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Interview with Ginger Gentile

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TAKING ON IVY LEAGUE: INTERVIEW WITH ‘EXCLUSION U’ DIRECTOR GINGER GENTILE

Activist director sets sights on elite universities

 

Ginger Gentile/Core Media

 

Spin the wheel and land on a current hot-button topic that incites anger on either side of the political spectrum and puts grass-roots activists on a collusion course with powerful, moneyed institutions: gun control, abortion, transgender intolerance, immigration, agenda-based news organizations, and of course evergreen racial dynamics.

Roiling in the margins awaits another issue destined for the center stage: the shocking and permissive financial shenanigans of institutions of higher education. Tangential issues—student loan forgiveness, the influence of “woke” progressive professors, the protests of ultraconservative guest speakers—already are popping up in headlines across the nation.

Ginger Gentile’s new documentary, Exclusion U, launches headlong into the controversies, hidden and no-so, of how universities, particularly the Ivy League, sit on billions of dollars while refusing to expand enrollments. It’s a topic ready-made for Gentile, who describes herself as an activist documentary filmmaker who prefers to take on “issues that people don’t want to talk about.”

Her previous documentary, Erasing Family (2022), explores trauma children of divorce suffer when a parent is erased from their lives. That film was financed through a crowdfunding campaign. Gentile also produced several independent films during her post-college stint in Argentina. Her experiences as a Jewish person living in Buenos Aires may very well inspire a future documentary about Jews in Latin America, she says.

When it comes to scandals within the corridors of higher education, Gentile, an Ivy Leaguer herself, knows of what she speaks. As a student at Columbia University, she had a love-hate relationship with her alma mater.

“The education was amazing,” Gentile recalls, but she didn’t cotton to some of the same institutional issues she takes on in her film. “I was always protesting. My time at Columbia informed my outlook on how Ivy League functions.”

Gentile’s film takes on myriad issues: economics, race, politics, legacy benefactors, beleaguered financial aid efforts, intentional exclusivity and even gentrification. But the centerpiece is certainly the issue of endowments. Exclusion U carefully lays out how Ivy League institutions hoard billions of dollars through financial set-asides. The endowments grow exponentially into a largess that rarely find its way back to those who need it most, low-income students and the communities that surround and support the universities.

“I always knew that schools had endowments,” Gentile says. But the extent to which donations and assets are funneled away was staggering to discover. “Everything is public, but not widely known. All these things they do are legal,” she adds.

In addition to students, Gentile’s documentary has many former educators, administrators and admission officials as talking heads. Was there a concern of upsetting the Ivy League culture?

“I only interviewed people who wanted to talk,” she said. “There was fear from students from Harvard compared to other universities. Harvard is such a powerful institution.”

She adds, “Everything is fact-checked. They may not like it but it’s all true.”

Looking to the future, Gentile has her eyes on the subject of math.

“I’d love to do a film about people’s fear and hatred of mathematics,” she says. “Also, I have an interest in the Manifest Movement,” as well as the previously mentioned exploration of Jewish people living in Latin America.

What does she hope viewers will take away from the film?

“That there are schools with a lot of money and power because we allowed them to have those things,” she says. “It’s time for us to do something about it.”

Exclusion U is produced by Veronica Nickel (Moonlight) and includes interviews with Davarian Baldwin (In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower), Tressie McMillan Cottom (Lower Ed), Anthony Jack (The Privileged Poor), Jeff Selingo (Who Gets In and Why) Dan Golden (The Price of Admission) Richard V. Reeves (Brookings Institution), Lauren Rivera (Northwestern University), and Deja Foxx (influencer/staffer for Vice President Kamala Harris).

The film will be released on June 23, and will be available on various on-demand platforms including iTunes, Amazon, and GooglePlay.

Official site here

 

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Talking with Kalia Love Jones

Posted on by in Interview, Short film, Writing | 1 Comment

“Hope” Inspires in Times of Struggle

Teen Director Kalia Love Jones seeks to empower with debut film ‘The Power of Hope’

Kalia Love Jones

These days, survival seems to be drawn down to basic actions—you’re either cordoning yourself off from a dangerous virus, taking care of those who have caught the virus, or deciding you’re not going to let something as annoying as a global pandemic get in the way of your summer thrills. Still, there are some who survive through their creative spirit, and choose to inspire through their art.

In any era, the arrival of a 12-year-old filmmaker is quite a feat; in the time of Covid-19, it’s a reminder of why we power through uncertainty and obstacles. It is, as Kalia Love Jones intends her film to be, empowering. So “The Power of Hope” arrives in time to inject a little motivation into our toughest days, and it comes from a preteen talent who is as inspiring as her tale.

In the animated short, we met a young black girl, not unlike the film’s director, with wide-eyed dreams. The girl wants to become an architect, but those dreams are jeopardized when her mother becomes very sick. The girl’s world spirals into uncertainly—about her mother’s health and about her own dreams. In this fearful time, the girl finds support from the words of Michelle Obama. Through the former first lady’s powerful speech, the girl is empowered to make her dreams reality.

The film, like most memorable animation, like the best of Pixar’s work, relies on strong visuals, sound and music to carry its story. The only dialogue we hear is Mrs. Obama’s stirring words

The Power of Hope

Kalia, who hails from Los Angeles and has an older brother and younger sister, undertook the project with the wind at her back—her talent to spare and the support of her parents. She saw “The Power of Hope” as an opportunity to combine two of her many passions, music and animation.

“I want to be an animator when I’m older,” says the girl who’s been drawing for as long as she can remember. “Animation is the best way to get people my age to pay attention.”

Kalia spends hours drawing and studying films. She says, “Live action is interesting, but animation is my calling.”

Filmmaking, even short films, is a marathon not a sprint. It’s not work for impatient folks. The motion picture was produced in laps. It took Kalia a month to write. Then the animation, which she supervised, took another six to eight months. She spent a month more working on the music.

Events in the film were fictional, even though the character was influenced by Kalia herself.

“I drew the story boards and made the character look like me,” she says.

Her father’s support for the project was particularly useful when it came to the film’s soundtrack. He put her in touch with Grammy-nominated producer Ben Franklin.

“He’s friends with my dad. He wanted to be a part of the film,” Kalia says. She and Franklin co-wrote the movie’s theme song, which is now available on all major music platforms.

“It was fun,” she recalls. Of course it was. Music is another of her passions. “I love music. Music is its own language.”

Kalia finds filmmaking and music production complementary art forms.

“They work well with each other.”

As for her first time in the director’s chair, it was challenging. “It was difficult at first,” she says of having to give order to adults. “Once we realized the whole team shared the vision, things got easier.”

If the rigors of filmmaking weren’t challenging enough, Kalia’s project came about during a pandemic. Doing promotional work for the film has been hampered by the outbreak. It’s prevented her from taking opportunities push the film, and limited meetings with people in the industry. And like many of us, quarantine has kept her isolated from many of her friends.

“I haven’t been able to talk with my friends,” she says. “I don’t really know how they feel about the film.”

Above all, like her film, Kalia is all about empowerment. “I want people to feel empowered, to feel the confident to overcome their obstacles.”

Her influences are rich with women of note: director Ava DuVernay (“Selma”, “A Wrinkle in Time,” “When They See Us,”), animator Rebecca Sugar (creator of “Steven Universe”), Michelle Obama and her mother.

“My mom influence is on more than the film,” Kalia interjects. “She influences my life. She’s a strong woman in my life who is very inspiring to me.” A little bit of her mother is drawn into the mother in the film.

Kalia had already been an admirer of Michelle Obama when she came across one of the first lady’s speeches while doing research for her film. “She’s always been an inspiration to me.” Mrs. Obama’s spoken words provide voiceover that punctuates the emotional visuals.

Even amidst concerns of the outbreak, it would be hard to miss the surge of protests and activism against racial inequality, particularly the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. The shocking death of George Floyd under the knee of a police officer has lead to a hot summer of marches and clashes. Kalia support the protests. “One of the reasons I made the film was to give more representation to our stories,” she says. “Our stories are valuable and black lives are valuable.”

She is a girl full of passion. Some of her other passions include piano, honors band, where she is first chair flute, and gymnastics. She’s an eight-year gymnast who trained with former U.S. Olympian Chris Waller at his gym in Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, Kalia plans to continue perfecting her crafts while she deliberates on her next project. As the dust settles on a year of illness, death and protest, it’s comforting to know the creative spirit is alive and well, and particularly that it resides in our youngest, a soon-to-be 13-year-old brimming with passion and not willing to wait or settle in presenting ideas that inspire.

Learn more of Kalia Love Jones’ “The Power of Hope” at the film’s website: www.thepowerofhopefilm.com

 

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Talking with Director Sanjay Rawal

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RUNNING TOWARD ENLIGHTENMENT

Sanjay Rawal’s documentary on grueling race reflects deeper issues

Sounding as much like a philosopher as a filmmaker, Sanjay Rawal intones that “running reduces you to your feet and your breathing.”  The documentarian is also a book editor, activist and, unsurprisingly, a runner. “Running becomes a deep, meaningful experience,” he says.

Rawal’s latest film project, 3100: Run and Become, is a synthesis of many of his beliefs—spiritual enlightenment, racial diversity, health-consciousness. The film documents the lives and efforts of participants in New York’s Self-Transcendence 3,100 Mile race, the longest certified road race in the world.

CHECK OUT MY REVIEW OF 3100: RUN AND BECOME

 It’s a grueling race: the runners must run 60 miles a day, for as long as 52 days, around a half-mile loop in New York, totaling 3,100 miles. They don’t take up the challenge for bragging rights or trophies. “People do it for the best reasons,” Rawal says. “I wanted to explore it.”

Indeed, in watching Run and Become, we see the race promoted as one that leaves its participants “changed.” One of the documentary’s subjects, Finnish runner Ashprihanal Aalto, states his goal as using the race to become a better person.

It’s not unlike the way Rawal has used his career and geography to become a better person. Growing up in Oakland, Calif., the Indian-American son of a tomato breeder, Rawal was introduced to the agricultural industry. It informed his award-winning 2014 documentary Food Chains. Despite living in Oakland, Rawal has spent the last 20 years in Queens. He has a strong tie to the New York City borough’s multiethnicity.

“Queens exemplifies ‘oneness.’ It is recognized as one of the most diverse places, with 170 languages are spoken here,” he says. “There’s a wide variety of the human spirit.”

A critical documentary that shaped him as a director is 2008’s Pray the Devil Back to Hell. The film features Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee, who along with Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Tawakkul Karman, received the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to improve women’s rights.

“The film showed me that documentaries can have deep impact,” he recalls.

But it was an interest in famed Indian spiritualist and runner Sri Chinmoy that truly inspired Rawal to make the transfer from California to New York. The late Chimney founded the race, in its 20th year at the time of the filming. Chinmoy himself had been a weightlifter and runner. His mind-body philosophical outlook inspired Rawal to tap into his own sense of spirituality, community, health and competitiveness. During his career he’s worked with not only Chinmoy (on a book and a film), but with South African theologian and activist Desmond Tutu. Rawal himself has a background in human rights activism, including women’s issues, where he served on the first men’s committee for V-Day. Rawal was even a semi-competitive runner.

“What was my place in world? I found that through Sri,” he says. “But it wasn’t until this film that I truly focused on physically understanding the human body.” When Rawal met film subject Shaun Martin, a Navajo descendant, “it really began to sink in that running is a prayer,” he says. In the film, Martin’s run across the desert is a spiritual one.

Rawal’s film takes us beyond the city blocks of the race and on a more expansive journey. The documentary—produced by Illumine Group, shot by Sean Kirby and edited by Alex Meillier—invites us to see the Great Good of running as the film reveals its impact across the globe.

In Africa, original tribes ran to hunt, in other words, they ran for their very survival. Bushmen connect hunting and running and spirituality. In Japan, Buddhist monks circle a mountain in search of enlightenment, undertaking a task not unlike the Self-Transcendence runners. Miles and miles of movement and prayer, totaling a seven-year challenge for the monks. On an Arizona reservation, a Navajo descendant undertakes a ceremonial run to his family’s ancestral home 110 miles away. We see a link between running and spiritually as the man prays for strength and guidance before he proceeds.

Despite a strong spiritual subtext beneath the race narrative, Rawal doesn’t see Run and Become as a message film. It’s not the traditional “talking head” interview type of work, he says. “I see it as more of an art film about running.”

 

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