From Juilliard to Pentagon Papers: Marcus Raskin’s Legacy

In this episode, host Sandra Abrams chats with Eden Raskin Jenkins about her documentary, NOTES OF A CITIZEN: THE MARCUS RASKIN STORY. It is the story about her father’s career before she was born. Through family and notable figures, she learns about his work in the Kennedy White House, his role with the Pentagon Papers, the FBI raided his office, and why he was on Nixon’s Enemies List. The episode also highlights the role of music based on her father’s studies at Julliard and the support she received from Women in Film and Video. 

Learn more at marcusraskin.com

Instagram: @edenraskinjenkins

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Transcript

VO  •  00:09
Welcome to Media Makers Spotlight from Women in Film and Video in Washington, D.C. We bring you conversations with industry professionals for behind the screens, insight and inspiration. Welcome to Media Makers Spotlight. 

Sandra Abrams  •  00:25
I'm your host, Sandra Abrams, and today I'm chatting with Eden Raskin Jenkins about her feature documentary, Notes of a Citizen, the Marcus Raskin story. You may have noticed the name Raskin is the same as our guest today in the name of the film project. That is because the film's subject is her father, Marcus Raskin. This story is not only a personal one, but also a public one. The film focuses on the time in Marcus's life in the 60s and 70s before Eden was born. Her father was someone who was in the room where it happened, as the saying goes. He studied piano at Juilliard, but then went into law, worked for a congressman, and later worked in the Kennedy White House. He left and later was indicted as part of the Boston Five for taking part in the Vietnam draft resistance to protest the war. He helped release the Pentagon Papers with Daniel Ellsberg and founded one of the first progressive think tanks, the Institute for Policy Studies, that was raided by the FBI. Does that sound familiar to anybody? And he was proudly on the Nixon's enemies list. So there's a lot going on right there. But first, a little bit about Eden. She's the founder and CEO of Chasing the Moon Productions. Before starting her own production company, she worked in the nonprofit area, producing, directing, and writing promotional video shorts and news reports. She also served as an investigator with the Public Defender Service. Eden is a native Washingtonian, just like me, and she grew up in the heart of the city's progressive political circus. She grew up. She grew up. That's kind of perfect, though. A bit of a circus, yes. And she grew up in the heart of the city's progressive political circles. This film is her feature directorial and producing debut. Welcome to Media Maker Spotlight, 

Eden Raskin Jenkins  •  02:35
Eden. Thank you so much for having me. What an introduction. That was lovely. I don't know that I have anything else to say about my dad. No, we have a lot to say. Well, first of all, 

Sandra Abrams  •  02:47
let's get to the film. The film's being touted as a call to action, urging us to learn from the past so that we can fight for the future. And I don't know why this is why you did the film, but why don't you tell us why did you decide to do the film? The film has changed so much from 

Eden Raskin Jenkins  •  03:06
when I first decided to do it. And so now in so many ways, it is this call to action. And I hope people relate to it and feel inspired and learn from the past so they can advocate for a future that they want to be a part of and feel proud of. But really, the film, the documentary started just as this little project, not even as a documentary, just as a way to capture my dad's music as he was declining and getting older. And I knew that I just wanted to have his music for us and for my family to have. And so all these years ago, I enlisted a good friend of mine from college, who's a filmmaker, to do me a little favor, just film my dad playing the piano. And once he agreed, I was like, why don't we just interview my whole family while we're at it and just make a weekend of this? And so we did that. And then unexpectedly later that year, my dad passed away. And I had all of this footage that I couldn't watch, honestly, for years until about a few years ago, when I connected again with my friend, Alex Galan, who is my co-director in this, and was like, let's watch everything. And we did. And I was like, oh, there is this huge story just begging to be told. And I think I'm the one to really tell it and tell it through, tell this rich history, some of it known, some of it unknown, through this really personal lens of a daughter grieving and trying to also understand her father and a person who I was so incredibly close with, but also put on this pedestal throughout my life and his life. And kind of for the first time I'm meeting these different facets of who he was because all of these incredible things that you named happened before I was born. And so I knew about all of it on the surface level, but I didn't ask him questions while I had the chance. And so now I really like to say that I'm asking everybody else but him. And so the film, which I'm sure you've heard from a lot of other documentarians, it has shifted so much from when I first decided to make the documentary. Initially, it was just the history. And then I was like, oh, I think I'm in it and I'm the narrator. And now it's really my journey and bringing this huge personal piece of the story to life as well. And getting to see my dad, both what you said before, so beautifully publicly and privately. 

Sandra Abrams  •  05:42
So initially, then, from what you're saying is the film started out as something personal to have for the family. So what happened? What was and this is one of the reasons why I really wanted to chat with you, because we speak to documentary people all the time, but not someone who's doing a documentary about a family member. So how did the rest of the family react when you said, oh, by the way, you know, all that footage and all that information you said before, I'm going to make a public film. So was there pushback? Was there sounds wonderful? Can you give us what was that conversation like? 

Eden Raskin Jenkins  •  06:21
That's a great question. Family has been really supportive. So I have three older half siblings from my dad's first marriage. I'm from his second marriage. And we're all like very incredibly close. And I just kind of have this huge, crazy, wild family. And my siblings lived through this time. And the 60s and 70s was their childhood. So great, great primary sources right there. Huge, incredible primary sources. It's very fascinating. They're really supportive. There's a piece of it. My brother is a public figure. And so he's like kind of used to being on camera. And so he's, I think, a little bit more comfortable with it. But also we're talking about really personal stuff at times. And that, I think, is a new experience. My sister, my older sister, who doesn't love being on camera, but is just so incredible and is doing this because she loves me, basically. And my other brother, he's really supportive, but he's like, it's not really my thing. I don't know, which is great. Like, I want to respect everybody's comfort levels. And then my mom is just like so on board and very excited. But again, it's like shifted and they're more in it than what it was initially going to look like. And luckily they're on board and, but it's, it's fun. And like you said, there are these really fantastic primary sources, but also what's so interesting is that they all experienced this so differently. So it's very fascinating to talk to them about it and to hear their experiences, which at times are really in line with each other's. And at other times, like, they're like, that's what it was like for you? What? And talking about that with each other for the first time. And I'm kind of like the much younger sister, just like really taking it all in and really eager to learn all of it. So it's been fun. And I am so grateful also for this opportunity because I think sometimes in families, you don't get into the weeds of things unless you have something that's kind of forcing you to do it. And, you know, they're all like, well, I can't believe you're making us do this on camera, But I'm grateful that they're letting me put a camera in their face and hook them up to microphones and stuff. 

Sandra Abrams  •  08:39
That's great that they are, because I'm sure you're going to come out with a much richer story than you initially thought. Oh, we're just going to watch him play the piano, which he had gone to school at Juilliard and then jumped into law. So it just seemed like what did he tell you about that, at least from the music perspective, when you did get a chance to talk to him about that? 

Eden Raskin Jenkins  •  09:00
Yeah, so his music was, it was really the soundtrack to my life. And he was always playing the piano, always. And I would fall asleep every night to him playing Claire de Lune. It was so much of my, in so many ways, like my relationship with him. Interestingly, like Juilliard, he went when he was 16 years old. He was a piano prodigy and had this like world-renowned, famous Russian piano teacher named Rosina Levine. And he was like very traumatized by the experience and very happy to get out of there, but continued to play always. And there are so many questions now that I wish that I had asked him, especially as I learned more. Some of these things we did talk about, other things he talked to my siblings about, and other stuff I have found. drafts of unpublished memoirs that he's written. And it's very fascinating that he would kind of think in music, even when he was in politics or philosophy, he always heard music playing in his head. And in so many ways, like him being an artist and a musician was really at the core 

Sandra Abrams  •  10:13
of himself. So these people that you did get a chance to talk to, to learn about, you know, more about your father, aside from your siblings. And in some cases, some people may recognize one of your brothers is Congressman Jamie Raskin, who's very active on the Hill and representing Maryland District. And he's also my congressman, in all fairness. And one of the things you spoke to other people, and I was looking over the list of people that you spoke to. And one person was Katrina Vanderhoeven, who when I was a producer in New York at CNN Financial News, I spoke to her numerous times. She came on and was a guest. And she at the time was an editor with The Nation. But now I believe she's editor in chief with The Nation and part owner. So what was Katrina's relationship and how did you end up interviewing her? Like you said, oh, I'm going to know. I didn't know she was connected. Can you give us some insight into that? Yeah. My dad knew everybody 

Eden Raskin Jenkins  •  11:15
in this very wonderful way. My dad was on the board of The Nation, so that's how they first met. And then Katrina is currently on the board of the Institute for Policy Studies, the think tank that my dad founded in the 60s that's still in existence today, which is pretty incredible. And so Katrina's like kind of always been in the ether of the world that I, of my world. Another special part of the documentary is having the opportunity to interview some of the most brilliant accomplished people. 

Sandra Abrams  •  11:52
Right. Yeah. No, I was looking over this. So you have Kai Byrd, who's the author of the book Oppenheimer. You did speak to Daniel Ellsberg. You spoke to Seymour Hersh, Michael Ferber, co-defendant of the Boston Five trial. Frank Smith. There's Ambassador Juan Gabriel Valdes, former Chile ambassador to the United States. Cora and Peter Weiss, who are activists and scholars. I'm leaving somebody out. But this litany of people that you spoke to was just like, wow. 

Eden Raskin Jenkins  •  12:20
Yeah, I feel incredibly lucky, you know. And I think also, especially at where we are in the world today and where I am also in my life, it's incredible to speak to people older than me and learn from them and learn from the lessons of their life, the history that they so actively participated in that shaped the world that we live in today. And that's also this huge piece of the story in so many ways is how do we learn about the past, learn about the rich history of this country, see the parallels and take those actual lessons and apply it to real life. So we're not just like spinning our wheels here, but instead moving forward. And there's so much that I think like my generation and younger generations are just unaware of. And there's also a piece of what I want to do with this film is kind of like not make, I don't want people to feel bad for not knowing these histories. Like some of this happened to my family and I didn't even know. So like, how are we supposed to understand how pervasive and corrupt the FBI monitoring was? And kind of like take this easy lens of viewing it through this 

Sandra Abrams  •  13:35
personal journey and bring people in through it. So tell us, how did you go and approach these people? Because you're thinking, oh, I'm going to interview Kai Bird. Oh, sure. Yeah. and a lot of people will sit there you know there's a lot of people listening you know and they're saying i'd like to interview this person for my documentary that person you know what advice 

Eden Raskin Jenkins  •  13:55
do you have when you approach people yeah that is a great question so kai i i've filmed with him because also part of this is journey so like i filmed with him i go probably haven't sat down for his official interview yet but you know it's so some of the people on the list were like we're getting there. But I have to recognize a privilege that I have in this process when it is about my dad and most of these people knew him and were close with him and loved him in some way are happy to talk to me. So there's like that piece of it where it's like a privilege that I'm so grateful for. One thing that I have learned through this process, and I think also from my dad in a lot of ways. And maybe it's like, because I'm a first time filmmaker, so I'm a little fearless in this. I'm like, okay, if somebody says no, they say no. That's whatever. And my dad was very big on if he was like, if you want to do this, just do it. And honestly, when I was younger, I found that a little overwhelming. And because my dad was such this brilliant person where I was like, you can't just do these things. You can't just make them happen. And now I'm kind of at this point of my life where I'm like, why not? Like, if this is something that I believe in, I'm going to push for it and I'm going to keep trying and I'm going to ask the questions. And if I get a no, I get a no, and maybe we'll come at it from another angle and see how we get there. So that is like advice that I have for people is kind of trust your passion, trust what you bring to the table and be relentless. And my sister and somebody else who I have interviewed, they were like joking about how relentless I am. And I don't know that they meant it as a compliment, but I'm like, I'm going to take it as a compliment. Go for it. That's right. Take all the compliments you can get. Yes. Exactly. You kind of, you have to be. I think most filmmakers know that. I think most women know that. Like you just have to push and keep pushing. 

Sandra Abrams  •  15:56
One of the things, though, and following your passion, you also need funding. You are a member of WIF. I'm a member of WIF, Women in Film and Video. You got the DC Humanities Grant. So how did the grant come about? And what is your responsibility in receiving that grant with making this film? That was a huge honor. 

Eden Raskin Jenkins  •  16:19
I like I'm from DC and this is such a DC story in so many ways. DC is the backdrop and almost like its own character. So, and I feel such a deep love for the city that I grew up in. And so to have the support from Humanities DC just means so much. And so I think with any funding that is received, the big responsibility that I feel is to tell the story as truthfully as possible. And that is a big weight that I feel and inspiring and also at times stressful with the humanities grant also to kind of like give hope to other people. It was my third time applying. I did not get it the first few times. I almost didn't apply this time. 

Sandra Abrams  •  17:11
Wow. No, that says you try, try again. You try, try again. And people have told me- great advice to other people to keep trying. Exactly. And like I had heard from people, 

Eden Raskin Jenkins  •  17:22
you know, people have told me they're like, just in grants in general, they're like, you just have to keep doing it. And it's a slog at times. Grant writing is like incredibly time consuming. When you apply, it's like, even if they're all in the common app, like each one is still just enough different that you have to spend a lot of time on it. So it was, it felt like a very big win. And so I encourage people to like continue to stick with it, even if you're feeling beaten down by it. And also making sure that you are applying to grants that actually make sense for your film, especially when it is so time consuming. But I have also heard from other people that even if you don't get the grant, it's important to apply one because it is helpful and like refining your story. And it changes so much in the process, or at least mine has. So kind of like checking in again and saying like, where are we? Let me get this down on paper. What has shifted? What's the same? How do I make this a little bit stronger is always helpful. And then also the grant reviewers, they're all in the industry, not humanities DC, but like other film grants that you're applying for all in the industry in some way. So it helps raise awareness for your film. And that is also always helpful. So even if you don't get it, you're still increasing your name recognition in some way, which for a first-time filmmaker, that's important. And you had said before, like with the people that I've interviewed, how does that come about? And so that is because of my dad, but I knew nobody in the film industry before I started this. And now I have like a very rich network of advisors and people that are really invested in this in a great way because I just like went to events, followed up with people, met people and like really pushed myself out of my comfort zone. And that's also this other piece of just like, it's a grind and a hustle, you know, to do that. 

Sandra Abrams  •  19:23
You have also gotten a great group of people. So as the first time filmmaker, you know, you had mentioned earlier, initially you had invited a friend from college and just did some video with your dad the piano. But how did you find the rest of your team? So it's Alexander Galan. He's a director and teaches. There's Sam Schechter. He's a producer. And then you have Emma Hildes. She is director and producer of The Janes and also inventing David Geffen. So how did you find these people 

Eden Raskin Jenkins  •  19:54
and put your team together here? Yeah. So Alex, who is a friend from college, who's kind of like been with me on this roller coaster journey from the beginning. And he is so incredible because we speak the same creative language. And also because this is such a personal film, it's nice to have such a safe space in somebody like him. Sam, I have known from DC. And so we've known each other for a long time. And Emma, I now I'm drawing a blank on how I met her. It's because I am just constantly networking, to be honest. And just, you know, it's like I meet somebody, I follow up, I kind of force a meeting on them and just stay in touch. Meeting? Kind of. I'm like, oh, do you want to Zoom? Great. And it's like you just kind of keep pushing. So networking. But I guess one 

Sandra Abrams  •  20:47
of the things that's not clear to me. So I was looking at the trailer. What is the stat? And current status of the film right now. So we're chatting in September of 2025, but our episode may not come out until the beginning of next year in 2026. So what's your status right now? 

Eden Raskin Jenkins  •  21:14
So I'm still in production and I'm like halfway through with the interviews at this point. And so I kind of have a list of people that I need to still film with, Kai being one of those people. And yeah, and you know, it's a process. The list has expanded. There's been a lot of things too where I thought like, oh, it'll just be a bullet point in the story. And then I'm like, oh, now it's the arc. And so there's been a lot that I was, a lot of honestly like unexpected bombshells that have taken me down these different paths 

Sandra Abrams  •  21:51
that are incredible. Can you share anything? Sure, sure. 

Eden Raskin Jenkins  •  21:55
There's some tea, spill the tea. Yeah. The, so you mentioned Daniel Allsberg before. And so I had like always kind of known in some way that my dad maybe had something to do with releasing the Pentagon papers, but it was never talked about. And I never talked to him about it. None of us really talked to him about it. And when he passed, it was like mentioned in his obituary, but there was still nothing was really, really known. And I had never met Daniel Ellsberg before and was connected with him by a close family friend. And Ellsberg was like, all right, I'm going to tell you a crazy story. And I was like, oh, what can I please do? So basically what happened is Ellsberg obviously photocopied the Pentagon papers. He had initially tried to release them through the Senate, which didn't happen. And my dad was working on a book about the Vietnam War. And Ellsberg, who knew my dad from when my dad worked at the White House, my dad worked in the National Security Council in Kennedy's administration. And Ellsberg was at DOD and Brandt at that time. And so they knew each other from them. And Ellsberg reached out to my dad and was like, I have something that I think you're going to find really interesting. And so gave my dad about a thousand pages of the Pentagon Papers and nobody else had seen them at this point. Nobody. And gave him a copy and was like, do not photocopy these and do not give them to anybody else. And so my dad photocopied them and gave them to Neil Sheehan from the New York Times behind Dan Ellsberg's back. 

Sandra Abrams  •  23:44
And I did not know. And Neil and your dad knew each other from school or something? I think that's what it was. 

Eden Raskin Jenkins  •  23:50
No, Neil had written something. It ran something in the New York Review of Books. And my dad was like, I think he is the person, basically. He's going to care about this, basically. And Washington, it was so small at that time, too. And my dad was such an activist and was like kind of a known person at that point. And so at that point, the Times was gonna run the papers based on this like thousand pages that my dad had given Neil Sheehan. And then basically once it became clear that the Times was not gonna run them, my dad went to Daniel Ellsberg and was like, I think Neil Sheehan would be interested in seeing the papers. You should reach out to him. still never telling Daniel that Sheehan already had the papers. And literally the next day, Daniel Ellsberg reached out to Neil Sheehan, and then the rest is the history that the world knows. So that was like a big kind of bombshell for me on so many different levels, which has been interesting to uncover, unravel, piece this history together from my dad's perspective, from Daniel Ellsberg's perspective, from the New York Times perspective, and explore this really well-known history in a way that it's never been talked about before, which has been really cool. And then also as a daughter to be like, I can't believe my dad did that behind his back. And so there's also this interesting piece of it where people react very differently. People are like, he had to. And then that was his moral obligation. Yeah. Right, right. So I've had these like very interesting conversations with people about what you would do, 

Sandra Abrams  •  25:46
how you would handle a situation like this. 

VO  •  25:48
Yes, that's a great question to people. 

Sandra Abrams  •  25:50
Would you go and do this? Yes. And just for some people may think, well, what are the Pentagon Papers? And I just want to say, you know, the official title is the report of the office of the secretary of defense Vietnam task force. And it was a report that went out and it was about what was happening with the Vietnam war. So that's why it was so controversial because it was not supposed to be public. It was never supposed to be public. It was 

Eden Raskin Jenkins  •  26:21
basically like an internal investigation into the Vietnam war that showed that the U.S. government basically from the beginning and continued to draft people, spend more money on the war and send people overseas and to kill Vietnamese and Americans. And they knew always from the beginning that this was not winnable. And so it was a very big deal to have these papers become public. And at the time, it then also shifted into this like very interesting conversation about freedom of the press. And basically the Nixon administration tried to, well, did, they forced 

Sandra Abrams  •  27:09
injunctions on the New York Times, on the Washington Post. Right. And Catherine Graham, the whole story about Catherine Graham and winning the case. And they said, no, you're not going to 

Eden Raskin Jenkins  •  27:17
win this case. Right. Exactly. Exactly. So it essentially like established or freedom of the press. And one of the really cool people that I got to interview was James Goodale, who was the counsel for the New York Times at the time and argued in front of the Supreme Court. 

Sandra Abrams  •  27:35
And it was like, you know, to hear this first, again, primary sources, firsthand account as to what was going on behind the scenes, published, not published. Right. Right. 

Eden Raskin Jenkins  •  27:48
And like, what are, and you know, for them, they're like, what are our protections? and, you know, like, thank God for the bravery of people at that time and for the people in the room making the decisions and for a lot of people just, like, keep pushing for what they believed in. 

Sandra Abrams  •  28:08
What you're talking about, you got this bombshell interview, but your dad left a lot of papers. So, you know, from an archive perspective, how do you go through the papers? You know, was it divide and conquer? What was your way of, what's your way in this process from that perspective? 

Eden Raskin Jenkins  •  28:28
I wish it was like more organized so I could like impart some advice in some way. He, my dad has a very extensive archives at GW, which I'm like very lucky that that even exists. And so I started there and went through all of his papers that basically like were in stacks up to here in his home office for my entire life are now like, you can't even have water by them. For anybody that's done like archival research, you know, you're like, you can't have water. There's no food. There's like nothing. 

Sandra Abrams  •  29:00
Oh, and you probably had like your peanut butter and jelly sandwich and probably. Oh, yeah, exactly. 

Eden Raskin Jenkins  •  29:05
It's like there's coffee stains. I'm like, that's like my lollipop still stuck to it from when I was seven years old. I was like, really, this is hysterical and like amazing. And honestly, like, thank God for librarians and archivists. But so that was my starting point. And that was very illuminating for me and started pushing me in certain directions. I've since been back to the arc, to that specific archives and see stuff in such a different light than I did initially, because the more that I learn, it all fits together more completely. But yeah, the first time it was really interesting. My dad had saved all of his correspondence from when he was in Congress in the White House and founding the Institute for Policy Studies. And so it's like from 59 to 63. And it's like the carbon copies from the typewriter. And like reading my dad's voice as a 26-year-old was just like such a cool experience for me. So I started there. The Institute for Policy Studies also has some extensive archives out at the University of Wisconsin. So I went out there. And then it's just like a lot of like digging really deep. I've been to the Kennedy Library out in Boston. I have done a lot of like video archival research as well. And then also have FOIA'd his files, his cool, very extensive FBI file, which was very fun to go through and i don't even i have a thousand pages you actually got it when you 

Sandra Abrams  •  30:40
foiled that because um for people don't know it's the freedom of information act which anybody can do and there's like a whole way of doing it for each different uh departments that you can do it for the government but yeah you actually got it that's amazing i got it but like with the little 

Eden Raskin Jenkins  •  30:56
like asterisk caveat so i got stuff that was still on site uh the fbi from even though it was 60 years ago. And then the rest of the files at the National Archives. And because it's such a big file, there's such an extensive backlog, but it will take me 10 years to get the rest of the file. Only 10 years. Only 10 years, no big deal. And I'm still waiting for FOIA responses from the other agencies that I have sent Freedom of Information requests for. But yeah, the FBI file was incredibly illuminating and felt some of the stuff that I was reading felt incredibly parallel to what is happening today in our country. Some of it is just like copy and paste. And some of it just feels so outrageous to read. And I'm like, this happened to my family and to my dad. And you read about it in the file and then having conversations with the people who lived it is fascinating. And there is a lot of collateral damage in actions of that kind. And like the FBI monitoring was like joked about my whole childhood and, you know, talking to some people who were like, I didn't know who I could trust. And that was really hard for me. And like, how does that shape a generation 

Sandra Abrams  •  32:26
of people, basically. Now, it definitely changes their mindset on that. Well, speaking of generations, I'm going to talk about the music. Did you have to go for rights on it? How did you get some of that music that you play so far in the documentary? It's that, you know, music is 

Eden Raskin Jenkins  •  32:49
going to be a very important piece of the film because it was such an important part of my dad's life and my relationship with him. And, you know, luckily the music from the sixties and seventies is so iconic. And so I want to make sure that we use that in a way that really transports the audience back to this time and makes it feel like super tangible. And then also use my dad's music. So my dad played classical and in the trailer, he's playing Claire the Loon, which was my favorite of has songs. And, you know, that is all old enough that it's all public at that point. And then it's my dad's renditions of it. So that's fine. But, you know, really use the music to bring us into the personal and to show us my dad and kind of like show us his soul in so many ways. And, but yeah, I'm excited for the musical piece of it and kind of like using it as the fabric that helps 

Sandra Abrams  •  33:44
leave this whole story together. And how is Women in Film and Video helping you with your film as 

Eden Raskin Jenkins  •  33:50
you continue to work on it? I mean, Women in Film and Video is amazing. I'm so grateful to Melissa. She is truly my hero. Like I said, I'm new to filmmaking and reached out to Melissa and she has just been such an incredible resource and wealth of knowledge for me and is also wildly encouraging and supportive. She is. As soon as you tell her, I'm thinking of looking into this. 

Sandra Abrams  •  34:20
She's got five people you need to go talk to and there's this class and go do this. Yes, 

Eden Raskin Jenkins  •  34:26
definitely. Yeah, exactly. And so that has been like just such an important piece of this. They're also my fiscal sponsor, which is you need to have if you're going to get donations from anybody. so that has been really great and I she's just she's such an incredible resource I mean I'm so grateful and I come from the association world and so I also know it's like a gym membership it's like you get out of it what you put into it so immediately I'm like I'm gonna like reach out to Melissa I'm gonna introduce myself and really get engaged because that's how you make things like this worthwhile but I'm very I'm very grateful and I think also like I said I spend a lot of time networking and meeting people. And I have really met some of the most generous people who are like, I believe in this story. This sounds interesting. You seem passionate about it. Like, I want to help you. And are just really, you know, coming like out of COVID where everybody's like so isolated, it really like restored my faith in people in this really beautiful way where people are like, yeah, I want to help. And that has been really incredible. And especially the women that I have met, I'm just so grateful to that. Who are just like, I'm going to bring you along with me and I'm going to help you in any way that I can. That's wonderful. That's what you need. 

Sandra Abrams  •  36:00
The film is Notes of a Citizen, the Marcus Raskin story. Thank you, Eden, for having this conversation with Media Makers Spotlight. Where can people find out more information? 

Eden Raskin Jenkins  •  36:12
You can visit me at marcusraskin.com and you can follow on Instagram at marcusraskinfilm. 

Sandra Abrams  •  36:20
Thanks again, Eden. We really look forward to when the film comes out and all the juicy details. 

Eden Raskin Jenkins  •  36:26
Thank you so much. This has been wonderful. I know a lot of juicy details. This was like a little pin drop of what there is. 

VO  •  36:35
Thanks for listening to Media Maker Spotlight from Women in Film and Video. To learn more about WIF, visit W-I-F as in Frank, V as in Victor.org. This podcast is produced by Sandra Abrams, Candice Block, Brandon Ferry, Tara Jabari, and Jerry Reinhart. And edited by Michelle Kim. With audio production and mix by Steve Lack Audio and Ed Saltzman. Subscribe to continue learning from more amazing media makers. Please visit MediaMakerSpotlight.com 

VO  •  37:10
for more information. That's a wrap!