Astrea Media

About Us

Astrea Media is a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating innovative film and interactive multi-platform media projects about human rights and environmental issues that generate positive change. Since our founding in 2000, we have created award-winning interdisciplinary work that exposes the ways in which our culture conceals and normalizes violence and injustice. Our projects have positively impacted the public sphere, government action, and people’s sex lives.

Our documentaries have screened at over a hundred film festivals, been used by hundreds of organizations and universities as an educational tool, and streamed online on Sundance Now, Fandor, Vimeo, and Netflix globally. They've been theatrically released and broadcast on cable and public television stations in many countries.

The Team

Liz Canner, Director

Liz Canner is an award-winning filmmaker, artist, and writer who has created many documentaries and interactive media projects intended to inspire positive change. She often employs cutting edge technologies to explore human rights and environmental issues from a new perspective. Symphonyofacity.org, about the housing crisis in Boston, was an early multi-platform interactive documentary. Her film Deadly Embrace was one of the first films to investigate the impact of structural adjustment and globalization. It was broadcast internationally and used by over a thousand organizations worldwide as an organizing tool. Orgasm Inc., a New York Times “Critic's Pick” about the search for the female Viagra drug, screened at over 70 film festivals, was theatrically released in 42 cities, broadcast on television in 12 countries, and streamed on Sundance Now, Fandor, Vimeo, and Netflix globally (“Most Popular” in the Critically Acclaimed section in 2012). A graduate of Brown University with Honors in both Visual Arts and Anthropology, she received over 60 awards and grants for her work including a Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Fellowship from Harvard University, a Rockefeller Foundation Next Generation Leadership Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts grant and the Dartmouth College Visionary Award. Her documentaries broadcast on television on PBS stations, cable, and internationally in many countries. Her media art projects have shown at museums and galleries including Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art, The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the California Museum of Photography. She has given over 150 talks about her work at universities, museums and screening venues. Committed to helping other independent filmmakers, she served on the board of directors of The Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers, the Boston Film and Video Foundation, Boston Cyberarts and White River Indie Films.

Sam Knowles, Associate Producer

Sam Knowles began working at Astrea Media as an intern on Orgasm Inc. She demonstrated her fabulous organizing and people skills and is now the Associate Producer of Silent U., our current project. Sam is an award-winning Brooklyn-based filmmaker who has directed and produced numerous short documentaries and videos. Her most recent film, Why Do You Have Black Dolls?, won the Spirit Award at the Reel Sisters Film Festival, earned a NY City Council Citation, and won the Audience Choice Award at the Women, Action, & the Media (WAM) Film Festival. She graduated cum laude from Dartmouth College with a B.A. in Film Studies and Psychology.

Josh Bertsche, Web Designer and Guru

Josh began as an intern at Astrea Media where he demonstrated strong ability in design and animation. He is now the web designer of this site.

Board of Directors

Past and Present:

Liz Canner

Filmmaker

Carl Canner

CEO, Carvers' Guild

Robert Kallen

Founder, RSK Strategies, LLC

David Kluft

Assistant Bar Counsel, Massachusetts Office of Bar Counsel

Karen Moss

Artist

Alan Solomont
(former board member)

Former United States Ambassador to Spain and Andorra Finance Chair of the Democratic National Committee in 1997, Chairman and CEO of Solomont Bailis Ventures

Funding