Miss Kathy is a documentary film that tells the story of Kathy Griffin-Grinan, a lead recovery coach for prostitution and human trafficking with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office. Her non-profit organization —We’ve Been There, Done That – works in conjunction with law-enforcement to offer the survivors of prostitution a chance at rehabilitation. With endless enthusiasm, she mentors survivors as they struggle to escape a destructive lifestyle. This film also explores the relationship between human trafficking and prostitution, while addressing issues of victimization and exploitation.

"What's on Tap, Texas?" is an exploration of the interrelated worlds of the home brewer and the craft brewer in Texas.

Her Name Was is an examination of the oppression of transgender people in a society that is built on the nominalization of cisgender people, those who gender matchers their sex assigned at birth, and how this oppression lends itself to violence. In the summer of 2015, the body of Shade Schuler, an African American transgender woman, was found in a field outside of Dallas, Texas. Ms. Shade is part of an alarming epidemic of escalating levels of targeted violence against the transgender community. This documentary pulls back the curtain as it captures the feelings and struggles of the transgender community as they attempt to navigate and survive in a cis dominating society.

The ‘91 Roos is a sports documentary focused in Killeen, Texas. exploring the 1991 Killeen Kangaroos high school football team and their journey to their city's one and only state championship in football. Killeen is a small central Texas town that is directly adjacent and provides support to Ft Hood, one of the world's largest military bases. With the Persian Gulf War raging in 1991, soldiers that lived in Killeen were being sent off to fight, leaving the city almost like a ghost town. In October 1991, the Luby's Massacre occurred in Killeen, bringing the already depleted city further down by tragedy. At the time, this was the worst mass shooting in US history. This high school football team went on a fairy tale type of run during their 1991 season, resulting in winning a state title and bringing big hope back to a small town in need. Using direct interviews, narration and archival footage, this film provides an emotional yet inspirational look at a small town football team and their improbable season.

Joe Phillips, born in London to two American psychologists, worked for almost a decade as a solo motorcycle response unit in London before making the life-altering decision to change his path. Joe sold all of his belongings and purchased a traditional Red Routemaster double-decker bus to live and travel on in the United States. After the year-long bus journey, Joe chose to stay in the United States and purchased 22 acres of land in Coldspring, Texas where he is building his eco-paradise.

"The Gordita's Guide to Body Positivity" is an autobiographical documentary reflecting on society's expectations of the female body image and how it affects Latinx women. Through personal recollections, media content, and archival material, the film explores beauty expectations, body discrimination, and body positivity. The document analyzes the documentary styles such as autoethnography and narration incorporated into the film and provides historical and theoretical context to body image in the Latinx culture and how the media has affected body image, beauty ideals, and eating disorders. In addition, the pre-production, production, and post-production process is detailed.

Deva Plus Dog is a look at the life of a teenage girl singularly devoted to the sport of dog agility. The film explores how relationships develop and evolve in the high stakes world of competition, and how an alternative lifestyle impacts a youth’s coming of age.

A description of a documentary produced about human flesh-hook suspension. This document covers the pre-production, production, and post production of the documentary film and the research behind it.

FLAT! immerses us into the life and mindset of a Flat-earther who eagerly evangelizes the discoveries he and other Flat-earthers claim to have made. With his car clad in flat-earth messages, he travels around the country provoking discussions with curious bystanders and debating scientists. While he thrives in this pursuit, it is not without its costs.

Creature from the Unconscious is a reflexive genre hybrid film that follows the process of the director's journey of navigating the process of self-acceptance and self-love in the wake of trauma.

Tales of My Cities is a poetic observation of life in the cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad, India. The documentary is an intimate first-person exploration of the culture in these cities. The viewer should find a surreal peace in the life and atmosphere of the cities where life extends from centuries old traditions to the current hi-tech pace of life.

Mending the Gaps examines the failures and deficits that have occurred in education both historically and today. These gaps that already existed in learning, equality, opportunity, and technology have all been made worse after two years of a global pandemic. Focusing on students in the state of Texas, which has the 2nd largest economy in the United States, but currently ranks 34th in quality of education, now students face the reality of the COVID 19 health crisis in an already overburdened public education system. People in every area of the community, including local, state, and national policy makers, are questioning if it is time to rethink what is considered a quality education. This documentary project will take viewers from the classroom to the boardroom, as stakeholders from all levels of the educational spectrum have an earnest conversation and answer the hard question, can the current system close the gaps and salvage a generation of students?

This paper looks at the history of WBAP while examining how programming has changed from 1922-2014 and how WBAPs audience helped shape programming at the station. This paper reveals four formatting changes throughout the stations history and provides in-depth statistical analysis of how WBAPs audience changed during the stations 90 plus years of existence.

My Brother’s Keeper is a Documentary Film developed to explore the life of John Dillinger. It examines the legendary criminal through the memories of Frances Dillinger Thompson, his last remaining sibling. The film attempts to understand John Dillinger by exposing his intimate childhood relationship with his sister, and the burdens his actions left on her.

During this time of interest and uncertainty in immigration, a foreigner seeking an education, home, and career wonders how welcoming America really is. This documentary film focuses on how the organization known as World Life is involved in helping international students in terms of language, accommodation, and religion. It follows an organization that is willing to open up and welcome them into the community.

Mineola is a poetic, observational, immersive documentary centered in the town of Mineola, Texas. The film provides an intimate, first person perspective of different locations in the town as well as underlying subversive beliefs and traditions. The film’s authoritative perspective guides the viewer not only in a direction of observation but personal connection to nostalgia of small communities.

Three individuals prepare themselves to perform unique talents on a live stage, proving to themselves and others that they are far more capable than they imagined.

The 1980s is a formative decade in American history. America sought to reestablish itself as a global power and to reassert the dominant ideology of white, patriarchal capitalism. Likewise, media producers in the 1980s sought to reassert the dominance of the white, male, muscled body in filmic representations. The identity politics of the 1980s and the depictions of the white, muscled body once prominent in the 1980s have been the site of conservative nostalgia for a young, male-dominated, cult audience that is a subset of a larger cultural trend known as retro film culture. This thesis provides historical context behind the populist 1980s B-action films from Cannon Group, Inc that celebrate violent masculinity in filmic representations with white, male action heroes. Equally important is the revival of VHS collecting and how this 1980s-inspired subculture reinforces white, patriarchal capitalism through the cult films they valorize and their capitalistic trading practices despite their claims of oppositionality against mainstream taste and Hollywood films. Lastly, this thesis reveals how a new cycle of contemporary films primarily produced outside of Hollywood reasserts and celebrates the dominance of the white, male, muscled body in filmic representations despite a postmodern and hyperconscious exterior. Overall, I argue how …

Doble Identidad conveys my experience as someone who struggles with their cultural identity. Through the expository modes of self-reflexivity, participatory, experimental, and poetics, the film displays the factors that molded my cultural identity. My childhood memories and interactions with my loved ones help me tell the story of how my cultural identity has and continues to leave me with feelings of inadequacy of not being Mexican or American enough.

Lisa Markley, a.k.a. "Miz Markley", is a genuinely happy person even if she is not particularly financially successful as a musician. In an effort to validate my own choices as an artist, I chose to follow her. What was intended to be a portrait of a working musician, becomes instead a feminist musical essay film about the transformative power of art making.

This MFA graduate thesis explores the intersection of therapeutic photography, generational trauma, and Christian spirituality in promoting spiritual healing in disabled veterans diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Drawing from personal experience, rigorous biblical training, and extensive research, I argue that incorporating faith-based practices and beliefs can complement existing PTSD support and enhance spiritual and mental well-being. Through the lens of generational trauma, the thesis analyzes the complex interplay between individual and collective trauma. It posits that the healing process is intrinsically linked to the restoration of the individual and community. I present a framework for therapeutic photography that incorporates Christian spiritual principles and offers practical guidelines for implementation in conjunction with therapeutic photography. The thesis concludes with a call to action for faith-based communities, mental health practitioners, and policymakers to recognize and address the spiritual and artistic therapeutic needs of disabled veterans with PTSD.

Don't Frack With Denton chronicles the ground-breaking movement to ban hydraulic fracturing in the city of Denton, Texas by combining observational location shooting with extensive sit-down interviews and carefully negotiated subject-filmmaker relationships to create a safe and comfortable space for thoughtful reflection and criticism of a complex social movement who's activities span several years and many individuals. The result is a long-form documentary that is unapologetically in solidarity with this movement's goals while simultaneously maintaining enough editorial independence and critical distance to allow the activists themselves to honestly evaluate their decision-making, tactics and interpersonal relationships in ways that will provide insight and instruction to similar movements around the country and the world.

"The Great Hanging" is a documentary film that tells the story of the largest extra-legal mass hanging in U.S. History. This story is told through stage play recital of "October Mourning" written by historian and professor Dr. Pat Ledbetter. Using the stage play as a vehicle, the film showcases cinematic re-enactments based in the events in Gainesville, Texas during October 1862. These events show how a small community became overwhelmed by the fog of war and delved into madness as the Civil War crept closer and closer to their doorstep.

The Best Medicine is an animated documentary that explores the true stories behind the live performances of stand-up comedians. The film juxtaposes live stand-up performances with candid interview footage combined with animation and illustration. Three subjects– Michael Burd, Casey Stoddard, and Jacob Kubon– discuss alcoholism, childhood abuse, and sexual anxiety, respectively. Their candid, intimate interviews reveal personal information, creating a new context with which to understand live stand-up comedy performance. This illustrates themes of finding humor in dark or painful circumstances and the cathartic nature writing and performance.