Documentary storytelling with the aim of providing non-profit organizations with the materials to raise awareness and funds has been the stated mission of Land Grant Films, a creation of Associate Professor Nick Geidner and UT’s School of Journalism and Electronic Media. Their recent production, 7 Days in America, a documentary that follows Katie Willocks, a case worker from Bridge Refugee Services as she helps a family of Burundian refugees resettle in Knoxville, has now been selected as one of 17 films for the Immigration Film Festival in Washington, DC. That festival runs October 26-28.
The film, which aired on East Tennessee PBS in April, was directed by Geidner and crewed by students in the School of Journalism and Electronic Media. In addition to inclusion in the IFF, the film also won an award of excellence in the Broadcast Education Association’s Media Arts Festival faculty competition.
“I’m so proud of my students’ work on this project,” said Geidner. “With the language barriers and other complexities, this film was a lot more work than some of our other projects, but our students rose to the task and produced a great film.”
View the film on Land Grant Films website.
