A film produced within our department will be screened at the Miami International Film Festival.
The documentary, entitled “Beyond Assignment,” is about women photojournalists. It will premiere at the festival March 10. The film is in a category featuring films from Iran, France, Belgium, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Germany, Denmark, Spain and China.
The project started as an initiative of the Knight Foundation’s grant to form the Knight Center for International Media, which produced the film.
The 35-minute film is about three women photojournalists and follows them as they work and talk about what it’s like to be a photographer/photojournalist. The film starts off in Mexico City where we are introduced to Adriana Zehbrauskas who has been working on documenting a rough barrio within the city. She discusses her life as a photojournalist and how her life has changed since becoming a mother. Next, the film captures Gali Tibbon as she works on a project in Israel. She has been photographing different baptisms in the Jordan River and talks about her career documenting clashes and chaos in a tumultuous part of the world. The third segment of the film takes us to South Africa where Mariella Furrer is working on a book on child sexual abuse. Her attention has turned to this topic, being a victim of abuse herself, and she has dedicated the past seven years of her life to documenting this horrible occurrence among children in South Africa. All three women tell stories by using photographs in their own way.
A visual journalism professor, Jim Virga, was the film’s director. Professor Sanjeev Chatterjee was the Executive Producer. Professor Dia Kontaxis was the film’s editor, and Ed Talavera was the director of photography.
Click here to learn more about the project and see a clip.
For further inquiries concerning festivals, press kits, promotional photos, and screenings, contact Lauren Janetos.
University of Miami, School of Communication, Graduate Studies 