Councilwoman

GALLERY

ABOUT THE FILM

Director/Producer: Margo Guernsey

Genre: Documentary

Broadcast Date: January 25, 2020 at 10/9c on America Reframed (World Channel)

Politicians aren’t often full-time hotel housekeepers, union members, grandmothers, and immigrants working service jobs. But Carmen Castillo changes that when she wins a seat on the City Council in Providence, Rhode Island. Carmen Castillo is a Dominican City Councilwoman who maintains her job cleaning hotel rooms, as she takes on her new role in politics. She faces skeptics who say she doesn’t have the education to govern, the power of corporate interests who take a stand against her fight for a $15/hourly wage in the City, and a tough re-election against two contenders—all of this while balancing the challenges of managing a full-time job cleaning hotel rooms, and a personal relationship. It’s a journey behind the scenes of politics after the victory.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

Margo Guernsey (Director/Producer)

Margo began her film career in 2010 as a producer at WPBT2 (Miami). Councilwoman is her first feature documentary. Since 2012 she has worked freelance as a director and producer of short videos for local organizations in the Boston area. Over the past 20 years, Margo has worked as a union organizer, non-profit development director, Spanish/English translator and media instructor, always building multi-racial collaborations across class lines to inform the work of building a more just society. She holds an MFA in Film (University of Miami), MA in History (Umass/Amherst), BA in History (Brown University), and is a Tribeca/Camden/CNNFilms Retreat Alumni.

Patricia Benabe (Producer)

Patricia produced feature documentary Memories of a Penitent Heart (Tribeca Film Festival, 2016; POV, 2017) and short films Love The Sinner (Tribeca Film Festival, 2017) and They Took Them Alive (Full Frame, 2017). She co-produced The Hand That Feeds (Emmy Nominee; America ReFramed, 2016) and Reportero (Emmy nominee; POV, 2013). Her films have received support from Ford Foundation, Cinereach, Latino Public Broadcasting, ITVS, POV, Chicken and Egg, Fledgling, and Sundance Film Institute.