The Team

Signe Taylor

Director, Producer, Editor

Signe Taylor is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and media educator. Her most recent film, Circus Dreams, is a vibrant feature documentary about the only traveling youth circus in the United States. Described as "inspirational" by the Hollywood Reporter, Circus Dreams has been a hit on the film festival circuit winning an Indie Spec Award at the Boston International Film Festival, Best Film4Families Feature at Seattle International Film Festival, Youth Jury Citation at Sprockets Toronto International Film Festival for Children and Youth, and Best Feature Film at the Providence Children's Film Festival. It was nationally broadcast on public television in April and May 2012. To learn more, please visit: http://circusdreams.net.

Her previous documentary, Greetings From Iraq, documented the effects of Operation Desert Storm and the international embargo on Iraqi children. It was also well-received at film festivals, broadcast on public television, and used for educational purposes by numerous grassroots organizations. In her work as a media educator, Signe collaborated with diverse young people to create videos about conflict resolution and substance abuse prevention. These videos are in use in classrooms nationwide. She also established several youth video production programs. Her free-lance work includes producing children's show segments on PBS, shooting for C-Span, and directing projects for educational and corporate clients. She has an undergraduate degree from Barnard College at Columbia University and a Master's in Communication from the Documentary Film and Video Program at Stanford University.

Charlene Music

Director of Photography

Charlene Music is an award-winning filmmaker born and raised in Costa Rica, who collaborates with international and humanitarian organizations to effect social change and empower communities through photography and film. After studying photography at Harvard, she worked as a filmmaker in India, where she produced domestic violence prevention films in collaboration with children and women in rural communities. Her work in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the United States has won numerous international prizes including awards from the National Academy of Television, the University Film & Video Association, the Caucus Foundation, and Kodak.

Her film Roz (and Joshua), about a mother's journey to reunite with her child in the face of destitution, showed in human rights festivals around the world, was the winning film at the Festival International des Tres Courts, in Paris, and won CINE's Special Jury Award. Her thesis film, Danza del Viejo Inmigrante, is a documentary about the challenges facing elderly Latino immigrants in the United States, and won the Best Documentary Award at the Big Sky and Angelus Film Festivals. Charlene received her MFA in documentary filmmaking from Stanford University and has since worked as a DP on feature documentaries, as well as with clients such as the Stanford Cochlear Implant Center and Facebook. She was an Associate Teacher of documentary film and photography for New York University's Study Abroad Program in Cuba, and she is currently a cinematographer for President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign.

Pati Hernandez

Primary Advisor

Pati Hernandez is an adjunct Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at Dartmouth College, long-time collaborator and performer with Bread and Puppet Theater and the founder of the Telling My Story non-profit organization.

Professor Hernandez brings more than a decade of experience working in theater and correctional facilities to the project. Her non-profit organization, Telling My Story, was the basis for the academic course, "Inside/Out: Prison, Women, and Performance", created by Professors Hernandez and Professor Schweitzer in 2007. Telling My Story covers the 2010 Dartmouth College summer term of this class.

A gifted facilitator and tireless agent for social change, Professor Hernandez has received numerous grants for her work and has taken her program to Vermont, Puerto Rico and Chile, her homeland. To learn more, please visit http://www.tellingmystory.org.

Ivy Schweitzer

Co-Producer, Primary Advisor

Ivy Schweitzer is a Professor of English and the past Chair of the Women and Gender Studies Program at Dartmouth College.

Professor Schweitzer, a scholar of early American literature by training and a feminist teacher and activist by passion, began to focus on women and incarceration in the late 1990’s, after being inspired by the work of Angela Davis. Upon seeing one of the performances produced by “Telling My Story,” she helped to bring Professor Hernandez and the program to Dartmouth College.

Their collaboration has been extremely fruitful: the innovative, community-based learning course they created is now offered at least once a year. She brings to this film her deepening knowledge of the issues faced by incarcerated women along with her extraordinary writing, research, analytical, organizing and fundraising skills.

PROJECT INTERNS

Annie Munger	Gavin Huang	Shannon Draucker	Jasmine Kumalah
Amanda Smith	Karolina Krelinova	Jackie Donohoe	Patricia Lee