Bryn Mooser (Gambia 2001-03) Body Team 12 Nominated for Oscar Documentary

Bryn Mooser is the Co-founder of RYOT, a media company based in Los Angeles. Mooser was Country Director for Artists for Peace and Justice (APJ) and helped build Haiti’s largest Cholera center as well as APJ’s secondary school in Port-au-Prince, which now educates 2,400 Haitian youth per year. Before working in Haiti, Bryn served in the Peace Corps in West Africa. Bryn is also an award-winning documentary film maker. His first three documentary shorts, Sun City Picture House, Baseball In The Time Of Cholera and The Rider And The Storm, premiered at TriBeCa Film Festival three years in a row. He was named one of Esquire Magazine’s “Americans of the Year” for his work in Haiti and a “Hollywood Maverick” by Details Magazine for “raising guerrilla-style docs to the level of art.”

Body Team 12

In Monrovia, Liberia, Garmai Sumo is the only female member of Body Team 12, one of the many teams collecting the bodies of those who died from Ebola during the height of the 2014 outbreak. Despite the perilous nature of her job and the distrust with which she is often met, Garmai remains dedicated to her work.

These are the first Academy Award nominations for David Darg and Bryn Mooser.

From Peace Corps Passport by Evan July 15, 2013

“When I was in the Peace Corps, my best friends were kids and the elderly – I prefer them to straight up adults”, says Bryn Mooser (The Gambia 2001-04). “There is enthusiasm, optimism and an eagerness to learn and explore. Adults are mired in problems at work and in their marriage and the steady march of time – and now that I’m an adult I have to fight to keep my inner child activated!”

Bryn’s inner child just accomplished a very adult goal: launching RYOT, a news website that connects news stories to action.

“Millennials demand more from the world,” says Bryn of RYOT’s target demographic, but he says, they also deserve better. “Their food should be from responsible farms and their clothing should be made fair trade and their news shouldn’t depress them, but rather inform and activate them,” Bryn said.

Bryn’s goal was to create a news platform that leads to action.  Every story on RYOT.org has a link to a direct action that the reader can take, becoming a part of the narrative themselves, and in turn helping others.

“RYOT.org would never exist without the Peace Corps. I fundamentally believe in the third tenet of the Peace Corps: the importance of bringing back the story of the Peace Corps to our culture back home.” RYOT.org is Bryn’s way to try to bring the entire world to the forefront of the reader’s mind. “We are trying to educate and empower and hopefully help our readers become more compassionate global citizens,” he says.

As a PCV in The Gambia, Bryn worked to rehabilitate the country’s highly deforested environment. He also volunteered outside of his community, helping to build two schools in nearby villages. But Bryn’s drive to serve didn’t end with the Peace Corps. After Haiti’s devastating earthquake in 2010, he traveled to the island and helped to build what became Haiti’s largest secondary school. In Haiti, Bryn discovered his passion for filmmaking and  co-directed the documentary “Baseball in the Time of Cholera,” an award-winning film about the outbreak of cholera in post-earthquake Haiti.

“Every job I have had since service was greatly helped by my time in the Peace Corps. Coming out of the Peace Corps shows that you have personal drive and strength,” said Bryn.

In the future, Bryn plans to continue work on RYOT.org, working to establish it as the go-to news site for young people. He’s also in the final stages of completing his next film: a documentary about astronauts in Uganda.

To future Peace Corps volunteers, Bryn has this advice: “[Bring] an open heart, open mind and the willingness to take part in the greatest adventure of your life.”

More at: http://oscar.go.com/nominees/documentary-short