Our Core Team:
Annie Escobar:
It was my 18th birthday. I found myself standing in front of a burning landscape of spilled oil in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.
In that moment, witnessing the horrifying effects of the oil industry on the local population, I made myself a promise. That I would dedicate my life to strengthening humanity.
Armed with my camera, I took photos to help those back home connect with the people I met. I didn’t want to create images that confirmed what people already thought of Africa. I wanted to capture everyday moments would make people understand our common humanity.
Since that experience, I have continued to pursue this promise by doing storytelling projects in Palestine, South Africa, India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Ghana, Maryland and New York City. I earned a bachelors in Anthropology and Photography from New York University.
Convinced that I couldn’t support myself with photography, I began working towards my Masters of Nonprofit Administration but in the process discovered the power of video to communicate, connect and catalyze. The rest is ListenIn history.
I wear many hats at ListenIn including interviewer, blogger and non-profit strategy specialist.
I credit my extroverted personality on being one of ten children and having a mom who danced all by herself in the aisle during my middle school band concerts.
Let’s share ideas- write me at annie@listeninpictures.com
Ethan Goldwater:
Like many wide eyed NYC Teaching fellows, I landed in troubled waters – a middle school suspension site for kids recently out of juvenile detention at Spofford . I quickly found that I had a passion for helping at-risk children tell their stories—whether through guided reading, poetry, or photography. As I tried differentiated approaches to inspire expressive language in my students, I came to understand the importance of valorizing individual stories. We created an award winning student newspaper full of these stories over my three years as a teacher. Through this work, I saw how personal stories are the best way to expose injustice and help people imagine the world in a new way. This is what led me to start ListenIn.
Currently with ListenIn I serve as director/cinematographer, and facilitator for trainings in participatory video.
Write me at ethan@listeninpictures.com.
Hannah Oppenheimer:
Along with the rest of the world’s 12-year-olds, I was a bystander for a great deal of middle school bullying. Trouble was, I had difficulty “standing by”.
I wrote letters to principals and parents recording the raw stories of the violence. In my letters, I journaled these events because I believed in storytelling, without explanations or statistics—I believed that stories could enable the individuals in power to truly understand why change was necessary.
Since then, I have gained ethnographic field experience while studying anthropology at New York University, volunteered for numerous educational programs for children, and worked in several editorial programs that tell stories for change.
Now, I could not be happier as the Director of Operations for ListenIn Pictures. This is more than a film company—it’s a medium for organizations to share the inspirational stories of the individuals they serve. I feel empowered simply to be a part of the bigger Picture. Write me at hannah@listeninpictures.com
