IFH 421: Drugs, Sex and Higher Love with Slamdance Winner Hasan Oswald

Today on the show we have Slamdance Grand Jury winning filmmaker Hasan Oswald. Hasan's story is pretty inspiring. He did exactly what I preach all the time, he picked up a camera and began to tell his story. He made his first short film that was later tweeted by Stephen Fry, and the National Geographic came calling to work on their film Hell on Earth: The Fall of Syria and the Rise of ISIS.

He has since covered the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, drug trafficking, and homelessness in Philadelphia. He quickly established a unique ability to capture the human experience through "cinema verité." His unfettered access to and intimacy with his characters creates a seamless veneer between the filmmaker and subject.

After getting much need experience in the field he decided it was time to tell larger stories. His first outing as a feature film director, Higher Love, won him the top award at the Slamdance Film Festival. To finance his film he pulled a page out of Robert Rodriguez's playbook and sold his blood plasma to finance his film.

Hasan's filmmaking journey is inspiring to say the least. He is using cinema to tell stories that will hopefully change the way people think. Higher Love is available on all major VOD platforms. His current project focuses on the Yazidi Genocide in Iraq.

Enjoy my conversation with Hasan Oswald.

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