I began digging into the Substack platform to devour every article and research paper I could access. This led me to a gripping expose, The Real Anthony Fauci authored by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.  The media, including The New York Times and Wall Street Journal has always covered his previous  books. As a best seller, it has received virtually no media coverage.  Ironically, the social media industry, which historically fawns over Kennedy's long history of activism, is aggressively censoring discussion on the book.  The Real Anthony Fauci is fully loaded with credible and verifiable reference sources. There are more footnotes in this book than any I can recall. Kennedy’s powerful opening statement to the jury is brilliant and he has all of the receipts for bombshell he is about the share with the world.
This book is not just about Covid or the encompassing corruption. Chapter after chapter is more and more loathsome as he meticulously lays out the evidence exposing the damage that Dr. Fauci, Gates and these agencies have brought on to vulnerable populations around the world. It is far worse than you can imagine. This is nightmarish. The question is why would they do this? You read it, you decide.

In my last post I discussed censorship, freedom of speech and the importance of transparency when reporting the facts of a story. When anyone attempts to hide information, my antennas go up regardless of what the topic is. My natural curiosity always sends me looking for answers to the “why” of it all. Frankly, anyone who attempts to silence me is going to have an uphill battle on their hands. It only serves to strengthen my resolve to dig deeper and speak up. I suppose that is why my career in  journalism chose me.
 
Alternative therapeutic Covid19 treatments seem to be the topic of choice for blatant censorship. Simply posing the question about alternative treatments is enough to have you banned from social media, get you labeled a right wing crazy or even find you've been unfriended. Physicians have been threatened, their medical practices subject to investigation, some by the DOJ, and many have been fired for suggesting alternative therapeutics to treat the virus and expressing concern for the  vaccine mandates.  Why the outrage for  simply creating a dialogue for choice?  Why do others care to interfere with my medical decisions and my relationship with my physician? My body my choice, right? Ohhhh… unless it has to do with Covid 19.
 
To fight this censorship, I am proud to announce CFTWF will use this  platform to share information about alternative therapies for the  prevention and treatment  of Covid 19* as well  as resources to fight the vaccine mandates. This is not a political stand. It is a human rights stand.  Globally, there are too many people suffering unnecessarily due to  Covid fear and the censorship  of alternate treatments.  Is it reasonable to want to have all of the information for treatment and prevention available to make sound medical decisions?
 
I came across a video by an unassuming New York family physician, Dr. Vladimir  Zelenko  explaining how he used common sense and his 20 years of medical experience to create  an early Covid 19 treatment to use in his practice at the onset of the pandemic in early 2020. He scoured journals to research various studies and quickly realized there was a flaw in these trials. What he discovered confirmed what many physicians have been saying all along. HCQ is a viable prophylactic and treatment if administered early and properly.

Time has proven us right in our efforts to share the truth. In a previous post, I discussed how CFTWF social media sights were censored, our website and donation platforms temporarily shutdown not long after we posted about Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) as a potential early treatment for the Covid 19 virus. It took nearly a year for so called elite experts to finally acknowledge that HCQ is a viable early treatment when properly used. https://c19hcq.com/
https://academic.oup.com/aje/article/189/11/1218/5847586

This experience has caused us to take a close look at our mission and we refuse to be silenced. 

As we shared information on social media, members of our team as well as the physicians and experts we utilized as sources for our posts were censored, doxxed, ridiculed and removed from social platforms. REMOVED! Can you believe that? Some were even fired from their jobs. I, personally was ghosted by many of my colleagues who I worked with for decades. I was doxxed by members of my own industry.  How on earth did we get to this point?  It is unnerving to see so clearly what is going on.

As you may know, I am a student of history and political science as I majored in Russian Studies. I know Communist propaganda when I see it.  What we experienced in 2020 and still today is Orwellian. If you have not read George Orwell's book "1984" or seen the film "The Lives of Others" do so by sundown today. If this tide is not stopped in its tracks soon, YOU could be censored next. No one can escape it in the end.  Don't believe me?  Do your own research from original sources. 

Fortunately, CFTWF has many supportive benefactors who have encouraged us to continue our work. One area we are keen on is the sex trafficking industry and tangible solutions to fight it and help victims recover long term. It is a subject  we have been researching for years. In 2020, we began posting portions of our research and again, we were censored. Now why would social media platforms censor our well sourced posts?

In order to continue our work, the CFTWF team recognizes our  mission  must evolve. This evolution means we no longer will pursue stories focused on humanitarian organizations. Our team will seek out compelling, off the radar stories the media won't cover  or report from controversial but legitimate angles.  Censoring will never stop us and we will not make apologies for our efforts to seek out the truth no matter how ugly the truth is.  

Our stories, as always will strive to offer hope, solutions  and a positive outcome in an effort to help  others.  We encourage you to continue to support our efforts.  Our team has decided to seek alternative  social media platforms.  If you have a story to submit, please contact us. 

*Our website is undergoing a number of content changes. Please be patient as we update it and the links.

By now, maybe you all have heard the buzz about a film I directed  called PATHBREAKERS.  It was recently accepted to this years'  The African Film Festival in the Best Documentary Short category.  Everyone is asking how did this film come about?  A while back during the filming of CORNERSTONE, I was approached by   Sandra Washburn. Sandra, at the time, had recently started Oysters & Pearls (O&P), a mission based in Northern Uganda to provide tools and computer training to the blind and visually impaired.  In 2015, she attended the launch fundraiser for CORNERSTONE and saw our film Hearts in the Himalayas. Sandra asked if her mission organization could be considered  for a documentary project.  
 

Funny how the universe works. Sometimes things just fall in your lap when you least expect it (or want) but exactly when you need it. In my last post, I mentioned I am on hiatus. I wrote about how I am burnt out from working, the stack, blah blah blah. Truth  be told... I am also taking time off to take care of my terminally ill mother. In 2016,  I came home from an overseas assignment to find her near death. Her condition, the result of neglect by her longtime companion. (Don't even get me started on that scum bag)
Ever since, every spare moment has been spent, with the help of my brother  caring for mom in an attempt to help her recover. Guiding her through physical therapy, neurological therapy and more. She was completely unable to care for herself.  I worked with her during the day, while my evenings and overnights were spent completing the film.  Sleep was minimal.  My husband and friends rarely saw me. Add on top of this, a career change  for my husband and relocating our family. If this were not enough, I was also looking after my mother in law who suffers from Alzheimers. She is in a wonderful memory center, however I felt it important to check in on her regularly.  
Unfortunately, mom took a turn for the worse after contracting sepsis. She was not expected to survive it.  Even though she pulled through, I knew this was the beginning of the end. 
So you see, I just did not have the time or the motivation to deal with the "stack".   As mentioned in my previous post, the  "stack" is composed of books, scripts proposals just sitting there waiting for me to tackle. On top of this stack was a little book that, well quite honestly, I never thought I would ever get to. 

One day, a nagging voice just would not stop. It was in my  head and directing me to read that book NOW. Why that book? Why now? I was still overwhelmed with everything and  I had a few proposals that were much more attractive if I managed to spare the time. Why not read those first?  So on a recent flight to visit my mom, I decided to silence that voice and read There's A Window To Heaven by Dr. Garrett L. Turke.  As a journalist, I read everything with a critical eye and this was no different.  Imagine my surprise when I found myself  a crying mess within one chapter.  Holy crap...That has NEVER happened before. Good grief! How on earth did this little book resonate so much with me? I could not stop reading it and  I have to admit,  I said a prayer  asking that my plane would not crash so that I could see how  it ended. I HAD to know.  




​

I am sitting here in my office looking out of the window watching the snowfall. It is so quiet here and it is easy to get lost with each snowflake.  But a stack of books and file folders sit on my desk in the foreground waiting and growing larger by the day. Eventually, the snow will stop and my focus will be redirected to that stack. The STACK.  I do not dread tackling it. I look forward to the stories that await me.
 
The problem is, I am not ready to start a new project. GASP! My gosh! Did I just say that? I must be out of my mind! Not ready? Who says that?  Who thinks that? Oh, let the whispers start!  First off,  let’s define “ready”.
 
My battery is drained. Spent. Dead. I have nothing in me to start.  No, I am not depressed. It’s nothing like that.  Simply put, creatively, when you put so much of yourself into project after project then add on top of that life outside of your projects, you cannot go on like this forever. One day you wake up and you realize your film sucks to high heaven or you just hate what you are doing. I don’t want that to happen. To avoid this I have decided it is time for me to take a much-needed break in 2018. This break means more time with my family and doing the things I really enjoy like hiking and traveling without working.
 
It does not mean I won’t keep my eye open for causes, but I will be reevaluating the work of Caring For The World Films and our future. CFTWF will have more films. The change will be on the subject matter. Will we continue with NGOs or move on to causes?  We have grown so much over the last 11 years and our reputation has earned us respect of the industry. We can choose our own path and we will.  
 
I cannot wait to read The STACK, but I am really looking forward to the recharge. I will see you in 2019 with hopefully a new project ready to go. 

This past weekend was spent screening CORNERSTONE at The African Film Festival in Dallas Texas. It is always an honor to be accepted at a film festival, but this one really means a lot. The film festival focuses on African films and independent filmmakers. I was really worried about attendance to the screening because it was being held over a holiday weekend. However,  that was all for not. Our screening was well attended.  Even with all technical issues with the projector, the audience loved CORNERSTONE.  Of course they are going to love the Nyaka story, Jackson, the children, the Mukaakas. How could they not? But, this time, people took notice of something. They noticed the cinematography. They noticed how carefully CORNERSTONE was shot.  The audience GOT IT!!!   THEY GOT IT!!  This is something every filmmaker hopes for. Will they get the nuances of the film? The nuances of the sound, the lighting, the framing, the texture of the film. the editing, which are all so important to craft the story.   Yes, they did. And they rewarded us for it. They gave us the award for Best Cinematography.  The film was also nominated for Best Documentary
Feature, which was a great honor as two other Uganda films were also in the category.

From Director Debi Lang: I asked our Associate Producer Anna Ashford to submit a blog to share what the most valuable thing she learned while working with CFTWF

One of the most valuable experiences I took away from my month working for Caring for the World Films in Uganda was learning how to interview, and more importantly, learning how to interview ethically. As the Field Producer, (and also the owner of a British accent), Debi decided she would want me to conduct the interviews. I had never before worked on a film crew or in journalism so this experience was totally new to me. So what did I learn? The first, and most obvious, thing to learn about interviewing is to ask open questions, allowing the interviewees to give you the answer themselves and prevent meaningless “yes/no” answers. ​Furthermore asking open questions allows you to dig deeper, the most valuable cliché for any journalist. It is far easier said than done though I discovered. As we were sussing the ins and outs of how Nyaka AIDS Orphans Project works we had to dig deeper on numerous fronts, including several very sensitive ones; teenage pregnancies, family deaths and rape. So asking open questions is very important.