Beyond the Seal peels back our understanding on the most eaten fruit in the United States–the banana–uncovering its toxic production and the people behind a movement to change the industry.
Beyond the Seal
Credits
Leah Varjacques: Director and Producer Katherine Nagasawa: Director and Producer
School or City
El Oro Province, Ecuador
Place Title
2016 Best Student Film + People's Choice Award Winner
Year
2016
Filmmakers
Leah Varjacques
Leah Varjacques was born in France, grew up in NY and lives in Chicago. While studying video journalism and international studies at Northwestern University, Leah got the chance to report on complex global issues, like environmental racism in Brazil and gender-based violence in South African mines. She became fascinated with social justice issues and their global interconnectedness while traveling and living in Latin America. Her experiences there, along with a growing interest in transmedia storytelling, inspired her to create Beyond the Seal, Leah and Katherine’s first web documentary about fair trade bananas. Leah now works for Free Spirit Media teaching high school students digital media and documentary filmmaking on the west side of Chicago, and is happy to be working on a new documentary project with Katherine. Leah hopes to make a career of creating documentaries and exploring how multimedia storytelling can effect social change.
Katherine Nagasawa
A native of sunny Southern California, Katherine experienced cold for the first time when she moved to Chicago to study film and journalism at Northwestern University. There she met Leah, and the two embarked on an ambitious journey to produce “Beyond the Seal,” their first-ever web documentary about Fair Trade bananas and the people behind a movement to change the banana industry. Katherine honed her interest in interactive journalism in Buenos Aires, Argentina at La Nación while working on an interactive, investigative story about the people’s fight for reliable public data. She’s now based at WBEZ Chicago where she’s helping produce “Heat of the Moment,” a new multimedia series about the people living climate change. In years to come Katherine hopes to continue telling character-driven social issue stories and exploring new forms of impactful online storytelling.
