Brandon Kramer

America may be deeply divided by political alignments, but CNN host and contributor, Emmy award winner and 3-time New York Times bestselling author Van Jones managed to pass a bi-partisan criminal justice reform that freed thousands of incarcerated felons for drug-related crimes and more, now the subject of a documentary called The First Step. HFPA's Jenny Cooney spoke with director Brandon Kramer and producer Lance Kramer about the film that follows Jones on his journey, has gone viral at 40+ festivals and got picked up for worldwide distribution.

  As we continue exploring Black History Month, HFPA member Kimberly Reyes recently sat down on zoom with two influential filmmakers who have unique credentials to address both where we stand and where we should be headed in entertaining and educating audiences to better understand history. Also in perfect timing for the milestone month, producer Chris L Jenkins and director Brandon Kramer are promoting their own documentary film, The First Step, which followed media personality and civil rights activist Van Jones as he attempted to build bridges during the Trump era and bring people together from both political parties to pass a landmark criminal justice bill on prison reform, The First Step bill.