Guest Blog: Jeremy Levine's "Good Fortune"

Five summers ago, I arrived in the Wilmington firehouse for my first day of work as a summer intern at Working Films. Three days later, I got appendicitis and was rushed into surgery. And one week ago, I watched Good Fortune, a feature documentary I produced and edited, air on POV on PBS. All of these events feel connected to me, I’m just not sure how exactly. Perhaps it’s the surreal feeling to it all—arriving to work the first day confused to find a firehouse in place of a standard…

A New Kind of Website

A few months ago, Working Films consulted with the filmmakers of A New Kind of Listening and Speaking in Tongues about the redesign of their websites. Their new websites launched just in time for summer and we are impressed by the outcome! See the transformation for yourself by clicking on the before and after images below! A New Kind of Listening BEFORE: AFTER: Speaking in Tongues BEFORE: AFTER:

Huffington Post: 'The Fence' Questions Consequences Of U.S.-Mexico Border Wall Endorsed By John McCain

Huffington Post: Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)was clear in his campaign ad last week: “Complete the danged fence,” he told an Arizona sheriff, who appeared with him in the immigration-themed ad. The fence that McCain was referring to is actually a series of barriers along the U.S.-Mexican border that were approved by congress in 2006. It’s also the subject of Rory Kennedy’s short film “The Fence (La Barda).” Kennedy’s film, shot well before Arizona’s new immigration law or McCain’s new ad, calls into question the effectiveness and the unintended consequences of…

Host Your Own ‘Meal & a Movie’ Event

The Hunger Season is now inviting schools and universities, NGO’s, environmental groups, and faith based organizations to order a copy of the film and host their own ‘Meal & a Movie’ event – similar to the one hosted in Madison during Tales from Planet Earth. Multiple copies of the DVD can be included so that organizations can reach out to their constituency, raise awareness around hunger and raise money for their organization at the same time. When the group comes together, it is asked for them to forgo their evening…

With 'Good Fortune' Story Will Lead to Action

Sophie Gore Browne from Chicken & Egg pictures joins us as a guest blogger Chicken & Egg Pictures in partnership with Working Films hosted another STORY LEADS TO ACTION at 92YTribeca, with a screening of the documentary Good Fortune by filmmakers Landon Van Soest and Jeremy Levine. Set in Kenya, the documentary vividly calls into question the positive impact of international development organizations, from the housing reconstruction efforts of the UN in the slums of Kibera to a private agri-business in the swamp lands of Yala. The film raises issues…

Tales from Planet Earth – Movie & a Meal

When watching news about famines and starving people in foreign countries, we often feel removed from the problem, even as we express pity and regret. Beadie Finzi’s The Hunger Season shatters our illusions of distance, however, revealing the complex interconnections between global economic systems, the hunger for new biofuel sources of energy, global climate change, political unrest, and resulting devastation of drought and famine for millions of people around the world. Tracing the journey of food aid from the fields of Wisconsin farmers to USAID and finally to Swaziland, where…

Good Fortune at SILVERDOCS

We are excited that our former Ithaca Park Scholar, Jeremy Levine, is heading to SILVERDOCS this week for the World Premiere of a film that he has been working tirelessly on with his filmmaking partner Landon Van Soest. Good Fortune explores how massive, international efforts to alleviate poverty in Africa may be undermining the very communities they aim to benefit. Through intimate portraits of two Kenyans battling to save their homes from large-scale development organizations, the film presents a unique opportunity to experience foreign aid through the people it is…

And the Award Goes to…

Judith and I just announced the Full Frame / Working Films Award at the barbecue. Our award, sponsored by Chicken & Egg Pictures and the Ettinger Foundation, is for the film that holds the greatest potential for supporting serious grassroots organizing, equity, justice and human rights. This year we gave the award to a film which much of it was shot with small digital camcorders. It is an instructive, how-to, inspiring primer on what citizen journalism is all about. It speaks to the power of individuals using what ever recording…

Women’s Power Exemplified: Pray the Devil Back to Hell opens in NYC

One of our newest projects is Pray the Devil Back to Hell, a film by Abigail Disney and Gini Reticker. This award winning film chronicles the remarkable story of the courageous Liberian women who came together across faith to end a bloody civil war and bring peace to their shattered country. We are so excited to be part of the efforts to engage audiences in the issues of women’s power and the potential of nonviolent action, and we are thrilled that the film is receiving stellar reviews. Pray the Devil…

Blog Action Day: Documentaries on Poverty

Today is Blog Action Day and people all over are writing posts about issues of poverty. We immediately thought about a film that brought home the 2008 Full Frame / Working Films Award, Trouble the Water. The award winning documentary captures the story of a couple, Kim and Scott, who were trapped in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. The film offers a first hand account of people living in the 9th ward with limited resources who are unable to evacuate the city and forced to survive the floods. After three…