8 DAYS AT WARE is the result of a multi-year investigation into a juvenile detention center in Louisiana where a series of tragedies have occurred in recent years, including the deaths of Solan Peterson and Jordan Bachman in 2019.

Join David Barstow, the Reva and David Logan Distinguished Chair in Investigative Journalism and Jennifer Redfearn, director of the Documentary Film Program at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism for a Q&A with the filmmakers following the private screening.

5:30 p.m. Reception
6:00 p.m. Screening
6:30 p.m. Q&A

About the filmmakers:

Rachel Lauren Mueller

Rachel Lauren Mueller (’20) is a documentary director, journalist and cinematographer from the Colorado mountains whose stories focus on themes of power, identity and rural life. With her background in investigative journalism, she creates films that interrogate power structures while embracing expansive imagination. Rachel’s work has been featured in the New York Times, Yale Climate Connections and Berkeleyside and her films have been supported by the International Documentary Association, Berkeley FILM Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board and the Metropolitan Regional Council for the Arts. She has been a film fellow at UnionDocs, GroundTruth Films and the Overseas Press Club and has a master’s in documentary from the UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. Her first feature documentary, THE QUIET PART, about a town’s clash with their white supremacist pagan neighbors, is forthcoming. Rachel lives in Minneapolis where she attempts, in vain, to make her wisteria bloom.

Meg Shutzer

Meg Shutzer (’20) is a documentary filmmaker and investigative reporter. She has a BA from Harvard and a Master’s from UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism where her work was recognized with the Reva and David Logan Prize for Excellence in Investigative Reporting. Her documentaries have screened on five continents, been broadcast on PBS and have won numerous awards at film festivals, including the Reel South Award at the New Orleans Film Festival in 2019. She is part of the inaugural IF/Then Short Film Distribution Fellowship for her film 8 Days at Ware. When she isn’t chasing down a story, Meg competes in triathlons and volunteers at San Quentin State Prison teaching video journalism classes.