“What REALLY Killed Kevin Morrissey?”

Four years ago I began filming the efforts of victim/targets of workplace bullying who were trying to lobby for legislation.  My biggest hurdle was that few members of the public, let alone journalists, understood the dynamics of this abuse.  So, I decided to use the Internet as a powerful distribution tool.  About a year ago I gained access to a tragic story that constantly challenges viewers to reassess not only what workplace bullying is but what part proposed legislation might play.  Our Bully Pulpit is a cross digital platform that uses documentary footage, the Internet and social media as a powerful tools to bring public awareness and responsible dialog to this issue.

WATCH FILM – Coming Soon

**Official Selection, 2001 Sundance Film Festival/ 2001 ALA Awards/MOMA Documentary Fortnight/Human Rights Watch Int’l Film Festival/ Broadcast Sundance Channel,  CBC’s “Passionate Eye, and portions were aired on ABC, Dateline, & HBO’s America Undercover”**

“Invisible Revolution captured a revealing interview with a young racist, Ben Smith, just 2 weeks prior to the deadly shooting rampage he went on in Indiana and Illinois before shooting himself. Among the stolen lives was the much beloved Ricky Birdsong, the former Northwest University basketball coach.Peterson’s extraordinary access to skinheads, gutter punks, and mainstream kids drops the viewer into the front lines of a powerful, passionate, and very raw youth subculture. She documents not only the young people involved in the pro-white movement, but also the counter-movement that demonstrates against and often clashes with them: Anti-Racist Action (ARA). After a decade of going unheard, these voices create a stirring and unique look at urgent and timely issues that can be conveyed only by actually viewing the physical confrontations between the two groups as they collide in a war of ideas. Viewers will also become aware of the extreme danger that ARA members expose themselves to: in 1998 two members of ARA were murdered in the Las Vegas desert. Leonard, a 21-year-old neo-Nazi skinhead sums up: “We are two separate groups . . . There’s always going to be racism. There’s always going to be hate. We’re going to do whatever it takes to get the other one out of the way . . .”

Educational Distributor: Filmakers Library

“unsettling and disturbing…” Diane Sawyer, Good Morning America

invisible-revolution-5080545

**Screenings: 2002 Library of Congress 9/11 Commemoration, Walker Art Museum, The Warhol Museum, The Kitchen, Wisconsin Int’l Film Festival/ Broadcast: Sundance Channel, PBS (WNET) “REEL NY”**

Like thousands of New Yorkers who live downtown, the filmmaker Beverly Peterson witnessed close-up the horrific events of 9/11. Her first instinct was to grab her video camera in order to bear witness to the tragedy unfolding. Filming became a way of surviving the following months as she documented what was happening to her community.

Beverly and her husband were forced to evacuate their apartment on West Broadway for several weeks. Then the hard work of cleaning up began. Some businesses in the neighborhood had been forced to close, others limped along, helping each other survive. Many were owned by recent immigrants to N.Y.C. who are featured in the film. The community was forced to organize to demand financial assistance from the government for the cleaning and rehabilitation of individual residences and businesses. They are still rebuilding their lives thanks to their strenuous efforts to help themselves and each other. 20 Minutes ©2002

Educational Distributor: Filmakers Library

WATCH FILM

**HBO Broadcast 1996/ Official Selection, Denver Int’l Film Festival/ 1997 IDA Nomination, 1997 Maggie Award (Planned Parenthood) **

NY Times Review “an extremely affecting glimpse of a mother’s love for her 8-year-old daughter. In this case, though, the mother, Sandra Billups, is a 29-year-old Staten Island woman dying of AIDS. She is eager to complete a videotape for young Yolanda, whom she addresses as a very independent person who “had to grow up fast.” Her life was a matter of surviving an abusive father, foster homes, two group homes and a couple of shelters. “You get caught up in the system,” she says, and especially if you’re the quiet type, “you get forgotten.’ Yolanda’s father died of AIDS when she was a baby. Grim statistics and details, no doubt about it. Yet this video vibrates with love, contributed not only by a terminally ill mother and her adorably bright daughter but also by the people around them, at an organization called Project Hospitality, offering support and reassurance. At Ms. Billups’s funeral, the female minister speaks of “Charlotte’s Web” and how Charlotte found a new home for her baby spiders before she died. Ms. Billups had arranged for Yolanda to be adopted by a health-services aide who became a friend. Spirited Yolanda doesn’t hesitate when asked about what Sandra left behind: “She gave us love.” “Sandra’s Web” gets its story and message across beautifully. No talk-show host squeezing the obvious, no studio audience offering pointless applause and worthless advice.”

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WATCH FILM

**Official Selection; San Francisco Int’l Film Festival, Taos Talking Pictures Film Festival, Sydney Int’l Film Festival, Exit Art/ Broadcast PBS 1998**

In this poignant documentary, filmmaker Beverly Peterson and her adopted son Andre share the story of an extraordinary friendship. Despite living with HIV from birth and experiencing poverty, deprivation, and the loss of his mother, this remarkable young boy chose to face life head-on, fiercely determined to take control of his destiny and make sense of it all. Much of the story is told through Andre’s own video diaries and drawings, as he comes to terms with the physical and emotional challenges of his short yet intense life, and the struggles to create the family he had always wanted.  43 minutes © 1997

Educational Distributor: Fanlight

Reviews
“Filmmaker Beverly Peterson manages to suggest that life can still be joyously worth living, no matter how brief.” International Documentary

“This video program poignantly chronicles the emotional and physical complexities surrounding the last years of Andre’s life. It succeeds admirably.” Video Librarian

Link to PBS Interview about making The Andre Show

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