Tamara is from the ocean and water runs in her veins. Born in a fishing village on the Mexican coast, she returned to her roots to become a full time scuba instructor. When she discovers plastic in her beloved ocean, she sets out to get the diving industry to stop using single use plastic.
The film is designed to inspire local business owners, visiting tourists, and decision makers to stop plastic from reaching waterways by reducing single use plastic, and instead adopting environmentally friendly options such as reusable water bottles and filling stations.
Made possible by a National Geographic Explorer grant.
Awards: 2020 Jackson Wild Changing Planet Short Form Award and 2020 Santa Fe Independent Film Festival Best Documentary Short & Best Overall New Mexico Short.
Official Selection of: Monterrey International Film Festival, Shorts México, Indy Shorts Film Festival, NYC Justice Film Festival, One Earth Film Festival, Exceptional Women’s Film Festival, Buenos Aires International Film Festival, Madrid Film Awards.
Learn how you can take action: www.mermaidsagainstplastic.com/
Watch Refuge(e) on Kanopy or Vimeo on Demand. Educational licensing available through New Day Films
Refuge(e) traces the incredible journey of two refugees, Alpha and Zeferino. Each fled violent threats to their life in their home countries, made the long, dangerous trip across most of the Western hemisphere to the US/Mexico border, and presented themselves at the border asking for political asylum only to be incarcerated in a for-profit prison in Cibola County, New Mexico for months on end. They represent thousands more like them who can't tell their stories, and their fight for freedom and the right to live calls into question the nature of our immigrant detention system.
The film was used to launch a successful campaign to get the New Mexico Educational Retirement Board to divest from private prison corporations - the first educator pension fund in the Southwest to do so.
Learn more about how to take action at: www.refuge3.com
Produced in collaboration with the Santa Fe Dreamers Project with support from the Fledgling Fund.
Produced in collaboration with the Santa Fe Dreamers Project and released on The Atlantic Selects
Luz lawfully sought political asylum in the United States. She entered the US through a port of entry and was detained for 3 months in ICE detention, 2 of which were in brutal solitary confinement. Fortunately, we were able to help Luz be released through a process called parole when ICE agreed to release her to a sponsor and let her fight her case on the outside. She is currently living in the US and working with a lawyer to build her asylum case.
View Luz’s Story on The Atlantic: www.theatlantic.com/video/index/593554/trans-asylum-seeker/
Baron Wolman, the first photographer for Rolling Stone magazine, takes us behind the scenes for a look at what it was like to be a fly on the wall of rock and roll history during the tumultuous 60’s. A story about serendipity and saying yes to life.
Premiered at the 2016 Raindance Film Festival in London
Watch Roaming Wild on Vimeo on Demand, Films for Change, or the Equus Film Channel.
A feature length documentary that humanizes the controversy over wild horses on public lands in the American West with a look at new solutions. Directed, produced, and shot by Sylvia Johnson with an all female production crew and editing team.
Awards:
2015 Sedona International Film Festival Director’s Choice Award for Best Environmental Film
2014 Santa Barbara International Film Festival Social Justice Award nominee
Official Selection:
2014 DC Environmental Film Festival / Equus Film Festival/ National Cowboy Poetry Gathering/ DOCUTAH/ Albuquerque Film & Music Experience
30 second promo video produced for Montecristi Custom Hats
A photo essay series created by photographers Sylvia Johnson and Kerry Sherck, and produced in partnership with the Santa Fe Dreamers Project, The New American Dreamers is a positive reframe of who many of the immigrants living in our midst are. Each of the Dreamers profiled in this series was brought to the US as a young child and most of them have grown up almost exclusively here. Their stories reflect the dreams, hopes, challenges, and ambitions that are inherent to all of us as human beings. In the context of such a toxic environment currently being perpetuated about immigrants in this country, this project flips the narrative for a closer, more human look at the stories of incredible Dreamers who are our friends, clients, and neighbors.
This series was featured in a 2017 exhibit at the Rubin Center for Visual Arts in El Paso.
WHO ARE DREAMERS?
Dreamers are young people who came into the US prior to June 15, 2012 and before their sixteenth birthday. They have been granted Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) which is a kind of administrative relief from deportation that gives them the right to work and go to school in the US. It is renewable every two years.
A short promo film about Fatypus and the origin of fat powder skis.
Produced for Nevergroomed
A Growing Problem explores the little known environmental impact of marijuana cultivation on public lands in the West.
Produced for top leadership of the National Park Service as a tool for policy makers and NPS decision makers.
A short promo video about Folsom Custom Skis.
Produced for Nevergroomed
A collaborative project created in partnership with a group of students from UC Merced, this film follows them on their first camping trip into the Wilderness of Death Valley National Park.
Produced for the National Park Service America's Wilderness web series
A short educational video produced as part of a multimedia package highlighting Mayan archeological sites, communities, and traditions of the Yucatán region of Mexico for the Inter-American Culture and Development Foundations Geoaméricas initiative.
Join adventure athlete Ian Adamson and ultra-marathon runner Kara Henry as they explore the wilderness of Rocky Mountain National Park. Produced by Sarah Gulick with cinematography by Sylvia Johnson
Produced for the National Park Service America's Wilderness web series
This film documents a fascinating Brazilian community through the eyes of 23-year old Renato. Despite being born into a society that marginalizes him and his peers, Renato defies his criminal background and engages in the development of his own identity. Drawn to a percussion drumming group, Renato is offered an incredible opportunity and struggles to make new choices for his future.
2007 International Documentary Association Award nominee
2008 Official Selection: Aspen ShortsFest / Mountainfilm / deadCENTER Film Festival / Los Angeles Brazilian Film Festival / San Diego Black Film Festival /
Meet Joice, a determined young woman from the community of Alagados in Salvador, Brazil who is overcoming the odds and becoming a leader in her community. From a semi-literate family to a university education, learn how Joice’s role in the community is changing with the support of a college scholarship from the Alagados Project. Joice’s story is one of many in a group that is building a movement for change in their community.
A short educational video produced as part of a multimedia package highlighting Mayan archeological sites, communities, and traditions of the Yucatán region of Mexico for the Inter-American Culture and Development Foundations Geoaméricas initiative.
