About
Stories Behind The Fog (SBTF) originated in San Francisco, CA, where we are documenting and collecting the stories of one hundred people who have experienced or been affected by homelessness in the Bay Area.
These one hundred stories will soon be compiled in a beautiful coffee table book that will amplify the message of our non-profit partners and serve as a fundraising tool for them as well. We are currently fundraising for the book, and your donation is very welcome.
The impetus for this project is to challenge a single-minded view of homelessness by rendering its entire spectrum, one story at a time.
When ‘the homeless’ become a generic label in our minds, we have a hard time seeing the individuality — the unique and complex story — of every single person living on the streets. In a metaphorical way, this stereotype blocks our perception of the countless nuances of homelessness, just like the iconic fog of San Francisco shrouds the city from onlookers.
Based on our personal experience with Moses, the unhoused man from San Francisco who inspired SBTF, we learned that human interaction has the potential to pierce this barrier, allowing us to unveil stories that are heterogeneous, complex and, sometimes, mind-blowing.
That’s why we not only share stories, but also encourage other storytellers to connect with the people we feature and take their narratives further, through any form of art. We believe these stories have the power to make the public connect with one of our most critical domestic issues, and to add to the dialogue on homelessness held by politicians, public and private agencies, educators and activists.
Our process to gather stories involves the collaboration of documentary writers and photographers, and homeless advocates. Partnering with homeless outreach organizations to help facilitate connection, each story is collected with an individual field interview by one of several photographers and writers. With a focus on personal, story-driven, details, the field teams collect the data to build a first-person narrative that stays true to the subject’s voice and experiences. Combined with the photographer’s close portraiture, each story sheds a different light on homelessness.
Fran Guijarro, Founder/Creative Director
FRAN is a filmmaker and creative director based in San Francisco. He holds a MFA in Copywriting from the Academy of Art University and has also studied Screenwriting at Cuba Film School. Currently, he teaches as part of the BFA and MFA programs at the Academy of Art University and is co-founder of Free Range Puppies, a multicultural hybrid creative agency/production shop based in San Francisco. He’s also a member of the Honorary Board of Directors at the DSLR Filmmakers Guild. Fran’s work has been recipient of the prestigious Clio Award and the first CEO’s Echo Award for Social Action, considered the Oscar in the field of Direct Marketing. His last documentary titled ‘Mexican Cuisine’ has been screened at more than 50 festivals around the world, including Cannes SFC, the AFI Fest in LA and three other Oscar-qualifying festivals. It has also been awarded Best Documentary at the Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente (La Plata, Argentina) and Best Film at the International Migration Art Festival (Milan, Italy) among other recognitions. He’s about to finish his first feature-length film titled ‘Moses’, a project that has been featured in dozens of different media so far, including the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle.
Diya Guha, Project Lead
DIYA was born and raised in Kolkata, India. She grew up in a family with a very academic conviction about the intrinsic value of education and the deep sense of satisfaction and fulfillment that can come through its pursuit. After finishing High School, she decided to move to Mumbai, 2000 kilometers away from home, to pursue undergraduate studies in Economics at Sophia College. Then she joined a world-renowned advertising and media company called Mindshare. This is when the dynamics of the media world caught her attention. Life took Diya to San Francisco, where she has completed her MFA in Creative Strategy at the Academy of Art University. This city has given her the opportunity to expand as an artist, as a thinker and most importantly, as a human being. That’s when and where she started getting involved in several film projects and collaborating with Free Range Puppies. Diya has already produced her first short documentary, titled The Mural, and is producing Moses’ film, a feature-length documentary that is expected to be released in 2017.
Juli López, Associate Creative Director
JULI is an award-winner Director of Photography and Producer based in San Francisco. He holds an MBA in International Business by the Moore School of Business of Columbia S.C. and an MFA in Cinematography from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. His work for Mexican Cuisine, a documentary that honors the flavor of Mexican immigration in the US, was awarded Best Cinematography at the New York Digital Short Film Festival and other 16 international awards. His video Love Sick 4, won Best Video at the San Francisco Fashion Awards in 2011. Juli is an Honorary Board Member of the DSLR Filmmakers Guild and Co-Founder of Free Range Puppies. He was the in-house DP for Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, creator of the famous campaign “Got Milk?” and named Agency of the Decade by Adweek Magazine in 2009.
Arjanna van der Plas, Collaborative Writer
Arjanna is a social impact focused author, coach and workshop facilitator. She currently spends a lot of her time in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood, teaching yoga and meditation at the Healing Well, and writing a book and blog series called Stories Behind The Fog together with the Free Range Puppies. With Stories Behind The Fog she wants to challenge the single-minded view of homelessness by rendering its entire spectrum, one story at a time.
Before Arjanna moved to San Francisco, she was communications manager for the Amsterdam based sustainability startup Circle Economy. Prior to that, she was a lecturer at the TU Delft, innovator at TNO (the largest independent research organization in the Netherlands) and freelance science journalist. Arjanna holds two MSc. degrees from the TU Delft, one in Industrial Design Engineering and one in Science Communications. Follow her on Medium, Linkedin, and Twitter.
Stef van Grieken, Strategic Advisor and Fundraiser
Stef is a senior product manager for Google, and a resident of San Francisco. As a member of the tech community, that is often seen as one of the causes for social inequality in the city, he makes it his mission to build bridges between the haves and the have nots, among others through Stories Behind The Fog.
More, Senior Art Director/ACD
Jorge Luis Morejón, a.k.a. MORE, was born and raised in Cuba. After completing his studies in Graphic Design in La Havana, he moved to Spain to kick off his career. He landed a job as an Art Director at CP Proximity Madrid, recognized as the most awarded direct marketing agency in the world in 2003 and 2006. After scoring numerous awards at advertising festivals, he was promoted to Associate Creative Director, a title that he carried when he ended up working for Orbital. More has worked for clients such as Real Madrid C.F., Nivea, Toyota, Chrysler, Mercedes, Barclays Bank and Teka, among others. Married and father of two kids, he is a big fan of Atlético de Madrid Football Club, and a very talented fine artist. He paints, draws, sculpts and builds anything you can imagine.
Maria Muzas, Supporting Lead
Maria is working as a supporting project manager and production intern at Free Range Puppies, an impact-driven creative agency in San Francisco. Maria was born in a little city in the north of Spain, Vitoria-Gasteiz. She grew up in a big family with a small house full of laughs, screams, people and love (the screams were more common tough). Growing up, she was educated with strong values that determined her choices in life, always surrounded by art, cinema, books and music.Because the stories of her childhood were so nurturing to her, she studied Film and TV in University of Navarre, where she learned the importance of storytelling in our daily lives.
She has co-produced many projects and documentaries. Her favorite ones are “Beneath the Trees”, a documentary about ancient storytelling traditions in Ireland, and “La Quinta” a documentary in Spain about the challenge of a young orchestra to play one of the hardest piece of Tchaikovsky. After finishing her degree her fascination with new cultures brought Maria to Oxford, where she worked with ChalkStar Films. There she worked in an amazing project hunting new musicians for a Youtube music video channel, Oxford Couch Sessions.
She then returned to Spain, only to prepare for her next adventure that brought her to San Francisco where she is living one of her dreams and working on Stories Behind The Fog.
Nermin Habib, Collaborative Digital Strategist
Nermin’s passion for film making has got her constantly looking for ways to tell stories that captivate and connect people. Born in Cairo, raised in Bahrain and living in San Francisco, she is particularly intrigued by people’s diverse backgrounds. That is where she finds interesting stories and insights about the human condition.
She is her happiest when she is photographing or filming. She is her calmest when she’s people watching, and most excited when she feels an “aha” moment bubbling up to the surface of her soul. Follow her on Linkedin and Vimeo.
Alex Basa, Collaborative Writer
Alex is a BFA Advertising major with a focus in Art Direction. Born and raised in California, he has always had a love for storytelling in any form — particularly through writing, photography, and doodling on napkins in bars. When he’s not busy being creative, he’s busy satiating his eclectic curiosities in order to fuel his creativity. Alex is a rock climber, a musician, a video gamer, a scientist, a tinkerer, a feminist, a people person, a pop culture junkie, and many other things that would never fit within the confines of a tweet.
When asked the question, “why did you pick art school instead of something in the STEM field?” Alex’s typical response is, “the solutions in STEM are binary; you’re either wrong or you’re right. Puzzles in the creative industry are often vague, and no answer is certain, which I find to be much more exciting.” Follow Alex on Medium and check out his website.
Belinda Garcia, Collaborative Writer
Belinda is currently pursuing a BFA in Writing for Film, Television and Digital Media at AAU, after recognizing that her superlative qualities lie in her creativity and imagination. When she’s not traveling to school or work, you can find her scouring comic shops, used bookstores or attending a Broadway musical downtown.
Aside from collaborating with Stories Behind The Fog, she also writes eSports journalism for Dbltap Esports, proud to be a woman breaking into a predominantly male community. Follow her on Twitter and Medium.
Jonath Mathew, Collaborative Photographer
Born and raised in Stockholm, Sweden, Jonath Mathew has always had a passion when it comes to visual communication. What started out as a mere hobby developed into something bigger and over the last 8 years he has worked as a freelance photographer.
Over these years he has worked on film productions like “Monica Z” (2013) that was awarded the Guldbagge award (the equivalence of the Oscars in Sweden) for best director and best female lead actress and “Mickan&Veronica” (2014).
At the moment he is pursuing a career in Advertising at Academy of Art University in San Francisco and is always on the look for creating visual and content driven stories to be shared. Check his website for more of his work.
Travis Knight, Collaborative Writer
Throughout the past 10 years, Travis has written various poems, articles, and short stories. He spends most of his time pursuing his BA in English at Ashford University, working as Jr. Copywriter and Content Developer for Toebock Creative, and collaborating with photographers, painters, and cinematographers to create unique works. He lives in San Jose with his wife, Camila Pereira. His works can be further explored via LinkedIn.
Celine Lota, Collaborative Graphic Designer
Born and raised a native to San Francisco, Celine derives a lot of her inspiration and drive from the stimulating culture-rich environment that surrounds her. Having been the first-born child to Filipino immigrants, the pressure to do well in school weighed over her shoulders for many years until she began her studies at Academy of Art University things just “clicked” and started to fall into place. Celine is a BFA Advertising major with a focus in Art Direction, and a love for branding.
If she were to identify with one specific animal, she’d be a wolf because she thrives in packs, but does absolutely fine on her own. Celine considers herself a “hardcore carnivore” as she is a huge meat-eater, and a complete foodie. She enjoys improv cooking, planning/hosting parties or events, and has been freelancing when she’s not in school, or working her 9–5. Celine hopes to one day run a successful event planning service of her own, as well as a restaurant or food truck of her recipes and brand design. Check out some of her work on mudlotus.net.
Ivana Kovačević, Collaborative Content Producer
Ivana was born in Makarska, Croatia but raised in Stockholm, Sweden and Venice, Italy. Growing up with a family that always put culture, academics and exploration first hand, she would find herself becoming a tireless learner. With copywriting and communication becoming her biggest focus, she attended the renowned Berghs School of Communication in Stockholm. Her search for knowledge soon took her to the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, where she in 2017 successfully completed her BFA in Advertising. During that time she started exploring the podcasting world, expanding her skill in telling stories through well crafted audio. Currently she’s producing Never Less, a podcast series in 5 parts about the Downtown Streets Team and its members. Go to ivanakova.com to learn more about Ivana and her work.
Nina Grimes, Interim Assistant Project Manager
Nina is currently pursuing a BA in Media Arts and Culture with an emphasis in Critical Media at Occidental College in Los Angeles. Her desire to learn and gain hands-on experience brought her to San Francisco where she began working for Stories Behind The Fog. Collaborating on this project was a great opportunity that allowed her to spend the greater part of the summer of 2017 in the city. This work environment provided a space where her creativity and professional interests were allowed to grow.
Following her graduation is Spring 2018, Nina plans to pursue a career in television or film, which will allow her to utilize and build upon the knowledge and skill-sets she developed while at SBTF. Check out her LinkedIn for more info regarding her experiences and interests.
Rachel Mattovich, Collaborative Writer
After having moved to New York City to pursue an internship at the Clinton Foundation, Rachel became galvanized by philanthropy but realized in order to truly help foundations and people she needed more skills. She continued to work in agencies to learn the best business development and marketing techniques, creating campaigns for several large companies and non-profits. When given the opportunity to put these skills to work internationally, Rachel moved to Monrovia, Liberia to pursue a fellowship in business development and teaching, tasked with building a new all girls academy in the capital city. Due to her social nature, she got a promotion as a primary project manager for the business development project her and her team were working on, serving as the main liaison for the organization and project amongst international NGO’s, Ministries in Government, universities, construction businesses, global corporations and other development professionals. The social enterprise ended up being a guesthouse and café. It was named More Than A Guesthouse because it was designed to serve as a social enterprise, with funds going towards the More Than Me Academy to support girls education, food, uniforms, medical care, social welfare, and creative development. Inspired by the world of social enterprise and entrepreneurial spirit Rachel has been going back and forth from San Francisco, California and Monrovia to work on a variety of projects. Rachel hopes to continue to use her broad-ranged skill-set of strategy, writing, outreach, fundraising, and business development into creating social good, and aims to continue to do so through her work.
Stories Behind The Fog has been created by Free Range Puppies, a San Francisco-based creative shop sprinkling their love for story telling across films, campaigns and interactive projects that stand for a meaningful world.
Free Range Puppies © 2016. All rights reserved.
