Ken Burns believes stories change minds.

Arguments rarely change opinions; stories sometimes can.

Maureen Dowd, in her New York Times piece, “Donald Trump, Our Foundering Father“, describes how she and her Trump-loving brother recently visited the “Founding Friends, Founding Foes” tour at Monticello where people could explore their divergent, fraught political relationships as Jefferson and Adams did back in the day. While there, they talked to Ken Burns who gave a preview of his upcoming PBS documentary, The American Revolution.

Maureen asked Burns if it was possible to persuade anyone across the aisle of anything, to which he replied:

“The best arguments in the world won’t change a single person’s point of view. The only thing that can do that is a good story … you let them in, and they add complication, allowing you to understand that sometimes a thing and its opposite are true at the same time … binaries that we set up are the biggest trap, whether they come from the left or the right.”

Adding, “When you see somebody making a ‘them,’ you have to be careful.”

 

We couldn’t agree more. That is exactly why we tell stories through film. It’s also how our intern, Joshua Pitney, feels as he described recently in his post, “Success on the Spectrum“. Joshua believes that cinema is the best way to transport viewers to another world that can leave them changed. That’s why he chooses cinema to show the realities of neurodiversity and demonstrate that neurodiverse people can be a positive force for good.

Here’s what we’re doing to change minds. Through the Told They Can’t documentary we are sharing stories of these ten people to change the narrative around who the “them’s” may be—the immigrants, the undocumented, the people of color in marginalized communities, the discriminated against, the hated—and why we may want to reconsider how we perceive them:

1. Ramon Resa, MD— abandoned by his mother at age 2 and raised as 1 of 14 children who all worked as a full-time migrant child farm laborers. Attended UC Santa Cruz and earned his MD at UCI Medical School. Returned to Central Valley to be a doctor and role model for kids like he once was for over 30 years.
2. Blanca E. Rubio—Came to the U.S. with here parents and was deported twice as a child. Became a U.S. citizen and attended school in inner-city Los Angles, went on to college and became a teacher and student advocate for her community. Blanca is now an elected California State Assembly member.
3. Enrique Diaz—Enrique arrived in the U.S. undocumented age 2. By age 6 he was a full-time migrant child farmworker. Attended Cal Poly San Luis Obispo where he studied computer engineering and computer science. Enrique was hired by Apple as a R&D scientist/engineer and contributed to the development of pivotal products such as the Bondi Blue iMac, the Cube, iPad, and MacBook Pro.
4. Katherine Flores, MD—Kathrine’s mom died during her birth. She was raised by her grandparents and grew up living in a tent with a dirt floor. She worked in the fields along side her grandparents as a child migrant farm laborer. Katherine attended Stanford and UC Davis Medical School; she is an Associate Clinical Professor in Family Medicine, UCSF School of Medicine and Director of UCSF Fresno Latino Center for Medical Education and Research.
5. Esteban G. Burchard, MD, MPH—Esteban was raised by a single mom in the tough Mission District of San Francisco. He studied at Stanford and Harvard schools of medicine and is a highly-acclaimed research scientist; read about his incredible journey, in his own words, here.
6. Anna M. Caballero—Now a California State Senator, was born to a family of copper miners from Arizona. She’s is a graduate of UCLA law school; the first female Mayor elected in the 126-year history of the City of Salinas; First Latina elected to represent the 28th Assembly District in 2006.
7. Tony Cárdenas—Education was important to Tony’s immigrant parents because they didn’t have the opportunity to attend school beyond the first grade. Tony and his ten siblings to all earn advanced degrees.Tony, an engineer, was elected to the U.S. Congress.
8. Fernando S. Mendoza, MD, MPH—Fernando, son of an immigrant farm worker, was told that he could not become a doctor due to his background. He studied medicine at Stanford and Harvard; became a Professor of Pediatrics and Associate Dean of Diversity at Stanford School of Medicine.
9. Lisa Ramirez, EdD—Lisa grew up as a migrant child farm laborer and was kicked out of high school for punching the principal. She left home, joined the U.S. Army, earned her doctorate in education; served at the U.S. Department of Education for many years.
10. Raul Ruiz, MD, MPH, MPP—Son of immigrants, grew up working in the fields with his family as a migrant child farmworker. Attended UCLA and Harvard; When Dr. Ruiz received his license to practice medicine he returned to his community and served as a much needed ER doctor. Elected to the U.S. Congress.

If you’re interested in changing the narrative too, contact us to learn how you may screen the film and share these incredibly powerful stories:

[email protected]