We are thrilled to announce that Yuanchen Liu, a 2010 graduate of New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, News and Documentary, won the Margaret Mead Film Festival Award for his graduate thesis documentary, “To the Light.”
Yuanchen was one of seven nominees for the Margaret Mead Filmmaker Award, an award recognizing films that push the boundaries of visual anthropology. In the spirit of the anthropologist for which the award is named, the nominees take audiences deeply into contemporary societal challenges around the world.
Yuanchen’s experience covering stories in underdeveloped communities gave him the belief that documentaries can be a powerful tool to bring attention to pressing social issues. “To the Light” takes an intimate look at a community struggling to survive in hard economic times. For many, coal mining has become a principal source of income and the only alternative to factory jobs in distant cities. But the mines are notoriously dangerous, annually claiming an estimated 5,000 lives. In the documentary, Yuanchen overcomes the challenges presented by filming underground and provides access to what would have otherwise been an untold story. For more on the film: http://shearwaterfilms.com/to-the-light/
Over the past several years, Journalism News and Documentary students have worked with composers from the Scoring for Film and Multimedia program in the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. The beautiful score for, “To The Light,” was composed by NYU student, Edward Underhill as a result of this creative inter-school collaboration.
Yuanchen’s professors Marcia Rock, Jason Samuels, Shimon Dotan and Cora Daniels congratulate him on this wonderful recognition of his hard work and artistry.
Ethan wrote this about the experience:
Everything unfolded just so quickly. I was talking to a magazine writer about my film and we were all waiting for the announcement. I didn’t prepare anything, absolutely nothing. And Darren Aronovsky (Black Swan) went onto the stage, started to comment on the award. And he said, “it’s a film about a place that we’ve never seen before. It is an absolutely incredible film that everyone should see.” 
Then he quickly announced the winner, To the Light. I jumped out of my chair and went up to the stage, shook hands with Darren, and he delivered the award to me. And I said a few things on the stage - thanked the Margaret Mead Festival for choosing my film knowing it is only a student film shot with a SD camera, and not only choose it for the festival, but also give it the top award. I was so excited and elated and almost cried. Images of the past experience living in that village for four months with the miners, following them to the underground, and everything just flowed into my mind. To achieve something like this in China would be impossible. I hope the recognition of the film will help get it seen in China so more Chinese can understand the plight of the miners.
Sharon La Cruise produced the documentary Daisy Bates: First Lady of Little Rock On Independent Lens.
Feb 2, 2012.
Don’t miss it!
NYU alum Andrew Hongo’s thesis film “Legacy,” was recently screened at the Docutah International Film Festival and the UNSPOKEN Human Rights Festival.
Hongo has also been traveling with his films in Cambodia screening it in orphanages, drug rehab centers, and villages across the country.
Legacy, a riveting 40-minute documentary about Cambodian streetkids, will be screening on Wednesday, January 11th at 6pm as part of the New Filmmakers series. The screening will take place at Anthology Film Archives (Deren Theater) on the Lower East Side at 32 Second Avenue (at 2nd Street). New York Admission is $6 for the whole evening and tickets are available at the Anthology Box Office from 5:30pm the night of the screening. For additional information visit newfilmmakers.com; to see a trailer for Legacy visit shearwaterfilms.com/legacy.
Adjunct professor and Master Class teacher, Vanessa Roth, directed American Teacher, now screening across the country.
See more trailers and nationwide screening information.
Biography from Big Year Productions
Academy Award winning filmmaker Vanessa Roth has been writing, producing and directing pivotal documentary films, spots, specials and multimedia projects for more than a decade. Her work has been honored with dozens of additional awards including the Sundance Special Jury Prize, the Casey Journalism Silver Medal, the Cine Golden Eagle, and the Alfred I DuPont-Columbia, which is the broadcast equivalent to the Pulitzer Prize. Her films, which combine documentary storytelling with national outreach campaigns, have premiered at the top tier festivals, in theaters across the country, as prime time specials on PBS, HBO, Discovery, A&E and the Sundance Channel, and have been influential in national policy reform. Her work has been featured on Oprah, NPR, as the media centerpiece of the 2008 Bill and Melinda Gates International Education Summit, and at President Obama’s Inaugural Youth Events in DC in 2009. Vanessa is also an Adjunct Professor at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at NYU and a frequent key note speaker about exploring large social issues through intimate portraits of people. Before making films, Vanessa worked as a child advocate in public schools and family courts in New York and California. She holds a Masters degree in Social Work from Columbia University.
This year we’re celebrating Yuanchen Liu’s graduation film, To the Light, which is up for the prestigious Margaret Mead Filmmaker Award and will be shown at the Festival on Saturday November 12 at 4pm.
We also want to recognize other members of 2010 class, Annie Dietz, Andrew Hongo, Charlie Hoxie, Yara Costa Pereira, and France Costrel. Their documentaries have been awarded and screened at film festivals around the globe. Clips from the films will be featured during the evening.
Come celebrate with us. Lots of food and drinks!!
Charity Elder, Gabi Menezes and Carey Fox were NYU News and Documentary students when the 9/11 attacks took place. The days and weeks after the attack they were out in the streets of New York City reporting for their stories. Elder is the supervising producer of CBS, The Early Show, Menezes is the former Bureau Chief in West Africa for Al-Jazeera and Fox is with MSNBC. Ten years after the attack they talk to current News and Documentary students about what it was like to cover 9/11 as young journalism students, how New York City has changed, and how this experience shaped them in their journalism career.
Alum France Costrel’s film, Finding Fathers, will be screened at the 2011 YoungCuts Film Festival, in Montreal, Canada, from September 29th to October 6th, and at the 2011 Chagrin Documentary Film Festival, in Ohio, from October 11th to the 16th.
66 years after D-Day, three World War II orphans seek closure regarding their fathers’ death. They journey to the shores of Normandy, where with the help of some new friends, they find more than they could have imagined…
Alum Andrew Hongo’s film, Legacy, was screened at the Southern Utah Documentary Festival on September 9, 10 and 14.
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Thirty years after Pol Pot’s regime devastated Cambodia, a new generation struggles to make their way toward a better future. Coach Nia, a survivor whose family was murdered by the Khmer Rouge, was motivated to open a boxing club to mentor orphans and street kids. Clark, a teenager addicted to sniffing glue spends his days begging for food and his nights sleeping on sidewalks. Clark allows us deeper into his life as we meet his estranged family and see their daily struggle to overcome the scars of their past.
2010 alumni Yuanchen “Ethan” Liu’s graduation film, To The Light, will be screened at the 35th Margaret Mead Film Festival at the American Museum of Natural History, Saturday, November 12th at 4pm.
Liu is one of seven nominees for the Margaret Mead Filmmaker Award, an award recognizing films that push the boundaries of visual anthropology. In the spirit of the anthropologist for which the award is named, the nominees take audiences deeply into contemporary societal challenges around the world.
NewsDoc will honor Liu’s accomplishment our Alumni Reunion on November 9.
