Our story

Carbon Trace Productions is a documentary/educational organization founded by Dr. Andrew Cline, a professor of media and journalism at Missouri State University. Carbon Trace is a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation dedicated to documentary education for college students.

The production crew finished its first feature-length project in 2016 — Downtown — a documentary film about Americans’ emerging trend of moving away from the suburbs searching for a new American Dream in re-developing urban centers. “Downtown” screened at the 2016 New Urbanism Film, winning the Best Urban Sociology Film category award. The team also produced a documentary short related to Downtown” Shared Spaces — an official selection at the 2015 New Urbanism Film Festival.

Post-production has begun on a second feature-length documentary the team started filming in 2017 about Syrian refugee children’s emerging mental health issues. The team finished three documentary shorts from 2017 to 2018 — Souriyat, the story of a rehabilitation facility in Amman, Jordan serving Syrian refugees, and Joonyper, a tragic death by heroin overdose. “Souriyat” screened at the 2018 Atlanta Docfest. CTP also produced “Homeschooling in Middle America” in 2018, a film by Chinese student filmmaker Yiran Liu.

Zero, our student production for 2019, won the Award of Excellence for a student documentary feature at the Broadcast Education Association 2020 Festival of Arts. Our latest feature-length film, Witness at Tornillo, toured nationally during the fall and winter of 2019-2020. It won “Best Feature Documentary” at the Kansas City FilmFest International 2020. It is now available on Vimeo on Demand.

Carbon Trace is currently in production of All of a Sudden and post-production on Witness at the BorderSongs From the Street, “Drive-Ins Aren’t Dead,” “Syrian Doctor” (Working Title), and “A Vietnam Peace Story.”

Our values

At Carbon Trace Productions, many of our documentary films feature humanitarian service organizations or individuals working to make the world a better place. Humanitarian service is half our dual nonprofit mission, and we take pride in focusing on stories like these:

  • Witness at Tornillo: The story of one man standing up for justice and starting a movement to free asylum-seeking children from U.S. internment camps.
  • Souriyat: The story of a rehabilitation facility serving men and boys wounded in the Syrian conflict.
  • Every Child: The story of how poverty affects the life of a Springfield, Mo. family–especially the impacts of youth poverty on education.
  • Songs From the Street: A story of homeless people finding visibility and community through the choir.
  • Syrian Doctor (working title): In post-production now. A story of the mental health crisis in Syrian refugee children.
  • A Vietnam Peace Story: A story of U.S. veterans returning to Vietnam to work through their long-held traumas.
  • Witness at the Border:  A story of the Central Americans forced to wait for asylum in a borderlands refugee camp because of cruel immigration policy.
  • All of a Sudden: In production now. A story of the “housing-first” model and its effectiveness at solving chronic homelessness.

Awards

2020
Witness at Tornillo” won Best Feature Documentary Film at the Kansas City FilmFest International

2019
Zero” won the Award of Excellence for the Broadcast Education Association Festival of Arts

2018
Joonyper” won Best Documentary/Reality Short at the 2018 Ozark Mountain Webfest in Branson, Missouri.

2016
Downtown” won Best Urban Sociology Film at the 2016 New Urbanism Film Festival in Los Angeles, California.

Let's work together!

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