Documentaries as Learning Tools: The Filmmaker’s Perspective
Sponsored by Sage
Recorded on 05/07/2025
Posted in The Authority File
Episode 424
In this four-part series with Sage, five guests join the podcast to chat about the value and applications of documentary films in the classroom. Virginia Espino, Continuing Lecturer, César E. Chávez Department of Chicana/o and Central American Studies at UCLA, offers the faculty perspective, sharing how she measures learning outcomes and utilizes films for instruction. Filmmaker Set Hernandez shares their filmmaking experience and examines the cultural and emotional impact of documentaries at the college level. UC Berkeley’s Film and Media Services Librarian Gisèle Tanasse explores how the library works with faculty to build film-led curricula and ensures access to visual media. Finally, Sarah Feinbloom, a filmmaker and the founder of GOOD DOCS, and Sage’s Senior Director of Library Editorial Michael Carmichael, discuss building a documentary collection and the benefits of the Sage-GOOD DOCS partnership for customers and the wider market.
In this first episode, Set, Virginia, and Sarah provide an overview of how documentary films aid teaching and learning. First, Virginia reveals the humanizing effects for students of using No Más Bebés—a documentary she co-produced on the forced sterilization of Mexican women at the Los Angeles-USC Medical Center in the late 1960s to early 1970s—in conjunction with traditional research sources. Next, Set explains the background behind their film unseen. Centered on a blind and undocumented aspiring social worker earning his college degree, the documentary fosters empathy, critical thinking, and cultural awareness in its audiences through its cinematographic techniques and audio-centered filmmaking.
About the guests:
Virginia Espino
Continuing Lecturer, César E. Chávez Department of Chicana/o and Central American Studies
UCLA
Virginia Espino is the daughter of Mexican parents who grew up in the barrios of northeastern Los Angeles where she currently resides. She is a lecturer in Chicana, Chicano and Central American Studies and Labor Studies at UCLA and her expertise includes the study of race, class, and gender in working class culture and identity formation. Her collection of oral history interviews can be found at UCLA’s Center for Oral History Research, where she spent six years documenting the historic activism of Los Angeles’ Chicana and Chicano community. She is an Oral History Association/National Endowment for the Humanities 2022-2023 Fellow and the recipient of a John V. Mink Award for her work in oral history and her Emmy-nominated documentary film, No Más Bebés, which she co-produced with Renee Tajima Peña. Espino is a vocal advocate for reproductive justice and worker rights serving on the California Latinas for Reproductive Justice Board of Directors and as an officer for her union, UC-AFT.
Set Hernandez
Filmmaker, Poet, Community Organizer
Shaped by their experience as a queer, undocumented immigrant, Set Hernandez is a filmmaker, poet, and community organizer whose roots come from Bicol, Philippines. Winner of an Independent Spirit Award, Set’s feature documentary debut UNSEEN (POV/PBS, PRX, 2024) and its companion podcast are noted for their use of accessibility to cater to undocumented immigrant and blind/disabled audiences. Set’s work as an impact producer includes the film CALL HER GANDA (Tribeca, 2018) and the large-scale art activation IN PLAIN SIGHT (2020). An alumnus of the Disruptors Fellowship, Set is developing a comedy pilot which won the SeriesFest Pitch-A-Thon at the Bentonville Film Festival. Since 2010, Set has organized around migrant justice issues, from deportation defense to healthcare access. They co-founded the Undocumented Filmmakers Collective which promotes equity for undocumented immigrants in the film industry. In their past life, Set was a published linguistics researcher, focusing in the area of bilingualism.
Gisèle Tanasse
Film and Media Services Librarian
University of California, Berkeley
Gisèle Tanasse is the Film & Media Services Librarian and Assistant Head, Instruction Services Division at the University of California, Berkeley. Gisèle currently serves as the American Library Association Film & Media Round Table Councilor and administers the popular VideoLib and VideoNews listservs. Gisèle chaired the taskforce for the 2018 Revisions to the ACRL Guidelines for Media Resources in Academic Libraries, authored ACRL’s Choice White Paper “Implementing and managing streaming media services in academic libraries,” and presents regularly on issues related to streaming and media services in academic libraries. Gisèle is passionate about engaging with fellow library workers towards designing services that empower library users with knowledge.
Sarah Feinbloom
Founder
GOOD DOCS
Sarah Feinbloom is the founder and the former executive director of GOOD DOCS – a leading educational documentary distribution company specializing in human rights and social issue documentaries. She is also an award-winning director, producer and editor whose film work includes documentaries, dramatic narratives and advocacy films.
As the head of GOOD DOCS from 2013 – 2024, Sarah grew the catalog to almost 400 titles, before selling her company to Sage Publications in 2024. While growing GOOD DOCS, Sarah launched her signature GOOD TALKS program – a highly regarded speaker series bringing filmmakers, activists and their films to hundreds of schools, community groups and corporate audiences.
Alongside her work building and running GOOD DOCS, Sarah has a longtime career as a documentary filmmaker in her own right. In her film work, she developed and practiced a collaborative-filmmaking approach, partnering with individuals and communities to center their stories and experiences. Her work includes: YOUTH TO YOUTH – A Video About Violence (1992), DAUGHTERS AND SONS – Preventing Child Trafficking In The Golden Triangle (2005), EARTH, WATER, WOMAN (2013), and MANY LOVES, ONE HEART (2017).
Her latest project WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE NOW? (2019) follows up with the spiritual and religious lives of a diverse group of young people whom she first profiled in her celebrated 2002 documentary, WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE?. WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE? aired on PBS in 2003 and screened internationally at venues including the National Association of Multicultural Education and the American Academy of Religion. It was voted “One of the Ten Best Videos for Young Adults in 2003” by the American Library Association and has been shown at over 2,000 schools and colleges.
Michael Carmichael
Senior Director, Library Editorial
Sage
Michael Carmichael is the Senior Director, Library Editorial at Sage Publishing and is based in Toronto, Canada. He has worked at Sage for over 25 years, first in London and then in Canada, and has deep editorial experience in developing a diverse range of print, digital, and online products for the global higher education and academic market.
Since 2014, Michael has worked within Sage’s Global Learning Resources division, helping to launch and then subsequently lead the Sage Video streaming media program. Since 2022, he has also managed the very well-known Sage Research Methods product line, both award-winning products for the global academic library market.
In 2024, Sage acquired GOOD DOCS, a US-based documentary film provider of award-winning films, primarily for the higher education market. Michael manages this wholly owned subsidiary of Sage, and its portfolio of over 370 films designed to engage audiences through stories about individuals and communities working towards a more equitable world.
Enjoy the conversation? Listen to the rest of the series:
- Building a Documentary Collection: The Distributor and Publisher Perspectives
- The Academic Impact of Documentary Films: The Faculty and Librarian Perspectives
- The Sustainability of Documentaries in Today’s Political Climate
Check out our previous series with Sage:
– Definitions, Uses, and Current Contexts for “Fake News”
– Librarian Skills Landscape Report and Overview
– The Intersection of Critical Thinking Skills and AI
– Building Skills for Student Success
– Understanding the Undergraduate Workflow
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