Zack Canepari // “It is so easy to get illegal guns. There are loopholes, and the way these illegal guns come into these communities is so much a product of poorly thought out gun laws. That to me is just hair pulling…because why is this so complicated. I resent that there is this one, uncompromising line of the constitution that was made so long ago under such different circumstances, and that we are completely incapable of talking about it in a common sense way.”

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Welcome to @thesearcherpodcast

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On this episode of the show, I speak with Zack Canepari, an independent photographer and filmmaker specializing in documentary storytelling. His photography career began in India/Pakistan, and after living in the region for three years Zack moved to California and teamed with filmmaker Drea Cooper, to create ZCDC. In 2010, ZCDC launched “California is a place”, a documentary film series about the Golden State. Next, the duo directed their debut feature documentary T-REX, about Olympic gold medalist boxer Claressa Shields, which premiered at SXSW and went on to win audience and jury awards around the country including San Francisco International and Hot Docs.

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Later, ZCDC’s Netflix Original Doc series, FLINT TOWN, opened to critical acclaim and earned nominations from Critic’s Choice Awards and the IDA. The series takes an unflinching look at a struggling city through the eyes of the police and community. Their latest film, FIRE IN PARADISE, also released on Netflix, was shortlisted for the 2020 Academy Awards and received multiple Emmy nominations.

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As a photographer, Zack’s first monograph, titled REX, focused on Flint through the experiences of Shields and her sister, Briana. REX was named one of TIME Magazines top photography books of 2016 and was awarded Best Photography Book at the Pictures of the Year International. A series of short films, photo projects and exhibitions followed, all part of an ongoing interactive web series titled "Flint is a place". In 2017, Canepari won a World Press Photo Award and was awarded Multimedia Photographer of the Year at Pictures of the Year International for his work in Michigan.

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We centered our discussion on much of the aforementioned work, Zack’s experience of working both as a still photographer and a filmmaker, the covid and post-covid work environments, his current film with @jessicadimmock exploring gun violence in America, and how these projects have shaped his views on everything from policing to parenting his daughter.

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This conversation was recorded late last year, so there may be some comments and comments regarding covid-19 and politics that are a bit outdated.

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Follow Zack Canepari:

Instagram: @canepari_til_i_die

Web: http://www.zcdc.tv/

Web: http://flintisaplace.com/

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Additional links:

Searcher Instagram: @thesearcherpodcast

Searcher website: http://michaelchristopherbrown.com/searcher/

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Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/searcher/support