Filmmakers
Joseph Sousa: Director, Producer, Writer
Joseph Sousa is an Emmy-nominated producer, director, and writer of non-fiction documentary films and television. His experience spans a wide variety of formats including documentary, reality television, how-to programming, and ethnographic film making. Along with his work as an independent film maker, Sousa is credited on over 30 hours of commercial television with programs appearing on PBS, Discovery, History, HGTV, Spike TV, Animal Planet, Travel Channel, and others. His work as a producer has brought him to over thirty countries on five continents. Sousa recently produced and directed the landmark PBS series Coming Back With Wes Moore which profiled military veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“Ragged Edge” is the third purely independent initiative developed by Sousa, following up on the Emmy-nominated film, “Festa,” about the world’s largest Portuguese Feast and the critically acclaimed film “Live from Bethlehem,” telling stories of Palestinian journalists struggling to create an independent voice in one of the most dangerous and sectarian conflict zones in the world.
Matt Sienkiewicz: Director, Producer
Matt Sienkiewicz is an Assistant Professor of Communication and International Studies at Boston College. He teaches courses in global media cultures and media theory. His research focuses on the West’s investment in Middle Eastern broadcasting initiatives as well as portrayals of race and religion on the American screen.
His publications include articles in The International Journal of Cultural Studies, Popular Communication, The Journal of Film and Video, The Velvet Light Trap and The Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication. He is the co-editor of Saturday Night Live and American Television, forthcoming from Indiana University Press in 2013.
His journalistic and op-ed work has been featured in The Atlantic, The Daily Beast, Tikkun, ThinkProgress.org, Columbia Journalism Review, EA Worldview and The Times of Israel.
In addition to his work as a scholar, Matt is also an Emmy-nominated documentary filmmaker and screenwriter. His most recent film, Live From Bethlehem, was released by the Media Education Foundation in September 2009 and has screened worldwide.
Matt has given lectures about the Middle East, Palestinian Media and Jewish Culture at universities across the world as well as in synagogues and community centers.
