In the year since Congress defunded public media, Grace and the Viewers Like Us team have gathered industry peers and fellow organizers in Chicago and Los Angeles for candid conversations about how to move forward. On the other side of those convenings lies a clear desire for action.
On this episode of Viewers Like Us, Grace talks with Emmy-nominated filmmaker Yael Bridge and independent documentary producer Kristin Lesko about how they’ve navigated the fallout from the CPB funding cuts; carving out alternative paths for distribution, coalition-building, and experimental models; and the importance of turning to and strengthening our networks.
Show Notes
Kristin Lesko is a documentary filmmaker with over 20 years of experience working alongside celebrated nonfiction directors. Her credits include producer on The Human Trial (2022), and co-producer on the Oscar-winning O.J.: Made in America (2016) and the Emmy-winning, Oscar-nominated Operation Homecoming (2008).Since relocating to California’s Central Valley, she has turned her focus to local storytelling, where she has produced and directed several short documentaries, including La Milpa (2024) and Still in Print (2025). She is currently in production on a feature documentary about the historic rural community of Allensworth, and has served on the board of KVPR, the Central Valley’s NPR affiliate, since 2022.
Yael Bridge is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker. Her first feature documentary, The Big Scary “S” Word, which traces the history and resurgence of socialism in the U.S.,premiered at Hot Docs and sold to Hulu. Her second feature, Who Moves America, was funded by ITVS and premiered at True/False Film Fest 2026. She also produced Classroom 4, which was nominated for a Critics’ Choice Award, shortlisted for an Academy Award, and broadcast on POV; Left on Purpose, winner of the Audience Award at DOC NYC; and Saving Capitalism, a Netflix Original, starring former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, which was nominated for an Emmy Award.
Who Moves America Note: The film is currently touring nationwide, with screener requests available directly through this site.
Central Valley Journalism Collaborative
Getting Real 2026 Program: International Documentary Association
“Not Waiting for the Rain: Getting Real ’26”
By Anthony Kaufman
Oct. 7, 2026, Documentary magazine
Excerpt featuring VLU’s breakout session:
“During a breakout session called “Making It Local (With Viewers Like Us),” another welcome initiative—combining the local with the national—was announced by filmmaker and NPR Senior Editor Razi Jafri: the creation of NPR Studios, a new documentary division of National Public Radio that has received three years of seed funding from the Doris Duke Foundation.
‘Imagine a local filmmaker partnering with a member station to develop or produce a documentary rooted in that community, combining the filmmaker’s cinematic language and storytelling abilities with the local stations’ reporting relationships and local knowledge,’ Jafri said. ‘Things are broken,’ Jafri continued, ‘but there are also lots and lots of resources that are still out there.’
Similar synchronicities and partnerships were also discussed throughout the three-day convening. During the same session, media and nonprofit leader Joaquin Alvarado, veteran of the Center for Investigative Reporting and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, spoke about independent documentaries as the third piece of a united triangle, along with local print and radio. He cited such bodies as the American Journalism Project (which has raised over US$250 million), Press Forward (which has invested more than US$400 million), and the vast network of local community foundations—it seems most U.S. regions have one—all as potential partners and funders.
‘We have succeeded in getting community foundations to invest in their press and media stations, and they’re not yet connected to the doc community, so this is where we can connect the dots,’ Alvarado told Documentary postconference. ‘I’m not saying we’re going to get those numbers for independent docs, but there are certainly tens of millions of dollars if we’re strategic about getting it.’
‘Documentary is journalism, too,” echoed Memo Torres, founder of L.A. TACO and the “Daily Memo” at the “Making It Local” breakout session. For Torres, who pivoted from making food videos to providing vital reporting about ICE raids in Los Angeles, during times of authoritarianism, documentary filmmakers and journalists “have to work together, not compete with each other.’”