Directed & Produced by David Helfer Wells
Short Documentary | 18.5 min | English | USA
Sunday, September 28th, 2025 | 4:00PM Screening
Neighborhood House at Christ Church
20 N. American Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106
A testament to the resilience of forward-thinking New England women. They are not just working hard, but also proving themselves in their region’s age-old oyster farming. Their new energy and perspectives are reshaping a tradition-bound, male-dominated maritime industry, inspiring us all.
Director’s Bio
David Helfer Wells
Director/Producer
Director, producer, cinematographer, and rough-cut editor David Helfer Wells brings decades of experience making still images and, more recently, documentary films. He grew up in California and developed a passion for the ocean and coastal communities. For 26 years, he has lived in Rhode Island, developing an appreciation for the state’s commercial fishing industry. As a photojournalist turned documentary filmmaker, he is known for his in-depth still image photo essays and visually compelling motion pictures. He was a newspaper and magazine photojournalist for publications such as the Los Angeles Times, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and New York Newsday, as well as Fortune, Life, National Geographic, Newsweek, The Sunday New York Times, and Time magazine. He has spent the last ten years making short motion pictures for the websites of some of the same publications he worked for as a still image photographer. He has been commissioned by New England’s iconic Yankee magazine and Greenpeace to photograph and, more recently, film fishermen and the challenges they face. His films have been juried into festivals in Ankara, Bangalore, Lisbon, New Haven, New York City, Philadelphia, Providence, Rome, San Francisco, and Tunisia. Select awards for his film work includes:
Rhode Island Council for the Humanities, Documentary Film Grant, Providence, RI, 2023
Derek Freese Film Foundation, Project Grant, Philadelphia, PA, 2022
Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, Art Grant for Individuals, Providence, RI, 2022
Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, Project Grant for Individuals, Providence, RI, 2017
Rhode Island Council for the Humanities, Mini-Grant Award, Providence, RI, 2017
Necati Celik Prize, HAK-IS Respect for Labor International Film Festival, Ankara, Turkey, 2016
“If you obey all the rules,
you miss all the fun.”
Katherine Hepburn
Actor
thewomensfilmfestival.org 