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(Via UConn Today) UConn Stamford Professor, Human Rights Filmmaker Earns Two Emmy Nominations

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Oscar Guerra says the multidisciplinary partnerships at UConn expand the reach and depth of his work

Oscar Guerra, assistant professor of digital media and design, at the Stamford campus on Sept. 9, 2021. (Peter Morenus/UConn Photo)

“There are some stories that are meant for you and some others that are not – I think it is as simple as that,” says Oscar Guerra, an assistant professor of film and video in the Digital Media and Design Department at UConn Stamford.

“If you want to call it luck, if you want to call it fate, there are things that are meant for you. I think that I happened to be in the right moment at the right time.”

For Guerra, that right time was during the COVID-19 pandemic, in Stamford, and the story was that of an immigrant family from Guatemala. The mother, Zully, was admitted to the hospital with COVID while pregnant with her second child; her husband, Marvin, and son, Junior, had also contracted the virus.

Cameraman in full PPE filming a COVID-19 patient in the hospital
Oscar Guerra, an assistant professor of film/video production at UConn’s Stamford campus filming patient Zully, who was ill with COVID-19 before giving birth to son. PHOTO BY JOHN MOORE/GETTY IMAGES

Extremely ill, Zully was placed into a medically induced coma and was unconscious when her second son was born. Unable to send the baby safely home, the family turned to their son’s teacher, who remarkably agreed to care for the infant, while the local community rallied to support the family during Zully’s illness and recovery and, later, the family’s reunification.

Guerra, a documentary filmmaker whose focus is social change – with particular emphasis on capturing the realities of the Latino and immigrant experience – had his camera running during some of the family’s most wrenching moments: when Zully came home from the hospital, still ill but recovering; when the family’s continued positive COVID tests kept the new infant from coming home; and when Zully learned her mother, still in Guatemala, was also seriously ill with COVID.

He was also there when their beloved teacher finally handed the baby to his mother, five weeks after his birth, and the raw emotion of these moments is palpable in the finished piece, “Love, Life, and the Virus,” which aired on the long-running PBS program Frontline and the acclaimed Univision program Aquí y Ahora last year.

“As a journalist, I think that you have to be very objective,” Guerra says. “You have to be very rigorous with what you have. But at the same time, you’re also a person. You’re this human being that is feeling, so it’s really hard to be able to find that balance.”

The balance that Guerra struck has earned him two national Emmy nominations for “Love, Life, and the Virus,” for Outstanding Feature Story in a Newsmagazine and for Best Story in a Newsmagazine. The News & Documentary Emmy Awards will be given out in ceremonies scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 28 and Wednesday, Sept. 29.

That balance has also kicked off a new and exciting partnership between Guerra and Frontline.

“The Frontline team are, in my opinion, some of the most well respected journalists in the States – how they do it, the way in which they approach the process, is so serious, so deep,” Guerra says. “I think that after the success of ‘Love, Life and the Virus,’ they realized that I wanted to keep working with them and they wanted to keep working with me, and I had a chance to pitch an idea.”

 That new idea has come to life as a multimodal collaboration between UConn, Frontline, and the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University that will focus on the reunification of families separated at the U.S. border. The project includes documentary film as well as a multimedia web-based platform based on independent research that examines the impact of the Trump Administration’s Zero Tolerance immigration policy.

“We’re doing a comprehensive examination of the Zero Tolerance policy and its aftermath,” says Guerra. “What is the Biden Administration doing about it now? Are we going to forget about it? Are we going to learn from the past?”

The work feels personal for Guerra, he says, who was born in Mexico and came to the United States 10 years ago, and whose own child was born in the midst of Zero Tolerance.

“Can you imagine being separated from your kids, just like that, because you’re seeking asylum?” he asks. “Maybe you’re fortunate enough that it has never happened and is never going to happen to you, but what if? What would you do for your kids? I’m not trying to put any judgment or anything here, it’s just shedding light on something, it’s just starting that conversation, but this is going to be a very powerful film.”

Guerra says that the space in front of a camera was always a place he found comfortable. He was a performer from a young age, he says, and was also a professional mariachi singer in Mexico.

Cameraman in PPE
Oscar Guerra, an assistant professor of film/video production at UConn’s Stamford campus wears personal protective equipment while filming COVID-19 patients in Stamford Hospital. (PHOTO BY JOHN MOORE/GETTY IMAGES)

“From as early on, as long as I can remember, I’ve always been good in front of the camera,” he says. “I always had a very artistic sensibility. And there was a moment where I said, you know what, I think that I’m going to start producing my own stuff, not just being in front of camera. It was a very organic development – cameras became just very natural for me.”

He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the Tecnologico de Monterrey University in Mexico City, and his Ph.D. in Mass Communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; he taught at San Francisco State University before joining the faculty at UConn in 2019.

Hired to help launch the new B.F.A. film and video concentration in the Digital Media and Design Department, the ability to collaborate with UConn’s Human Rights Institute and Dodd Human Rights Impact – with great support from his department head in Digital Media and Design, Heather Elliott-Famularo – was a big selling point in his decision to join the University, he says.

“I asked about collaborations and partnerships, because that’s crucial for the type of work that I do,” Guerra says. “Being able to partner up with a place like the Human Rights Institute, it just opens up so many possibilities to expand your network. I’m new to the area, and having that background and support is a big advantage for an assistant professor.”

He continues, “We have similar interests and similar goals. We’re very committed to highlight through film human rights violations and issues. They think that film is the right medium to do this, and when you have a guy like me that is producing documentary for social change and is also interested in that, I think that’s why it was a perfect match.”

Guerra has also taken his partnerships local, working with the City of Stamford on a project to document the city’s COVID-19 vaccination rollout and response.

“Sometimes I just go out with my camera and I start documenting,” he says. “That’s my craft, what I do, and I started documenting the COVID vaccine rollout here in Stamford. I connected with the City of Stamford, because I think that I just have this precious archival footage. I told Kathy [Libal, Human Rights Institute Director] and Glenn [Mitoma, director of Dodd Impact], why don’t we work on a multimedia archival project? I have really good stuff, and just imagine how precious and how valuable that that footage is going to be.”

Guerra earned a competitive Research Excellence Program grant this year to support the Stamford project.

While he says that he tries to leave viewers of his films open to their own interpretations, he hopes that his work can help start conversations, build awareness, and maybe lead to people to greater feelings of empathy toward others.

“I realized that it was almost my moral responsibility to use my talents and my field to give back to my community,” he says. “You can start reframing the Latino immigrant experience. What we see in mainstream media, it’s not an accurate reality of who we are. Our reality is very complex and rich. Media has a lot of power, and when we document, we empower. And that’s what we need.

“I think that what we do as filmmakers, it’s so crucial. We document history, and then we change our future by understanding what happened in the past.”

Ceremonies for the 42nd Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards are scheduled for September 28 and 29.

For more information about UConn’s Human Rights Film and Digital Media Initiative, visit humanrights.uconn.edu.

Story by Jacelyn Severance for UConn Today

This Emmy® Awards ceremony will be streamed live on NATAS’ dedicated viewing platform powered by Vimeo, available on the web at watch.theemmys.tv and via The Emmys® apps for iOS, tvOS, Android, Samsung, FireTV, and Roku (see a full list at apps.theemmys.tv) at 7pm

(via UConn Today) MFA Exhibits at Benton Showcase Work by DMD, Studio Art Students

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April 21, 2021 | Kenneth Best – UConn Communications

MFA Exhibits at Benton Showcase Work by DMD, Studio Art Students

Work that celebrates the collaboration that can take place in the arts

April 21, 2021 | Kenneth Best – UConn Communications
MFA Exhibits at Benton Showcase Work by DMD, Studio Art Students
Work that celebrates the collaboration that can take place in the arts

One of the attractions for enrolling in the Master of Fine Arts in Digital Media & Design (DMD) is the opportunity to work on collaborative projects within the community of creative artists in the School of Fine Arts and beyond.

As a senior in film studies at Chung-Ang University, one of South Korea’s leading private comprehensive research universities, Hongju (Hannah) Lim was becoming interested in exploring 3D animation, and also wanted to work more collaboratively with other visual media. One of her professors told her about UConn’s MFA in DMD.

“DMD brings together multiple disciplines. I thought, if I go there I will have the opportunity to really collaborate with others, and I really did,” says Lim, who is completing the DMD MFA program this spring. “During my graduate study, I’ve worked on developing animations for projection mapping in the lobby of The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts in Hartford and I’ve also created scientific visualizations in collaboration with researchers in the Department of Marine Sciences and with other DMD students.”

Lim’s MFA thesis project, the 3D animated short film “Ensemble,” is part of the annual Master of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition at The William Benton Museum of Art, which continues online at The Benton website. The exhibition includes works by graduating Studio Art and DMD MFA students. The Studio Art exhibition, titled “Sour Milk,” features works in photography, mixed media, video, animation, book arts, drawing, printmaking, and painting. The DMD exhibition, titled “Turning Point,” features 2D and 3D animations, UI/UX interactions and designs, digital games, and virtual reality.

Lim’s work “Ensemble” tells the story of a young composer who ignores his outgoing neighbors as he struggles to write music. Ultimately, he learns that the answer to making powerful music is not in his isolation, but in his interactions with neighbors. In the film, the composer leads his neighbors as they play their own instruments, which allows him to complete his new composition. Lim says the film reflects her own experiences.

“In my undergraduate years, people would ask me to spend some time with them, such as traveling to other cities together or going over to their houses to talk and play. However, I said ‘No, I need to study, I need to write my script because I need to concentrate on my school work,’” she says. “After I came here to the USA, I have noticed that for all those years I have missed my chance to learn from people around me. This new environment has helped me to learn by looking around at the people, places, and cultures that surround me. ‘Ensemble’ shows that the more you disconnect from reality, the more likely you will be to miss out on valuable interactions.”

Lim focused on character animation during her MFA work and telling stories about young adults and children. She originally wrote the script for “Ensemble” using only young adult characters but thought the storyline was too serious. She added children and music to the script to make it both lighter and more meaningful.

“Adding characters who are children to my film really conveyed what I want to say through the animation. Children are genuine and innocent, so their silly actions are more easily accepted. I believe the protagonist decided to spend time with the children because instinctively he doesn’t want to hurt their feelings. I decided to make the protagonist a composer, because music is something that can be very personal, but it is also something that you could collaborate on together,” she says. Lim has collaborated with a Korean music producer Ju Won Lee in making music for “Ensemble.”

In addition to Lim, the 2021 DMD MFA Exhibition “Turning Point” features the work of: Emma Atkinson, “when we were,” virtual reality video game; Yucheng Hang, “Cybertown,” interactive educational platform; Wenchao Lou, “Memory-Home-Food,” 2D cooking game; Claudia Nunez, “As You Wish,” 2D animation and pitch bible; and Renoj Varghese, “Microinteractions in Chatbots,” interaction design.

The 2021 MFA Studio Art exhibition “Sour Milk” considers what has soured, creating potential for positive change or harmful destruction. Judith Thorpe, professor of photography and MFA Program director, and Janet Pritchard, professor of photography and MFA Project Seminar coordinator, noted the challenges faced by this year’s MFA class: “Graduating during the time of COVID-19, the class of 2021 has encountered challenges never before imagined. Last year’s class bravely pivoted mid-spring while this year’s class continued facing a year of uncertainty. Blocked from their studios for months, they encountered and mastered alternate means of instruction, conception, production, and fabrication, always adjusting on the fly, driven by their will to create. We celebrate their accomplishments. They challenged themselves, creating new work in unexpected ways that reflect their insights and development over the past three years. Their creative work asks questions and then asks more questions. Their art is visual poetry that will continue to grow and develop after graduate school.”

“Sour Milk” features works by Joseph Caster, photography; Shelby Charlesworth, mixed media installation; Rachel Dickson, photography and video; Paul Michael, books arts and video; and Magdalena Pawlowski, painting and etchings.

An Emerging Artist Talk with the Studio Art MFA candidates will take place on Wednesday April 21 from 3 to 5 p.m. EDT via Zoom. Visit the online exhibition to register.

 

See original story via UConn Today: https://today.uconn.edu/2021/04/mfa-exhibits-at-benton-showcase-work-by-dmd-studio-art-students/

(Via UConn Today) ‘Along the Waves’ Puts Music in Motion Through Animation

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‘Along the Waves’ premieres April 21 at 6 p.m. online

A dancer’s image from the animation of “Prélude en Berceuse,” the first movement of “Au Gré Des Ondes (Along the Waves) “ composed by Henri Dutilleux. The music in the first movement was performed by Morgan Lee ’22 SFA, a doctoral candidate in piano, and animated by Jonathan Goodrich ’21 SFA.
A dancer’s image from the animation of “Prélude en Berceuse,” the first movement of “Au Gré Des Ondes (Along the Waves) “ composed by Henri Dutilleux. The music in the first movement was performed by Morgan Lee ’22 SFA, a doctoral candidate in piano, and animated by Jonathan Goodrich ’21 SFA. (Contributed photo)

When the coronavirus pandemic paused in-person events and online streaming became the main venue for arts performances, two professors in the UConn School of Fine Arts started thinking about a project that would showcase their students’ creative talents.

Anna Lindemann, assistant professor of motion design and animation in the Department of Digital Media & Design (DMD), and Angelina Gadeliya, assistant professor-in-residence of piano and coordinator of keyboard studies in the Department of Music, developed a semester-long collaboration for their piano and animation students.

“We wanted to bring together talents within the School of Fine Arts to create an exciting online program,” Lindemann says. “We asked ourselves how animation can bring music to life during a time when live performance isn’t possible, and how music can inspire new ways of developing and structuring animation.”

The result is a short, animated music program called “Along the Waves,” which will premiere online on Wednesday, April 21 at 6 p.m.The program honors the 75th anniversary of the work “Au Gré Des Ondes (Along the Waves),” composed by Henri Dutilleux. Comprised of six short character pieces for solo piano, the title of the work suggests both “ocean” and “radio” waves. The animated music program also features “Prelude No. 10 in E minor (WTC I)” by Johann Sebastian Bach, a work that Dutilleux pays homage to in the fifth movement of his own composition.

Dutilleux’s small body of published compositions won international praise and follows in the tradition of Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy. Those who commissioned works from him include Mstislav Rostropovich, Isaac Stern, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Renée Fleming and Seiji Ozawa. He served as the head of music production for Radio France for nearly two decades, was a faculty member of leading music conservatories in Paris, and was twice composer in residence at the Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox, Massachusetts.

“I think of music as very visual already,” says Gadeliya. “We’re trying to decode what the composer is trying to say; what is the mood and the character of each piece of the six short pieces? All of these sounds can inspire colors from each musician. The closer you get to the spirit of the composition as the interpreter, the easier it is for the visual artist to bring life to that music through animation.”

Seven pianists and seven animators collaborated in pairings to develop a music animation during the spring semester. Gadeliya worked individually with each musician as they learned and then recorded a movement from the program, and Lindemann guided animators in her Advanced Motion Media class.

“One of the things we prioritized was empowering each collaborative pair to develop their own visual interpretations of the music,” Lindemann says. “Each pair met independently to develop concepts for the animation before receiving guidance from Professor Gadeliya and me. We used the class as a way to workshop and critique the animations as they developed.”

Morgan Lee ’22 (SFA), a doctoral candidate in piano, collaborated with Jonathan Goodrich ’21 (SFA), a senior in the Motion Design and Animation concentration in DMD, to develop the animated music for the first movement of program, “I. Prélude en Berceuse.”

“We had conversations leading up to the animation as I was learning the music,” Lee says. “We had discussions talking about imagery and structure. I mapped out the major shifts in the music measure-by-measure as a way to guide the visual development. We also had to take into consideration that it’s more time intensive to develop a three-minute animation than it is for a trained musician to learn and record a three-minute musical piece. As Jonathan was finishing drafts and doing storyboard ideas I was giving my feedback as a musician.”

Goodrich says his early suggestion of using a ballet dancer as the core image in the animation changed as they continued their discussions and they began to consider a mirage-like quality for the animation.

“I made rough drafts of how those visuals would look,” he says. “We built on that with a surreal ballet-inspired sequence where the figure dances through changing shapes to match the color tones as the music changes from light and innocent to a more sinister feeling. We wanted to reflect that in the movement and the colors of the project. I decided to go in the direction of a more simplified visual style for the figure, like Matisse’s cut-paper figures.”

During the animation, the ballet figure transforms from a person to an angel to a centipede-like creature and then back to a dancer. Goodrich created the animation using Cinema 4D, a 3D animation software, along with Adobe Illustrator for illustration and Adobe After Effects, a motion graphics software.

In addition to “I. Prélude en Berceuse,” the music animations for “Along the Waves” include:

• “II. Claquettes (Tap-dancing),” Tristan Wong ’23 (SFA), piano; Quinn Erno ’22 (SFA), animation
• “III. Improvisation,” Emma Bocciarelli ’23 (SFA), piano; Mitchell Lisowski ’21 (SFA), animation
• “IV. Movement perpétual,” Oswald Tang ’24 (SFA), piano; Cassidy Keller ’21 (SFA), animation
• “V. Hommage à Bach,” Sofia DiNatale ’23 (SFA), piano; Gillian Partyka ’21 (SFA), animation
• “VI. Etude,” Niccolo Meniconi ’21 (SFA), piano; Davis Peng ’22 (SFA), animation
• Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Prelude No. 10 in E minor BWV 85” from The Well Tempered Clavier, Ilinka Manova ’22 (SFA), piano; Antonio Ariola ’21 (SFA), animation

The animated music program “Along the Waves,” featuring music by Dutilleux and Bach, can be seen online via Zoom on Wednesday, April 21 at 6 p.m. A discussion with the pianists and animators follows the program, which is free and open to the public. Advanced registration required.

Article From UConn Today

(Via UConn Today) UConn’s Social Media Analytics Command Center Has 2020 Election Night Covered

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November 3, 2020 | Mike Enright ’88 (CLAS), University Communications

UConn’s Social Media Analytics Command Center Has 2020 Election Night Covered

The UConn Social Media Analytics Command Center will be covering the Presidential election with a live broadcast on Tuesday and then will be following up on Twitter when polls start to close around the country.

The UConn SMAAC. shown here covering the Oscars, will provide Election Coverage on Tuesday. (photo courtesy of Heather Elliott-Famularo)

he UConn Social Media Analytics Command Center (SMACC) will be covering the presidential election with a live broadcast on Tuesday, Nov. 3 from 5:30 p.m. to 6 p.m., and then will be following up on Twitter when polls start to close around the country.

The half-hour show will be available for all to watch on YouTube, and the Social Media Analytics Command Center can be followed on Twitter@UConnSMACC. The SMACC is part of the UConn Digital Media and Design (DMD) department.

The show will feature digital media design assistant professor in-residence John Murphy, associate professor of political science Jeremy Pressman, and DMD students Ryan Young ’20 (SFA), Christina McDonnell ’20 (SFA), a native of Bolton, and Rosalie Garcia ’20 (SFA), a native of Plainfield.

“The students and I have been tracking the election and all its issues since the Democratic primaries on social media,” says Murphy. “We have a platform that allows us to listen in and pull in publically-available conversations globally on any topic we want. Whether it is a news broadcast, an opinion piece, or a citizen that is out there on social media talking about how they feel regarding this presidential election, we track all that information. We slice it and dice it to come up with insightful analysis.

“Instead of polling people, we listen in on social and digital conversations to hear what people are really saying.”

To learn what kinds of election-related data the SMACC been analyzing, visit:https://smacc.lab.uconn.edu.

The SMACC will also be calling the winners of each state in the presidential election using its Twitter feed as the night goes on.

“When the television networks come on the air, they usually report exit polls and who they think is going to win in certain states as polls close,” says Murphy. “We would like to give a prediction ahead of the networks. When we covered primaries in the spring, we had 25 of 27 called by 5 p.m. based on social media data. We are going to show people how we do that.”

The SMACC has analyzed a number of different events over time, including the Oscars and the NCAA basketball tournament.

“We support brands that hire us and track them and their competitors,” says Murphy. “Anything that is taking place in the world is taking place on digital and social media. So whatever the topic du jour is, we can go out and track it.”

 

See original story via UConn Today: https://today.uconn.edu/2020/11/uconns-social-media-analytics-command-center-2020-election-night-covered/

(via UConn Today) Student-Launched Platform Supporting Mental Well-Being with Positive Messages from Peers

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October 12, 2020 | Jaclyn Severance

Student-Launched Platform Supporting Mental Well-Being with Positive Messages from Peers

Two UConn students have launched a social app they hope will make college students around the country feel more connected and supported.

The Refreshr platform allows students to connect and share supportive video greetings (via Refreshr.org).

Pandemic life for college students is overwhelming, challenging, and isolating.

Two UConn students, though, wanted to help their peers build supportive connections during this time of uncertainty and physical distancing, and they’re doing so with the creation of an online platform,Refreshr.

“With mental health, it’s sometimes hard for students to support each other,” says Alex Kim ’22 (BUS), who co-founded Refreshr with friend, Jamison Cote ’22 (SFA). “Last semester was definitely just weird, and unprecedented, and crazy. Entering this semester and the coming semesters, it’s still going to be different – it’s a new way, how we learn and how we interact with other people. With such a drastic change, we still need to be able to be resilient as students and to be able to support each other, because we’re going to need it the most, especially during a time like this.”

Like pen-pals for the Internet age, Refreshr works to match students with each other and then helps them to record a video message specifically for their partner and use Refreshr’s one-way video sharing platform to send their words of encouragement. While most of the platform’s current participants are also UConn students, their goal, Kim says, is to connect a diverse group of students from institutions across the country that can form lasting connections.

“We wanted to make this a platform where students can send videos with uplifting messages of support and positivity to other college students,” says Kim, “to hear from students like you who are going through the same struggles of being in college during coronavirus. With Refreshr, we’re trying to build a community of students supporting each other.”

The idea for Refreshr, says Kim, came while he and Cote were enrolled in “The Entrepreneurial Journey,” a course taught by David Noble, associate professor anddirector of the Peter J. Werth Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and was modeled after their mentor, Noah Friedman, and his similar6FTCloser project. The platform launched in early September, and Kim says they hope their focus on college students will help promote well-being amongst their peers.

“Everyone needs to take care of their mental well-being because these struggles can happen to really, really anyone,” he says. “I think coronavirus has really showed the impact of being isolated from other people and just the difficulty of the circumstances that are now placed upon us as students.”

Kim says thatlearning about entrepreneurship at UConn, and seeing the work of fellow students who are starting businesses or developing new innovations, inspired him to take this initiative and to try to make meaningful change. He says that other students with an idea shouldn’t be afraid to take a chance and try to make something of it.

He also said that he hopes fellow students who are experiencing difficulties during the pandemic will seek out help, connection, and community – and know that they’re not alone.

“There’s lots of students who can resonate with the fact that it’s going to be a difficult semester,” Kim says, “so I hope there’s some at peace with that, and just hope you get the support and encouragement that you need.”

To learn more about Refreshr, visitrefreshr.org.

 

See original story via UConn Today at: https://today.uconn.edu/2020/10/student-launched-platform-supporting-mental-well-positive-messages-peers/

(Via UConn Today) DMD Professor Tells Stamford Family’s COVID-19 Story on PBS Frontline

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Cameraman in PPE
Oscar Guerra, an assistant professor of film/video production at UConn’s Stamford campus wears personal protective equipment while filming COVID-19 patients in Stamford Hospital. (PHOTO BY JOHN MOORE/GETTY IMAGES)

 

When the story of an elementary school teacher in Stamford, Connecticut, taking care of the newborn brother of one of her students became public in early May, the media put a spotlight on the situation of an immigrant family from Guatemala that was battling COVID-19.

Luciana Lira, a bilingual teacher, cared for the newborn baby for more than five weeks while the family’s mother, father and son recovered from their illness and could reunite. They are now together at home.

The behind the scenes story of the family’s saga will be told to a national audience on Tuesday, Aug. 11 at 10 p.m. on the PBS series Frontline in the episode titled “Love, Life & the Virus,” which was written, produced and directed by filmmaker Oscar Guerra, an assistant professor of film/video production who teaches in the Digital Media & Design Department at UConn’s Stamford campus.

Guerra, a San Francisco/Northern California Emmy Award-winning director got in touch with photojournalist and Pulitzer Prize winner John Moore, to start documenting his coverage of the pandemic. Moore was informed by Catalina Hork from Building One Community about the family’s case and he told Guerra about the story.

Guerra focuses his work on producing media that provides a way for underrepresented groups to share and disseminate their own stories to contradict dominant and potentially stereotypical narratives while strengthening their voices and identities.

“I consider myself an educator and I do try to shed some light on the problems that are affecting the community, in my case the Latino community,” he says of why he decided to film in Stamford Hospital before learning of the family’s story. “I want to make sure I bring an awareness of the realities of the Latino working class, which tends to be one of the more vulnerable communities.”

 

Cameraman in full PPE filming a COVID-19 patient in the hospital
Oscar Guerra, an assistant professor of film/video production at UConn’s Stamford campus filming patient Zully, who was ill with COVID-19 before giving birth to son. PHOTO BY JOHN MOORE/GETTY IMAGES

Weeks before the story became public, Guerra dressed in personal protective equipment to film and interview patients and healthcare providers. When the Mexican-born filmmaker learned of the family’s situation, and that the teacher and others involved were of Latinx heritage, he sought and received permission from the family to document their experiences.

“I wanted to honor and show the reality of the Latino community,” he says.

Part of the community effort to support the family – mother Zully, father Marvin and their son Junior and newborn Neysel – included a GoFundMe campaign managed by Lira and the assistance from community partners like Building One Community and Tiny Miracles.

In addition to the Frontline production, Guerra’s film will also air in a Spanish language version on the international Univision network program “Aqui y Ahora” on Aug. 16 at 7 p.m.

“I feel fortunate I’m able to bring this story to a larger audience, particularly the Latino community as this is our story,” Guerra says.

 

 

Heather Elliott-Famularo, Donna Krenicki Professor of Design and Digital Media and head of the department, initiated the film production program last year and has worked with UConn’s Human Rights Institute on several projects.

“All of the film faculty that we’ve hired are passionate about diversity and social justice issues. We’re creating something new here,” she says. “Students are also working in other genres and can make dramas, comedies, or whatever they want, but we have intentionally hired faculty who are passionate about human rights and want to tell meaningful stories to teach our students. What we are creating in DMD is novel and exciting. I’m proud of Oscar and his commitment to the Connecticut Latinx community. And how many brand new film programs can boast that they already have a documentary being broadcast nationally?”

Guerra won a San Francisco/Northern California Emmy Award in 2018 for directing a piece on San Francisco Giants’ star and broadcaster Tito Fuentes and his work also is recognized with honors from the Jelly Film Festival, BEA Festival of Media Arts, International Ocean Film Festival, San Francisco Latino Film Festival and the San Francisco Urban Film Festival. He joined the Digital Media & Design faculty in fall 2019.

The second part of the Frontline program will include “Undocumented in the Pandemic,” by director Emily Kassie, which tells the story of another immigrant family’s struggle, with their dad detained by ICE in a facility where COVID-19 is spreading.

Article From UConn Today