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Her Fight, His Name: The Story of Gwen Carr and Eric Garner

Description

This July marks the 10-year anniversary of Eric Garner’s killing, a milestone for his enduring legacy and a reminder of the perpetuity of this experience for bereaved mothers like Gwen Carr.

Our mission is telling Gwen Carr’s unmatched story as compellingly as possible, letting her brilliance as the central character shine through. We will work with “Mothers of the Movement” and community leaders to use our film to spread awareness of its critical issues and cause impact.

 

Synopsis:
“Her Fight, His Name: The Story of Gwen Carr and Eric Garner” is a powerful and intimate portrayal of Gwen Carr, the mother of Eric Garner, whose death at the hands of the NYPD in 2014 became a catalyst for the Black Lives Matter movement. Through six years of filming, the documentary captures Gwen’s transformation from a grieving mother into a relentless activist, facing public and personal hurdles in her fight for justice.

Gwen channels her grief into a yearslong battle, drawing constant media coverage and international attention. Her fight challenges the NYPD and former New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, demanding accountability for the officers involved in her son’s death. The film also follows Gwen as she forms deep bonds with other “Mothers of the Movement,” women who have also lost family to police violence—the “club no one wants to be a part of.”
When the news cameras go away, Gwen surrounds herself with photos of lost loved ones in her Staten Island home, drawing strength from their memories. These images serve as conduits for both grief and resilience, embodying the legacy of Eric Garner.
From helping to pass the Eric Garner Anti-Chokehold Act in New York to championing the ongoing Medical Civil Rights Initiative, Gwen’s journey is one of unwavering resolve. Despite repeated failures by the justice system, she remains determined to protect other Black mothers’ sons and cherish her remaining family, showcasing the power of a mother’s love and activism.

 

Core Team:
Brad Bailey (Director), originally from Moultrie, GA, won Student Academy Award Gold (the first African American to do so in the Academy’s 49- year history of those awards) in 2017 for his first documentary, Hale, about disability pioneer Hale Zukas, and is currently a researcher and graduate student at Harvard University. He received his B.A. from Yale in Political Science and his Master’s in Public Affairs from Princeton and has extensive written and video experience interviewing underserved populations worldwide. The Academy invited him back to present at the 50th Anniversary of the Student Academy Awards in Beverly Hills in October 2023.

Jered Everson (Producer) studied math and science at Columbia and conducted funded biology research at Caltech and MIT in a past life, but switched to film as a full-time career directly due to this project and its resonance with his own personal background of having a mom who is a civil rights attorney in Minneapolis, MN. In 2022, Jered helped teach a Harvard Winter Session course on social justice filmmaking and was invited to the Cannes Film Festival. His focus areas on this project have been narrative / script development and project management. Brad and Jered were nominated for a New England Emmy in 2024 for work on the Medical Civil Rights Initiative involving Gwen Carr.

Deanna Cuadra (Producer) was born in San Francisco, CA, of Nicaraguan descent and currently resides in NYC after graduating from Columbia with a degree in film and media studies. Whether as a reporter or a filmmaker, she focuses on telling stories centered on communities and institutions where inequity thrives, and social needs are systematically denied. She has focused to date on American healthcare inequities, women in the workforce, and mental health stigma. Through storytelling, she hopes further awareness will bring positive changes for key social issues.