We Are Film 104

Each fall, a group of first-year students at Wesleyan University work collaboratively with local organizations and individuals to tell compelling local stories. After a research period in which students conduct pre-interviews, research and learn how to write documentary proposals and production plans, students work in three-person teams to produce a short documentary video portrait of an individual, business or group in the greater Middletown community.

Past thematic areas of study have included: Middletown’s Main Street, Work, First-Generation Americans, the 2020 election cycle, Sustainability and Environmental Justice, Water and Food. This course is supported by the The Wesleyan Engage 2020 (E2020) Initiative, Sustainability and Environmental Justice Pedagogical Initiative, and the Allbritton Center for the Study  of Public Life.

Sadia Quraeshi Shepard

Assistant Professor

Sadia Quraeshi Shepard is a writer and documentary filmmaker. The author of The Girl from Foreign: A Memoir (The Penguin Press), Shepard’s writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Guernica, The Washington Post and The New York Times, among other publications. Her credits as a producer include The September Issue, (A&E Films), The Education of Mohammad Hussein (HBO) and The Other Half of Tomorrow (Margaret Mead Film Festival, Opening Night Selection). The recipient of fellowships from Fulbright, Kundiman and Yaddo, Shepard is an Assistant Professor of Film Studies at Wesleyan University. She lives with her family in New Haven, Connecticut.

Behind the Scenes