2014 National MediaMaker Fellows

For over 20 years Susan has been a birth doula, helping women bring their babies into the world. Today she is bringing her own big ideas to life as a writer and filmmaker and recently completed her first short film, First Clue. She lives and works in San Francisco. First Clue is a web-based media project that collects and shares stories from LGBT individuals answering the question, “What was your first clue that you were a lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or transgender?”

Life After Life is a story of multi-generational violence, youth incarceration, life in prison, and the struggle to return home. It follows two men, incarcerated as teenagers for murder and who come of age in prison, as they learn to provide for themselves and their families for the first time. Jesse is a cinematographer with over a decade of experience shooting in environments ranging from large sound stages to San Quentin Prison. His commercial work has earned him four Emmy Awards and two of his features have received national releases.

Tamara is a changemaker who has developed transformative programs training at-risk youth and incarcerated men in filmmaking, spoken on prison and human rights issues in a TEDx talk and received the National Council on Crime and Delinquency’s Media for a Just Society Award. Life After Life is a story of multi-generational violence, youth incarceration, life in prison, and the struggle to return home. It follows two men, incarcerated as teenagers for murder and who come of age in prison, as they learn to provide for themselves and their families for the first time.  

Chithra is a documentary filmmaker and film educator based in Washington D.C. She has an MFA in Film Production from the University of Texas, Austin and she makes socially conscious films that break societal barriers, build bridges, change attitudes and enable people. 1001 Breast Cancer Nights is a mosaic of audio-visual diaries of Indian breast cancer experiences: vibrant tales of medicine, myth, stigma, survival, romance, tragedy, comedy, artistry, burlesque and even erotica. Taking the form of an online portal, the project will facilitate exchange of information that initiates public dialogue, significantly improving the understanding of the disease, compliance to medical treatment [...]

Cassandra is a Bay Area filmmaker who is currently producing for the Al Jazeera America documentary series Fault Lines. Her work has been featured on PBS’s FRONTLINE/World, Sound Tracks, America’s Investigative Reports, as well as cable and independent programs. Framed takes a provocative look at activism and empowerment in the age of connectivity by following two inspiring protagonists - a young Kenyan leader shattering the stereotype of the passive aid recipient, and a Brooklyn-born organizer building a movement for effective change at home.

The JEROME Project is a multi-platform art history project to preserve, protect, and further the artistic legacy of the late San Francisco-based painter and drag performer Jerome Caja (1958-1995). It is about community, visibility and accessibility to Jerome's paintings and performances. Anthony worked for 18 years on cutting-edge films that fused animation with live action (Natural Born Killers and Tank Girl) and mainstream 2D/3D animated films that re-defined visual FX technology (The Iron Giant, Space Jam, Osmosis Jones and Looney Tunes Back in Action). He helped establish Warner Brothers’ Animation division, where he worked as an art director, technical director, compositor and animator.

Harmed & Dangerous follows Bay Area youth facing felony charges through a first-of-its-kind experiment: restorative justice. The film takes a character-driven, vérité approach to observe this alternative to incarceration and raise questions about punishment, the promise of restorative justice, and whether the intervention it offers is sufficient to create meaningful change for under-resourced youth. Vanessa is an independent cinematographer and documentary filmmaker based in San Francisco. She has shot for Al Jazeera, the Center for Investigative Reporting, PBS and Showtime. Vanessa holds a master's degree in journalism from UC Berkeley. She also co-organizes Backyard Films, a pop-up screening series featuring Bay Area short [...]

Hope is 30 years old and fighting to save her historic African American neighborhood from encroachment by an elite white fraternity, one known to fly the Confederate flag. Old South explores two Southern communities as they collide, and strive to keep their respective legacies relevant in a changing America. Danielle makes documentaries. Her feature Learning to Swallow (2005) premiered at Silverdocs and toured the Southern Circuit. She is a Visiting Professional in Digital Media at Marquette University.