- My name is Dorothea Braemer, and my film is called "Connie: The Powers and Possibilities "of Community Engagement."

Connie is a film about Connie Eve, who is an activist, educator, prison advocate, and the film is about what she had accomplished in her life, primarily her creation of Women for Human Rights and Dignity that advocates for women in prison and women and children in prison especially.

Connie was a very willing subject, not only willing, she really wanted this film to be made, and we became collaborators in making the film.

She would like call me up and like, say, Dorothea, you wanna come to the Thanksgiving party?

Dorothea, like, I'm having a birthday party.

Why don't you come with your camera guy?

You know, like, I mean, she was very much involved in the production because that's how she lived her life.

So it was a joy to get to know her more and learn from her.

Most of the time I'm kind of a scrappy filmmaker, like I do everything on my own, but I actually took her lesson of community engagement to heart, and that's how I kind of started making the film.

I hired an amazing editor who did a much better job than I could have done because I was too close to the material.

And somebody who composed music and a camera person, and all those people became part of the team.

So it was a truly, like, also a testament to her philosophy.

Like she really believed that shared knowledge is amplified knowledge and that she doesn't have to do everything on her own.

And like one of her greatest gifts, I think, was that she was able to get everyone super excited about what she's doing.

I wanted to use that knowledge also for my own work.

- Just 50 of the right, talented, committed women, we can do almost anything.

- The way I framed the film is her talking about how 50 women can change the world.

That was in her garden, and I was helping her set up a bird feeder, and I was just sitting with her in the garden and it was a wonderful kind of moment.

And I just had my cell phone.

As was often the case, she started saying these amazingly important and great things.

So I just took out my phone and filmed her, which happened several occasions where I just didn't have a camera or anything like that.

So I needed to use my phone.

And I think that contributed to some of the intimacy that we get.

Like the other moment was when Pastor Steve is giving a prayer right before Juneteenth, and everybody's in a circle, including myself.

So I'm really grateful for phones and not that I'm saying that we should make all of our documentaries just using our phones, but I think they're a great supplement, you know.

(upbeat music) I want people to be inspired by Connie's life story and empowered.

Her message is don't get overwhelmed by the enormous problems of our society.

And start with like a little workshop.

Organize some people around you.

Give some gifts to women and their children.

You don't have to address every problem right away.

You're just doing a little thing, and doing something is always better than doing nothing.

(upbeat music)