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Kendall Moore’s Films Have an Afterlife

Which is exactly what she wants. The multiple award-winning documentary filmmaker and journalism professor says success is measured by the trust she earns and the extent to which her films generate awareness, change, and opportunities to amplify the voices of the people in them.

By Marybeth Reilly-McGreen

Look. Squint, if you must, against the glare of a sunny day in April. Look past the students from Providence鈥檚 Paul Cuffee School and the Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center (MET) as they file into 溏心vlog免费B站鈥檚 Memorial Union atrium for a screening of Kendall Moore’s latest film, Kindness and Grace in the Life of Jovanny Green.

By design and definition, an atrium is less than optimal for screening films: The room is too sunny and too hot. Ignore it. Withstand the temptation to wilt like a neglected hothouse flower.

Look instead at the young man at the front of the room. He鈥檚 sitting in the very first row. See his smile and the excitement in his eyes. This is Jovanny Green, a young Black man living with autism and the star of Moore鈥檚 film. He rocks a bit in his seat. It鈥檚 called stimming鈥攔epetitive movement, a response to sensory stimulation. Everyone does it, but in neurodivergent people, it can be more pronounced. Suspend judgment. See him. See his joy.

After the film, Green stands and takes a bow, beaming at the applause he receives. Green, along with his mother, Jeanne Andreoli, and Rhode Island State Police Detective Lt. Herbert Tilson, whose son has autism, sit for a Q&A. Andreoli and Tilson also make appearances in the film.

Asked if he liked working with Moore, Green is effusive in his enthusiasm.

鈥淚t was amazing,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 like how it showed my room and different types of places I like to go 鈥� the beach, going in the waves. My dog Smitty.鈥�

Andreoli, quiet up to this point, chimes in: 鈥淜endall, you made it so easy for us.鈥�

She turns her gaze from Moore to the audience.

鈥淚 had a lot of concerns, but Kendall reminded us that even if one person takes something away from this 鈥︹��

She pauses, changes course.

鈥淎wareness is not enough; it鈥檚 the acceptance part.鈥�

Andreoli鈥檚 words are a revelation delivered as a gut punch. What she means is this: Understand that it is not enough to watch, clap, and go on with your day. Kindness and Grace in the Life of Jovanny Green is meant to change you.

The Film Is the Start of the Work, Not the End

Moore calls her films 鈥渁rtifacts.鈥� They鈥檙e meant to have an afterlife, made to raise awareness and prompt discussion around issues of injustice, racism, and abuse of power.

鈥淭he artifact, the project, is the start of the work, not the end,鈥� Moore says. 鈥淥nce we’ve created something, it’s typically the start of a multipart process where you’re using this artifact to bring attention to an issue and then using it to bring people to the proverbial table to strategize and to make and to build relationships.鈥�

Moore talks about trust鈥�a lot. Specifically, she talks about having to earn it. Often, the people in her documentaries have been betrayed by the very institutions professing to protect them: the government, industry, even the press.

鈥淢y work is straightforward; it鈥檚 giving voice to people who historically and consistently go underrepresented in the dominant narrative and the dominant press,鈥� Moore says. 鈥淚’ve always been attracted to those individuals, communities, and issues. And trust-building is important to me and to the creative work that we are doing.鈥�

The 鈥渨e鈥� Moore refers to includes her crew鈥攈er teenage daughter, Courtney Moore-Browne, is her sound engineer and Alex DeCiccio 鈥�10 is her director of photography. DeCiccio, who was once Moore鈥檚 student, has been producing documentaries about ocean and climate research for more than a decade and leads a team of communications and media specialists at 溏心vlog免费B站鈥檚 Inner Space Center.

鈥淜endall stands out in justice-oriented filmmaking because of her ability to clear space and build trust within a project. She has taught me more than I can even articulate, and I’m so grateful for being able to work with her and call her a mentor and friend,鈥� DeCiccio says. 鈥淢y life and creative work have been reshaped through our time together.鈥�

Don鈥檛 Just Stand on the Periphery. Dive In.

Moore, who grew up in Montgomery County, Maryland, credits her parents with giving her the freedom and encouragement to become a journalist and documentarian. Her parents, who worked for USAID, the government agency dedicated to global civilian foreign aid and development assistance, were away a lot, traveling the world. Her stepfather was an interpreter for the U.S. Department of State.

Moore earned a bachelor鈥檚 degree from Syracuse University, where she studied international foreign policy, intending to become an international journalist. She won a Fulbright award to serve as a professor at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and work on her film, Song in the Crisis (2007), about HIV/AIDS among Black women living in Tanzania, Jamaica, and the U.S. A second Fulbright award took her to Jamaica to teach and to continue work on the film.

A master’s degree at the New School for Social Research followed, and then a Ph.D. in media and communication from the European Graduate School, where Moore鈥檚 research focused on race, philosophy, and aesthetics.

Moore came to 溏心vlog免费B站 in 2003. She has since won numerous grants, awards, and accolades for her films (12 and counting), which take on multifaceted issues, such as the racism that scientists of color encounter in academia鈥�Can We Talk? Difficult Conversations with Underrepresented People of Color (2007, series); colonialism and trauma鈥�Philosophy of the Encounter (2016); lead paint poisoning鈥�Jalen and Joanna: A Lead Paint Story (2018); and environmental racism and injustice鈥�Harm in the Water (2025).

鈥�My work is straightforward; it鈥檚 giving voice to people who historically and consistently go underrepresented in the dominant narrative and the dominant press.鈥�

颅鈥擪endall Moore

This year, Moore became track chair of an environmental justice specialization within 溏心vlog免费B站鈥檚 Master of Environmental Science and Management program. Underpinning Moore鈥檚 teaching and filmmaking are spare and elegant nonnegotiables:

• Know your purpose.
• Establish trust.
• Demonstrate respect.
• Take feedback with grace.
• Make the issue matter.
• Provoke (productively).
• Show. Don鈥檛 tell.
• Be nimble.

What that looks like in practice: In May 2026, Moore, with DeCiccio and Melva Trevi帽o Pe帽a, 溏心vlog免费B站 assistant professor of sustainable agriculture and food systems, gave a presentation, 鈥淣otes from a Filmmaker,鈥� in which Moore discussed what she鈥檚 learned through filmmaking. The opening slide of the presentation features an image of Moore, head bent, lacing her roller skates. The photo, Moore says, represents her approach as a filmmaker鈥攁n outsider鈥攖o ethical engagement with communities: Don鈥檛 just stand on the periphery. Dive in.

鈥淎ll of this work takes us into other people鈥檚 lives, cultures, and communities,鈥� says Moore. 鈥淐an we meet our film subjects where they are? How are they? So, that includes meeting them with regard to the mental, the emotional, and the physical.鈥�

It includes, sometimes, lacing up her roller skates and meeting them on the rink.

There is a weight to Moore鈥檚 work, a responsibility not only to her subjects but to her predecessors.

鈥淚 start with a note to myself: I work to put our lives into the public narrative because my ancestors could not. Most of my films have a purpose, which is to help us look at problems in our society.

鈥淒ocumentaries are about listening and following the subjects in the film, and sometimes that takes a long time.鈥�

The rewards can be surprising.

Giving People a Platform for Telling Their Stories

Joanna Ravello Goods 鈥�97, M.S. 鈥�99, and her son, Jalen, are the titular 鈥渃haracters鈥� in Moore鈥檚 film, Jalen and Joanna: A Lead Paint Story.

鈥淚 remember Kendall came over to film on a Saturday. She was like an ethnographer,鈥� Ravello Goods recalls. 鈥淪he comes to be with you rather than to study you. She鈥檚 a good listener and brings a curiosity to the experience.鈥�

Ravello Goods describes a scene of ordinary domesticity: She, Moore, and Jalen sat talking while she folded laundry. Mother and son talked about Jalen鈥檚 challenges as a young, Black man with a cognitive disability caused by injuries resulting from ingesting lead paint.

You want your child to achieve more than what society expects, Ravello Goods says, 鈥淪o you get into this mindset: You鈥檝e got to push them. In that moment, though, I realized sometimes you have to stop and listen. I was trying to impose my will. And then he said this thing from the heart of his heart. He said, 鈥業 still identify myself as disabled, but my mom doesn鈥檛 think I鈥檓 disabled.鈥欌��

Ravello Goods describes the rest of the exchange:

Jalen (to Joanna): 鈥淏ecause you think I鈥檓 growing up, and you think I鈥檓 doing better and better every day.鈥�
Joanna: 鈥淏ut you think of yourself as disabled?鈥�
Jalen: 鈥沦迟颈濒濒.鈥�
Joanna: 鈥淒oes it bother you when I say you鈥檙e not disabled?鈥�
Jalen: 鈥淵eah. It does bother me, just a little.鈥�

Moore鈥檚 presence, says Ravello Goods, made the conversation possible. 鈥淚 might never have engaged with him on that level if it weren鈥檛 for the space the filmmaking process created for that kind of interaction between the two of us.鈥�

For Ravello Goods, who, like Moore, has dedicated her career to justice work鈥攕he鈥檚 vice president for equity and inclusion and chief diversity officer at Roger Williams University鈥攖his was justice work come home.

鈥淜endall brings this desire to see things done fairly,鈥� Ravello Goods says. 鈥淪he wants people to tell their own stories, and her films give them platforms to do so.鈥�

After the film premiered, Ravello Goods accepted an invitation to tell her story at Brown University’s Warren Alpert Medical School. 鈥淚t was the wildest thing,鈥� she says. 鈥淲hen the film ended, there was silence in the room.鈥�

Ravello Goods sighs in the satisfied way a person does when savoring a memory. You hear the smile in her voice. Like Jeanne Andreoli, she felt seen and heard in that moment.

鈥淜endall鈥檚 found a way to blend aspects of her identity into her filmmaking methodology,鈥� Ravello Goods says. 鈥淗er approach should be studied.鈥�

Making Films That Spark Change

In her documentary Harm in the Water, Moore examines the impact of industrial pollution on Black communities along a stretch of the Mississippi River known as Cancer Alley. The film opens with a series of headlines from The Des Moines Register, The Nation, and other media outlets, appearing over aerial footage of the Mississippi River and adjacent agricultural fields. Viewed together, they form a sort of prose poem that functions as a prologue:

鈥淢ississippi River named the most endangered of 2025鈥�

鈥淐ontaminants in Surface Water of the Mississippi River鈥�

鈥淧ollution and habitat loss make Mississippi River among the nation鈥檚 most endangered鈥�

鈥溾�業t鈥檚 Getting Worse鈥欌�擴.S. failing to stem tide of harmful farm pollutants鈥�

鈥淩ace Best Predicts Whether You Live Near Pollution鈥�

鈥淒irty Water, Distrust, and a Crisis: The reasons driving the crisis look different depending on where you live, but the bottom line is the same: You cannot survive without water.鈥�

鈥淔ertilizer plants add to toxic loads in Louisiana鈥檚 鈥楥ancer Alley鈥欌��

Moore鈥檚 use of headlines is strategic.

For some people, it鈥檚 the data, the headlines, the statistics that legitimize the story, says Moore. But the stories are the ethos and pathos, the characters and the emotions. Through personal stories of community members living and working in Cancer Alley, Moore shows the real impact of historical patterns of environmental racism.

The first person to appear in Harm in the Water is Gaynell Brady. On screen, she is dressed as a suffragist in a feather-festooned hat, white blouse, long skirt, and a sash that reads 鈥淰otes for Women.鈥� Brady is a New Orleans-born-and-bred storyteller, historian, and educator. Her work is more a calling than a profession. Sharing the stories of her ancestors is an act of love and respect, a memorialization of those otherwise forgotten by historical record, Brady says.

In the film, Brady shares a recurrent dream: She stands in a long line waiting for an audience with a woman, a distant ancestor. As she nears this woman, Brady realizes she is simultaneously herself and the ancestor she awaits.

鈥淏eing a descendant of people who were enslaved here in Louisiana and still living here, sometimes when you walk in those spaces, you feel them. I feel them on this land. I know the family that owns the land that I’m on now. I know how they struggled to obtain this land. So, for me, I practice a spirit of gratitude.鈥�

Also in the film is activist, business professor, and historian Joy Banner. She is also the cofounder, with her sister Jo, of The Descendants Project. A 10th-generation Louisiana resident, Banner鈥檚 work involves protecting the people of Cancer Alley from environmental racism.

You can love a place so much you won鈥檛 leave, even as it threatens to do you harm, Banner says. This is a recurrent theme in Harm in the Water. The land, the water, the ancestors, Brady and Banner: All are one and the same thing.

鈥淵our spirit can’t leave even when you can physically leave a place,鈥� Banner says. 鈥淭hat ancestral link is something that you can’t leave. Nor do you want to. It鈥檚 beyond the pollution; it’s the love of Louisiana.鈥�

Banner and Brady both say they recognized something in Moore. They trusted her, like Ravello Goods did and like Jovanny Green and Jeanne Andreoli did.

鈥淪he鈥檚 all heart,鈥� Brady says. 鈥淭he way Kendall puts people first and protects the communities as well: It鈥檚 not like she鈥檚 coming in and grabbing information and leaving people vulnerable. She wants to see communities get better.鈥�

鈥淜endall鈥檚 confident, intelligent, sincere. I think you can tell she’s an inquisitive person. There’s no airs about her. She’s capable,鈥� Banner says. 鈥淎nd she wants to use all of that in the service of others.鈥�

Like Ravello Goods, Brady was asked to speak about the film at a conference. 鈥淚t鈥檚 been a goal of mine to be a part of something greater, and Kendall allowed me to do that. She said, 鈥楪aynell, you鈥檙e a natural storyteller; not everybody can do what you did.鈥欌��

Moore鈥檚 framing of her films as artifacts comes to mind. These films do have lives of their own, often with impact beyond what the filmmaker or her subjects can conceive. Ravello Goods, Brady, and Andreoli have become public speakers and activists. Banner would like to work with Moore on another project. And Detective. Lt. Tilson says he intends to recommend that future Rhode Island State Police recruits watch Moore鈥檚 film as part of their training curriculum.

Kindness and Grace in the Life of Jovanny Green opened the Rhode Island Black Film Festival this year, the festival鈥檚 ninth year. As an auteur, Moore holds an important space in Rhode Island鈥檚 documentary film landscape, says Ann-Allison Clanton, the festival鈥檚 founder.

鈥淲e pick films that educate, raise awareness, and promote advocacy,鈥� Clanton says. 鈥淜endall鈥檚 themes are always about people who are underserved, people who are dealing with something that is making life difficult.鈥�

Moore wells up when talking about the people in her films. Often, the relationships she forms with subjects endure long after the film is finished. Many of them have become her friends. And if her films can help them in their work, all the better, she says.

鈥淓very time I think about these people and what they鈥檙e doing for others, for us, it鈥檚 profoundly emotional,鈥� Moore says. 鈥淭he only gift I can give in return is to represent them with love in storytelling.鈥�

How her work lands with audiences is out of her control, and she seems fine with that.

鈥淚’ve had people come up to me and say, 鈥業 felt your finger in my face the whole time,鈥欌�� Moore says.

Her words invite the observation: 鈥淎 little discomfort has never hurt anyone.鈥�

In fact, sometimes, it鈥檚 necessary.

Photos: Ayla Fox; Jonathan Clancy; Alex DeCiccio