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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Jim Morrison was part of the collective that produced Finally Got the News (1970) in Detroit, Michigan.

John Long was part of the two-person team who made Nature’s Way (Appalshop, 1973).

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Seyha Tap was part of the collaborative team that made Freedom on the Block? (Vietnamese Youth Development Center, 2004) in San Francisco, California.

Sharon Karp was a member of the Chicago production group that made HSA Strike '75.

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

The Vietnamese Youth Development Center (VYDC) empowers Asian, Pacific Islander, and urban youth by developing leadership, supporting academics, providing job opportunities, and strengthening…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…