Ringo Jones, assistant professor in the Department of Communication, recently produced a film, Training for Freedom, which will be featured at the upcoming Chagrin Documentary Film Festival.

Jones, along with his then-colleagues at Miami University of Ohio, created the film as a documentary that captures the transformational story of how idealistic college students and their Black activist teachers came together to find humanity and the common ground to join as one in the struggle that would define a nation and alter the course of history. Jones, who also served as sound designer on the film, says the students and their professors used intimate personal stories from participants and local residents with critical historical analysis from noted historians and scholars. The documentary explores how people from dramatically different worlds broke down barriers of race, class and gender to organize the one of the most comprehensive campaigns of the Civil Rights movement.

Training for Freedom won Best of Show at the 2020 Broadcast Education Association On-Location conference and screened at Flicker's Rhode Island International Film Festival, Cindependent Film Festival and the International Diversity Film Festival over the summer. After time on the festival circuit, Training for Freedom will air on PBS in 2022.

The Chagrin Documentary Film Festival is a celebration of documentary storytelling and of the filmmakers who tell the stories.