“Privacy & The Power of Secrets” is Alan Kryszak’s 4th Downeast Documentary, featuring a University of Maine at Machias film crew. The new feature documentary follows recent films featured on Maine Public Television: “When The Chevy Breaks”, “Who Made You In America?” & the Docs Without Borders award-winning “Whatever Works: Exploring Opiate Addiction”.
Deeply held, seldom known histories & current secrets range from lone lighthouse keepers in the Atlantic, to technology & privacy through the eyes of Passamaquoddy Tribal Members, Chinese citizens, Downeast store owners & a hard look at the cruelest dog experimentation lab left in the nation.
Secrets explored include a Maine family distantly related to the Governor responsible for starting & stopping the Salem Witch Trials, a lost interracial village near Machias, Maine, & China’s facial recognition & “Citizen Social Score”, shown to not differ greatly from the Credit Bureaus that determine a US citizen’s ability to work, rent, buy, drive or possess a cell phone.
AIM (American Indian Movement) activist Maynard Stanley reveals secrets of exposing crimes against Passamaquoddy residents in Coastal Maine, through a neighborhood watch gang, & environmental activist Sandra Birnhak, shares efforts to end live dog research at Texas A & M University.
The UMM student crew includes Aquila Chase, Cassie Wilcoxson, DeMauria Tropet, Dawn Johnson, Andrew Duval, Billy Bentz, Grace Turse, Elias Reyes, Julian Bauman and Shneider Vil.
We think about big, bad China & their intrusive Face-Recognition-based “Social Score” technology, but rarely add up our own self-imposed arsenal of privacy intrusion. Whether it’s the US-AI “Face Database”, credit bureaus granting permission to rent a room, or a horrific live dog testing lab run by Texas A& M University, the exposure of secrets can be a healing process, a just remedy, and an education in itself.
Secrets explored include the care, protection & sharing of timeless Passamaquoddy Tribal songs; a Maine family distantly related to the Governor responsible for the Salem Witch Trials; Atusville, a lost 18th Century interracial village in Coastal Maine; American Indian Movement activist Maynard Stanley revealing secrets of exposing crimes against Passamaquoddy girls, through a neighborhood watch gang, & environmental activist Sandra Birnhak, on her efforts to end diseased dog-breeding at Texas A & M University.
