Yo! Taxi
Producer: Anula Shetty, Deborah Rudman & Michael Kuetemeyer / Termite TV Collective
Seas of taxis block the streets and blast their horns in protest outside the headquarters of the Philadelphia Parking Authority. Yo! Taxi is a firsthand account of the real issues, struggles and circumstances on the job from members of the Unified Taxi Workers Alliance of Pennsylvania. What emerges is a portrait of Philadelphia area cab drivers as seen through their own eyes. Taxi workers of diverse backgrounds and ethnicities share stories of their lives allowing the passenger (or viewer) to get behind the driver’s seat and better understand who is at the wheel. Created as part of Termite TV’s Life Stories Project. www.termite.org
Anula Shetty is an award winning filmmaker who received her MFA in Film & Media Arts from Temple University. She is a co-director of Termite TV Collective, a group of video artists who produce experimental and activist media. Her work has been broadcast on PBS and screened at festivals and museums worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art, NY. Her work includes the documentary Kamaka‚eha, Aching Eye (Grand Prize, U.S. Super8 Film Fest) and the short fiction film Paddana, Song of the Ancestors (Best First Film, Mumbai International Film Festival). She is a recipient of three Media Arts Fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, an Independence Foundation Fellowship and a Leeway Foundation Transformation Award, as well as three Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, Artist-in-Communities Grants to conduct youth filmmaking residencies at the Reichhold Art Center in the U.S. Virgin Islands. She has taught film and video production at University of the Arts, Arcadia University, Asian Arts Initiative and Scribe Video Center.
Michael Kuetemeyer is an award-winning producer and teacher of experimental and documentary media. As a recipient of a Fulbright Scholar Award, he taught television production at universities and media art centers in India. He received his MFA in Radio-Television-Film from Temple University. His work has been broadcast on public television and screened nationally and internationally at film festivals, galleries and museums including the Museum of Modern Art in NYC. He is a founding member and co-director of Termite TV Collective, a non-profit organization whose mission is to produce, distribute and facilitate the creation of experimental and activist media. His documentary and experimental work includes Kamaka 'eha, Aching eye, (Grand Prize, U.S. Super 8 Film Festival) a poetic exploration of the land of Hawai’i and the native Hawaiian struggle for sovereignty. Most recently, he was awarded a 2007 Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, Artist and Communities Grant to conduct a two-month youth filmmaking residency at the Reichhold Art Center in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Deborah Rudman is co-producer of numerous independent video projects presented in festivals and on national television. By day, she is Media Coordinator for DUTV, Drexel’s educational cable channel in the City of Philadelphia. She has also served as facilitator of Scribe Video Center¹s Documentary History Project for Youth. By night, Ms. Rudman is Co-Director of the Termite Tv Collective. She maintains a keen and active interest in social issues and personal communication through visual media.