Pull Focus

Connie Field is a pioneering social documentary filmmaker whose works include Freedom on My Mind (1994), a history of the civil rights movement in Mississippi, which was nominated for an Academy Award; and The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter” (1981), which is listed in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.   Most recently, she produced and directed Have You Heard from Johannesburg, a seven-part history of the international anti-apartheid movement.

In September 2010, NYU’s Center for Media, Culture and History screened   From Selma to Soweto, an episode from the series.  Earlier in the day, she sat down with Barbara Abrash for an interview.

In honor of MLK Day, CSM is hosting a screening of From Selma to Soweto at American University, Tuesday, January 18, 2011.

"It wasn’t that many years ago that we were driving production vans and crashing into garbage trucks," says Jeremy Levine. Only a few years out of Ithaca college, Jeremy Levine '06 and Landon Van Soest '04 share their experiences from the making of the 2009 Silverdocs WITNESS Award winner, Good Fortune. As part of Pull Focus series we bring you their approach to filmmaking, their outlook towards documentaries and  "a lot of lessons ... learned the hard way."

Susan Koch is an Emmy- and Peabody-winning filmmaker whose most recent film, The Other City (2010), explores a Washington, DC that visitors rarely see; a city ravaged by HIV/AIDS.  Susan is also the director and producer of Kicking It (2008), co-directed and producer of Mario's Story (2006), and the director of City at Peace (1998). On October 14, Susan joined us at American University to screen and discuss The Other City. Before the screening, we sat down with her for this interview.

In its 2010 list of 25 New Faces in Independent Film, Filmmaker Magazine tagged Rebecca Richman Cohen as an “up-and-comer poised to shape the next generation of independent film."  It’s easy to see why. Her first feature documentary, War Don Don, which she both produced and directed, has not only racked up awards and accolades, but was picked up for broadcast by HBO.  The film follows the trial of accused war criminal Issa Sesay and in the process takes a hard look at international criminal justice. This October we brought Rebecca to campus to screen War Don Don as part of our 2010 Human Rights Film Series.  We interviewed her before her screening.

Judith Helfand, the maker of A Healthy Baby Girl and co-director of Blue Vinyl and The Uprising of '34, shares strategies and secrets for fundraising, interviewing, crafting and distributing films that make a difference.