WuWD@ DOK Leipzig 2020 - Jessica Devaney & Geeta Ghandibir - “Fight the Power”

In this episode, I speak with Jessica Devaney, the founder and president of Multitude Films, an LGBTQ-led independent production company and Emmy, Academy, and Peabody Award winning director, producer, and editor, Geeta Gandbhir. Calls to end extractive storytelling and demands for responsible authorship, and accountability in the documentary field have been the rallying cry for many documentary creators who do not belong to privileged groups. In our conversation, Geeta and Jessica examine the colonial roots of the documentary craft, the harmful and sometimes violent ways these practices are points of view are still upheld wihtin the industry by filmmakers, funders, and other gatekeepers, and what needs to be done to make the change. Because it has become readily apparent that those of us who are committed to this change must stay constantly vigilant, this week’s song is Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power.”

Jessica’s Bio

Photo Credit: Multitude Films

[Image Description: Jessica wears a black shirt and grey jacket as she looks into the camera. Her brown hair is shoulder length. She looks directly into the camera.]

Jessica Devaney (she/her) is the founder and president of Multitude Films, an LGBTQ-led independent production company dedicated to telling stories by and about underrepresented communities. Her latest feature documentary, PRAY AWAY, produced in association with Blumhouse, was slated to premiere in competition at the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival and was chosen as a “critics pick” by The Hollywood Reporter. She produced ALWAYS IN SEASON (Independent Lens), which premiered in competition at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival where it won the Special Jury Award for Moral Urgency and was then nominated for an IDA Award. Other recent films include THE FEELING OF BEING WATCHED (Tribeca 2018, POV), dubbed “a real-world conspiracy thriller” by Variety; Peabody-nominated ROLL RED ROLL (Tribeca 2018, POV), and Critic’s Choice-nominated SPEED SISTERS (Hot Docs 2015, NETFLIX), which The New York Times called “subtly rebellious and defiantly optimistic.” Additional credits include CALL CENTER BLUES (SXSW 2020, TOPIC), LOVE THE SINNER (Tribeca 2017, Amazon), CALL HER GANDA (Tribeca 2018, POV), and NAILA & THE UPRISING (IDFA 2017, PBS). Jessica co-founded the Queer Producers Collective and was a Sundance Edit and Story Lab fellow, Women at Sundance fellow, and Sundance Creative Producing Lab advisor. She received DOC NYC and TOPIC’s inaugural 40 under 40 Award, the 2019 Cinereach Producers Award, and is an AMPAS Documentary Branch member.

Geeta’s Bio

[Image Description: Geeta wears a red short sleeved shirt and is pictured from the torso up. Her black, curly hair is shoulder length. Her head is turned slightly to the side.]

Filmmaker Geeta Gandbhir has been nominated for three Emmy Awards and won two. As editor, her films have been nominated twice for the Academy Award, winning once, and have also won four Peabody Awards. Most recently, she co-directed the feature doc “Armed With Faith” that premiered at the 2017 Sheffield Doc fest, and she co-directed the feature documentary “I Am Evidence” for HBO and a short film, “Love the Sinner” which premiered at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival. Her feature documentary, “Prison Dogs,” which she co-directed with Perri Peltz, premiered at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival, and a feature documentary she directed with Academy Award winning director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, “A Journey of A Thousand Miles: Peacekeepers,” premiered at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival and will be broadcast on PBS in 2018. She is also currently co-directing and co-producing a “Conversation on Race” series with The New York Times Op-Docs, which won an Online Journalism Award for Online Commentary, an AFI Documentary Film Festival Audience Award for Best Short, and garnered a MacArthur Grant. She also co-directed and edited the film, “Remembering the Artist, Robert De Niro, Sr.,” with Perri Peltz for HBO which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2014.