Faux Reel Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

US Air Force JAG Attorney Yvonne Bradley volunteered to defend a man named Binyam Mohamed who was facing a death penalty case at Guantanamo Bay in 2005. Believing the detainees at Guantanamo were ‘the worst of the worst’ in the war on terror, Yvonne’s world was turned upside down as she arrived in Cuba and began to untangle an unimaginable case. Spending the next 4 years battling to uncover the truth, Yvonne’s is a captivating story of taking responsibility in the face of corruption at the highest levels of power, and the dangers of choosing to stand up for what you believe in.  What’s the difference between a terrorist sympathizer and a hero?  Would you risk it all to do the right thing? WE ARE NOT GHOULS is a feature-length documentary which premiered at the SXSW 2022 Film Festival and won the SXSW Audience Award for the Documentary Spotlight section. 

In this episode, Dawn talks with filmmaker Chris Thompson and the subject of the film, Yvonne Bradley. They talked about Chris's personal experience with a friend from college and how that inspired him to make the film, what it was like for Yvonne to stand up for what was right while it was not in her best interest to do so, and the commitment to the bigger picture that they each made during the making of this film and to the trial. 

WE ARE NOT GHOULS was acquired for distribution by Gravitas Ventures for commercial release on February 28, 2023.

Follow the film: 

Website: https://www.wearenotghouls.com/

Instagram @goodcreditproductions

Watch the film on iTunes, Amazon Prime, Vudo, YouTube, Cable on Demand, and more! https://www.wearenotghouls.com/ for direct links and more info. 

“Home is the center of everything. It is the issue where everyone can come to the table.” - Sara Terry   

In this episode we explore the compass that developers, bankers and real estate executives use when making decisions on land use and rights when it comes to others' housing security. Mobile home parks are the lowest rung on the pole of the American Dream, but for many that's all that is feasible. But now that many mobile home parks' land is getting sold to large development companies, that dream is quickly falling apart and there's no way for those mobile home owners to stop it. How can one choose personal wealth and greed while actively destroying others' lives? Dawn and Sara discuss this in addition to comparing photojournalism to documentary filmmaking, and recounting the progress of Sara's career spanning the last several decades. 

A DECENT HOME is a feature length documentary film by Sara Terry that addresses urgent issues of class and economic inequity through the lives of mobile home park residents who can’t afford housing anywhere else. The film asks, Who are we becoming as Americans? — as private equity firms and wealthy investors buy up parks, making sky-high returns on their investments while squeezing every last penny out of the mobile home owners who lack rights and protections under local and state laws, and must pay rent for the land they live on.  

Follow the film:  

Website: https://www.adecenthomefilm.com

Instagram @adecenthomefilm 

Facebook @adecenthomefilm  

The film premieres on PBS’s America Reframed on World Channel on March 16th. For more info go to: https://worldchannel.org/episode/america-reframed-a-decent-home/ 

Watch the trailer

Sara Terry’s Nonprofit: 

Website: theaftermathproject.org

Multi-hyphenate, multidisciplinary artist Saul Williams brings his unique dynamism to this Afrofuturist vision, a sci-fi punk musical that’s a visually wondrous amalgamation of themes, ideas, and songs that Williams has explored in his work, notably his 2016 album MartyrLoserKing. Co-directed with the Rwandan-born artist and cinematographer Anisia Uzeyman, the film takes place in the hilltops of Burundi, where a group of escaped coltan miners form an anti-colonialist computer hacker collective. From their camp in an otherworldly e-waste dump, they attempt a takeover of the authoritarian regime exploiting the region's natural resources – and its people. When an intersex runaway and an escaped coltan miner find each other through cosmic forces, their connection sparks glitches within the greater divine circuitry. Set between states of being – past and present, dream and waking life, colonized and free, male and female, memory and prescience – Neptune Frost is an invigorating and empowering direct download to the cerebral cortex and a call to reclaim technology for progressive political ends.

Follow the film: 

Watch the film in theatres: https://kinomarquee.com/film/venue/62685abbfbed6a000159fa76?utm_source=neptunefrost

Watch the film at home: https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B0B3S7JQ1W/ref=atv_dp_share_cu_r

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dedzafilms/ + https://www.instagram.com/dreamstatesmeta/ + https://www.instagram.com/p/CfxmEXGosh4/

MAXIMA follows Peruvian indigenous farmer Máxima Acuña in her fight to protect her land as she stands up to the largest gold producer in the world: US-based Newmont Mining Corporation. 

Throughout Máxima’s fight for justice, the film provides an illustrative case study in the tactics used by transnational corporations to commit human rights violations and environmental crimes, the role played by non-profits and The World Bank, and, ultimately, the resilience of one woman who refuses to back down. Dawn and filmmaker Claudia Sparrow talk about the challenges Claudia had to navigate in making a film in a remote area of the Andes Mountains, the difference each of us can make in fighting for what we believe in, and how Máxima has inspired and forever changed Claudia's outlook on life. 

Follow the film: 

Instagram: @standwithmaxima

Facebook: @standwithmaxima

Website: https://www.standwithmaxima.com/

Watch now on Appletv, Tubi or Google Play. 

Stand with Maxima: 

Sign the petition

Donate on Gofundme 

Support Taleen Kali: 

Taleen Kali is the artist behind our podcast song Lost & Bound, and she is fundraising on Kickstarter to create her new album independently! 

Support her Kickstarter

Listen to Taleen Kali on Spotify

GIRL PICTURE is a coming-of-age film from Finland that focuses on three young women over the course of three weekends. The girls are questioning their sexuality, and for one girl her lack of sexuality, navigating their relationships with their parents and each other, and reconciling with the idea that their childhood dreams may not be the direction they still want to go in. 

Dawn and Alli talk about the stylistic choices made for the film, how you can storyboard and plan so much but unexpected moments still happen that can make the film feel more real, and the importance of complex female characters on screen. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival where it went on to win the Audience Award for the World Cinema Dramatic category. 

Follow the film: 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/citizenjaneproductions/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/citizenjaneproductions/

Website: https://citizenjaneproductions.fi/

A coming-of-golden-age film about Florida's most dedicated dance team for women over 60 - The Calendar Girls. A film that is shaking up the outdated image of "the little old lady", and calling for everyone to dance their hearts out, while they still can. 

Dawn talks with documentary filmmaking couple Love Martinsen and Maria Loohufvud about how they were drawn to this dance group and built relationships with them, how The Calendar Girls inspired them in their own lives, and what lessons we can all take away from these women. The film just premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and will go on to have a theatrical distribution later this Spring. 

Follow the film: 

Instagram: @calendargirlsfilm

Website: https://calendargirlsfilm.com/

Rita Baghdadi's documentary SIRENS premiered today, on her birthday, at the Sundance Film Festival! What a way to celebrate a birthday! The film follows the Middle East's first all-female metal band in Beirut as they wrestle with friendship, sexuality and destruction in their pursuit of becoming thrash metal rock stars. In this episode we talk about the value of multi-faceted female representation on screen, intergenerational trauma associated with political and familial histories, and some of the more tender moments that are captured between these badass rock stars. 

Follow the film: 

Instagram: @sirensdocumentary

Facebook: @sirensdocumentary

Twitter: @sirensdoc

Website: https://www.sirensdocumentary.com/

Watch the film at Sundance 

An intimate portrait of mothers and daughters and the effects of trauma, JACINTA follows a young woman in and out of prison as she attempts to break free from an inherited cycle of addiction, incarceration, and crime. Now streaming on Hulu. 

Follow the film: 

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NbcehOCClU

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jacintafilm/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jacintafilm/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/jacintafilm

On this episode Dawn sits down with Colombian-American filmmaker Emily Cohen Ibañez for her documentary FRUITS OF LABOR. They discuss trickle down issues from systemic racism and immigration policies, children of immigrants having to step up to help support their families, food insecurity, and finding peace in connecting to our food and land. 

A Mexican-American teenager dreams of graduating high school, when increased ICE raids in her community threaten to separate her family and force her to become the breadwinner for her family. She works long days in the strawberry fields and the night shift at a food processing factory. Set in an agricultural town on the central coast of California, FRUITS OF LABOR is a coming of age story about an American teenager traversing the seen and unseen forces that keep her family trapped in poverty.  A lyrical meditation on adolescence, nature and ancestral forces, the film asks, what does it mean to come into one’s power as a working young woman of color in the wealthiest nation in the world?

The film is now available on PBS's POV series. 

Follow the film: 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fruitsoflaborfilm/

Website: https://www.fruitsoflaborfilm.com/

Watch the film: https://www.pbs.org/pov/watch/fruitsoflabor/

Support the garden: https://canunite.org/our-work/projects-2/growing-justice/

On this episode Dawn talks with documentary filmmaker Brooke Swaney for her newest film DAUGHTER OF A LOST BIRD. The film follows adoptee Kendra as she discovers her Native culture that she didn't grow up with, is welcomed in, meets her birth mother and other blood relatives, and learns more about how her story fits in with the bigger picture of ICWA, boarding schools and assimilation practices forced upon Indigenous people. Dawn and Brooke talk about making a film from an emotional place of empathy, share stories of their own Native backgrounds, and discuss the importance of representation in media. 

Follow the film: 

https://www.facebook.com/daughterofalostbird

https://www.instagram.com/daughterofalostbirddoc/

https://www.daughterofalostbird.com/