Vermonter of the Month is a monthly series in which the Attorney General will feature a Vermonter doing exemplary work in their community. Have someone you think should be featured? Email AGO.CAP@vermont.gov.

Our August Vermonter of the Month is director, producer, and arts activist Bess O’Brien—Vermont’s truth-teller.

Bess began working in film when her husband Jay Craven hired her to produce his first short movie High Water. From there, she went on to co-produce Where the Rivers Flow North and A Stranger in the Kingdom before starting to make documentary films.

Through filmmaking, Bess has shined a light on issues affecting Vermonters. Her recent films—Coming Home, All of Me, and The Hungry Heart—depict important issues like reintegration into communities after incarceration, body image and eating disorders, and the opioid and prescription drug crisis in Vermont.

In December, our office hosted a screening of Bess’ film Coming Home for staff. The film follows five Vermonters returning to their communities after being incarcerated. It highlights the amazing work that the Circles of Support and Accountability (COSA) program is doing in Vermont—helping people reintegrate into their communities and showing the power of compassion and empathy.

In 1991, Bess and Jay established Kingdom County Productions (KCP). The nonprofit’s focus expanded in 2009 to include performing arts; bringing shared arts-based community events to the Northeast Kingdom. Today KCP is dedicated to “transforming community through film, performance, and experiential learning.”

We met up with Bess at the Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival to ger her perspective on the importance of storytelling in Vermont.

You’ve been described as “Vermont’s truth-teller.” What inspires you, or drives your passion for this work?

I am interested in telling stories that go to the root of the problem, whether it be drug addiction, incarceration, foster care, etc. I want to hear voices from people who are often not seen and are invisible. I want their voices heard. By telling their stories change can begin to happen.

Why is documentary filmmaking and the arts, in general, important in a rural state like Vermont?

Because Vermont is small, telling stories and sharing the lives of people who are often silenced can make a difference. We are a small state so a documentary film that tours to 15 towns can truly start a conversation!

Why did you and your husband Jay create Kingdom County Productions?

To tell stories that are rooted in Vermont.

How do you strive to transform “community through film, performance, and experiential learning?”

By bringing the arts to rural areas and to folks who often don’t experience the arts it raises awareness and forms a strong community.

What advice do you have for other Vermonters looking to make an impact in their community?

Tell the truth, talk to people who are outside your comfort zone, have empathy and raise people’s voices!

Robocalls are annoying. But, when a scammer is on the other end of the call, they can also be dangerous. That’s why Attorney General Donovan with attorneys general from all 50 states and Washington, D.C., formed a public-private coalition with 12 phone companies to implement anti-robocall strategies to help protect consumers from illegal robocalls and make it easier for attorneys general to investigate and prosecute bad actors.  

The Anti-Robocall Principles address the robocall problem in two main ways: prevention and enforcement.

12 phone companies—AT&T, Bandwidth, CenturyLink, Charter, Comcast, Consolidated, Frontier, Sprint, T-Mobile, US Cellular, Verizon, and Windstream—will work to prevent illegal robocalls by:

• Implementing call-blocking technology at the network level at no cost to customers.
• Making available to customers additional, free, easy-to-use call blocking and labeling tools.
• Implementing technology to authenticate that callers are coming from a valid source.
• Monitoring their networks for robocall traffic.

These phone companies will assist attorneys’ general anti-robocall enforcement by:

• Knowing who their customers are so bad actors can be identified and investigated.
• Investigating and taking action against suspicious callers – including notifying law enforcement   and state attorneys general.
• Working with law enforcement, including state attorneys general, to trace the origins of illegal robocalls.
• Requiring telephone companies with which they contract to cooperate in traceback identification.

Moving forward, phone companies will stay in close communication with the coalition of attorneys general to continue to optimize robocall protections as technology and scammer techniques change.

If you have received an illegal robocall, you can act by reporting it to the Consumer Assistance Program (CAP). CAP tracks scam trends occurring throughout Vermont, and provides timely alerts about rising scams. Call CAP toll free at (800) 649-2424.

Contributing Writer: Madison Braz

Content Editor: Crystal Baldwin