San Juan la Laguna, Lake Atitlán, June 2023. A twenty member cohort split across five crews, each making a micro-doc of three minutes or less, and a short doc of ten minutes or less.
The changemakers
Each of the five crews collaborated with a different organization, taking on five different topics around the lake. MealFlour is farming an insect protein source as a food security answer. Sueños y Esperanzas runs a community school. Alma De Colores gives people with disabilities a real job, not a token one, in a restaurant that runs on their work. Eco Spanish School and Tejiendo Futuros both work on community development from different angles. Every crew came away saying some version of the same thing: the work they'd just spent a month filming was too good not to put in front of more people, and that feeling is what pushed each film past a class project and into something they wanted to finish right.
How the month worked
One shared production calendar for the full cohort. Lessons, research, and relationship-building with our collaborators filled the first week. The second week brought preparation and workshops as lessons wrapped up and the micro-doc got filmed. The third week was the real shoot. The fourth was editing, building toward a public screening. Crews had the time to get to know the people they were filming and to learn their stories. They had time to be wrong about what the film was going to be about before they got it right.
Along the way
The Outreach opened with a night in Antigua, a popular stop near the airport, before the cohort continued on to the lake. En route, the group stopped at Iximché for a guided tour of the Maya archaeological site. From the first production day on, every shoot-related cost was covered by the program fee. Crews still went looking for good meals and souvenirs to bring home, and San Pedro la Laguna, San Marcos la Laguna, and the other lake villages saw plenty of return visits, all within easy reach and light on personal budgets.
The crew
Twenty people made up this cohort: university students, recent graduates, and working professionals from the United States, Mexico, Brazil, England, Australia, and more. Each of the five crews had a Producer, Director, Cinematographer, and Editor.
- Taking Flight (Tejiendo Futuros): Abby Pflueger, Producer. Will Chehab, Director. Lauren Higgins, Cinematographer. Brenda Peña, Editor.
- Planting Roots (Sueños y Esperanzas): María Fernández Marqués, Producer. Erica Negrini, Director. Bruno Fiorentino, Cinematographer. Maggie Ambrose, Editor.
- Empowerment In Action: The Eco Spanish School Story (Eco Spanish School): Izzy Soden, Producer. Yuelin Liu, Director. Mattie Hartman, Cinematographer. Jake Westerman, Editor.
- Colorful Souls (Alma De Colores): Charlie Schaff, Producer. Abby Cannon, Director. Anneka Keller, Cinematographer. Thomas "Tugg" Gadd, Editor.
- Worm Meals (MealFlour): Madison Sample, Producer. Karlee Baker, Director. Will Eikenbary, Cinematographer. Sarah Yeager, Editor.
The community screening at El Comal Restaurante. San Juan la Laguna, Guatemala, June 2023.
The screening
All eleven films, the ten planned documentaries plus one extra micro, premiered in San Juan at the El Comal Restaurante to a packed house. People from every organization joined our crews, more locals, and new friends to see the finished work. The room's reaction was warm and emotional. Hugs went around, and more than one person stood up afterward just to say thank you.
The films
Taking Flight documented Tejiendo Futuros, a community development organization near Panajachel working across education, health, and local economy together rather than picking one. It went on to real recognition: Official Selection at both the 2024 Global Peace Film Festival and the 2024 International Social Change Film Festival, Official Selection at the 2023 Latino FEEDBACK Film Festival, Honorable Mention at the 2024 Awareness Festival, and Finalist at the 2023 MY HERO International Film Festival. Its crew's micro-doc, Cafe Maná, told the story of a family-run coffee business in San Juan la Laguna.
Planting Roots followed Sueños y Esperanzas, a community school, and earned an Honorable Mention at the 2024 International Social Change Film Festival, Official Selection at both F.R.E.E. Film Night and the Social Impact Film Festival in 2024, and Finalist at the 2023 MY HERO International Short Film Festival. Recharging Energies, the crew's companion micro-doc from the same organization, was an Official Selection at the 2024 Max Sir International Film Festival.
Filming Planting Roots. Guatemala, June 2023.
Empowerment In Action: The Eco Spanish School Story was this cohort's flagship look at Eco Spanish School, and was an Official Selection at both the 2024 Global Peace Film Festival and the 2024 Rising Tide Film Festival. It's also part of SIMA Studios' Cinema Across Borders program, which requested a license extension in 2026 to keep the film in the lineup. Its crew also made Catalyst For Change as the standard micro-doc and a bonus extra micro, Beyond the Brush, centered on Benedicto, a Mayan artist in the Eco Spanish School community. Beyond the Brush was a Finalist at the 2023 MY HERO International Short Film Festival.
Colorful Souls told the story of Alma De Colores, a restaurant that trains and employs people who are deaf or living with disabilities, centered on Marta, one of the restaurant's staff. It carries the strongest festival record of this cohort: an outright Award Winner at Cinema Touching Disability 2024, plus Official Selection at the 2024 Melrose Film Festival, the 2024 F.R.E.E. Film Night, the 2024 Rising Tide Film Festival, and the 2025 Global We Care Film Festival, Honorable Mention at the 2024 International Social Change Film Festival, and Finalist at the 2023 MY HERO International Short Film Festival. Xunah Kaab', on native bee conservation, was the crew's companion micro-doc.
Filming Colorful Souls. Guatemala, June 2023.
Worm Meals followed MealFlour's mealworm farming work on food security, and was recognized with an Award of Excellence in the Micro-Documentary Category at the 2024 Broadcast Education Association Festival of Media Arts, an Honorable Mention at the 2024 International Social Change Film Festival, and Finalist at the 2023 MY HERO International Short Film Festival. Ketzele Art Gallery, on a local Maya art gallery, was the companion micro-doc.
Filming Worm Meals. Guatemala, June 2023.
Watch the full collection from this cohort here: Guatemala 2023 Outreach on Vimeo.