Tim Obert has been hooked on fishing since landing his first fish as a young boy with his father off the Santa Cruz Wharf on California’s Central Coast.

By the time he was 12, he was working and sleeping on charter boats in the town’s harbor.

It was an early start to the dream he’s been living for the nearly two decades since, as a captain and commercial fisherman.

The sea has provided Obert a stable life, allowing him to raise a family and invest in his business. But in fishing, there is always a risk. 

Sometimes the fish are biting, sometimes they aren’t. There are good days and bad days. Sometimes those bad days turn into bad years. 

It’s a salty old truth that long-time fishermen know how to plan for a rainy day.

Recent state regulations aimed at saving whales and increasing the salmon population have kept fishing boats like the Stacey Jo, which Obert captains, stuck at the dock.

Obert has stepped up to help his fishing buddies, running the Santa Cruz Commercial Fishermen’s Association and serving as a member of the Dungeness Crab Task Force to work with California’s environmental agencies on behalf of his fleet.

But it’s a role that comes at a cost, and not just financial. The most important trade off for Obert is time spent away from his family.

“I’m on like ten boards right now. Not a dollar am I making for it,” Obert said. “Being on a six-hour call is excruciating sometimes. The time away is horrible.”

In Finding Balance, Obert speaks candidly about the struggles of being a good husband and father while also working to succeed as a commercial fisherman, and how that’s been further complicated by the leadership roles he shoulders while stuck on land.

Obert and the other fishermen who have braved such regulatory storms before believe it will pass and they’ll again be pulling their catch from the ocean.

Obert believes both sides must work together to consider conservation interests alongside those of the fishing industry, just as he works to find the right centerpoint between his family’s needs and those of the industry he loves during his fleet’s long, rainy day.

It’s all just a matter of finding the right balance.

—- 

This story was reported by four workshop participants in Santa Cruz, CA for the MediaStorm Storytelling Workshop in early December, 2023.

Jay Singer has been in love with one Brooklyn neighborhood his entire life. He grew up there, pined for it when he was forced to leave and returned when he couldn’t stand to be away one more day. His life’s work is an unfinished 1200 page book about the place. He currently gives three-hour tours explaining its history. You see, Jay loves Coney Island so much, he renamed himself ‘Coney Island’ Jay. Through Jay’s vast historical knowledge, we learn about what makes this iconic neighborhood so special, and how that past may impact its future. Jay also describes the very personal impact Coney Island has had on his life and his family’s, too. Step on up and take a ride...It’s Coney Island Jay.

Coney Island Jay is a product of the MediaStorm Storytelling Workshop, where participants work alongside MediaStorm staff to create an intimate, character-driven documentary in just one week. Learn more about upcoming MediaStorm workshops and online training at http://mediastorm.com/train.

Benny Villanova has seen things.

He is a Sicilian immigrant, a Vietnam veteran, a former sanitation worker, and most recently a "certified" garbologist. Benny scours the neighborhood, collecting what others throw away, then selling these treasures from his storefront garage. He and his friends like to hang out there, shooting the breeze and smoking marijuana.

Benny's charismatic, irreverent, and sometimes really funny.

He is also at war with his family. Here is a man sharing a house with his wife but living as a stranger. This is a household on the edge.

"Benny [is] a good person in one sense," says a friend and neighbor. "In another sense, he's crazy."

For an account of the challenges faced by the workshop team, see the accompanying essay Unanswered Questions.

The American-Made Benny is a product of the MediaStorm Storytelling Workshop, where participants work alongside MediaStorm staff to create an intimate, character-driven documentary in just one week. Learn more about upcoming MediaStorm workshops and online training at mediastorm.com/train.

Dani Luv is a musician and comedian at the well-known Sammy’s Roumanian Restaurant in New York. From behind his keyboard, Luv (his birth name is actually Lev, but he liked the sound of Mr. Luv) plays the “standards”; Frank Sinatra and Louis Armstrong are usually covered in his routine. But his shtick includes a lot more than classic tunes. Tip him just a couple dollars and you might get a serving of public embarrassment with a side of the middle finger. Luv’s interaction with the audience is intimate, direct and very entertaining.

Outside of Sammy’s, Luv can be a very different person. “I can’t take it when I tell a joke and people don’t laugh. I take it home with me,” says Luv. Though he is still funny and gregarious, Luv says he can also be very sad and often angry. This is made more difficult by his struggles with Attention Deficit Disorder.

Luv is in therapy and a receives a great deal of comfort from a long-term relationship with Linda, his on-again, off-again girlfriend. But he describes his time behind the keyboard as the place where he is free of the concerns that are with him offstage. To this Luv says, “It's really here I feel the best. I can sing. I can be who I want to be. I can pretend.”

Luv Shtick is a product of the MediaStorm Storytelling Workshop, where participants work alongside MediaStorm staff to create an intimate, character-driven documentary in just one week. Learn more about upcoming MediaStorm workshops and online training at mediastorm.com/train.

For Walter Backerman, seltzer is more than a drink. It is the embodiment of his family.

As a third generation seltzer man, he follows parts of the same cobblestone route his grandfather began in 1920’s Manhattan.

Walter maintains a collection of more than seven thousand antique bottles that he circulates to his customers. Many bear the family name, a tribute to his father and his grandfather before him.

Now, after 90 years of the Backerman’s being in the business, Walter knows all too well that he may be the last of the family’s seltzer men.

Remember These Days is a product of the MediaStorm Storytelling Workshop, where participants work alongside MediaStorm staff to create an intimate, character-driven documentary in just one week. Learn more about upcoming MediaStorm workshops and online training at mediastorm.com/train.

On April 18th, 1987, Catherine Russell first stepped on stage to perform the role of Margaret Thorne Brent in the play, Perfect Crime. Twenty-five years and only four missed performances later, she resides in The Guinness Book of World Records for the most performances by an actor in a single part. Russell estimates that two and a half years of her life have been spent on stage playing this role.

Russell’s dedication to the role rewards her with both professional notoriety and stability. But the impact of performing eight times a week, as well as managing the theater and teaching acting classes, demands great personal sacrifices.

A Hundred Different Ways is a product of the MediaStorm Storytelling Workshop, where participants work alongside MediaStorm staff to create an intimate, character-driven documentary in just one week. Learn more about upcoming MediaStorm workshops and online training at mediastorm.com/train.

Joe Soll never met his birth parents. Raised by upper-middle class New Yorkers, he spent half of his life tormented by the death of his mother.

But then one day, that story suddenly began to unravel.

"I felt crazed," he said. "I didn't know what to do with it."

What followed was a three decade search for the truth and a mystery that would haunt him for years.

Through almost unbearable personal pain, Joe has devoted his life to a single question, where did I come from?

The quest for that answer has redefined him, setting Joe on a mission to help others.

Broken Lines is a product of the MediaStorm Storytelling Workshop, where participants work alongside MediaStorm staff to create an intimate, character-driven documentary in just one week. Learn more about upcoming MediaStorm workshops and online training at mediastorm.com/train.

Ian Willey, 28, had his first experience with hip hop early.

"I wrote this great poem once in second grade called Fat Pat. It started like this, "Once there was a boy named Pat, who was very, very, very Fat." And ever since then I liked rhymes," Willey said.

Willey is now actively pursuing his dream of becoming a hip hop artist, having recently released his first professional album.

But the words and motivation behind that album originate from an unexpected place — 90 fifth grade students at an elementary school in Harlem.

Voice is a product of the MediaStorm Storytelling Workshop, where participants work alongside MediaStorm staff to create an intimate, character-driven documentary in just one week. Learn more about upcoming MediaStorm workshops and online training at mediastorm.com/train.

As a toddler, Philly Mayer was healthy and happy. A chubby baby, he was quick to laugh and eager to get up on his own feet.

And then, before his first birthday, Philly suddenly stopped walking. His motor skills began to deteriorate.

After a slew of tests and endless emotional upheaval, doctors diagnosed Philly with Spinal Muscular Atrophy, a genetic disease that occurs in an estimated 1 out of every 6,000 births and leaves the spine underdeveloped. His parents were told that he would not live past seven.

A Thousand More is the story of one family's determination to give their son a whole and vital life. In the midst of a great burden, one small child – with a seemingly endless supply of love – can be the blessing that holds a family together.

A Thousand More is a product of the MediaStorm Storytelling Workshop, where participants work alongside MediaStorm staff to create an intimate, character-driven documentary in just one week. Learn more about upcoming MediaStorm workshops and online training at https://www.mediastorm.com/training/online-training.

Cesar is a sophomore in college, an honors student who loves tennis and soccer. His dream is to become a neuroscientist.

Cesar’s future hinges on The Dream Act, controversial legislation that the U.S. Congress has been debating for 10 years.

The Dream Act would allow undocumented youth, who arrived in the United States before they were 16, to apply for citizenship. They must be enrolled in college or the military, have proof of five consecutive years of residency, and be of “good moral character.”

Cesar is one of over a million undocumented youth who live in the United States. Many have lived here longer than in their home countries. They’ve been integrated into American culture and wish to become citizens.

A movement in the immigrant communities is underway. As a form of protest, Cesar and may other undocumented youth have publicly revealed their status. They hope to shape future legislation that may give them a path to citizenship.

While revealing his status could jeopardize his family, Cesar feels like he has no other choice. Without a path to legal citizenship, Cesar’s life after college remains uncertain. As he says, “I’ll have a degree, but I won’t be able to use it.”

Nine Digits is a product of the MediaStorm Storytelling Workshop, where participants work alongside MediaStorm staff to create an intimate, character-driven documentary in just one week. Learn more about upcoming MediaStorm workshops and online training at mediastorm.com/train.

Amy Harlib, 56, describes her performances as "flowing feats of flexibility that few folks can achieve at any age, let alone over 50."

She began with ballet, but quickly moved on to more demanding, yoga-based performance.

"I got bored really quickly," she said.

Harlib, a Chelsea resident, uses humor, a love for science fiction and an uncanny ability to shape and contort her body for crowds throughout the New York City area.

Using some of her self-described obsessions as inspiration, she dedicates her performances to influences like Star Trek, Star Wars, Judaism and techno trance music.

She does so despite a disintegrated disc in her spine, two torn rotator cuffs, a hip replacement and bursitis in her left knee.

"I give my audiences everything I have. I crave it, and obsess about it, just like an addict," she said.

For Harlib, who describes herself as a lifelong bachelorette, performance is a way of reaching out to and connecting with audiences.

"I know how to flirt with my audiences and make them love me. And when our audience loves us, it is the best thing in the world."

The Amazing Amy is a product of the MediaStorm Storytelling Workshop, where participants work alongside MediaStorm staff to create an intimate, character-driven documentary in just one week. Learn more about upcoming MediaStorm workshops and online training at mediastorm.com/train.

Samuel Hargress Jr. is the owner and manager of the Paris Blues bar in Harlem, New York. Paris Blues is one of the few remaining old bars in the neighborhood. On Saturday nights, the bar attracts a cast of characters that could have come from Cheers, Harlem-style. Customers don their godfather hats, snakeskin leather shoes, and 1940's styled zoot suits. From 20's jazz to 90's funk, the customers get down on the small dance floor.

The regulars consider themselves family. Enrique "Henry" Justiniano is a fixture at the bar from where he watches the action on the dance floor, goblet of rose wine stacked with ice in hand. A former shoe shine and repair man, Enrique has been Sam's close friend for 35 years.

Sue Kelly, the bar manager, keeps customers in line when they try to take advantage of Sam's good nature. Sam's "adopted daughter," Gilda Courtney always attracts a large crowd to the bar. You'll have to watch to see why.

In a neighborhood where rapid development is underway and condos now sell for $2 and $3 million dollars, Paris Blues is one of the few places to weather the change. Sam's personal history parallels many of the changes throughout the past 50 years. Growing up in Hale County, Alabama, he witnessed everything from the civil rights movement to the looting and rioting in Harlem after Martin Luther King Jr. was shot.

While experiencing dramatic changes around him, Sam created a timeless place where people could seek refuge and unwind amongst friends. That's why they call him Mr. Blues.

Mr. Blues is a product of the MediaStorm Storytelling Workshop, where participants work alongside MediaStorm staff to create an intimate, character-driven documentary in just one week. Learn more about upcoming MediaStorm workshops and online training at mediastorm.com/train.

Brian Machon starts his work day by packing a bag, jumping on a train and ringing doorbells.

He is greeted with handshakes, kisses, hugs and hellos.

At 45, Machon has been practicing his craft for over 20 years and has spent much of that time in his clients homes. His customers come from diverse backgrounds and he often develops close personal relationships with them.

Machon's own family lives in Copenhagen Denmark, where at the age of 16, he left home because of an abusive step-father.

"I hated being home. I always hated being home. I always hated him," says Machon.

After finishing school, Machon left Denmark and moved to New York City where he slowly generated the business he has today.

Then three years ago, Machon felt a pain in his chest. The doctor said he was two to three weeks from a major heart attack.

This close call raised questions, specifically about his biological father, a man he'd never met. Machon wondered if he also had heart disease, and if so, what other diseases he might need to be prepared for.

He also thought it might just be interesting to meet him.

Machon has watched his clients' families grow, and he has grown close enough to many of them to develop lasting friendships that extend beyond his role as their hairstylist.

His clients ask how his health is, and if he wouldn't mind changing a light bulb before he leaves. He listens to to their confessions, makes dinner, and helps their kids with their homework.

"They become like my extended family."

Running With Scissors is a product of the MediaStorm Storytelling Workshop, where participants work alongside MediaStorm staff to create an intimate, character-driven documentary in just one week. Learn more about upcoming MediaStorm workshops and online training at mediastorm.com/train.

Exodus tells the story of Diana Ortiz, 45, who spent over half her life in prison.

She says it saved her.

Diana dropped out of high school at 18 to live with a man twice her age. To pay for their drug habit, her boyfriend devised a scheme to lure a man into a secluded Coney Island parking lot and rob him.

In the early hours of August 20, 1983, the robbery veered off-course and two men were shot. One was killed. Though Diana was not at the scene of the shooting, she was sentenced to 17 years to life for her role in the murder.

She served twenty-two and a half years.

While behind bars Diana earned her master's degree, developed a strong identity and self confidence. She is now an inspiration for other inmates, helping them to rebuild their lives.

This workshop story was inspired by the New York Times story about Diana Ortiz titled Convicted of Murder as Teenager and Paroled at 41.

Exodus is a product of the MediaStorm Storytelling Workshop, where participants work alongside MediaStorm staff to create an intimate, character-driven documentary in just one week. Learn more about upcoming MediaStorm workshops and online training at mediastorm.com/train.

Johnnie Footman, 90, may be the oldest cab driver in New York City. With a cigar hanging from his mouth, a plastic spider around his neck, and a cap that reads "Old Dude made of Achey Breaky Parts," Johnnie still manages to make it to the shop five days a week.

Johnnie, also known as "Spider," started driving a taxi in 1945 after working in a garage with his uncle. He used to ride to work on his Harley (where his nickname hails from), and was notorious for picking up women. In his career he has managed to shuttle around a slew of characters including some of the most annoying customers, as well as celebrities, like Rock Hudson.

He rides to work in his Chevy Blazer with a Winnie the Pooh stuffed toy attached to the rear bumper. Although his age has limited him, he avoids highway driving and only works a day or two in the cab per week, he still remains young at heart.

Johnnie Footman is a product of the MediaStorm Storytelling Workshop, where participants work alongside MediaStorm staff to create an intimate, character-driven documentary in just one week. Learn more about upcoming MediaStorm workshops and online training at mediastorm.com/train.

Roxanne Pickering, a mother of four, lives with her husband and six year-old daughter in a small Brooklyn apartment. Crippled in a motorcycle accident 13 years earlier, Pickering found new reason to live with the birth of her youngest child. She is a doting and vigilant mother.

Betty Lester is a 40-year resident of the neighborhood, living in the nearby Gowanus apartment blocks. She is a neighborhood activist and, for years, has tried to bring attention to the Gowanus Canal, for which the neighborhood is named. The Gowanus Canal is bounded by several communities including Park Slope, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens and Red Hook. The canal empties into New York Harbor. Completed in 1869, the Gowanus Canal was once a major transportation route for the then separate cities of Brooklyn and New York City. Manufactured gas plants, mills, tanneries, and chemical plants are among the many facilities that operated along the canal.

As a result of years of discharges, storm water runoff, sewer outflows and industrial pollutants, the Gowanus Canal has become one of the nation's most extensively contaminated water bodies. Contaminants include PCBs, coal tar wastes, heavy metals and volatile organics. The contamination poses a threat to the nearby residents who use the canal for fishing and recreation.

On March 2, 2010, the Gowanus Canal was named a Superfund Site by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), entitling it to an intensive study and massive clean up effort. The EPA expects the effort to cost $300-$500 million and take 10-20 years.

Close to Home is a product of the MediaStorm Storytelling Workshop, where participants work alongside MediaStorm staff to create an intimate, character-driven documentary in just one week. Learn more about upcoming MediaStorm workshops and online training at mediastorm.com/train.

Take Care offers a glimpse into the life of Virginia Gandee, a 22-year-old woman who lives in Staten Island, New York.

At first glance one is struck by Virginia's bold appearance; her bright red hair and the dozen tattoos that canvas her body. When she was 15, Gin left home to marry a 20-year-old she met online. Two years later, she was a teenage mother. Today, Gin is raising her daughter as a single mother and pursuing her dream to become a nurse.

Inside her family's trailer, her caregiving goes beyond the love she has for her daughter.

Take Care is a story about family, choices and reconciliation.

Take Care is a product of the MediaStorm Storytelling Workshop, where participants work alongside MediaStorm staff to create an intimate, character-driven documentary in just one week. Learn more about upcoming MediaStorm workshops and online training at mediastorm.com/train.

At the age of seven, twin boys Kareem and Tyheem Barnes were playing hooky from school and break-dancing in the subway, earning fifty dollars a day.

Today, the brothers wow audiences as the Tic and Tac All-Stars, doing acrobatics, telling jokes, and luring huge crowds in New York's famous Washington Square Park.

The Art of Attraction takes a look into the lives and minds of these two men, who have made a living doing exactly what they have always loved: performing.

The Art of Attraction is a product of the MediaStorm Storytelling Workshop, where participants work alongside MediaStorm staff to create an intimate, character-driven documentary in just one week. Learn more about upcoming MediaStorm workshops and online training at mediastorm.com/train.

Kryssy Kocktail was a loner, who dreamed of running away from a troubled family to join the circus. At six years old, she was abandoned by her mother, who suffered from mental illness and drug and alcohol problems. The girl was left to bounce from home to home, never having real roots of her own.

A grown woman now, Kryssy makes her living as a clown in the colorful, kinetic Coney Island Circus Sideshow. She eats fire, lies on a bed of nails, and stands still as the knife-thrower's target.

Amid the lights and the wild circus energy, Kryssy finds what she's never had. "I can't believe I ever made it this far," she says, "and I'm hoping better things come."

Family Kocktail is a product of the MediaStorm Storytelling Workshop, where participants work alongside MediaStorm staff to create an intimate, character-driven documentary in just one week. Learn more about upcoming MediaStorm workshops and online training at mediastorm.com/train.

The "Furries" - people who feel, deep-down inside, that being human actually constrains who they are. One may believe that his true self is something other than human - not extra-terrestrial or other-worldy, but something very much of this world: a bear, perhaps, or a mouse, or a rat.

In A Tail of Identity we meet three such men who reveal, with incredible honesty and humor, what it means to feel more like themselves when dressed as an animal than they do in their own skin.

"Rattus has lots of friends," says one man, of the persona he has created with a hand-crafted rat costume. "He knows lots of people, and lots of people know him. Whereas I'm not so well known in my human form."

"I didn't choose the rat," he exclaims. "Who would want to be a rat? I believe the rat chose me."

A Tail of Identity is a product of the MediaStorm Storytelling Workshop, where participants work alongside MediaStorm staff to create an intimate, character-driven documentary in just one week. Learn more about upcoming MediaStorm workshops and online training at mediastorm.com/train.

There are only about 15 people left in David Sheet's neighborhood, once a thriving community of people who had lived there much of their lives. The reason: Atlantic Yards, Brooklyn's largest-ever proposed real estate development, which will cost 5 billion dollars and engulf three times the area of Rockefeller Center.

Jack-hammering, construction, and relentless noise have driven more than 600 residents from their homes, and many of those homes have already been demolished. But a few brave souls have decided to stay, choosing not to make it easy for their displacers. "I am going to stand in their way for as long as I can," says Sheets, looking both fierce and vulnerable against an ominous street-scape. "Do stadiums come before lives?" asks another resident, who refuses to leave. Hold Out is their story.

Hold Out is a product of the MediaStorm Storytelling Workshop, where participants work alongside MediaStorm staff to create an intimate, character-driven documentary in just one week. Learn more about upcoming MediaStorm workshops and online training at mediastorm.com/train.

Evelynia's belief that life is one "big, infinite creation" led her to leave her home in Germany to spend a year of creating in New York.

Now, 14 years later, she still finds herself in the city, yearning to return to Europe while wrapping her arms around her biggest creation yet: her new family.

Beautiful Noise looks into the lives of these young people, as they manage American prejudices, steer through a volatile economy, and create a beautiful, noisy life — one day at a time.

Beautiful Noise is a product of the MediaStorm Storytelling Workshop, where participants work alongside MediaStorm staff to create an intimate, character-driven documentary in just one week. Learn more about upcoming MediaStorm workshops and online training at mediastorm.com/train.

Since 1934, the well-worn stage at The Apollo Theater has been one of the world's greatest launching pads for phenomenal talent, catapulting the likes of James Brown and Ella Fitzgerald to international stardom.

Thousands of contestants audition each year, with the hopes of facing the famously mean Apollo audience, described "like a bunch of pit bulls eating raw meat." Judged by the length of their cheers — or the depths of their boos — these contestants put more than their pride on the line in the hope of becoming famous.

In An Apollo Legend, we meet two such hopefuls, who share their beliefs about their own talent, as well as their determination to succeed. What does it take to get up on that stage? And could just facing the crowd be success in itself?

An Apollo Legend is a product of the MediaStorm Storytelling Workshop, where participants work alongside MediaStorm staff to create an intimate, character-driven documentary in just one week. Learn more about upcoming MediaStorm workshops and online training at mediastorm.com/train.

All over the United States, neighborhoods are changing. What were once poor or immigrant enclaves are discovered for their charm, safety, or valuable real estate. Old timers die, newcomers move in, and new communities get established. The process may be inevitable.

In Roots in the Garden, we are introduced to this process as it unfolds over the neighborhood of Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, a beloved network of Italian-American homes, shops, and lives.

In the 1950s, Court Street, the neighborhood's main thoroughfare, was lined with Mom-and-Pop stores, which catered to the local clientele. Those who remember those days speak dreamily of the smell of home-cooking wafting through the streets, and the sound of their mothers calling them from apartment windows.

Today, the charm — and value — of the place has been discovered by urban professionals who love their work lives in busy Manhattan, but want to come home to something more welcoming. So prices have skyrocketed, driving out some of the aging neighborhood regulars, and challenging those who are committed to staying.

Workshop participants Carolyn Cole and Pia Sawhney allow us to meet some of the people who have seen — and loved — their neighborhood for generations. Through their voices, we are able to visualize the past, and grasp the emotional depth of what has been lost. In doing so, these two journalists have made real, and very personal, the faceless tide of gentrification.

Roots in the Garden is a product of the MediaStorm Storytelling Workshop, where participants work alongside MediaStorm staff to create an intimate, character-driven documentary in just one week. Learn more about upcoming MediaStorm workshops and online training at mediastorm.com/train.

What can happen in our lives if we put our minds to it? Just what are we capable of turning ourselves into — and why do we try? One Man Brand explores these questions by delving into the life of a man who, in his own eyes, has really made it big.

Robert Burck was a kid from a small town who was determined to make himself into something special. Always loving the attention of others, he worked as a model, a male stripper — "everything under the sun" — to get himself noticed. Then he made a simple discovery.

In One Man Brand, we meet a person who has transformed himself into his own kind of icon. We also get a very personal glimpse of him through the eyes of his girlfriend, who reveals the side of him that she may like the best.

One Man Brand is a product of the MediaStorm Storytelling Workshop, where participants work alongside MediaStorm staff to create an intimate, character-driven documentary in just one week. Learn more about upcoming MediaStorm workshops and online training at mediastorm.com/train.