In 2016 the mayor of Rutland, Vermont, a predominantly white town struggling with income inequality, the opioid epidemic and political polarization, devised a plan to bring one hundred Syrian refugees to invigorate his community. What followed was a deluge of deeply partisan rancor that threatened to split the small New England town in two. Despite a lifetime of feeling invalidated and shamed for her poverty and addiction, long-time Rutland resident, Stacie, emerges from the sidelines as an unexpected and resilient leader.
With nuance and compassion, FOR THE LOVE OF RUTLAND creates an intimate portrait of the challenges facing rural America today and delves into complex lives of the community members valiantly taking a stand to heal their hometowns. The film offers a sustained look into the normalization of “white rage” across the US, while also uncovering the stories of ordinary people who become extraordinary in their desire to challenge their deeply held beliefs and mend their divided communities.
Director/producer Jennifer Maytorena Taylor’s award-winning features and short films have shown at venues such as Sundance, Camden, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Locarno Film Festivals, Hot Docs, IDFA, DOC NYC, NY Museum of Modern Art, Sundance Channel, Al Jazeera, NHK-Japan, and frequently on PBS. They explore diverse stories like gentrification battles, spontaneous dance celebrations, Latin American Dirty Wars, Puerto Rican American Muslim hip-hop culture, families coping with extreme sentencing laws – and most recently, rural life in an era of refugee crises, the opioid epidemic and White rage. Feature credits include For the Love of Rutland, New Muslim Cool, Daisy and Max, and Paulina. Shorts include Scary Sacred Cow Poker, Visiting Day, Redneck Muslim, Message to Zaire, and the upcoming The Next Message. Her newest feature documentary Genius, currently in development with an investigative journalist, explores the booming North American marijuana industry, the true costs of white collar crime and corruption, and their surprising connections to dirty Russian money. She has held fellowships at institutions such as Banff Centre for the Arts, USC Annenberg School for Journalism, Points North Institute, MacDowell Colony, and Sundance Documentary Institute. Born in Los Angeles of mixed Anglo and Mexican descent, Jennifer is primarily based in San Francisco. She is a professor and the current director of the Social Documentation MFA program at UC Santa Cruz.
