The relationship between producer and subject is one of the most important aspects of making a documentary. It raises all sorts of issues: Should the interviewer "repay" the interviewee for their time? Can the subject review drafts of the story? Who controls the narrative? It's one of the big ethical topics that we talk a lot about in the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies.
Join us for a virtual panel featuring recent Salt Institute grads who will talk about how they navigate these questions. Panelists include Aubrey Calaway, Salt '22, Harper Carlton, Salt '24, Artemisia Luk, Salt '24, and Emily Reeves, Salt '21.
About the Panelists:
Aubrey Calaway, Salt '22
Aubrey Calaway is an audiomaker and writer. He specializes in collaborating with artists, academics, and activists to tell complex stories in sound. Aubrey spent over three years at TransLash Media, where he produced the award-winning “TransLash Podcast with Imara Jones," and "The Mess: Imara's Guide to Our Political Hellscape.” Aubrey currently serves as the Director of Foghorn, an audio collective and co-working space based in Portland, Maine. He is a graduate of Brown University and the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies. He was the 2023 Salt Artist in Residence at Monson Art and has taught audio production at the Salt Institute, Grackle & Grackle, and the Friends School of Portland.
Harper Carlton, Salt '24
Harper Carlton is an audio producer based in Cincinnati, currently working on Cincinnati Edition, a daily news talk show on NPR affiliate WVXU. Harper’s career has spanned the fields of audio, video, and public relations, and has taken her from Austin to Los Angeles to Portland, Maine. Prior to joining the team at Cincinnati Edition, Harper worked in public radio as a researcher at Milk Street Radio and as a host on KUT 90.5 FM, Austin’s NPR affiliate. She also has experience in podcasting, having worked on history, true crime, and political podcasts at Texas Monthly, Kast Media, and the Houston Chronicle. She has also been on the other side of a press release as a strategist at C2 Strategic Communications, a public relations firm based in her hometown of Louisville, Kentucky.
Artemisia Luk, Salt '24
Artemisia Luk (Salt Fall '24, Short Film) is a documentary photographer and filmmaker based in Boston, MA. Raised in San Francisco by Burmese and Chinese immigrant parents, she grew up navigating a third-culture identity. Influenced by early experiences of connection and belonging, her photography and films are intimate narratives that reveal moments of tenderness and vulnerability in others. She holds a B.A. in Media Arts from Wellesley College and a graduate certificate in Short Documentary Film from the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies.
Emily Reeves, Salt '21
Emily Reeves is an award-winning audio producer based in Brooklyn, NY. She's the producer and host of Violence Week, an audio documentary series about policing in schools that recently won two Signal Awards. She's currently a producer for LinkedIn News and her work can be heard on the Queens Museum's Queens Memory Project, The Vital Voices Podcast, and Aisha, the Tribeca Festival's 2023 Independent Audio Fiction Award Winner. Emily is a graduate of the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies, where she produced a documentary about a Moby Dick-inspired blues opera about heroin addiction.