I often felt when I was making documentary films that I crossed an invisible but very real border between one country and another, from a country inhabited by those of us who don’t worry about where our next meal is coming from, to a country-within-our-country where food, shelter, and safety are daily concerns and loss is at the center of every story.

One fifth of American children live in poverty—its predictable wreckage marks them early. I saw many young children in the neighborhoods in which I filmed already convinced of their unworthiness. They understood exactly where they stood in society. And they blamed themselves. By adolescence, many had come to believe they deserved their fate, they had given up hope, they had surrendered to a future someone else had imagined for them.

Filmography

Take This Heart, feature documentary
 
For Generations to Come, five-part documentary series

No Place Like Home, documentary, Emmy Award

Teiko Tomita, documentary, Emmy Award nomination

Queen of the Market, documentary

New Treatments for Breast Cancer, documentary