Category Archives: Documentary

Cold Coast

 

Produced by Joey Bina.

Cold Coast is the story of Great Lakes Surfer, Ryan Gerard.


Joey Bina is a storyteller, photographer and actor from Los Angeles, CA. He has been behind and in front of the camera since 2011. He is very fortunate to be able to pursue this type of career and hopes to continue for years to come.

WHAT THE YAK!?

Produced by Leopold Stuebner

“What the Yak!?” is a BEA-winning, digital documentary exploring the ethics behind the anonymous social network Yik Yak. Leopold Stuebner explores how Yik Yak can be used in times of tragedy and how college-aged students communicate on the app.


Leopold Stuebner is a graduate of the Digital Media Storytelling program at Loyola University Chicago. His project “What the Yak!?” won first place in the Interactive Multimedia Category. Leopold is a business intelligence analyst at Apple and he is based in Ireland.

SHE ART

“She Art” is a three-part documentary series produced by Megan McKinley. The series, which includes “impart,” “curate” and “present,” features women in the arts from the Chicago area. View the full series on McKinley’s Vimeo page.


Megan McKinley is a 2018 graduate of Loyola’s Digital Media and Storytelling master’s program. In addition to her “She Art” series, Megan produced an award-winning video titled “Dress for Success.” Megan received the Broadcast Education Association (BEA) Award of Excellence for her documentary series..

The Chicago 51

Produced by Jacob Pieieczynski.

Have you heard of the possibility of a serial killer in Chicago? Dating back to 2001, 51 strangulations of women on Chicago’s South, Far South, and West sides have gone unsolved with the lowest clearance rate in the country — leading many to believe there’s a serial killer on the loose in Chicago. Tune in to this six part digital series exploring how these women’s stories have gone largely unheard and what is being done about it.

Visit the full website

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Jacob Pieieczynski is a Chicago-based editor, producer, and writer with a passion for meaningful and intentional storytelling.

He has experience working with non-profit organizations in Milwaukee and Chicago. Most recently, he worked on The Chicago Public Education Fund’s #PrincipalPrideChi campaign, creating three profile videos that garnered an organic reach of over 50k people, supervising the design of campaign collateral, coordinating newspaper advertisement placement in all major Chicago newspapers, and assisting in a social media campaign that compiled a total reach of over 3 million people across Chicagoland.

He attended Marquette University, receiving a Bachelor’s degree in Digital Media and a Bachelor’s degree in Writing Intensive English. He graduated with Master’s of Communication in Digital Storytelling from Loyola University in 2020 and now works as a Marketing Manager for One Hope United.

 

 

Art of Maya varadaraj

Tanvi Soans produced the “Art of Maya Varadaraj,” a documentary about the titular artist. In the documentary, Varadaraj discusses her exhibition in Soho New York, as well as her work.


Tanvi Soans is a 2022 graduate of the Digital Media and Storytelling program.

THAT’S DINNERTAINMENT!


“That’s Dinnertainment!” is a documentary short by second-year Digital Media Storytelling student Marina Hart Donahue exploring the phenomenon that is dinner theatre. After being pronounced dead multiple times, the “dinner and a show” business model continues to prove that it is alive and well. But how does it function? Why does it work? Is the food really that good? To learn more about the dinner theatre experience, including its history, visit the website.


Marina Hart Donahue is a second-year Digital Media and Storytelling student at Loyola University Chicago. She moved to Chicago to pursue a career in storytelling and is thrilled to be a part of the graduate program. Marina’s documentary short “That’s Dinnertainment!” was officially selected for The Chicago International Indie Film Festival. She hopes to continue to tell stories that are meaningful, entertaining and all that jazz.

STREETWISE

“StreetWise,” produced by Digital Media and Storytelling master’s program graduate Jeffrey Chow, is a documentary series that follows the people behind StreetWise, an organization that assists marginalized individuals and gives them an opportunity to earn income. “One Magazine at a Time,: which features magazine vendor Steven Riggs, received the Broadcast Education Association (BEA) Award of Excellence within the student documentary section. View the full “StreetWise” series on Jeffrey’s YouTube page.


Jeffrey Chow is a 2018 graduate of Loyola’s Digital Media and Storytelling graduate program and award-winning storyteller. He is a videographer, editor and producer based in Chicago.

ON THE RECORD

Asia Singleton’s “On the Record” is a three-part video series (collected in this video) about how vinyl records are made and sold, and how record players are repaired.


Asia Singleton is a 2022 graduate of Loyola University Chicago’s Digital Media and Storytelling master’s program. She has interned at WBEZ and was a Southern Exposure Film fellow in summer 2022. She is currently an editor and producer at One Tree Forest Films.

THE LIGHT WITHIN A HUNDRED SQUARE FEET

While we live in an increasingly digital world, there are many benefits to shooting and developing film the old-fashioned way. But, film photography is a fading industry, and there is only one film developer/printer left in all of Chicago. Soon photographers may not be able to find someone to develop their film. This is a story about the last Chicago film developer/printer: Oson Chin.

Produced by Yucheng Jiang.


Yucheng has been studying abroad since 2013. He graduated from Concordia University Wisconsin with a major in Business Communication and is a Digital Media and Storytelling alumnus. Four of his works have been nominated for the BEA film festival and one was nominated for a student Emmy. 

Dairyland

Produced by Joey Bina.

Dairyland is the story of the Weninger Family and their dairy farm in Woodland, Wisconsin. This film was Bina’s capstone project for his Masters Degree at Loyola University. Even though he was limited and couldn’t create a longer film due to the pandemic, he was very happy with how this turned out. He believes that there is way too much negative press about the farming crisis in Wisconsin. He just wanted to let people know that, even though there is a farming crisis, there’s still good people out there fighting to put food on your table. They deserve to be recognized, especially during a global pandemic.


Joey Bina is a storyteller, photographer and actor from Los Angeles, CA. He has been behind and in front of the camera since 2011. He is very fortunate to be able to pursue this type of career and hopes to continue for years to come.

Who Will Take Care of Me?


Produced by Maria Pimentel.

Who Will Take Care of Me? is a documentary film exploring the challenges faced by a growing population of elders.


Maria is a solutions-driven, multilingual videographer and producer with proven excellence in videography, content production/editing, social media management, and production techniques. She graduated from the Loyola DMST program in 2019 and now works as the Multimedia Coordinator at Japanese American Service Committee (JASC).

Love, 2020

Produced by Julie Young.

​2020 became the year of the COVID-19 global pandemic. For single people, is there any hope to find love from six feet apart?


Young woman smiling.Julie is a Midwest native and graduate of Kent State University. After several years working in the visual content creation field, she decided to pursue a master’s degree in Digital Media and Storytelling at Loyola University Chicago. She is enjoying expanding her knowledge of digital production tools in an effort to become an expert storyteller in a variety of mediums. Her video “Love, 2020” was nominated for a BEA award under Microdocumentary.

Deep Leap

Produced by Peter Banda.

Deep Leap is a video about dancer, choreographer, and teacher Fernando Ramos based in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He uses dance to know his body, keep form, and connect with people. Although he does not earn much from dancing, dance is his life and source of joy.


Peter has come to appreciate the craft of telling stories. He has done many short, compelling documentaries ranging from homelessness, refugee experiences, as well as nature stories. What he has found valuable in doing these stories is learning how to connect with people and find meaning in their experiences. He was born and raised in Lusaka, Zambia.

La Fundacion

 

Produced by Anne G. Scott for COMM 373: Special Topics – Digital Storytelling in Santiago.

La Fundacion is a short documentary about Fundacion Paternitas, an organization in Chile that helps reintegrate former prisoners into society.


Anne is a storyteller. She tells nonfiction narratives via writing, film, and live performance. The stories range in topic from criminal justice to women in comedy to her own personal anecdotes. In 2015, she received her Master’s Degree from Loyola University Chicago in Digital Media and Storytelling. While in school, she focused her studies on documentary filmmaking.