Tian Leng’s short documentary “Dear Friend Chinatown” is an intimate visual essay in the form of a video postcard written to a friend. The film explores the casual encounters between the Chinese filmmaker and everyday life in New York’s Chinatown. Shopkeepers, old neighbors, and monks mingle with worldwide visitors in a vivid microcosm of culture, […]
Chinese filmmaker Tian Leng shares his journey from Changzhou to New York City through photography and film. His video “Yuan Lin,” about the New York Chinese Scholar’s Garden, gives an intimate look at a fascinating traditional Chinese building located at the Staten Island Botanical Garden. Tian’s short documentary “Dear Friend Chinatown” explores the casual encounters […]
Vinit Parmar’s short film “Quest for Energy” inspires the viewer to think about energy consumption and live a way of life that decreases environmental impact. While 1.3 Billion people in the world still live without electricity, Indian communities residing in the Sundarbans, the largest mangrove wetland forest in the world, have found sustainable ways […]
Filmmaker and Brooklyn College Film Department professor Vinit Parmar is committed to telling the stories of the underrepresented. Vinit’s debut documentary, “Living River,” focuses on the Ganges River, polluted not only by the people who revere its holiness but also by industry seeking profit while endangering the health and livelihood of millions who live […]
Filmmaker and Baruch College Professor Eugene Marlow shares his motivations to produce “Zikkaron/Kristallnacht: A Family Story,” a short documentary about a seminal event leading up to The Holocaust. The film describes the events of November 9-10, 1938, when Nazis destroyed thousands of Jewish-owned stores, buildings, synagogues, and homes all over Germany and parts of […]
“Zikkaron/Kristallnacht: A Family Story” is a short documentary that describes the events of November 9-10, 1938, when Nazis destroyed thousands of Jewish-owned stores, synagogues, and homes all over Germany and parts of Austria under the pretext of the assassination of a German diplomat in Paris. “Kristallnacht” translates as “The Night of Broken Glass,” a […]
Ali Reza Khoshkjan shares his journey from Tehran to Brooklyn, NY, to fulfill his dream of becoming a filmmaker. His short film “The Banned,” takes a look at the lives of Iranian-Americans affected by the Trump administration ban restricting travel from Muslim-majority countries. Ali reflects on the urgency to show another side of the […]
https://www.facebook.com/CUNYTVdigitalseries/videos/771367110040574/ Staten Island’s Huddled Masses: An Immigration Storytelling Project” features residents sharing family stories about coming to the United States, and their experiences in Staten Island as immigrants and children of immigrants. The film follows Cesar Vargas, a Staten Island attorney who arrived as an undocumented immigrant from Mexico. He was a recipient of DACA […]
Julienne Verdi, the founder of Move Forward Staten Island, describes how her organization sprang up after the 2016 presidential election and united residents wanting to get involved in local social justice issues. She shares how the use of social media helped engage constituents with their elected officials. Verdi also introduces us to “Staten Island’s […]
“The Banned” takes a look at the lives of Iranian-Americans affected by the Trump administration ban restricting travel from Muslim-majority countries. The short film, directed by Ali Reza Khoshkjan and produced while he was an undergraduate student in the Brooklyn College Film Department, won the Best Editing Award at the 2019 Brooklyn College Film […]
Produced by CUNY TV, Short Docs Web Series showcases short documentaries about NYC’s minority communities and examines issues including immigration, human rights, education, diaspora, multiculturalism, environmental issues and criminal justice. Short Docs creates a fresh multi-cultural dialogue and amplifies the film’s issues through social media. The documentaries, produced by Third World Newsreel, stream along with interviews with the filmmakers and subjects related to the pieces.
