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English Hustle explores the complexities of the multibillion dollar English online tutoring industry through personal stories with insights from academic experts on Chinese education, history, and foreign affairs. The film explores the power of cultural connections highlighting the challenging gig work the teachers endured during a financial and political upheaval. Synopsis In 2020, there were over 100,000 Americans and at least 20,000 Filipinos teaching English to millions of Chinese students online. With billions of dollars in investment, the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) industry was the largest financial sector in the ed tech space. Then, in 2021, with US-China tensions rising, the industry collapsed overnight with the announcement of a new policy — the Double Reduction Policy — restricting for-profit education in China. English Hustle follows teachers in the USA, Thailand and the Philippines living through this rollercoaster, with insights from experts on Chinese education, history, and foreign affairs.

Featured Review

English Hustle is a fascinating look at the way the aspiration to learn English in China created an industry supercharged by the internet, and how that industry was upended by changing political winds in China. When policy pronouncements radiate out from Beijing, they’re meant to reflect a new Chinese self-confidence. English Hustle shows how the ripples from the Politburo are felt in Chinese homes, and by an army of workers across the globe. If you’re interested in the impact of the internet on learning, the networking of the world, and the rise of China, watch English Hustle. Ray Suarez Journalist and Author

Learn More at http://www.englishhustle.org

Shifting Paths examines loss and survival of one family through the period of the early Jewish Boycott in 1933 in Frankfurt Germany seeing the loss of a beloved family owned pharmaceutical company and the need for the family to change paths. It traces how one chamomile product, Kamillosan, banned in 1933 has survived till today with few knowing anything of its history.

Arthur Abelmann had a passion for finding solutions to help people feel better. He went from being a chemist apothecary in a prisoner of war camp at the end of WWI to taking over a candy factory in Frankfurt to start making medicinal tablets. His dream of creating something for his son to take over went astray with the rise of Nazism and the banning of all Jewish Products. The film traces that history and how one product is still used today – a healing ointment, Kamillosan – that was being produced at his factory in 1932.

Arthur Abelmann, born in 1888, founded the pharmaceutical company known as Chemiwerk in Frankfurt, Germany. By 1932, the company had over 200 employees. Its best-known products were Kamillosan and various other chamomile and naturally based preparations –Spirobismol, Transpulmin, and Treupel’sche Tabletten. Shortly after Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany, he enacted an economic boycott against all Jewish businesses and products, which included the products developed by Abelmann’s company.

Abelmann resigned from his position and moved his family to Switzerland. The company was purchased by Degussa and IG Farben, who dominated the chemical industry in Germany at the time. Abelmann passed away in 1934, and his wife and two children immigrated to the US in 1939.

The film documents the changes in Frankfurt from 1932-1934 during the time of Arthur Abelmann working to keep his company intact. The film follows the development of Arthur from a young boy born in Riga to his growing up, serving in WW1 and building his company, getting married and starting a family. The film shows his two loves, work and family, and how he worked to keep both safe and allow for a future. The film also uses the reflections of his son Walter who was a young boy watching his father try to survive and care for the family. We see the life of Arthur’s widow making the choice to leave Europe with her son and daughter and elderly mother to start a new life in New York in 1939 and the early years of being in NY starting fresh while seeing the horrific headlines from their old home and plight of those less fortunate. During the years, the products of the company survived and between marketing and demand we see how one product endures over 100 years later with few users knowing about its origins.

Waya is a documentary about a Cuban “outsider” artist, Julian Espinosa Rebollido, that is in production. Julian Espinosa Rebollido is a Cuban “primitive/outsider” artist commonly known as Wayacon. He has spent most of his life between the towns of Remedios, Santa Clara and Cienfuegos. He has traveled all over Cuba and served in the army including being active during the Bay of Pigs. He now lives in the home of his grandparents in Remedios and is under the care of one of his sons. His home is a living gallery of his art on the outskirts of a small colonial town with one of the oldest churches in Cuba. He is surrounded by his dog, cat, chickens and his goat. He loves his garden and rarely leaves his home. He also spends some time with another son in Cienfuegos. The project presents the artist, his work, views of peer artists and collectors to understand how this outsider has become part of the canon of Cuban art of the 20th and 21st century. Abelmann enters the home and mind of the artist who he first met in 2013. The intent of the project is to leave a legacy of Wayacon’s thought through his work and his words with added narration of artists and others that can help a general audience appreciate his distinct space as an outsider in the current Cuban art space.

We have also interviewed members of the artist community in Remedios, including the artist Fernando Betancourt Pinero, who have known Wayacon for decades. Sandra Levinson, the executive director and co-founder of the nonprofit NY based Center for Cuban Studies, has known Wayacon for years well and has promoted his work through art tours. We follow her and one of her tours to learn more about Waya and the context of his work to help shape the arc of the story and the context of Cuba.

The film will be primarily in Spanish with subtitles making it useful for students studying Spanish and students interested in Cuban art and culture. The film will have an original score by Yenobis Delgado, a Cuban musician, who has known Wayacon from growing up in the art community of Santa Clara.

Wayacon’s art has been sold in galleries and auctions around the world and he has received prizes and his work is part of national collections. He is not really aware how far his art has traveled. He creates to live.

We are actively seeking funding from individuals and organizations to support the project.