Beth Bird is a documentary filmmaker, whose work engages vital contemporary social-issues such as globalization, popular resistance, and local community empowerment, drawing attention to and putting a human face on struggles for social justice. Her first feature-length film, "Everyone Their Grain Of Sand" (2005), won the 2005 Jury Award for Best Documentary at its U.S. premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival, Best San Diego Feature at the San Diego Film Festival, and Festival Favorite at the Oxnard Film Festival. The film has screened nationally and internationally at major venues including at the Museum of Modern Art in New York; the Viennale (Vienna International Film Festival); InSITE 2005 in Tijuana, Mexico; The Play Gallery, Berlin; the Prague Biennale; and the Morelia International Film Festival in Morelia, Mexico. Other films include "D2KLA" (2000), which documents clashes between the police and protesters outside the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles in August, 2000, and "Love Knows No Borders" (1997), which examines discrimination in U.S. immigration law against lesbians and gay men.In her film "Everyone Their Grain of Sand", Bird documents the struggle that border-town Maclovio Rojas has been facing in its relentless efforts to have access to basic human rights, like water and education.

In Maclovio Rojas, loose state control and wide-open land spaces have made the communities from this arid zone criminals for existing. When the state of Tijuana continued neglecting this community's efforts to be recognized, Maclovio Rojas took matters into their own hands.

Topics covered

• USA-Mexico Border
• Global Economy and Fair Trade
• Water Privatization