BEEN HERE STAY HERE (2024)
Through intimate cinema verité, BEEN HERE STAY HERE, explores the quiet yet profound crisis unfolding on Tangier Island, where climate change isn’t an abstract concept but a daily reality threatening to erase an entire community. The film follows three generations living on the island: Ooker Eskridge, the resolute mayor, whose family has called this place home for six generations; Cameron Evans, a young man caught between the pull of tradition and the allure of opportunities beyond the island; and Jacob Parks, a seven-year-old boy learning the deep maritime history that may soon slip away from him.
The deeply held Christian faith of Tangier’s residents becomes both their compass and their refuge, as they search for meaning and solace in the face of an uncertain future. Filmmaker David Usui documents their struggle, offering a powerful meditation on survival, faith, and the human desire for home amidst the inexorable forces of a changing planet. It’s a story not just about loss, but about the ways we hold on, even as the world shifts beneath us.
Visit the site: www.beenherestayhere.com
AMERICAN NOMADS (2020)
In this six-part series for ITVS and PBS’s Independent Lens, we journey into the lives of those who’ve traded traditional homes for the open road, capturing the diverse stories of people across the U.S. navigating life in their vehicles. From the rugged plains to sun-drenched deserts, these modern nomads—each with their own van, bus, or camper—have chosen to redefine what home means in a time of rising living costs. For some, it’s a path to independence and self-discovery; for others, a practical choice amid an increasingly expensive world. This series captures the spirit of freedom, adaptation, and the quiet resilience of those who carry their lives wherever the road leads them.
Watch the series on PBS/ITVS.
SCOOTER TRAMP SCOTTY (2019)
Scooter Tramp Scotty is a portrait of Scotty Kerekes, a biker and writer in his fifties who has spent the last 23 years crisscrossing the country with no fixed address, only the open road. For Scotty, life is a series of ever-shifting landscapes, of nights spent in abandoned houses, fields thick with wild grasses, or tucked into garages and backyards. He’s a philosopher of the highway, a storyteller who shares his reflections on a life untethered, writing columns for motorcycle magazines that read like dispatches from the edges of society. Scotty’s bike is both vessel and home, his truest companion in a life defined by freedom, solitude, and a fierce embrace of impermanence.
Watch the film here.
Follow Scooter at scootertrampscotty.com
THE ATLANTIC | OUR TOWNS (2018)
In collaboration with James and Deborah Fallows, we crafted a series of documentaries for American Futures with The Atlantic, an ongoing journey into the heart of small-town America. This project casts a compassionate, attentive gaze on lives often overlooked, revealing the quiet resilience and beauty woven into the everyday. Here, in the spaces between what’s celebrated and what’s forgotten, we find communities shaped by complex histories and hopes, each story a testament to the richness and dignity of lives that rarely take the spotlight. It’s an invitation to see the world not only as it is but as it might become, seen through the lens of those who carry on with quiet determination.
Check out the series here.
IN TRANSIT (2015)
IN TRANSIT is an observational film documenting life on Amtrak's Empire Builder line as it passes through the wintry corridor between Chicago and Seattle/Portland.
It unfolds as a portrait of America told through the personal stories of riders aboard the train. As the Empire Builder traverses the country, passing through major cities, suburbs, farmland, oil fields, mountains and forest, the diverse landscape serves as a complementary backdrop to the passengers' hopes, fears and dreams.
In today's fast-paced world, the train serves as a powerful reminder of the importance of human connection. And at the same time, audiences are given pause to look inward and contemplate personal journeys. To some passengers, the train is flight and salvation, to others it is reckoning and loss, but for all it is a place for reflection and finding common ground. As the Empire Builder crisscrosses the country, a loving portrait of America emerges in its full human and natural beauty.
Visit the site: www.intransitfilm.com
THIS MUST BE THE PLACE (2010-2014)
This Must Be the Place is a series of short documentaries that explores the intimate, varied landscapes we call home. Each film unfolds a different story of belonging, capturing the ways in which people find, create, and redefine their personal sanctuaries. From small-town dwellings to forgotten industrial spaces, each place is a reflection of those who inhabit it—a blend of memory, identity, and resilience. Through this series, we explore home not as a fixed point but as an ever-evolving, deeply personal expression, revealing the beauty and complexity of what it means to belong.
THE NEW YORK TIMES - STREETSCAPES (2010)
In this series for The New York Times, we bring to life Streetscapes, the beloved column by Christopher Gray, whose lens on New York’s architectural history spanned over two decades. Gray was more than an architectural historian; he was a storyteller of place, capturing the city’s buildings as living artifacts shaped by time and human ambition. Through his words and our lens, we journey through New York’s streets, revealing the forgotten corners and hidden facades that hold stories of transformation, resilience, and identity. Each episode is a tribute to the city itself—a mosaic of architecture and memory that invites us to see New York not only as it is but as it has been, a place forever on the cusp of change.
Grand Banking Halls
A Museum’s Former Life
J.P. Morgan’s Library