Film Forum

Jesse Moss’ directing work includes GIRLS STATE and BOYS STATE (winner, 2020 Sundance Grand Jury Prize), both with Amanda McBaine, WAR GAME (with Tony Gerber), THE OVERNIGHTERS (winner of the Sundance Special Jury Prize), THE MISSION and MAYOR PETE. He won Primetime Emmy® Awards for GIRLS STATE (directing) and BOYS STATE (Outstanding Documentary). He has twice been nominated by the Directors Guild of America (DGA) for his work, and twice shortlisted for the Academy Award® for Feature Documentary.

Amanda McBaine’s directing work includes GIRLS STATE, BOYS STATE (winner, 2020 Sundance Grand Jury Prize), and THE MISSION with Jesse Moss. She produced THE OVERNIGHTERS, winner of the Sundance Special Jury Prize, MAYOR PETE, and THE BANDIT. She won Primetime Emmy® Awards for GIRLS STATE (directing) and BOYS STATE (Outstanding Documentary). She is a Directors Guild of America (DGA) nominee for BOYS STATE and twice shortlisted for the Academy Award® for Feature Documentary.

Described in his own high school yearbook as having “a streak of the devil in him,” Fred Isseks was probably the most unconventional teacher at Middletown High School in the 1990s, but also the teacher every student hoped to find on their schedule. Radicalized during his freshman year of college, notably during the anti-Vietnam War March on the Pentagon in 1967, “hippie Fred” brought left-wing ideals to the school. Though two of Fred’s uncles and his brother were lawyers, he only lasted two months at law school. Instead he chose to follow his mother’s path in education and, after gaining a master’s degree in English, he started teaching at the same school as her. While teaching ninth-grade classes on Romeo and Juliet and Of Mice and Men, Fred became interested in the history of Middletown. He applied for a grant to buy Instamatic cameras for the students and guide them towards creating a visual history of their town. It was this limited expertise in cameras that led the school to put Fred in charge of Electronic English when they acquired a handful of video cameras. Their ensuing investigation into the mafia-sponsored illegal dumping in their local landfills earned Fred a reputation as a “crusader,” leading students into potentially dangerous situations as part of his own quixotic quest. He faced a lot of resistance from the school in this project but his belief that students must learn by doing became central to his PhD thesis on Media Courage, which he completed in 2003 at the prestigious European Graduate School in Switzerland. While he was studying there, the Middletown School Board stripped Fred’s A/V budget and banished Electronic English to a space the size of a broom closet. Upon his return, he was moved into teaching remedial English until his retirement in 2011. Since then, Fred has remained dedicated to the cause—monitoring the landfill sites and the Wallkill River, digitizing his records and archival footage of the investigation. Fred currently lives in Middletown with his wife Denise with his daughter Sadie nearby in New York City.

The son of a military man-turned police officer and a mother working in social care, David Birmingham was a very politically active teenager. Dinner table discussions would revolve around current affairs, and political, historical, and intellectual figures became David’s heroes. David admits he often felt like he wanted to blow up every corporate headquarters. Empowered by the active role he was able to take in his community through their investigation, David ended up taking Electronic English five times. After graduating, David remained in Middletown and worked for many years as a nurse and now has a thriving therapy practice there. He still has lunch with Fred every month.

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