And I started helping them out because he was undocumented, and he just didn't know how to navigate the system. Well, I had been working with asylum seekers - I just got thrust into a situation where I knew somebody who's undocumented, and they had their daughters at the border. Tell me a little bit about the people that you spoke with. But what we didn't really understand completely was the human side of this story, and why so many people were fleeing, and how they were using this caravan to gain international attention to some of the issues that were happening in their region. And when these migrant caravans came together and headed toward the United States, they gained a lot of attention with Trump leveraging it as a motivator to create a wall. I think it's a crisis that a lot of people don't really know about, and it's right in our backyard. So you really have kind of the perfect storm of everything that could possibly go wrong in Central America - specifically, though, with Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala. And so I understood just the insecurity, and the challenges that people face living under Narco terrorism, and corruption, and poverty. At some point, Colombia was one of those countries. Honduras and El Salvador have the highest murder rates in the entire world. I felt a lot of parallels with some of the things that were happening in Central America, due to just the high levels of violence. What drew me to this subject is that I am a Colombian-born U.S. Since 2018, she’s been working on her upcoming documentary, Exodus Stories: Voices From the Caravan, following several immigrants who made their way to the U.S.-Mexico border as part of the “caravans” decried by then-President Donald Trump, in hopes of seeking asylum in the U.S.ĭeisy at the border. We’ll start with Ilse Fernandez, a documentary filmmaker and docu-series showrunner who has produced more than 200 hours of nonfiction storytelling for ABC, NBC, MTV, National Geographic, Netflix, and more. So I’d like to speak with some of this year’s women fellows about the projects they’re working on, and the issues important to them. The program has supported a number of big names and best-selling works on a wide range of issues. Still, fellows swap advice on finding interviews, seeking funding, pitching to publishers, editing their work, and more. While normally the program takes place at the 100-acre Carey Institute for Global Good in Rensselaerville, New York - a quiet refuge at the edge of the Catskills - its past few rounds have gone virtual for the coronavirus pandemic. This fall’s class consists of 21 reporters, filmmakers, podcasters, and photojournalists across two sessions. Here in upstate New York, the Logan Nonfiction Program has been helping creators navigate that process in hopes of bringing important stories to the forefront. Whether it's journalism, filmmaking, podcasting, or photography - moving a project from that kernel of an idea to your eyes and ears is a lot of time and work.
What goes into the media we consume every day? Well, I can only speak as a radio host, but even radio, if you’re doing it right, is harder than it sounds. You’re listening to 51%, a WAMC production dedicated to women’s issues and experiences. And we also speak with reporter Deborah Barfield Berry of the USA Today. Documentary filmmaker Ilse Fernandez previews her upcoming film, Exodus Stories.
On this week’s 51%, we speak with some of the writers and filmmakers in the Carey Institute for Global Good’s Logan Nonfiction Program.