Newest Americans is a collaborative documentary project that examines migration and identity in Newark, NJ, by telling local stories with global reach.
I’ve been a part of the Newest Americans team since 2015, wearing a stack of hats ranging from producer to cinematographer to editor, translator to designer to web content manager. I’ve also had a hand in designing interactive storytelling experiences for the project.
WHEN WE MEET AGAIN
In October 2016, thirty-one women traveled from Mexico to the U.S. to be reunited with sons and daughters, siblings and grandchildren, some of whom they hadn't seen in more than 15 years. When We Meet Again follows the journey of Gabriella-Karina from her hometown of Tlaxcala, Mexico, to Brooklyn, New York, where four of her nine sisters have lived for the last fourteen years.
ROLE: PRODUCER, TRANSLATOR, CINEMATOGRAPHER, EDITOR
PRODUCED BY TALKING EYES MEDIA for newest americans
reverse migration
Since the 1980s, men from the western highlands town of Cajolá in Guatemala have been emigrating to Morristown, New Jersey in astonishingly large numbers. This film tells the story of how hard-earned knowledge acquired in New Jersey is being applied back home in Guatemala, and how the fruits of that knowledge may offer a socio-economic alternative to emigration and dramatically alter the lives of women in Cajolá.
This film was featured on the New York Times Lens Blog.
ROLE: CINEMATOGRAPHER, ASSOCIATE PRODUCER, TRANSLATOR
PRODUCED BY TALKING EYES MEDIA FOR NEWEST AMERICANS
THE ARRIVALS BOOTH
The Arrivals Booth is a mini-mobile recording studio and a photo booth. Visitors can take a self-portrait, which prints a take-home memento, then share their stories about how they and their families came to the United States. The Booth reflects the incredible mosaic of human migration, resilience, and cross-pollination that has made America what it is today. It is a celebration of the complex factors that brought us together at this moment in this place.
Originally designed for and launched at the Newest Americans exhibit at Photoville 2017, the Booth has since been used in schools, libraries and businesses around Newark to gather and document local stories of migration.
ROLE: RESEARCH & DESIGN OF BOOTH EXTERIOR & PROGRAM
AMERICAN SUEÑO
In this six-part web series, Newest Americans follows undocumented law student Marisol Conde-Hernandez through law school as she navigates her winding way to becoming an attorney. As the nation wrestles over immigration regulations, American Sueño explores what is at stake for Marisol and her mixed-status family.
ROLE: PRODUCER, CINEMATOGRAPHER, Editor, TRANSLATOR
PRODUCED BY TALKING EYES MEDIA for newest americans
RIVER KEEPER
Captain Bill Sheehan, the Hackensack River Keeper, takes us on a tour of the Passaic and Hackensack Rivers while recounting the river’s history of toxic industrial pollution.
ROLE: EDITOR
PRODUCED BY TALKING EYES MEDIA FOR NEWEST AMERICANS
NEWARK THEN/NOW
Newest Americans looks at the University Heights neighborhood of Newark in the 1960s and today, as development money flows into the city on a scale not seen in half a century. Why is University Heights so central to the emerging vision of the new Newark? What can be learned from 1967, when Newark's last sustained encounter with urban renewal erupted in flames? Now, as then, Newark’s story resonates with that of so many of the U.S.’s great industrial cities, fallen on hard times and reinventing themselves in a multi-ethnic and post-industrial world.
ROLE: EDITOR
PRODUCED BY TALKING EYES MEDIA FOR NEWEST AMERICANS
GLASS BOOKS
An exploration of the creation of glass books and the stories that inspired them.