The Big Gray Mess Media is a non-scripted documentary content studio founded by filmmaker Joel Woodman. TBGM is focused on elevating previously unheard voices through allyship, empowerment and action. We believe that the solutions to our biggest challenges lie in the tolerance for honesty and our collective and individual capacity for empathy. We achieve this through the most valuable human currency we know of- storytelling. Stories connect our emotions, our knowledge and ultimately our value as people in the most profound ways. In 2015, TBGM launched with a short film series to mark the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War. First with Echoes of Vietnam, the story of a group of Vietnamese refugees fleeing Hurricane Katrina, which premiered at the 2017 New Orleans Film Festival. Followed by Road to Reconcile, the story of U.S. veteran peace activists living in present day Vietnam and their battle to combat the tragic legacies that remain 40 years after the war ended. TBGM Media is currently Producing & Directing Fractured States, Joel Woodman’s first feature length documentary film. Fractured States follows a group of nonviolent marijuana offenders from South Central, LA, as they fight to overcome a lifetime prison sentence and the collective trauma left behind by the “war on drugs.” A mother fighting for her son’s release, a father seeking justice from the same industry that lead to his imprisonment, and a son returning home to fill the void left by the death of his mother.