Award-winning filmmaker Professor Shari Mekonen is working on a new documentary titled The Sea Is My Brother about Gabriel Frank, an 85-year-old veteran who served in the Merchant Marine for 23 years.
After a meeting with Mekonen, New York Congressman Charles Rangel, who is advocating for World War II Merchant Mariners, put the filmmaker’s documentary into the Congressional Record for April 10, 2014.
Professor Mekonen teaches in the Media Arts & Technology department where she also serves as a Deputy Chair. Her other documentary projects include the award-winning film 400 Miles to Freedom about the struggles of Ethiopian Jews to find safety and acceptance after fleeing from civil war.
Professor Mekonen’s current project, The Sea is My Brother, is in production and has been awarded a PSC-CUNY grant to help with the post-production costs. Professor Mekonen’s partners on the film are Avishai Mekonen and Assistant Professor George Stevenson, also of BMCC’s Media Arts & Technology department, who is a co-Principle Investigator on the PSC CUNY grant.
