Work
Work in this demo reel reflects a variety of roles: producer, director, camera, interviewer, editor. These excerpts from longer works are examples of “making stories make change” because they generate further work, and are used ongoing for coaching, facilitation, professional learning, campaigns, and community organizing. Collaborators include Sebastian Buffa, Blaine Dunkley, Rosa Gaia, Jeremiah Jones, Damian Oropustan, Michael Parella, Megan Perez-Carpenter, Donelle Suehead-Flynn, Kyle Ward, Jessica Wood, Erica Young.
Belonging Podcast (Producer, Director, Editor, Facilitator)
A podcast about reckoning, reconciliation, and rebuilding. Our team offers professional learning. For example, we facilitated a session at the District 65 Equity Symposium where participants engaged in storylistening and storytelling using the podcast as a common text, and set intentions for equity work in their schools. Collaborators include Erica Young, Bill Healy, Rosa Gaia, Sean Brennan, and Senyah Haynes for facilitation.
Adapting and Enhancing Curricula: Water Around the World (Producer, C0-Director)
This video was created as part of a grant funded project to support teachers in adapting EL Education’s curriculum to make it relevant to their local communities. This class in Colorado adapted a curriculum module about water, centering it around a pipeline controversy in their town, and promoting reduced water use in the community. This video series is used to professionally develop teachers to adapt curricula to respond to local contexts.
Co-directed and edited by Rosa Gaia. Camera: Blaine Dunkley, Michael Parella, Kyle Ward.
Restorative Practices in Crew at Brooklyn Collaborative (Producer)
Videos are a powerful and efficient tool to show and spread shifts in practice. This school in Brooklyn unpacks how restorative practices, an approach that often requires a shift in mindset, has changed the culture of their school. The video is a learning tool to other schools are implementing restorative practices at their schools and can learn from this proof point shown and framework described by coaches Jose Rivera and Taron Williams.
Directed and edited by Rosa Gaia in partnership with Aurora Kushner.
Make the World Better (Music Video Producer)
During the early days of lockdown, this collaborative music video was featured in the New York Times as an example of how to make schools more human. It was made in two weeks in physical isolation, in collaboration with families and music teachers. Composed by Charlotte Bowder, arranged by Sean Brennan, directed and edited by Rosa Gaia, music instruction by Victoria Stubbs and Mandolyn Barrymore. Project: Jessica Wood.
Here We March, Here We Stay (Producer, Director, Camera, Editor)
Made with Palenque Logan Square Neighborhood Association, this video documents a march for affordable housing in a rapidly gentrifying area of Chicago. The empty lot on which the march ultimately convenes is now the site of an affordable housing complex. Collaborators: Christian Diaz, Marcelo Ferrer, and Bridget Murphy.
The Power of Crew (Producer)
This video was produced for EL Education as part of a series featured in the book We Are Crew: A Teamwork Approach to School Culture. A long-range national project, this video features footage from 21 schools across 12 states. The diversity of representation shows the many ways it can look to build a culture and structure of support in schools, creating multiple entry points for viewers to try out what they see. Edited by Rosa Gaia.
Literacy is a Civil Right (Project and Video Producer & Director, Camera)
For this project, we organized with 7 schools in Detroit to build and stock little free libraries and donate them to 4 community organizations. This involved coordinating with Detroit Public Schools Community District, Detroit Little Libraries, The Heidelberg Project, Rx for Reading Detroit at University of Detroit Mercy, Detroit Hives, We Found Hip Hop, Caught Up, Brilliant Detroit, and four local artists. Camera: Sebastian Buffa, Rosa Gaia, Jeremiah Jones. Edited by Sebastian Buffa. Project; Jessica Wood.
We Acknowledge: Unerasing the Nisenan Tribe (Producer, Better World Day mini-doc grants)
I helped to establish an annual media grant program at EL Education, and supported many projects like this one, in which teachers and students participate in the media making. This documentary explores how students and staff in Nevada City, California explored their own relationship to living on unceded Nisenan land.
Editing and animation: Damian Orpustan. Content direction: Donnelle Suehead-Flynn. Support from Megan Perez-Carpenter and Rosa Gaia. Project: Jessica Wood.
The Suffragists (Music Producer)
Created for a 4th grade EL Education curriculum module Responding to Inequality: Ratifying the 19th Amendment, these four songs were adapted from a novel that anchors the study of the suffragist movement, and will be embedded in lesson plans prompting students to compare texts of different forms and genres.
Lyrics by Breah Byrd and Sean Brennan, composed by Sean Brennan.
Voices of 39 for Public Safety (Producer, Director, Editor)
In 2023, Chicago voters elected the first district council for community oversight of policing. This video was part of a campaign for three candidates running together on a slate. The entire slate was elected.
Camera: Sebastian Buffa, Paul Brennan. Made for 39th Ward Neighbors United.
The above is a small sample of work; many more projects available to view upon request. Participatory storytelling opens pathways for reflection and transformation. Foreword Motion takes an approach that is collaborative and generative, rather than transactional or extractive. The Voice of Witness Ethical Storytelling Principles and the Immigrants Rising Storytelling Bill of Rights are strong references for our approach to shared work.