JoeWilson

Joe Wilson got involved in documentary filmmaking through his social activism on human rights issues. Frustrated by the limitations of traditional organizing and advocacy, he formed qWaves.com with his partner, Dean Hamer, and grabbed a camera with hopes of reaching broader audiences with stories that would inform and compel people to act. His first short film, Otros Amores, won the Current TV / Videomaker Magazine Challenge Award (2006). Since then, qWaves.com has produced We Belong, which... more…

Joe Wilson got involved in documentary filmmaking through his social activism on human rights issues. Frustrated by the limitations of traditional organizing and advocacy, he formed qWaves.com with his partner, Dean Hamer, and grabbed a camera with hopes of reaching broader audiences with stories that would inform and compel people to act. His first short film, Otros Amores, won the Current TV / Videomaker Magazine Challenge Award (2006). Since then, qWaves.com has produced We Belong, which was a national finalist in the Current TV Seeds of Tolerance Competition (2006), and The Preacher and the Poet, which was a winner in the Independent Lens Online Shorts Festival (2007). All of these short films have since been invited to screen in festivals around the world. Joe is currently working on Heartland USA, a feature documentary about the struggle for LGBTQ justice and equality in small town America. In his spare time, Joe is Program Officer for Human Rights & Global Security at Public Welfare Foundation in Washington, DC. Before joining the Foundation, he worked with the Pacifica Radio Network’s national public affairs program Democracy Now, and was a director of domestic and international grants programs at Share Our Strength, a Washington, D.C.-based anti-poverty organization. Joe received his B.A. in Urban Planning and Economics from the University of Pittsburgh in 1986, and served as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in the West African country of Mali from 1988 – 1991. collapse »