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The Institute for Healthcare Delivery Design

LAKEYA’S JOURNEY

Brown Planet Productions collaborated with The Institute for Healthcare Delivery Design to capture the inspiring health journeys of two Chicago residents. Our first film, centers around Lakeya, a suburban Chicagoan learning to live with diabetes.

Under the guidance of The Healthcare Transformation Collaborative, a city-wide search for our film’s subject lead us to LaKeya. After multiple interviews, Brown Planet Productions was deeply inspired by her story of learning to live with diabetes and her strength and resilience in overcoming disease. In exploring her childhood neighborhood, talking over her complicated past with the American healthcare system, and getting to know her family and support system, Brown Planet Productions crafted a short film highlighting Lakeya’s story of love and perseverance through the elements that lead her to triumph over her illness.

The Healthcare Transformation Collaborative provided funding for healthcare providers, community members and community organizations to come together to collaborate to help people with both healthcare access and to help communities with social determinants of health, such as access to affordable healthy food, stable housing and to create jobs while doing so.

CAST AND CREW
Director Carlos Javier Ortiz
Written Ruben J. Davila
Edited by Los Maroon
Producer Ann Kauth, Jenni Schneiderman , Carlos Javier Ortiz
Cinematography Carlos Javier Ortiz Assistant Camera (1st AC) Ruben J. Davila

MONICA’S JOURNEY

Brown Planet Productions collaborated with The Institute for Healthcare Delivery Design to capture the inspiring health journeys of two Chicago residents. Our second film, centers around Monica, a Chicago resident who has overcome drug addiction.

Similarly, to our first collaboration with The Healthcare Transformation Collaborative, a city-wide search was conducted for our subject and after multiple interviews, Monica’s powerful story of resilience shined through. Brown Planet Productions crafted a portrait of Monica’s life through the use of analog and digital mediums, collaging both the past and the present to represent Monica’s life-long struggle and triumph over drug addiction.

The Healthcare Transformation Collaborative provided funding for healthcare providers, community members and community organizations to come together to collaborate to help people with both healthcare access and to help communities with social determinants of health, such as access to affordable healthy food, stable housing and to create jobs while doing so.

CAST AND CREW
Director Carlos Javier Ortiz
Written Ruben J. Davila
Edited by Los Maroon
Producer Ann Kauth, Jenni Schneiderman , Carlos Javier Ortiz
Cinematography Carlos Javier Ortiz Assistant Camera (1st AC) Ruben J. Davila

Square

SQUARE

BLACK OWNED - A FILM SERIES

Brown Planet Productions founder Carlos Javier Ortiz collaborated with production company Even/Odd to photograph for Square’s “Black-Owned” video spotlight.

Obama Foundation

OBAMA FOUNDATION

INSIDE THE LIFE OF A VIOLENCE INTERRUPTER

Brown Planet Productions collaborated with the Obama Foundation in documenting pastor Tracey Lee’s day to day life as a violence interrupter and supermom.

Brown Planet Productions shadowed pastor Tracey Lee and her organization Target Area, during an especially violent summer in Englewood. Tracy, a violence interrupter, works day and night to bring love and support to those affected by gun violence as well as preventing future incidents by means of de-escalation. Brown Planet Productions founder, Carlos Javier Ortiz, approached the project with a mixture of digital and analog photography, video, and audio to create an intimate portrait of the beautiful and intense reality at the heart of Chicago’s South Side.

APPLE

HOMETOWN SERIES - DAY 17 OF 32: CHICAGO BY CARLOS JAVIER ORTIZ

Brown Planet Productions founder Carlos Javier Ortiz was comissioned by Apple to create a short video for their #ShotoniPhone campaign.

Cinematography by: Carlos Javier Ortiz

The New York Times

Violin Vigils Honor the Memory of Elijah McClain

New York Times

Brown Planet Productions collaborated with The New York Times to document a violin vigil for Elijah McClain, a 23 old black man who was killed by police in Aurora, Colorado in 2019.

Brown Planet Productions founder Carlos Javier Ortiz was assigned by The New York Times to video document a heroic violin vigil for Elijah McClain. The video supplements a New York Times article, chronicling the events that led to a national-wide series of vigils and highlights a socially distanced musical performance during the summer of 2020.

The New York Times [LENS]

Life After Death in Chicago

The New York Times [LENS]

New York Times writer, David Gonzalez, spotlighted the work of Brown Planet Productions founder, Carlos Javier Ortiz in a 2013 interview for [LENS].

The article discusses the making of his book “We All We Got” and presents a selection of photography from the 2013 Red Hook Edition’s release.

Photography by: Carlos Javier Ortiz
Written by: David Gonzalez

The Atlantic

THE CASE FOR REPARATIONS BY TA-NEHISI COATES

THE ATLANTIC

Brown Planet Productions founder Carlos Javier Ortiz was assigned by The Atlantic to supplement Ta-Nehisi Coates' critically acclaimed article “The Case for Reparations”.

During the two years that Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote his 16,000 word essay, Carlos photographed the article's subjects and the North Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago. The various portraits and neighborhood landscapes are shot in a vivid monochromatic style and highlights decades of struggle through images of dilapidated houses, empty lots, and abandoned churches. Ta-Nehisi’s essay would go on to receive high-praise, even making and contributed heavily to our current conversation on red-lining, gentrification, and racial inequality.

The New Yorker

SHOW DON’T TELL

The New Yorker

Brown Planet Productions founder, Carlos Javier Ortiz, photography was used by writer Curtis Sittenfeld’s short story Show Don’t Tell which was published in The New Yorker’s June 5 & 12 2017 Issue.

Written by: Curtis Sittenfeld

Photography by: Carlos Javier Ortiz

Amazon Original Stories

CELLMATES BY TONI MARLAN

THE MARSHALL PROJECT

AMAZON ORIGINAL STORIES

Brown Planet Productions founder Carlos Javier Ortiz was assigned by The Marshall Project to photograph for Tony Marlan’s Cellmates, a story written in collaboration with Amazon Original Stories and a part of a larger collection of stories about Criminal justice in Chicago.

Photography by: Carlos Javier Ortiz
Written by : Toni Marlan

Steppenwolf Theater

HOW LONG WILL I CRY?: VOICES OF YOUTH VIOLENCE

STEPPENWOLF THEATER

Brown Planet Productions founder Carlos Javier Ortiz was asked by DePaul University's creative writing department to use an image from his book “We All We Got” as the cover for their own “How Long Will I Cry?: Voices of Youth Violence”.

DePaul University’s creative-writing students interviewed people across Chicago who've been directly affected by gun violence and created a harrowing compendium of true-stories and first-hand accounts. The book was later adapted for the stage and was performed from February 26 - March 23, 2013 at the Steppenwolf Theater. The image entitled “Lil Al Vigil, Englewood, Chicago” (2008) was used for the play’s poster and has since been acquired by the Museum of Contemporary Photography Chicago.

Topic Magazine

WHEN ART IS AN ACT OF PROTEST

Topic Magazine: Federal Project No 2. | Re-examining America

Brown Planet Productions founder Carlos Javier Ortiz’s short film was showcased in Topic Magazine’s series Federal Project No.2: Re-examining America.

Carlos Javier Ortiz spent the summer of 2018 following protests during the trial of police officer Jason Van Dyke, who fatally shot 17-year-old Laquan McDonald in 2014.

Written by: Carlos Javier Ortiz

Cinematography by: Carlos Javier Ortiz