Local Filmmakers Premiere in Santa Cruz Film Festival

Four and half years ago two local filmmakers, Producer/Director Kathy Bisbee, and Director of Photography/Co-Producer Emery Hudson, followed a story about youth using music as an instrument of hope and change throughout Latin America.

The result was an inspiring 38-minute film about youth in Cuba, Guatemala and Nicaragua who are finding peace, hope and community support through their music. “Don’t Cost Nothin’ to Dream” will screen at its world premiere at the Santa Cruz Film Festival on Saturday, May 12, at 3:30 p.m. at the Nickelodeon Theatre in downtown Santa Cruz.

Artists DJ Leydis, the first female DJ in Cuba, as well as DJ RADIOACTIVE, formerly of Michael Franti and Spearhead, the narrative for the film, will be in attendance and answering questions during the Q&A after the film. An after-party with the DJ artists in the film and local Santa Cruz DJs will be announced soon on the film’s website, www.bisbeefilms.com.

Bisbee and Hudson originally travelled to Guatemala to document a project for Three Americas, www.threeamericas.org, a Santa Cruz-based non-profit project that imports sustainably-produced coffee from cooperatives in Nicaragua to U.S. consumers while supporting economic development in Latin America. The two lived on a small coffee farm in San Martin Jilotepque, Guatemala for 10 days and documented the process of cooperative’s business structure, harvesting of coffee, their involvement in the campesino-to-campesino movement, and governance.

This rural documentary work led the team to interview young people in Guatemala about the genocide that occurred throughout the 80’s there, backed by the U.S. CIA. Many families and communities were destroyed, indigenous cultures were broken down and suppressed, and over 250,000 Mayans were murdered during “La Violencia,” causing these youth to mourn their loss of their families, access to free speech, culture and community.

They still are often in danger of being kidnapped or murdered by the government in Guatemala for their stories about that period of time, and expressing their day-to-day realities through their music.

Their gritty and honest stories inspired the filmmaking team of Bisbee, Hudson and they were joined by Guatemalan siblings, Angela Cajas and Jeremy Bunch to travel further in Latin America to discover stories about youth who were using music to heal, to speak truth to power, and to find a sense of hope in challenging circumstances.

Bisbee said that “the stories shone light on whomever we were supposed to talk to next and where exactly we were meant to go in each country,” explaining that the process of documentary filmmaking often is evolutionary in nature.

The team traveled to Bluefields, Nicaragua and then lastly, to Havana, Cuba, returning to Cuba again in 2009 to follow up on the film’s characters and their progress since the first trip in 2007. Many Cuban artist were facing fines and jail time for speaking out about social issues in the island nation.

“One of the best ways we can help these artists around the world is to hear their stories, to give them a voice, to give them hope, and let them inspire us to take action in our own communities,” Bisbee said. “ I hope that festival-goers will take action after seeing this film, through music or volunteering. We also hope to educate communities around the world on the needs, conditions and realities of the locations and artists with whom we have worked. They are very talented, and we hope they will all have a chance to be big artists some day.”

Bisbee had attended a Spanish-language school at the University of Havana in Cuba in 2003 through a people-to-people exchange program offered by Global Exchange in San Francisco. In 2009, camera operators, Nial Anderson from England, and Daniel Howell of Santa Cruz, joined the crew.

Bisbee expressed her gratitude for the process of social change documentary film having an impact on both those telling the story and the storytellers. “Storytelling through documentary filmmaking is a process. It’s truly a life journey both for the filmmakers and for the storytellers. I can’t begin to express how many people helped lead us to this story, worked collaboratively to make this a completed project, and how much we grew from them allowing us to share their hope and inspiration with the world through this film,” she shared.

More information about their travels, the artists, upcoming screenings and performances, as well as information on how to support young artists in the three countries is available at www.bisbeefilms.com.

Related Links:

• The official Don’t Cost Nothin’ to Dream web site: www.bisbeefilms.com
• The Don’t Cost Nothin’ to Dream film trailer: https://vimeo.com/16256833
• Guatemala clip: https://vimeo.com/19016535
• Cuba clip: https://vimeo.com/33680151

About the Filmmakers
Kathy Bisbee, producer/director, weaves a rich tapestry of community storytelling, musical heritage, and cultural preservation in Don’t Cost Nothin’ to Dream, her first documentary feature.

Kathy’s previous short films: Well-Oiled Machine, Pow Pow Boom, and Cafe Maya,
screened at the Santa Cruz International Film Festival (SCFF) and at EarthVision
Environmental Film Festival. Kathy is the executive director of CMAP TV, a community media center in Gilroy, CA, and on the national board of the Alliance for Community Media (ACM). Kathy is a native of rural Maine, a resident of Santa Cruz County, working in digital storytelling, technology, marketing and community media education.

Emery Hudson, co-producer/director of photography, is a talented freelance video artist with ten years of commercial and community documentary production experience. Emery has worked as a journalist for Fox News, CBS, Televisa, Clear-Channel, and a brief stint as part of the White House Press Corps. He has received numerous awards for his video productions. He has been seen running from the state police on shoots in Cuba, filming genocide survivors in Guatemala, and creating promotional videos for non-profit organizations. He graduated with a degree in Cinema at San Francisco State University. He was Producer/Director of Cafe Maya, which screened previously at SCFF.

Angela “Juanita” Bunch Cajas, associate producer, is Guatemalan and grew up in exile in Honduras and has travelled to over 30 countries documenting community organization & human rights issues. Angela co-directed a short on the Balkan peace process that was screened at the Sundance Film Festival in 2001. Her passion is human rights, especially in her home country of Guatemala, where she has done extensive research to support claims of State-perpetrated genocide in national courts. She holds a degree in Anthropology from Stanford University. Angela traveled to Cuba in 2007 as an associate producer on Don’t Cost Nothin’ to Dream, and shot follow-up footage in Guatemala.

Nial Anderson, digital photographer/camera, is a beat reporter, photographer and videographer based in Herefordshire, England. He has worked as a print journalist in the south west of England for the past five years after receiving his BA Honors Degree in Professional and Creative Writing from the University of Glamorgan in Wales. He particularly interested in photography and journalism that pushes boundaries such as urban exploration and experimental photography. Nial traveled to Cuba in 2009 to shoot video and still photographs with the Don’t Cost Nothin’ to Dream crew to produce the follow up segments with artists in Havana.

Daniel James Howell, first unit producer/camera, has made community media his life for the past decade. Daniel attended film school in Los Angeles and graduated from UCSC with a degree in Community Studies, focusing on community media. For the last seven years he has worked as a television technician for Televisa, Animal Planet and Community Television of Santa Cruz County. In 2009 Daniel traveled to Cuba as a crewmember for Don't Cost Nothin' to Dream serving as lead camera operator to track down and follow up with subjects of the film.