Media That Matters

After the Cuban revolution of 1959, cinema would become a major component in the socio-political revolution of the Cuban consciousness. Some filmmakers would experience a rise to fame, while the names of other filmmakers were almost forgotten in the public memory.  In March, as a graduate MFA candidate in the American University School of Communication, I embarked on the filming of Nuestra Cuba (Our Cuba), a documentary that follows the untold stories of the Institute of Cuban Cinematographic Art and Industry’s (ICIAC) first women and Afro-Cuban filmmakers: Sara Gomez and Gloria Rolando.  Read more...

Dear CMSI,

I work at a museum and I’m on a team that’s putting together an exhibition on art emerging from twenty-first-century protest movements, with a web component and an interactive, online catalogue. Some of the art is digital, some is ephemeral, some of it was created anonymously. I already have access to most of it, but do I need to get permissions before I can use it? Read more...

Georgiy Molodtsov, a Fulbright scholar in the MA program at American University, was this year's winner of the "Media That Matters" award for his work on "Unbind Yourself". The project was recently presented at Cannes Lions, the biggest advertising festival in the world.

This interview has been edited and condensed.Read more...

Nearly four years after having a VBAC delivery attended by a hospital nurse-midwife, CMSI co-director Brigid Maher’s social impact documentary The Mama Sherpas: Midwives Across America premiered this week at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica, CA and at the UCSF Nursing School in San Francisco, CA. Executive producers Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein (The Business of Being Born) were in attendance.

The premiere events were organized to raise awareness about barriers to midwifery practice and specifically brought light to California AB1306, a full practice authority bill currently pending in CA legislature. Read more...

Former CMSI Graduate Fellow Kelsey Marsh recently won the Jury Award at the Diversity in Cannes Short Film Showcase for her film Noncritical.

The 20-minute short film follows the journey of Valencia Harris, a mother struggling to bring media and police attention to her daughter's disappearance. Unique Harris, a mother of two from southeastern DC, went missing from her home on October 10, 2010. Her disappearance was initially classified as "non-critical".  Read more...