I BUILD NH is a two-part series brought to NH PBS by Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) to address New Hampshire’s aging, shrinking construction workforce - a nationwide issue. Subcontracted to Brett by NH PBS, part one of the series features six tradespeople in shorter, ‘hero’ pieces, intended to show a younger demographic the rewarding careers to be had in the trades. Part two consists of longer, instructional pieces, intended to be used across the country as: supplemental material in classrooms; in prisons as part of rehabilitation programs; and as a general resource for those who simply want to learn. All episodes are available to the general public through PBS’ learning portal with season two in the early stages of development.
The series was produced, filmed, edited by Brett Wiese Saunders — co-directed by Jennifer Landon and Joshua Reap of ABC — Executive Producer is Ben Sparling of NH PBS.
YNDI is a collaboration between the yoga teacher and artist, Lana Vogestad, and filmmaker, Brett Wiese Saunders. Travel through atmospheric environments and soundscapes with YNDI Yoga as you bring your body and mind to optimal health, and nourish your soul. Empowering, transformational and accessible, YNDI is an immersive experience where yoga, meditation and art come to breathe. With uncompromising depth, international yoga teacher and visual artist, Lana Vogestad E-RYT 500, guides each practice with clear instruction— including modifications for the more challenging postures— to improve your mental and physical wellbeing. Reinforced by the cinematography and custom soundscapes, each yoga class and guided meditation is a multi-sensory journey to bliss.
YNDI offers diverse yoga classes rooted in different disciplines, including therapeutic Hot Yoga, express classes when you’re short on time, and classes for newer students or students with injuries, in addition to challenging classes for more seasoned practitioners. There’s also a diverse selection of guided meditations including Yoga Nidra, which is a magical yogic sleep for deep rest. Along with the growing video library, we also do livestream yoga classes for YNDI members and collaborate with musicians for these events who perform their original compositions.
Season 1 is now being broadcast nationwide through Connecticut Public and American Public Television, with Season 2 in pre-production.
LEE — Anything I try to write about this project seems to read counter to this project’s intent. I worry any preface offered inevitably sculpts context in which you’ll watch and I want you to experience this as I did: with a mind as open as personally possible.
Wait until after you watch to start weighing it against your own biases, because even after the filming, editing, watching/re-watching, I never see the same thing. That’s where I want this story to live. -bws
CHANCES FOR CHILDREN (CCI) was founded in 2015 by the husband-wife team of Judi Garfinkel and J. Larry Brown, and their daughter Ariel Garfinkel. Both Judi and Larry have had extensive experience working both on pressing domestic and international issues that impact the lives and well-being of the world’s most vulnerable people, particularly children. Ariel has a background in human rights and has worked with domestic and international women’s organizations and immigrant groups. Watch and listen to Aura’s story below - her’s is just one life impacted by CCI.
SWEET DIRT — Founded in 2015 by a Maine-based husband and wife team, Sweet Dirt has some of the cleanest, high-quality cannabis that you will find anywhere. The secret lies in local, living soil and the passion and patience to nurture plants to their potential without additives, fillers, or toxins. From the design of our greenhouse to the way we prepare our soil to the choices we make in our product packaging, we strive to always do right by Mother Nature. For the past several years, Sweet Dirt has proudly grown Certified Clean Cannabis, as designated by the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA), the oldest and largest state organic organization in the United States. We are one of only a handful of cannabis growers to achieve this certification. We are extremely proud of our organic growing practices.
WONGRESS — While living in North Carolina, Gerald Wong was the only congressional candidate running in my district who made any sense to me — a Vietnam vet and professional truck driver running on a Bernie-esque platform. He didn’t have any political experience and was pretty rough around the edges but, for a congressional rep in a conservative NC, things needed pushing. So, I reached out in an email, introducing myself and asking if there was any media work I could do to help — I was thinking just a simple campaign video or something. To my chagrin, he got right back and suggested I come on the road with him for a week, while he hauls misc. whatever in the truck both he and his wife own for contract trucking gigs.
The biggest hurdle was that I had just brought my Tilda home a couple weeks earlier from the local shelter and wasn’t sure what to do with her. She had been through the ringer when I got her but by this time, she had started coming into her own — a real Tildabeast. Explosive, and frequent bursts of energy, she needed someone kind, loving, and with a high threshold for well-intended punishment. Gerry’s incredible wife Susan ended up taking her for the whole week. I still look back at this with guilty amazement. With Tilda taken care of, Gerry and I hit the road.
He didn’t win that election, but from NC to LA to TX and back, I lived in the cab of a rig for a week and got a taste of what’s it’s like to be a professional truck driver at this specific time in history.
For my new friends and beautiful people — we need more Gerrys and Susans. -bws
WIDGET HOME search[ed] the globe [but really just India and China] for material and craftspeople with stories to tell, and share these legacies through our Black Dog Salvage and Destination Design brands. The handcrafted contribution of the artisan, and history of the material, remain the most substantial components of the finished product. Through a balance of style and sustainability we are making the old new again, with a deeper appreciation and respect for the people and resources of this amazing planet. Widget Home, LLC is a whole home resource offering unique, beautiful home furnishings at competitive prices, the company offers design excellence through a balance of style and sustainability [some of that’s true but]. Widget Home brands include Black Dog Salvage and Destination Design. Widget Home furniture [was] sold through fine home furnishings retailers throughout North America and in numerous other countries.
WOMEN’S MARCH — The mission of Women’s March is to harness the political power of diverse women and their communities to create transformative social change. Women’s March is a women-led movement providing intersectional education on a diverse range of issues and creating entry points for new grassroots activists & organizers to engage in their local communities through trainings, outreach programs and events. Women’s March is committed to dismantling systems of oppression through nonviolent resistance and building inclusive structures guided by self-determination, dignity and respect.
Below is a summary of just one of the Marches that happened this day around the world, in small, rural Lancaster, NH.
WOODY PINES — Ragtime, Boogie, Viper Jazz, Lighting Speed Folk. Full of stomp and swing, and jump and jive. It's old-time feel-good music done by a young master who clearly understands that this kind of music was always about having a great time.
Spring of 2015, I toured the bible belt with these guys, and it was a blast. Tampa, Little Rock, New Orleans, Nashville and Kansas City, I can’t thank them all enough for my almost Almost Famous moment. Below is a one of the videos from the trip, put together for their zesty cover of the old-timey Red Rocking Chair, originally recorded by Dock Boggs under the song title, Sugar Babe.
DUCKFEET, USA Headquartered in Denmark, Duckfeet footwear have been handcrafted for over 40 years. Duckfeet are simple and functional, representative of mid-20th century Danish design. Duckfeet are known for their minimalist, foot-formed design that offers ample room for toes to move and air to reach the feet. Vegetable-tanned leather midsoles and uppers give feet space to breathe and naturally transport moisture away from the skin. All-natural, shock-absorbing crepe rubber is used for the outsole, which can be re-soled. Each pair of Duckfeet is handcrafted in Europe without the use of synthetic materials. Exclusive-quality Terracare® leather is sourced close to home in Germany and is treated using environmentally friendly and sustainable processes. All other components are sourced within the European Union. No two pair of Duckfeet are exactly alike. Every pair of boots, shoes, and sandals is naturally tanned and processed by hand, allowing for subtle variations in the leather. These variations are highlighted by the way you wear them, giving each pair its own story.
SLIPPING - SKATE’S IMPACT ON EGYPT — In 2005, two brothers, Omar and Cherif Herrawi, started a skateboard shop - Egypt’s first. The Herrawi brothers brought skateboarding to Egypt and are now responsible for their country’s very own skateboard scene. They started this not for money, notoriety or any other superficial reason, but simply to share their passion with their country.
Omar and Cherif Herrawi (age of early thirties and late twenties, respectively) recount their journey of starting this skate shop from conceptualization through realization in a series of interviews. The older of the two, Omar, remembers seeing skateboarding on TV at a relative’s house in the early nineties. From then on, Omar was hooked. The Herrawis enjoyed some luxuries most Egyptians never will… the ability to travel to Europe with their family. It was in France, on a family vacation, where Omar bought his first real skateboard, and saw his first skateboard magazine, only reinforcing this revolutionary passion. Of course, Cherif, just like most younger brothers, idolized his older sibling and had to have a skateboard too.
Bringing this passion back to Egypt excited a small group of their friends. They all wanted to skate. However, there were no skateboards in all of Egypt. Omar and Cherif soon thereafter decided to start bringing more skateboards back into Egypt from their trips abroad… not for any profit, but simply to share their love with their fellow country men and women. It was only a matter of time before this endeavor grew to the point of starting their own shop and importing skateboards from US and European countries. Once they found Dwindle distribution -- a company that required no minimum orders, as Egypt’s skate-scene was just starting out -- they were ready to bring this revolutionary concept to fruition.
Of course, bringing skateboarding to Egypt wasn’t as easy as these couple paragraphs suggest. The Herrawis had many roadblocks. Egypt was/is still a conservative culture. Any athletics, other than soccer, was frowned upon. Older generations gave these skaters constant criticism. And when Omar and Cherif added a female skateboarder to their team, criticism was at an all time high. Females get harassed on the streets of Egypt anyway, let alone a female jumping around on this piece of wood with wheels.
Another roadblock the Herrawis faced was how they would distribute their skateboards to all of Egypt. Ecommerce was a completely new concept at the time. Egyptians were just getting the Internet, and had yet to be computer savvy. One example, from Cherif during his interview, is an eight-year-old boy calling the shop telling Cherif he found the board he wants online, but wasn’t sure how to actually get it. He asked Cherif if he can print it, or if he should open the CD drive to get it. As Cherif puts this, “It was a good laughter.”
The project was filmed during my three month stay in Egypt during the fall of 2012, when pre-election protests were at their worst. I was living a stone’s throw away from Tahrir Square and experienced a certain energy I probably will never again see/feel. To travel and do the filming I needed, I would experience crowds of screaming people, and huff teargas on a regular basis. Not to mention the risk of getting shot with rubber/or even live bullets for simply having camera equipment on my person, as journalists were a huge target for the military. The filming of this project couldn’t have been timelier though, as skateboarding serves as a wonderful parallel to the independent, democratic lifestyle towards which all those protestors were then pushing. Skateboarding is a personal passion for these individuals, and yet, it’s not recognized as an acceptable ‘thing.’ In one interview with Khaled Abol Naga – a famous, Arab, Hollywood actor, who just stared in an independent drama about Egypt’s underground art scene, that featured skateboarding – he says, “People don’t see skateboarding as anything. They don’t see it as a sport, they don’t see it as art, but that’s the whole point!” He then goes on to connect the changing time in Egypt with skateboarders, and their power to influence the country for the better.
Slipping: Skate’s Impact on Egypt, is a biographical documentary about passion. And not letting anything get it the way of it.