeks to shift the stories that are currently being told in and of Detroit in order to create narratives that move people toward justice. The stories that circulate about Detroit figure it as broken, violent, and in desperate need of being saved from its decline. Since... Read Full Bio
Formed by professor, filmmaker, journalist, digital storyteller trainer, and activist Myron Dewey (Piaute/Shoshone), Digital Smoke Signals (DSS) is dedicated to indigenizing new media technologies such as mobile and wireless in order to counter corporate media bias in reporting on indigenous people... Read Full Bio
Duane Kubo was one of the founders of Visual Communications, a media group that began in 1970 in Los Angeles to develop and support the voices of Asian American and Pacific Islander filmmakers and media artists. He made Cruisin’ J-Town (Visual Communications, 1974). Visual Communications (VC) is... Read Full Bio
Elizabeth Barret’s work is shaped by the history, culture, and social issues of Appalachia. Her films/videos are produced with the artist-centered organization Appalshop. Barret is recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in Creative Arts, Rockefeller Foundation Film/Video/ Multimedia Fellowship, and... Read Full Bio
Free Speech TV is one of the last standing national independent news networks committed to advancing progressive social change. As the alternative to television networks owned by billionaires, governments, and corporations, its network amplifies underrepresented voices and those working on the... Read Full Bio
Furquan Khaldun worked as a facilitator on Seeds of Awakening: The Early Nation of Islam in Philadelphia (Scribe Video Center, 2011).
Gary M. Brooks was a maker on I’m NOT on the Menu (Labor Beat, 2018) in Chicago, Illinois. He has been a member of Evanston Community Television (ECTV) for nearly seven years. A retired UPS employee, Brooks is serving his second term as president and has served as Programming and Operations Chair.... Read Full Bio
Gordon Quinn is one of the founders of Kartemquin Films in Chicago and part of the team that produced HSA Strike ’75 (Kartemquin, 1975). He has been making films for over fifty years, producing and directing over thirty films, currently executive producing all Kartemquin productions. Kartemquin’s... Read Full Bio
Grant Wilson, a member of the Kartemquin Collective, is part of the production team that made HSA Strike '75.
Gregg Bordowitz was part of the collective that produced Testing the Limits: NYC (Testing the Limits Collective, 1987). He was central to the founding of the Testing the Limits Collective. He worked with the Gay Men’s Health Crisis and Jean Carlomusto to produce Living with AIDS, a cable tv show... Read Full Bio
Headwaters Action Video (HAVC) formed in 1997 to provide video support and witnessing to Headwaters Forest demonstrations and to maintain an archive for use in media outreach. Northern California has the last remaining ancient redwood rainforests in existence and is the site of ongoing struggles to... Read Full Bio
Herb E. Smith has been a filmmaker at Appalshop since 1969 when the media arts center began. He was a 17-year-old student at Whitesburg High. After graduating college, he became the Appalshop Coordinator, working to build the organization while continuing to make films. Over the past 50 years, he... Read Full Bio
Hillary Joy Kipnis was part of the collective that produced Testing the Limits: NYC (Testing the Limits Collective, 1987).
Also known as Indymedia, the Independent Media Center (IMC) ran a collective of media outlets dedicated to accurate, passionate, and radical news coverage. Originating in Australia, IMC slowly developed during the global justice protest Carnival Against Capital, and later came to wider prominence... Read Full Bio
The Institute for Popular Education of Southern California (IDESPSCA) traces back to 1984 when a group of students and parents met in Pasadena’s Central Park to confront racism, educational inequalities, and lack of affordable housing. Stories of joy, struggle, and hope galvanized educational and... Read Full Bio
J. Benjamin Zickafoose collaborated with Dan Mohn to make The United Mineworkers of America: A House Divided (Appalshop, 1971). He also made another Appalshop film, Coal Miner: Frank Johnson (Appalshop, 1971).
James Blue (1930-1980) was a groundbreaking filmmaker, as well as educator, actor, avid film historian, and advocate of nonfiction experimentation and the democratization of media. James worked as a maker of the public television series The Invisible City: Houston’s Housing Crisis, Part 2: Messages... Read Full Bio
James Varian was part of the collaborative team that made Freedom on the Block? (Vietnamese Youth Development Center, 2004) in San Francisco, California.
Jean Carlomusto was part of the collective that produced Testing the Limits: NYC (Testing the Limits Collective, 1987). She is a filmmaker, activist, and interactive media artist whose work explores the complex nature of unique individuals and marginalized populations. Her films are often... Read Full Bio
Jeanne Keller was a part of the team of VISTA volunteers that made Must I Pay the Rent? (New Orleans Video Access Center, 1975). NOVAC was a VISTA project affiliated with the New Orleans Legal Aid Center, which produced educational videos for distribution via the new cable access channel in New... Read Full Bio
Jerry Blumenthal (1936-2014) worked as a maker on a team that made HSA Strike ’75 (Kartemquin, 1975) in Chicago. He was one of the founders of Kartemquin, working with them until his death in 2014. He began as one of the makers of Shulie (1966), the groundbreaking film about Shulamith Firestone.... Read Full Bio
Jim Morrison was part of the collective that produced Finally Got the News (1970) in Detroit, Michigan.
John Louis Jr. was a maker on Finally Got the News (1970) in Detroit, Michigan. He was part of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers, who assigned him to work with the team of White filmmakers producing the film.
Judy Hoffman organized the production and worked as a maker on the team that made HSA Strike ’75 (Kartemquin, 1975) in Chicago. She has worked in film and video for many decades. She was active in the Alternative Television Movement in the early 1970's, experimenting with small format video... Read Full Bio
Jullanar Abdul-Zahir worked as a facilitator on Seeds of Awakening: The Early Nation of Islam in Philadelphia (Scribe Video Center, 2011).
Jusi Brieland El Boujami was part of the Outta Your Backpack Media Workshop with Indigenous Youth that produced the animation Legend of the Weresheep (Outta Your Backpack Media, 2007) in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Karen Kern was part of the collaborative team that made Ain’t Nobody’s Business (NOVAC, 1978).
Karl Spicer was part of the collaborative team that made Ain’t Nobody’s Business (NOVAC, 1978).
Founded in 1966, Kartemquin is a Chicago-based collaborative community that empowers independent documentary makers who create stories for a more engaged just society. Works focus on people most directly affected by social and political change but who the media often overlooks or misrepresents.... Read Full Bio
Katie Lose Gilbertson was part of the team that developed Stories of TRUST: Calling for Climate Recovery: TRUST Alaska (Our Children’s Trust and WITNESS, 2011) in Alaska. Katie holds an MFA in Science and Natural History Filmmaking, a BFA in Theatre, and a minor in biology. The fusion of these... Read Full Bio
Klee Benally worked as a facilitator on Legend of the Weresheep (Outta Your Backpack Media, 2007) in Flagstaff, Arizona. His is from the Bitter Water and Wandering People Clans. Klee is a writer, activist, artist, silversmith, filmmaker, and a leading member of Blackfire, a Navajo punk bank formed... Read Full Bio
Based in Chicago, Labor Beat, the longest-running cable TV series in the US. Broadcasting since 1986, it offers programs that counter the commercial media’s bias against labor. The series emerged from WCFL, a labor radio station started in 1928. It is a valuable and unique resource in the union... Read Full Bio
The Latin American Film Project (LAFP) was started in 1973 by Barbara Margolis and Alfonso Beato to distribute films from Latin America in the United States for use by activists and those involved in solidarity movements. Films distributed include When the People Awake (1973), The Cost of Cotton (... Read Full Bio
Lenora Champagne was a collaborator on and performer in Ain't Nobody's Business, made in New Orleans in 1978. Lenora is a performance artist, playwright and director whose forays into media include her performance work, Anxious Women, cybercast through Franklin Furnace/pseudo, work as a p.a. on... Read Full Bio
Louis Massiah worked on the team that produced The Taking of One Liberty Place (Scribe Video Center, 1987) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is the FOUNDER of Scribe Video Center. He is a documentary filmmaker and the founder/director of Scribe Video Center in Philadelphia. His innovative approach... Read Full Bio
María Teresa Rodríguez was a project facilitator and part of the collaborative team that made Los Trabajadores (Scribe Video Center, 2002). She is a media artist whose work often explores the intersection between family, memory, history and identity in the Americas. Her work includes Mirror Dance (... Read Full Bio
Marianne Wafer has practiced visual arts her entire life - earning a BFA in Studio Arts from LSU (Louisiana State University) and studying darkroom photography, drawing and painting at NOAFA (New Orleans Academy of Fine Arts). She is currently working in mixed media combining photography with... Read Full Bio
Martin Lucas was a founding member of the collective that produced Just Say No: The Gulf Crisis TV Project (Deep Dish TV and Paper Tiger Television, 1990). Martin is the creator of the Codes and Modes Symposium at Hunter College in New York City, a biennial event examining documentary media. A... Read Full Bio
Michael Siv was part of the team that produced Who I Became (Vietnamese Youth Development Center, 2003) in San Francisco, California. Michael Siv is an award winning Cambodian-American filmmaker and journalist. His filmography ranges from exploring the challenges of growing up as a Cambodian... Read Full Bio
Milton Machuga worked on the team that produced Los Trabadajores (Scribe Video Center, 2002) in Pennsylvania.
Mimi Pickering is the director/editor of The Buffalo Creek Flood: An Act of Man, which was selected by the Librarian of Congress for inclusion in the National Film Registry in 2005, and the update Buffalo Creek Revisited. Pickering’s documentaries often feature women as principle storytellers,... Read Full Bio
In response to continuous state violence against Black communities globally, more than fifty organizations representing thousands of Black people formed a coalition in 2014 called the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL). The movement sought to establish a political platform and in 2015, convened at... Read Full Bio
Myron Dewey is the founder of Digital Smoke Signals. He is Newe-Numah/ Paiute-Shoshone from the Walker River Paiute Tribe, Agui Diccutta Band (Trout Eaters) and Temoke Shoshone.
He made Digital Smoke Signals: Aerial Footage from the Night of November 20, 2016 at Standing Rock (Digital Smoke Signals... Read Full Bio
Ned de Callejo was part of the Outta Your Backpack Workshop with Indigenous Youth that produced the animation Legend of the Weresheep (Outta Your Backpack, 2007) in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Islamic Cultural Preservation and Information Council (ICPIC) was founded in 1991, our educational and cultural programming was developed to inform and preserve our rich cultural heritage here in America. ICPIC's primary purpose is to preserve and document our rich cultural heritage and legacy to... Read Full Bio
Founded in 1972, NOVAC cultivates Louisiana’s racially and economically diverse communities to become involved in television production and community-based storytelling. In the 1970s, New Orleans had the largest percentage of poor residents and the most inequitable urban income distribution of any... Read Full Bio
Formed in 1968 in New York City after the Pentagon protests against the Vietnam War, Newsreel was a filmmaker's collective linked with the New Left. About four dozen filmmakers participated, initially under the umbrella name of Camera News Inc. The goal was to have their films usher in a people's... Read Full Bio
Established in 1975, NEXUS/foundation for today’s art is as an artist-run, non-profit gallery space dedicated to supporting local emerging and experimental artists engaged in new art practices. NEXUS presents challenging, innovative and compelling exhibitions of contemporary art that stimulate... Read Full Bio
Not Channel Zero was a New York City-based video collective of African American video artists formed in the early 1990s. It combined alternative television style with a critique of commercial media, using low-end, accessible technology and extremely small budgets, sometimes only fifty dollars. For... Read Full Bio
Formed in opposition to global inequality, the Occupy Movement advanced social and economic justice and propelled new forms of democracy. The movement is leaderless, horizontal, multiple, and vast. With many different local groups, the movement had many goals, but generally focused on large... Read Full Bio
Orlando Ford made Take Me Home (Detroit Narrative Agency, 2018) in Detroit. A native Detroiter, Willie Orlando Ford is a cinematographer who has worked across the country and in Canada and Mexico, for clients like Fox, CNN, Animal Planet, NFL Network and PBS for twenty years. He now concentrates... Read Full Bio
Our Children's Trust elevates the voice of youth to secure the legal right to a stable climate and healthy atmosphere for the benefit of all present and future generations. Through our programs, youth participate in advocacy, public education and civic engagement to ensure the viability of all... Read Full Bio
Since 2004, Outta Your Backpack Media (OYBMedia) has empowered Indigenous youth through free filmmaking workshops and resource distribution, a response to Indigenous communities needs for media justice. From corporate media bias to lack of coverage of Indigenous issues, media injustices are rampant... Read Full Bio
Pablo Colapinto was part of the team that produced Los Trabajadores (Scribe Video Center, 2002) in Pennsylvania.
Paper Tiger Television (PTTV) is a non-profit video collective founded in 1981. Collaborating with artists, activists, and scholars, it pioneered experimental, improvisational, innovative, satirical, and alternative community media to analyze popular culture and politics. An early innovator in... Read Full Bio
Pearl Quach worked with the group that made Freedom on the Block? (Vietnamese Youth Development Center, 2004) in San Francisco.
Pedro Rivera (also known as Pedro Ángel Rivera Muñoz) collaborated with Susan Zeig on Plena is Work, Plena is Song (1989) in Puerto Rico and New York City. He is a renowned Puerto Rican documentarian. He graduated from SUNY Buffalo in 1969. Shortly after that, he started teaching super 8mm film... Read Full Bio
Peter Gessner was part of the collective that made Finally Got the News (1970) in Detroit. He also directed and produced Time of the Locust (1966), Last Summer Won’t Happen (1977), and Over-Under-Sidways-Down (1977). After several years of working in independent film, he shifted into various jobs,... Read Full Bio
Prevention Point Philadelphia works to provide safe and human alternatives to the war on drugs. Since its off-the-radar and illegal beginnings in 1991, they have grown into a recognized, multi-service public health organization that continues its commitment to a community-based model that seeks to... Read Full Bio
Rene Lichtman was part of the collective that produced Finally Got the News (1970) in Detroit, Michigan. Lichtman moved to the United States at the age of thirteen after surviving the German occupation of France. He worked with The Living Theater, helped found Newsreel, and pursued a painting... Read Full Bio
Robert Nakamura is one of the founders of Visual Communications, a media group inaugurated in the 1970s in Los Angeles to develop and support the voices of Asian American and Pacific Islander filmmakers and media artists. He made Wataridori: Birds of Passage (Visual Communications, 1974) in... Read Full Bio
Robyn Hutt was part of the collective that produced Testing the Limits: NYC (Testing the Limits Collective, 1987). The Testing the Limits Collective included Greg Bordowitz and Meieran as well as Sandra Elgear, Robyn Hutt and Hilery Joy Kipnis, and Jean Carlomusto. Within the first year of its... Read Full Bio
Ryan Saunders is an award-winning independent documentary filmmaker with deep roots in Philadelphia's collaborative media community. Originally from the twin-island state of Trinidad and Tobago, Saunders’s personal film work explores the history and culture of Caribbean immigrants in North America... Read Full Bio
Sammy Soeun was part of the collaborative team that made Freedom on the Block? (Vietnamese Youth Development Center, 2004) in San Francisco, California.
San Francisco Newsreel was one of several Newsreel collective groups around the US during the 1960s and 1970s. It formed in San Francisco in the late 1960s, linked from the outset to the counterculture, anti-capitalist politics, and the New Left. Members were not only filmmakers, but also... Read Full Bio
Sandra Elgear was part of the collective that produced Testing the Limits: NYC (Testing the Limits Collective, 1987). Born in Canada, Sandra attended the Whitney Independent Study Program.
Sasha Constanza-Chock was part of the team that developed and mounted Voces Móviles/Mobile Voices (Instituto de Educación Popular del Sur de California / Institute for Popular Education of Southern California [IDEPSCA], 2010) in Los Angeles, California.
Sasha is a cofounder of Voz Mob and a board... Read Full Bio
Scribe Video Center was founded in 1982 by Louis Massiah as a place where emerging and experienced media artists could work together, gaining instruction and access to the tools for video making. Scribe provides training in film, video, audio production, and computer-based interactive media as... Read Full Bio
Seyha Tap was part of the collaborative team that made Freedom on the Block? (Vietnamese Youth Development Center, 2004) in San Francisco, California.
Shelby Ray was part of the Outta Your Backpack Media Workshop with Indigenous Youth that produced the animation Legend of the Weresheep (Outta Your Media Backpack, 2007) in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Shyanna Marks was part of the Outta Your Media Backpack Workshop with Indigenous Youth that produced the animation Legend of the Weresheep (Outta Your Media Backpack, 2007) in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Simone Farkhondeh (also known as Simin) was part of the collective that produced Just Say No: The Gulf Crisis TV Project (Deep Dish TV and Paper Tiger Television, 1990). She is an award-winning filmmaker, artist, educator, and activist. From 1995 to 2003 she produced and directed the acclaimed... Read Full Bio
Internationally acclaimed filmmaker and educator James Blue and founding director Ed Hugetz founded SWAMP in 1977. With initial financial support of Houston philanthropists John and Dominique de Menil, SWAMP became the first Texas independent nonprofit organization focused on the citizen filmmaker... Read Full Bio
Spencer Nakasako was the facilitator for Freedom on the Block? (Vietnamese Youth Development Center, 2004) in San Francisco, California. He has over thirty-five years experience as an award-winning independent filmmaker. Besides a fifteen-plus year residency at the Vietnamese Youth Development... Read Full Bio
Steve de Sève was on the team that produced A Cop Watcher’s Story: El Grito de Sunset Park Attempts to Deter Police Brutality (BRIC TV, 2017) in Brooklyn, New York. The video was nominated for a New York Emmy. He is a producer, cinematographer, and editor for BRIC TV. He works professionally as a... Read Full Bio
Stewart Bird worked as a maker on the production collective that produced Finally Got the News (1970) in Detroit. He has authored or coauthored a number of books, plays, and novels including the book Solidarity Forever:An Oral History of the IWW (1985),the play The Wobblies: The US vs. MS D.... Read Full Bio
Susan Zeig collaborated with Pedro Rivera to produce Plena is Work, Plena is Song (1989) in Puerto Rico and New York City. Susan is a documentary filmmaker focusing on issues of social concern. Her current work leads from the decades of dismal graduation rates in many urban neighborhoods, and how... Read Full Bio
Teena Webb, a member of the Kartemquin Collective, is part of the production team that made HSA Strike '75.
Formed in 1987, the Testing The Limits Collective aimed to empower people with AIDS through documentary. When the US government took no action toward the AIDS epidemic, global activism emerged, and Testing The Limits formed to document it. In 1986, David Meieran and Gregg Bordowitz developed a... Read Full Bio
Third World Newsreel (TWN) fosters the creation and dissemination of independent media by and about people of color on social justice and political issues. Emerging from an African American, Latino/a, and Asian American caucus of members who critiqued the Newsreel organization (founded in 1968) as... Read Full Bio
Tim and Rio are part of the B Media Collective, and produced Occupy Portland Eviction Defense (B Media Collective, 2011).
Tony Buba made Voices from a Steeltown (1983) in Braddock, Pennsylvania. Tony and his production company, Braddock Films, represent a singular commitment to the communities of Braddock and Pittsburgh. An active independent filmmaker and lifelong resident of Braddock, Buba produced films since 1974... Read Full Bio
Video Active was a loose collective utilizing direct action production methods that joined the many alternative and oppositional media groups and independent journalists who participated in the Indy Media coverage of the 1999 protests against the WTO in Seattle, Washington. They contributed to the... Read Full Bio
The Vietnamese Youth Development Center (VYDC) empowers Asian, Pacific Islander, and urban youth by developing leadership, supporting academics, providing job opportunities, and strengthening relationships. In the 1970s, families fled war-ravaged Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. They settled in the... Read Full Bio
Vinh Dong was part of the youth team that made Freedom on the Block? (Vietnamese Youth Development Corporation, 2004) in San Francisco, California.
Based in Los Angeles, Visual Communications (VC) is the first community-based, nonprofit media arts organization created by and for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Inspired by the Civil Rights and Anti-War Movements, indie filmmakers Duane Kubo, Robert Nakamura, Alan Ohashi, and Eddie Wong... Read Full Bio
A participatory design project and open source mobile media project, VozMob is a platform for immigrant and non-immigrant low-wage workers in Los Angeles to create stories about their lives and communities directly from cell phones. It facilitates greater participation in the digital public sphere... Read Full Bio
W. Zein Nakhoda is a filmmaker and popular educator based in Philadelphia, PA. He's made community and activist media with Scribe Video Center, Media Mobilizing Project, and independently. He worked as Post-Production Facilitator on Seeds of Awakening: The Early Nation of Islam in Philadelphia with... Read Full Bio
Wanda Moore worked on the team to make To The Point (Scribe Video Center, 1997) in Philadelphia.
Founded in 1996 by A. Mark Liiv, Jeffrey Taylor, and Adams Wood with Francine Cavanaugh joining in 2000, Whispered Media is a collective that uses video production and media resources to document social and political issues. It is part of a growing movement of grassroots documentary makers who are... Read Full Bio
Following George Holliday’s Sony Handycam recording of police brutality against Rodney King in 1991 and Peter Gabriel’s observation of abuse while traveling with Amnesty International, the Reebok Foundation and the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights cofounded WITNESS together with Gabriel in 1992.... Read Full Bio