The Producers

Eunice Lau – Director
A former journalist, Eunice’s works have appeared on Discovery Channel, Al Jazeera English and Channel News Asia, and she is also supported by eminent arts and media organizations such as the Jerome Foundation, Tribeca Film Institute, ITVS, Chicken & Egg Pictures, Women Make Movies, Points North Institute, YouTube Impact Lab and IFP. Her debut documentary Accept the Call, set in Minnesota’s Somali community, explores the impact of injustice and intergenerational trauma. It premiered on PBS Independent Lens in 2020. Her second filmA-Town Boyz, which is streaming on Amazon, captures the immigrant struggle of the Asian community in Atlanta. She holds an MFA in Film from NYU.

Brooke Swaney – Producer
Brooke (enrolled Blackfeet and Salish descendant) works to tell Indigenous stories and stories from other marginalized communities. Daughter of a Lost Bird (PBS/America Reframed) is her first feature documentary. Most recently she made a short film about rising star and Blackfeet actress Lily Gladstone (Firelight Media/ American Masters). She also produced Bella Vista (Rotterdam), and Sixty Four Flood (PBS & PBS Digital). She has been a fellow through PBS Wyncote, a NATIVe Fellow at the European Film Market/Berlinale, Woodstock/WhiteFeather Arts, the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation, and Sundance/Time Warner. She holds an MFA in Film from NYU.

Zachary Kerschberg – Producer
As the grandson of immigrants that escaped the Holocaust in 1939, Zachary is deeply committed to telling this meaningful and important cautionary tale to the American people. A narrative and documentary filmmaker based in New York, Zachary’s films have screened at Cannes, SXSW, and the NYFF and have been distributed nationally and internationally on PBS, Cable Networks, and streaming platforms. He is a recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship and a National Board of Review Student Grant, as well as an alum of the Berlinale Talent Campus and SF Filmhouse. Zachary holds an honors B.A. from UC Berkeley and MFAs in Dramatic Writing and Film Production from NYU.

Making The Film

This story came to me after my documentary ACCEPT THE CALL premiered on PBS Independent Lens and soon after, a viewer emailed me that I should look into the story of Tanya Gersh. It was not initially clear to me why he believed that my film, centered on a Muslim family impacted by Islamophobia in Minnesota, was connected to a Jewish family impacted by antisemitism in Montana. As I dug into the research, however, a glaring truth came to light: antisemitism and Islamophobia are not only entangled, but deeply rooted in the same systems of white supremacy and Christian hegemony.

Both Tanya Gersh and Zacharia Abdurahman had fallen victim to the system of white nationalism. While anti-Muslim bias and bigotry were unleashed and fueled by George Bush’s “War on Terror”, it was the anti-immigrant rhetoric of Donald Trump that emboldened a surge in hate speech and hate crimes, and again normalized antisemitism in mainstream America.

By bringing the historical narrative of Holocaust survivor Stephen Jacobs into Tanya’s story, we hope to place her story within the context of a larger canvas. History is not simply the study of the past, but also an explanation of the present, and can serve as a forecast to trending events. The parallels between 1930s Germany and present-day America are alarmingly similar and equally terrifying.

The team behind TROLL STORM is mostly BIPOC filmmakers. Collectively, we have inherited a long history of oppression and discrimination, as well as stories of resistance. As artists, our tools to forge change is storytelling. Such as the story of this courageous mother who fought back against the all-powerful white supremacists and provided a new narrative that makes her victory a rallying cry for a united movement against hate. These stories transcend class, race and ethnicity, and inspire us to recognize our common interest in the collective liberation for all people, and in the struggle to end white supremacy - and all related systems of oppression.

Eunice Lau – Director