I came to filmmaking over ten years ago with a broad range of experience including union organizing, a masters degree in history, and non-profit development/fundraising. I was inspired by workers on the front lines of organizing efforts, and Michel-Rolph Trouillot’s teachings about power and the production of history. I was moved by the power of film to engage the general public in new narratives of our history that are no longer told by those who dominate, but instead tell the stories of all of us. These stories are often inconvenient to the master narrative that has historically left out so many of our people. This continues to guide my work.
My work has necessarily evolved in many different ways. I grew up in predominantly white, rural Western Massachusetts as a white cisgender straight woman. My partner of over 20 years is Dominican, and we are raising two children of color, one biological and the other adopted, in a multi-generational home. I am in the initial stages of beginning a new short project on interrogating what I call the "whiteness lens". The lens refers to the way white media makers see the world through a camera lens. The dominant narrative has been told by my people. As an artist I need to interrogate that narrative in order to help white people learn how to decolonize our own whiteness. It broadens my original vision as an artist, and yet feels like exactly what I need to be doing.
As I continue expanding on my work, labor is becoming more prominent. I continue to work on projects that highlight the unseen labor that produces the wealth of our economy.
I am fully bilingual in Spanish and English. Click on films to learn more about my projects.
My work has necessarily evolved in many different ways. I grew up in predominantly white, rural Western Massachusetts as a white cisgender straight woman. My partner of over 20 years is Dominican, and we are raising two children of color, one biological and the other adopted, in a multi-generational home. I am in the initial stages of beginning a new short project on interrogating what I call the "whiteness lens". The lens refers to the way white media makers see the world through a camera lens. The dominant narrative has been told by my people. As an artist I need to interrogate that narrative in order to help white people learn how to decolonize our own whiteness. It broadens my original vision as an artist, and yet feels like exactly what I need to be doing.
As I continue expanding on my work, labor is becoming more prominent. I continue to work on projects that highlight the unseen labor that produces the wealth of our economy.
I am fully bilingual in Spanish and English. Click on films to learn more about my projects.
Photo credit: Stephanie Alvarez Ewens
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STANDARD BIO
Margo Guernsey is a documentary impact filmmaker, and founder of Time Travel Productions LLC. Her first feature Councilwoman (America ReFramed 2019), won multiple awards. Prior to film, Margo worked as a union organizer, non-profit development director, and Spanish/English translator. She holds an MFA in Film (University of Miami), MA in History (Umass/Amherst), and a BA in History (Brown University). Margo’s work has received support from Chicken & Egg Pictures, ITVS, Catapult Film Fund, GoodPitch, the Democracy Fund and the Surdna Foundation, among others. She speaks both Spanish and English; and she is a proud Mama of two young children, navigating motherhood, as an adoptive and biological mother, in a bicultural Dominican/American multi-generational household. |