Paul Kakert
Directing
Biography
Paul Kakert is a multiple award winning director, editor and producer who specializes in conceiving, developing, producing, marketing and distributing independent productions including reality programming and documentaries. He has owned and operated a video and multimedia production company in Iowa since 1991 and has produced videos and 3D animations for broadcast, federal government, non-profit organizations, higher education, and corporate businesses throughout the United States. Paul founded Storytellers International in 2009. The 501c3 non-profit organization produces feature length documentary films, telling stories from around the world. As President and Director of most productions for the organization, his goal is to build an online, fanatic audience for documentary films through his community website DocumentaryTV.com. In addition to promoting the films he and other independent producers create; the organization actively solicits story ideas from a growing community at DocumentaryTV.com. Anyone can pitch a story they would like to see Storytellers produce. Paul's goal is to inspire the public to tell him what is important to them, and most importantly, to hear from those who are close to the stories and the people involved. To date, films by Storytellers have taken Paul to India and Kosovo and throughout the US to meet his vision of bringing a world of stories to a US audience.
Known For
When eleven bodies are found inside a freight car in Iowa, a New York man is certain his missing younger brother will be listed among the dead. The Guatemalan immigrant joins investigators in a search for the smugglers who locked a group of undocumented immigrants inside the railcar to throw off Border Patrol inspectors. This documentary offers an in-depth look at the investigation and those involved -- from the Guatemalan brothers to a key immigration agent to a man charged in the case - in a tragedy that made headlines internationally.
Train to Nowhere: Inside an Immigrant Death Investigation
The events of the film occur during the initial implementation of President Nixon's policy of Vietnamization, which called for US troops to turn over the war effort to the South Vietnamese Army. Caught in that transition, Firebase Kate receives no support from the South Vietnamese troops in the area, leaving them severely outmanned and outgunned, and in imminent danger of being overrun. Their only option is a desperate late night escape and evasion through a jungle filled with NVA soldiers.