Culture Closeup is a digital content series created by HBO’s Multicultural Marketing team that accompanies many of the documentaries. The series delves deeper into each series’ or film’s subject matter with conversations between an influencer moderator and persons featured in or close to the film. In my role as a documentary specialist, I helped produce the series and construct the interview questions.
CULTURE CLOSEUP : BLACK & MISSING - Black & Missing Executive Producer Soledad O’Brien engages Black & Missing Foundation Co-Founders Natalie Wilson and Derrica Wilson in a Culture Closeup about how we can help find the 200,000 missing black persons in America. They delve into racial bias in media coverage, moving stories from families, and the impact grassroots efforts have in their daily work.
CULTURE CLOSEUP: SIMPLE AS WATER - Filmmaker and activist Paola Mendoza sits down for a Culture Closeup with Syrian refugee brothers Omar and Abed Sabha from Simple as Water to discuss how the past events and current political climate in their home country have impacted their future in America.
CULTURE CLOSEUP: FREDERICK DOUGLASS, IN FIVE SPEECHES - Scholar and filmmaker Henry Louis Gates' Jr. & historian David Blight discuss Frederick Douglass’ life and legacy in this never-before-seen conversation. Frederick Douglass: In Five Speeches premiered February 23 at 9PM on HBO Max
CULTURE CLOSEUP: NUCLEAR FAMILY - Ry Russo-Young (Director, Nuclear Family) and Gabriela Herman (Author, The Kids: The Children of LGBTQ Parents in the USA) sit down for a Culture Closeup to talk about the making of Nuclear Family and the Russo-Young family's impact on LGBTQ+ family rights.