Directory of Sponsored Projects

Every Friday night, former convicts and prisoners’ loved ones meet in downtown Houston to create “The Prison Show,” a radio show that caters to prisoners and the families they've left behind. For decades, the staff has been trying to make life a little easier for those who have loved ones that are locked up, as well as for those who are incarcerated. They want to change the public's perception of prisoners to remind us that the people behind bars are husbands, fathers, sons and daughters. And they want prisoners to remember that people on the outside are waiting for them. The first hour offers news and talk about Texas prisons and the courts. However, it is the second hour that has made the radio show popular, when relatives can call in live to leave messages to those who are listening behind bars. For two minutes, inmates can hear their loved ones’ voice, as well as the sounds of freedom: a child crying, a dog barking, an ice-cream truck in the background… These everyday noises remind them of what they hope to find again someday. In Texas, where rarely a month goes by without an execution, the radio produces a special program that airs during each execution. Legal analysts comment the case, while activists report from outside the Death House. The staff conducts an interview with the inmate a few weeks before he is scheduled to be put to death. While he is strapped on a gurney and technicians prepare the

In the ADIOS AMOR, the discovery of forgotten photographs taken over fifty years ago sparks the search for an unsung hero: Maria Moreno, a migrant mother who sacrificed everything but her twelve kids in the passionate pursuit of justice for farmworkers. Haunted by personal tragedy and blessed with a gift for oratory, Maria rolled up her sleeves, collected signatures, and electrified audiences. Chosen by her fellow Mexican American, Okie, Filipino and Black field workers to represent them, Maria became the first farm worker woman in America to be hired as a union organizer. Years before Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta launched the UFW, Maria’s charisma drew crowds, but her outspokenness got her into trouble with labor bosses, who fired her and erased her legacy. The search for Maria guides this documentary, where ghosts fade in and out and magic underpins a rawboned reality. In the end, whose stories get told may hinge on memories, coincidence and—in Maria’s case—an insistence on pursuing a path that touches the lives of others. From California’s great Central Valley, to the Arizona desert and US-Mexico border, the journey yields buried treasure…and stories told with passion and humor. A deeply human drama also comes to life of farmworkers living in dire poverty whose family, faith and working class culture sustained them. ADIOS AMOR—THE SEARCH FOR MARIA MORENO revives the epic saga of a trailblazing woman, while inspiring us to launch our own journeys of discovery into a provocative past.

Homecoming, a character-driven documentary shot in verité style tells the intergenerational story of two women, Johnny Frisbie and Amelia Borofsky, as they cross the Pacific to return to their remote childhood home of Pukapuka. The film follows their riveting return to this spiritual, animistic atoll. Homecoming takes 86 year-old Johnny and 40 year-old Amelia not only on a physical voyage across the Pacific, but also on a spiritual journey to find what is most true in their lives in the land itself and the Pacific ocean that unites them. In Pukapuka, the film shows them walking barefoot on the sunken reef, trolling for diminishing tuna, sinking their feet in the taro patches, and reconciling time with memories. Located in the Cook Islands, Pukapuka follows a Polynesian way of life lost to other Pacific islands. Pukapukans here have survived with nature for centuries despite the threat of sea level rising. The community has little contact with outsiders or tourists. Homecoming tells the viewer to a unique place where time is circular. The past and present collide. Dreamtime and reality intersect. The quest of each character – to reconcile different worlds and cross spiritual dimensions – binds them together, and provides the dramatic arc of the film. Interwoven in visual metaphor the film follows Johnny and Amelia’s journey over three acts – the film opens with both women already landed on their magical childhood atoll, both in their element tracing the past. The beginning of Homecoming dives into the personal journeys of

In 2009 after she was sentenced to more than two years of imprisonment for solicitation of prostitution, Marcia Powell was locked in a metal cage in the sun at an Arizona prison. Hours later she collapsed in the over 107-degree heat and by day's end, she was dead. Even though an internal investigation carried out by the Arizona Department of Corrections revealed that prison guards had denied her water and ridiculed her when she pleaded for help, no one was held accountable. The story of how Marcia came to be incarcerated and the circumstances of her death reveal the impact that inhumane prison conditions are having on wide range communities of sex workers—including the homeless, young people, transgender people and immigrants—across the United States. The documentary NO HUMAN INVOLVED chronicles how a movement formed around this case, seeking justice in her name.

Santa Maria thrives on farming, and while for many Mexican immigrants, the community is an opportunity for a better life, the teenage experience is full of confusion and what it means to dream. Set against this backdrop, COAST is the moment right before womanhood when your friends are your life and music is your soul. For 16-year-old Abby, home is the last place she wants to be. Abby struggles to express herself in the midst of the breakdown of her family and seeks refuge in music and her diverse group of girlfriends. Just as Abby begins to act out and take bigger risks, she meets Dave, the lead singer of Piñata Jones, whose van breaks down in town. Dave recognizes the artist in Abby and opens her up to a world of possibility. Abby doesn't understand her hunger to see, feel and experience more, and to be able to express all that is inside of her, yet her wide-eyed curiosity and her love for music is untethered, raucous and physical, pushes Abby past her shyness and leads her to self-discovery. When Abby arrives at a crossroads and considers leaving everything she has known behind, her perspective on her world is expanded as she learns lessons about friendship, love, change, and what it means to appreciate home and family. With an exciting cast and live music performances, COAST is a coming-of-age story that shows that true courage means showing up for your life and living in your own truth.

Razing Liberty Square follows three female protagonists fighting for the soul of one of the last African-American neighborhoods in Miami, historic Liberty Square. Best known as the real-life location for the Oscar-winning film Moonlight. A fiery principal of a school that grew out of necessity for at-risk kids who can’t attend public school, she is saving them one by one, keeping her ideals and refusing to sell out. An 86-year old preservationist who will not give up the last tangible piece of Miami’s black history and a single-mom turned housing activist who won’t be bought or intimidated out of her home. They are defending their community against the onslaught of ‘Climate Gentrification’ since their neighborhood literally sits on the highest and driest land in Miami, a city under threat of rising sea levels due to Global Warming. And now after years of neglect by the city, developers are circling the neighborhood like buzzards. With Miami being one of the most diverse but also most segregated cities in the country, Razing Liberty Square encapsulates the past and future of public housing, putting human faces on the housing crisis. Their success and failures speak to one of the biggest questions of our time: is fair housing in our cities a basic human right?

GUANGZHOU LOVE STORY takes an unprecedented look at race, identity, and nationhood from the perspective of an interracial family trying to navigate life in modern China. For the past decade, Congolese trader Julio and his Chinese wife Wendy, a former factory girl, have forged a home for their family in China’s manufacturing capital of Guangzhou. New challenges await though. As China’s markets slow, Julio’s business flounders and Wendy decides to take on new work, leading to a crisis in their marriage. As anti-African sentiment rises in response to Guangzhou’s growing African population, their two young daughters encounter increasing racist hostility at school. With life in China growing increasingly restrictive and unwelcoming, Julio begins to dream of a better future for the family outside of China—back in his hometown of Kinshasa, Congo. Will it be the fresh start they hope for though?

Ohero:kon - Under the Husk” is a 26-min documentary following the journey of two Mohawk girls as they take part in their traditional passage rites to becoming Mohawk Women. Kaienkwinehtha and Kasennakohe are childhood friends from traditional families living in the Mohawk Community of Akwesasne that straddles the U.S. / Canada border. They both take part in a four- year adolescent passage rites ceremony called Oheró:kon “Under the Husk” that has been revived in their community. This ceremony challenges them spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically. It shapes the women they become.

Legendary game designer Brenda Romero’s TEDx talk has been viewed over half a million times. Through her social media, Brenda, now fifty-two and a mother of an ethnically blended family of four, shares her passion for games, her challenge to lose weight, and her devotion to her husband, game developer John Romero. Brenda creates board games that address marginalized members of society, leads workshops for at-risk youth, guides her video game company, Romero Games, and has influenced millions. GAME ON, a character-driven feature documentary asks, Who is this woman, how does she do it all, and can she continue to strike video game gold? How can she stay relevant in an ever-changing world - and in an industry that favors youth? Currently, Brenda and her husband John are developing a top-secret game. In the past, Brenda launched a game - a stressful endeavor in any capacity - while eight months pregnant with twins. How will she do it now? And, as she ages, can Brenda keep the video game hits coming? GAME ON will immerse the viewer in Brenda’s quest and her unique universe. GAME ON will also inspire girls to follow their dreams, to transform digital culture, and to build a world of allies in an ever-polarizing world.

Today, women make up less than one quarter of all those employed in STEM occupations in the United States. These numbers are much worse for women of color: Asian, black women and Latinas made up slightly less than 10% of working scientists and engineers in the United States in 2015. Science is supposed to be built on objectivity, and yet, most researchers agree that these bleak numbers are evidence of deep bias. Over the course of careers, small slights add up to prevent many women from achieving leadership positions in STEM fields. And sometimes, tragically, brilliant women drop out altogether. But now, the terrain is shifting. This film chronicles the groundswell of women scientists who are changing the face of science in the United States and around the world. Using dogged research techniques and careful data collection, these women are not only contributing to our understanding of what keeps women scientists down, but advocating for a more diverse and inclusive future for all. The film will take a novel, collaborative approach to its storytelling, allowing the scientists themselves to guide the narrative of the film. Science is therefore both the subject of the film, and also — through our three main characters — its guiding sensibility, providing viewers a deeper understanding of what it takes to be a scientist. Equal parts insightful and inspiring, this film will illuminate both the hard data and the very human stories of women in science.

River of Grass addresses the Florida Everglades’ past, present, and future through Marjory Stoneman Douglas’s groundbreaking book, The Everglades: River of Grass (1947) which transformed popular perception of the land from a worthless swamp into a valuable river. Marjory was a Miami-based journalist. suffragist, and advocate for the Everglades until her death at 108 years old. Over haunting Everglades landscapes and an otherworldly soundscape, Marjory's observations of a shifting and developing South Florida contextualize present-day scenes in which a diverse cross-section of people navigate their relationship with a compromised place. Positioning past and present directly in conversation with one another, the film reveals how historical events inextricably shape the present. Together the stories build a complex collective map of a unique and endangered place.

“Bought/Broken” is an interactive experience that examines the relationships and violence of abuse through the lens of objects bought, broken and repaired, evoking memories through objects and exploring the idea of gain and loss. Since Fall of 2014, I have been compositing the experiences and stories of domestic violence survivors, whose personal items were broken during an altercation, bought out of remorse, or rebuilt after leaving the relationship. The stories behind the objects are from people whose partners belittled, threatened, or hurt the - people from many ages and socio-economic backgrounds. The nature of the objects reflects the escalation of control through emotional and then physical violence. The project has three parts: Workshops, Film, and Installation. People can submit or tag their own bought, broken or repaired objects. The “repaired” objects relate to how people transcend their trauma to hopefully reach peace or closure.

Selvi, like so many girls living within India’s patriarchal culture, is forced to marry at 14, only to find herself in a violent marriage. One day in deep despair, she chooses to escape, going on to become South India’s first female taxi driver. We first meet Selvi at a girls’ shelter in 2004 – timid, soft-spoken, a fresh runaway from a difficult life. Over a ten-year journey, we see a remarkable transformation as Selvi finds her voice and defies all expectations – learning to drive, starting her own taxi company, leading educational seminars, and much more. This character-driven story highlights the challenges that millions of devalued women and girls in India face. In a society where women are often considered expendable or worthless, Selvi is exceptional – a charming, strong, and utterly courageous young woman who moves beyond the pain she’s experienced to create a new life.

Growing up, filmmaker Theresa Loong knew that her father, Paul Loong, was older than most of her friends' parents. Throughout her youth and young adulthood, Theresa recalls a cheerful father who loved to laugh and play pranks on his kids. But underneath all that laughter, he would show occasional flashes of anger and sadness. One day young Theresa asked him innocently about a curious scar on his back. "Everyone has secrets," he would say. She knew this much: his road to becoming an American citizen was anything but direct. As a Chinese Malaysian teenager serving in the British Royal Air Force, he spent three years at hard labor as a prisoner of war in Japan. But it wasn't until Theresa uncovered a hidden diary her father kept while imprisoned, that she uncovered other family secrets. The film draws upon Paul's experiences to explore contemporary issues of war, immigration, and national identity. It celebrates the freedom that comes with confronting the past and facing the future with resilience, forgiveness, and love.

Lacy (28), Raiderette Cheerleader, Oakland Raiders. After an exhausting 12-hour Sunday dancing on the field, Lacy bursts through her small apartment doors to a hungry family, her husband Josh (28) and daughter, Scarlett (2). Josh reminds her, “You’re about to default on your student loans. When are they going to pay you?” After 6 months of working over 20 hours a week practicing, weight training, doing appearances and dancing on game days, she has yet to see a single paycheck. Maria (29), Jills Cheerleader, Buffalo Bills. In below freezing temperatures, Maria requests to leave work early in order to make it on time to her Buffalo Jills’ dance rehearsals. Maria’s heart sinks as she opens an email and sees her name under “BENCHED” for being overweight. She recalls the humiliation of a golf fundraiser where she was forced to sit on men’s laps in exchange for money. Lacy hires the all-female law firm LVBH and files a class-action lawsuit against the Raiders, asking for legal pay and better working conditions. This inspires Maria to do the same with the lawyers of Dolce Panepinto, adding the NFL, a broadcasting company and the cheer director as defendants. As Lacy is forced into arbitration and settles her case, Maria continues to fight through depositions, mediations and hearings. Assemblywomen Lorena Gonzalez and Nily Rozic propose and pass laws to force teams to treat their cheerleaders as employees. Lacy and Maria are empowered to become leaders in their communities.

In 2003, Oprah Winfrey sought out some of America’s greatest poets to contribute to an issue of OWN Magazine dedicated to the human body. There was a mad dash by poets to choose the heart, the brain and the skin to serve as poetic metaphor for their balladry. African American poet Nikki Giovanni’s choice best illustrates her approach to life. She chose the feet and then spun a compelling and inspirational tale using the feet of African American women to describe their struggle and ultimate triumph over oppression. This is the life work of Nikki Giovanni, using poetry, humor and satire to inspire us to think, challenge assumptions and ultimately demand equity and justice. Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project opens within the privacy of Nikki’s present-day home in Blacksburg, Virginia, as she reluctantly reckons with the meaning of her legacy, her struggles with her health, and the inevitable march of time. Through the artistry and life of a poet who has lived life and created work to the beat of her own drum, the film poses universal questions on the human condition while simultaneously pushing the boundaries of biographical storytelling through impressionistic visual language, innovative editing techniques, and stylized treatments of Giovanni’s poetry that bring her written words to life.

Told through the lens of filmmaker and subject Martine Granby, The Mask That Grins and Lies, follows Martine as she wades into the choppy waters of her own family's past, and examines how they’ll move forward once the stigma of mental illness is out in the open. Both deeply personal and expansive, the film calls into the light the denial that plagues not only Martine’s family but brings to the surface the larger structural invisibility many face in diagnosis, treatment, and daily life. The Mask That Grins And Lies challenges the mythology of the “strong black woman,” offering often-unseen imagery to challenge what it means to not just survive, but thrive, moving forward even without a cure-all.

As a legal aid lawyer working in California in the 1960s and early 70s, Stephen Bingham was involved in many of the progressive causes of his day, including civil rights, the farm workers’ movement, and prisoners’ rights. On August 21st, 1971, he was the last person to visit imprisoned Black Panther leader George Jackson before an alleged prison break out attempt that left six people dead. Bingham was suspected of having passed a gun to Jackson and was indicted for murder. He disappeared, and for 13 years his family didn’t know if he was dead or alive. In 1984, he suddenly returned to stand trial, and was eventually acquitted. But many unanswered questions remained. But this is not only a story about the past. The conflicts and contradictions in American society that defined the movements of the 1960s have not faded; in fact, the issues of racism, mass incarceration, government surveillance and war are more urgent than ever. The question of individual engagement for the cause of social justice is an enduring one, as are the risks and contradictions that such engagement necessarily entails. Stephen Bingham’s story brings these questions to the forefront again, allowing us to reflect on the nature of political commitment and action in the light of the present day. It is also a personal story, told from my perspective as Stephen Bingham’s niece, a close family member trying to unravel the mystery of her uncle’s role in 1971, his disappearance, and years of exile.