OUR MISSION
With the emergence of digital media and the transition from print to online journalism, the short non-fiction film has proved capable of exploring current topics and questions on a public scale that local newspapers and media outlets can no longer afford.
We make independent documentary films about pressing social issues in order to promote education, encourage public dialogue, and enable change.
We also provide professional development opportunities for Oberlin College alumni pursuing careers as filmmakers by hiring new StoryLens Fellows each year. These Fellows are involved with the entire filmmaking process from conception to release.
To date, StoryLens, with the support of the Nord Family Foundation and other generous donors, has created eight original short documentaries. The films bring focus to specific non-profit organizations in northeast Ohio and explore issues such as prison recidivism, opiate addiction, child homelessness, gun violence, food access, the foreclosure crisis, and arts education.
StoryLens donates its program content to the organizations whose work its films highlight in order to help them tell their stories to clients and to provide material for their fundraising and outreach efforts.
We present our films at community gatherings, in festivals, on public television, and on digital journalistic platforms in order to bring the subjects’ perspectives and experiences to a wide audience.
By telling the stories of individuals and groups making a difference in their own neighborhoods, StoryLens hopes not only to foster awareness and understanding within local communities, but to give those communities a voice in the national conversation.
team
GEOFF PINGREE
DIRECTOR / CO-FOUNDER
Geoff Pingree (Director, Co-founder) is a writer, photographer, documentary filmmaker, and Professor of Cinema Studies and English at Oberlin College. After earning master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Chicago, he worked in public television in Washington, DC, where he directed Catholic University’s Program in Media Studies and George Washington University’s Institute for Documentary Filmmaking.
His film work for public television has received an Emmy Award; his photography received National Geographic’s 2008 World in Focus Grand Prize and has appeared in venues such as National Geographic Traveler and The New York Times; and he has written about media, culture, and politics for the New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, Wired, the Nation, the Economist, the American Prospect, Ms. Magazine, Cineaste, and National Geographic Traveler, among others, and has worked as a correspondent in Spain for both TIME and for the Christian Science Monitor.
With filmmaker and frequent collaborator Rian Brown he created BLUE DESERT ~ Towards Antarctica, a multi-channel video installation shot during a three-week expedition to Antarctica that premiered at Boston’s Laconia Gallery and has been exhibited in different forms across the United States at museums and festivals including the Newseum in Washington, DC, the Anchorage Museum of Art, the Myers School of Art in Akron, and the Cleveland Museum of Art Cinematheque.
With grants from the Mellon Foundation and the Ford Foundation’s JustFilms Initiative, he and Brown directed and produced The Foreigner’s Home (theforeignershome.com), a feature-length documentary on the intellectual and artistic vision of Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison that premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam and has screened across the U.S. and in Europe at festivals including the Miami Film Festival, the Santa Fe Independent Film Festival, and the Ashland Independent Film Festival, and at museums including the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the British Film Institute, the Wexner Center for the Arts, the Uffizi Gallery, the National Gallery of Art, the Hammer Museum, and the Brooklyn Museum.
He recently completed The Return of Elder Pingree – Memoir of a Departed Mormon (returnofelderpingree.com), a feature-length autobiographical documentary he shot in Guatemala that explores his experience as a Mormon missionary in that country and what followed when he left the faith. The film premiered at the 2019 Santa Cruz Film Festival, was selected for the Hot Docs Doc Shop and the Visions du Réel Media Library, and was awarded the Grand Jury Prize at the 2019 Lonely Seal International Film, Screenwriting, and Music Festival. It will be showcased at this year’s Cannes Festival online and at next year’s festival in France.
With Brown, he founded and directs the Apollo Outreach Initiative, a media education and community outreach program housed in Oberlin’s historic Apollo Theatre.
Pingree created StoryLens with Rian Brown in 2014.
ANNA SCOTT
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR 2020-
Anna Scott (they/them) is a multidisciplinary artist and filmmaker. Wearing many hats as a cinematographer, director, editor, and producer, their interests lie in combining creative practices with social change and the investigation of personal politics. As an independent filmmaker, Anna is presently curious in proudly telling stories that elevate voices in labor relation battles and gender diverse audiences, community empowerment and the deep history of race in the midwest. Documentary offers the perfect platform to combine Anna’s passions in art, politics, and community care.
SHAINA LIN CHUNG
ASSISTANT PRODUCER 2022-
Shaina Lin Chung (they/she) is a filmmaker and documentarian with interests in found footage, animation, and editing. Shaina often uses film as a conduit to express their experiences, the intricacies of Black life, history, and media through building elaborate soundscapes related to breath and time through visual art
ZOE GUINEY
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR 2020-
Zoe Guiney (she/her) is a filmmaker and scholar from Granville, Ohio. After graduating from Oberlin College where she majored in Cinema Studies and Hispanic Studies, she received a Fulbright English Teaching Fellowship in Mexico. She currently resides in Oaxaca City, where she works as a language and film educator. Zoe is interested in documentary as a means to reveal social issues and mobilize communities. Her work also explores the intersections and constructions of identity, place, and memory.
VIKRAM PERRY
CONSULTING RESEARCH HISTORIAN 2022-
Vikram Perry grew up in Champaign, Illinois, and is a recent graduate of Oberlin College with a B.A. in History and Musical Studies. Vikram's interests in history involve both hands-on research as well as developing frameworks and narratives through which we view the past, particularly narratives that highlight those who have been silenced. As a historical consultant for Storylens, Vikram is able to engage both those interests by working with a community. By focusing on the discipline of community history, Vikram strives to connect historical context to the present day goals of a living community.
TREY SCANTLEN
PRODUCTION AND SOCIAL MEDIA FELLOW 2023-
Trey Scantlen (he/him) is a filmmaker raised in the quaint town of Ney, Ohio. A current Cinema Studies major at Oberlin College, Trey wants to illuminate and capture the raw beauty and resilience of underrepresented voice in the Lorain County area. An aspiring cinematographer, Trey hopes to be able to properly convey and communicate the stories of people he works with.
NOLAN SAVAGE
GRANT WRITING AND SOCIAL MEDIA FELLOW 2023-
Nolan Savage (he/him) is a fourth-year at Oberlin College majoring in Africana Studies and Creative Writing. He plans to use his interest in film and novels to provide a spotlight to Black faces and Black voices in otherwise unexplored adventures.
D PEGUES
GRANT WRITING AND SOCIAL MEDIA FELLOW 2023-
Dee Pegues (they/them) is a filmmaker raised in the Atlanta, Georgia area. They are a Cinema Studies and Neuroscience major at Oberlin College. With a special interest in writing and animation, they often find themselves creating works of art that are surreal, dark, and out-of-the-ordinary. When it comes to documentaries, Dee wants to elevate stories about social and environmental justice, African American culture, neuroscience, and any niche topic that often flies under the radar.
CAYDEN BACH-O’DONNELL
ASSISTANT EDITOR 2023-
Cayden Bach-O’Donnell (he/him) is first and foremost an editor. He is a second year Cinema Studies major at Oberlin College. Deeply in love with the art of the edit, he uses editing to pull audiences into his work. His goal for his filmmaking is to tell people’s stories and show audiences the possibility of finding care and graciousness in the face of other’s hardship. Filmmaking gives him the chance to work with others, learn about, and tell the stories of others.
TIAGO FURTADO
ASSISTANT EDITOR 2023-
Tiago Furtado (they/them) is a filmmaker and a current Cinema Studies major. Though they enjoy nearly every aspect of film production, and have always loved using cameras and lights, they are especially interested in editing. They have been using the Adobe suite since high school and, through their job as an Oberlin College Media Associate, have spent the last year helping other students to work in Premiere Pro and After Effects. Filmmaking gives us a way to tell important stories and convey meaning through creative expression. Editing is the stage in which these two aspects of the film are brought together, making it crucially important.