Biography
Casey Beck is an award‐winning documentary filmmaker, producer, and photographer. Her debut short film Mongolia: Land Without Fences premiered online on FRONTLINE/World in 2007. After completing a Fulbright scholarship in Argentina, she was the First Unit Director of Ballplayer: Pelotero, a New York Times’ Critics Pick. Her feature film The Organic Life won Best Documentary Feature at the Santa Cruz Film Festival and was broadcast online on Hulu, FoodMattersTV, and iTunes. Beck screened her short film Shades at the Academy Award qualifying festival Cinequest 2019 and her film, Legion, in 2020. With the support of the Pulitzer Center, she is currently developing a series of short films for Public Health Watch about the intersection of environmental issues and race.
Research
A new generation of young people, having watched their forebears sit idly by in the face of the coming catastrophe, are not content to wait for the world to burn. Increasingly, these energized, committed, innovative activists have spurred movement in myriad arenas, building political power and wider resolve as the go. The Changemakers, a six‐part series of 30‐minute episodes, features the empowered young people who have taken up the challenges of the climate crisis and are making both real progress and names for themselves. The first episode, to be produced in 2022‐2023, focuses on two recent Tulane University graduates, Fran Trautmann and Max Steitz, who founded the city’s only glass recycling plant, Glass Half Full, with a GoFundMe campaign. Now, their organization is pivoting to address the very timely issue of coastal erosion in the Mississippi River delta by turning their recycled glass into sand that can be used to rebuilt habitat that is being lost in the changing climate. This film will explore who these young people are, what led them to start their social enterprise, and what drives them to continue it despite seemingly insurmountable odds.
