Brandon Kramer

Van Jones navigates increasingly tense and isolating political and racial divides in his attempt to become a “bridge builder” during the Trump administration.

During the Great Recession, joblessness exceeds 20 percent east of the Anacostia River in Washington, DC. City of Trees follows the intimate stories of Charles, Michael and James, three long-term unemployed residents struggling to gain employment through 'shovel ready' green projects. When stimulus dollars run out, short term idealism clashes with day-to-day survival in the struggle to find a sense of purpose and place in a recovering economy.

In America, 80 million people in America have an arrest record. That’s 1 in 3 working age Americans. Most people want to work and thrive in America. Yet a conviction background carries thousands of collateral consequences that create massive barriers to equal employment and participation in society. Millions of people carry this scarlet letter through life each day, facing a “civil death” that inhibits their ability to contribute to the economy and society. Collectively these factors form one of the leading civil & human rights issues of our time. America has invested in a structural and cultural system that relies on punishment. What if we invested in people not punishment?

Liat Atzili was kidnapped from her kibbutz on October 7. What begins as a chronicle of her parents, sister, and children's efforts to secure her return, becomes a portrait of conflicting impulses towards anger, indifference, and compassion straining the bonds of one grieving family.