Renga for the West
TFI Suppport
IF/Then Shorts 2017 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival
Logline
Renga for the West (formerly titled New Neighbors) explores the relationship between new refugee arrivals to the state of Montana and long-time residents through self-directed first person stories.
A deep dive into day jobs, road trips and high school pep-rallies in Montana, USA through the eyes of new refugee arrivals as they show us their trials and tribulations with the American Dream.
Big Sky Documentary Film Festival - World Premiere
LA Film Festival - Free screening co-hosted by KCRW
Bryan Bello
Producer, Director
Bryan Bello founded the nation's first homeless filmmaking cooperative with eight men and women surviving the streets of Washington D.C. The group's five documentaries have been viewed across the country, screened by the Department of Justice, Smithsonian museums and covered by The Atlantic, PBS NewsHour and the Washington Post. He is a former Center for Media and Social Impact fellow.
Gabe Sweeney
Producer, Director
Gabe Sweeney is a filmmaker and audio engineer living in Missoula, MT. Sweeney works currently as a bioacoustician and wildlife filmmaker for the conservation research group, MPG Ranch. He is currently working on the Vision Maker Media project, When They Were Here, directed by Ivan and Ivy MacDonald. The film investigates the missing and murdered indigenous women and girls epidemic.
Ryan Seitz
Producer, Director
Ryan Seitz is the founder of Highway Goat Productions, LLC which has produced the award-winning films Freeload and Skips Stones for Fudge. Ryan has guest lectured at NYU for the Ethnographic Journalism Department and has had his work showcased at dozens of accredited film festivals worldwide. Ryan has been featured in Filmmaker Magazine,The Boston Globe, and on NPR.
The Refugee Directors' Cooperative
Director
The Refugee Directors’ Cooperative is a community of men, women and children resettled to Montana from Eritrea, Syria, Iraq and the Democratic Republic of Congo boldly organizing to influence culture in their new country through the powerful art of documentary filmmaking. They are refugees, but they are also musicians, athletes, engineers, former fulbrights, barbers, carpenters, mothers, fathers, middle schoolers - and now they are visual storytellers, too. Through the sharing of their self-directed stories and visions of America they carve out a niche for themselves in the formidable landscapes of the Treasure State.
Claire Haughey
Producer, Director
Claire Haughey is a documentary filmmaker with a background in commercial photography and a passion for community filmmaking and intimate, first-person narratives. She is currently a graduate student in Media Studies at The New School.
Saif Al-saegh
Co-Director
Saif Al-saegh is a filmmaker and a poet in both English and Arabic. He is originally from Baghdad and currently lives and works in the United States. His volume of poetry Iraqi Headaches was published in 2013. He directs short experimental films. His works include Motorola Jockeys (2016), Bukhari Chant (2016) and A Dance (2015). His 2016 film, Alazeef, received special mention at this years Cinéma Du Réel film festival.