Filmmaker receives grant to make video for DCP

South Orange filmmaker April Merl recently received $5,000 from the New Jersey Council for the Humanities (NJCH), for a project within its Visualizing Democracy: Contemporary Conversations initiative.

The commissions follow a request for proposals for digital projects that will explore, curate, and visualize a recently created conversation archive on the state of democracy within New Jersey and beyond.

The initiative is an outgrowth of NJCH’s Democracy Conversation Project, which asked people to answer questions related to democracy, including: what are the main challenges facing democracy today?, why is it important to vote?, and what does it mean to be a good citizen?

Merl will create an animated short video to visualize different themes within the “What does it mean to be a good citizen?” Democracy Conversation Project responses.

She intends to analyze how these themes may vary by age, urban versus non-urban, and other points of comparison.

Voiceover artist, Katharine Houston-Voss will narrate the video, which will be housed on Vimeo. Merl also hopes to submit the video to NJ film festivals.

While the project is in its beginning stages, Merl said she is definitely “jumping into this project.” She was drawn to the idea of this question of good citizenship. “Citizenship is an important idea in any society,” she said.

With 25-years of experience in film, television, and media, as a film editor, animator, and video creator, Merl said after seeing the film “Do the Right Thing” she discovered films could do more than she realized.

“It was a movie that entertained, told such a strong story … it taught me things that as a person growing up in the suburbs, I didn’t know about and understand,” she said.

Merl grew up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and studied at New York University. During her career she’s edited feature documentaries or created social media content and ads for brands including Warner Media, SYFY, Oxygen, and Tongal. She referred to her career as “a winding road” as she began production in indie films and ended up editing.

With so many people that inspire her, Merl said at this particular moment she is inspired by the hard work that teachers do each day. With daughters who are 10 and 12 years old, she is grateful for the way her children have new ideas. When Merl’s not working, she loves to spend time with her children, go to the Jersey Shore, watch movies, and roller skate.

In addition to Merl’s contribution, Melody Marshall, an artist and educator based in Woodbury, will create a digital interactive newspaper drawing from Democracy
Conversation Project responses related to misinformation as a challenge to democracy.

The newspaper will include crosswords, articles, filmed interviews with media professionals, political cartoons, and other features to convey these conversations within the archive. Marshall intends to use part of her award funds to commission artists for pieces that will be displayed in the digital newspaper.

Since 2021, the Democracy Conversation Project has facilitated discourse about the state of our democracy among New Jersey residents. The project has included a series of virtual conversations with public figures hosted by eight New Jersey community colleges, a tour of the Smithsonian traveling exhibit Voices and Votes: Democracy in America, and the “Community Conversations” effort, which collected responses from New Jerseyans via “Storyboxes” at 17 locations across the state and the program’s website: https://njhumanities.org/programs/community-conversations/

For more information on April Merl, visit: https://aprilmerl.net/.

  Council for Humanities, Democracy Conversation Project, South Orange