Jeremy Gillespie
Host / Producer
Jeremy would rather swing a hammer than use a nail gun.
He would rather swing an axe than use a splitter.
He prefers reading books and personal research to the education found in “institutes of higher learning.”
He just found out what a “selfie” is, and you’ll never see him take one.
He performs his own bike maintenance out of fear of upsetting his bikes by taking them to a stranger.
All coffee is consumed black, the way god intended it to be consumed.
He can’t tell jokes, stories, or anecdotes. He can’t remember a limerick to save his life. Spare yourself the agony and simply walk away if he begins one.
He believes hard work and dedication to your craft is the only true path to happiness, and true happiness is the ultimate measure of success.
Ian Rygiel
Host / Producer
Ian is a rogue, scholar and gentleman adventurer. During The Great Recession, he loaded trucks, swung a hammer and hauled demo to get by, but he has also worked as an educator, freelance videographer and editor.
For him, the West has always held a certain allure, speaking to him through novels, poetry and classic westerns. Broke Out West is an opportunity for Ian to follow in the footsteps of the explorers, vagabonds and writers who heeded the call of the road and experienced America for themselves.
Blog Posts:
The Frustration of Unemployment
As The Great Recession turns into The Slow Recovery, I have noticed an increasing number of articles written about the psychological effects of long-term unemployment (if you’re still reading after that opener, I applaud your fortitude). While I always find the statistics sobering, as someone who has had their life deeply affected by the recession, I often find myself disagreeing with how those stats are applied to the inner thoughts of the working class. This article in particular (http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26669971 ), written by Debbie Siegelbaum, deals with the alarming fact that companies have begun discriminating against the long-termed unemployed. I’ve lived through this myself, and I can attest that there is no hurry to grant interviews to folks who have been out of work for months at a time. As Siegelbaum points out, in 1950, the average length of unemployment was just 11.8 weeks; in 2014 it is 37.1 weeks. My experience with this phenomenon occurred as my first real job as an educator in a public high school ended. When the recession hit, I was let go along with a sizable portion of my coworkers. Despite my teaching certification, which I received through an MA program, I found the prospects of getting an interview growing dim. After sending out countless job applications, and receiving only one interview in over a year, I began to settle for part-time positions; not limited to the field of education mind you. For a while I worked as a day laborer, scraping tile and hauling all manner of things from refuse to cement and eventually found a part-time gig loading trucks on an overnight...Broke Out West Manifesto
For as long as I can remember, the American Dream was tangible: Get an education, work hard, and prosper. It was simple. It was straightforward. It was fair. It was American. And in my experience, it’s all we 20, and now 30, -somethings wanted. Yet, here I am, and very likely, here you are. We’re killing ourselves in dead-end jobs. We work in warehouses, in the back of trucks, and behind grills. We wait tables, we pour coffee, and we live paycheck to paycheck with bachelor and masters degrees that we earned by placing ourselves in crippling debt. We are a generation of highly capable and motivated individuals. We are highly educated. We appreciate high culture, art, and music, yet our paychecks barely leave our encouraged champagne tastes within our beer budgets. It should come to no one’s surprise then, that we are a highly transient and restless generation. We are a generation yearning for the challenges we were trained to face. We want to work, and we want a fair wage for that work, yet both have been denied to us. We are the lost and forgotten. We are the discarded. We are the poorgeoisie....
Lauren Quirolgico
Producer / Director
Lauren Quirolgico earned her BA in Communication from Seton Hall University and possesses an MA in Media Studies and a certificate in Media Management from the New School in NYC. She is a native New Yorker and has been working in film, television and media consulting for over seven years.
The world doesn’t need mediocre, average and typical, Lauren is striving to be exceptional. Her interest in Broke Out West is academic, professional and personal, as she is interested in hearing how the Great Recession has affected individuals and businesses across the country.
Ryan Palmer
Director of Photography
Ryan Palmer studied, Communications at Penn State University and Marywood University, and also Filmmaking at the New York Film Academy in NYC. He has worked across the country on countless independent projects over the last seven years.
Ryan is best known for his role on set as a Production Sound Mixer and Boom Operator for which he has worked on a number of acclaimed projects including two films selected to the Cannes Court Métrage and one film which won the Cine Golden Eagle Award. Ryan is also a skilled Cinematographer and Photographer and has worked with Fox and Viacom.
Joe Dominic DeMuro
Unit Production Manager
Joe has a BA in theater, several Information Technology certifications, as well as certifications in fitness and nutrition.
Primarily an actor and filmmaker, Joe has had to utilize various means to support himself in the changing landscape of America.
Joe grew up in a small family owned business, and is concerned about the future for himself and for others. We live in a new America where the rules are different from that of our parents. Social unrest and the declining economy seem to be just a tip of the iceberg.
Jesse Christiansen
Intern
Jesse Christiansen is the young pup of the bunch. He is 21 years young and currently attending Caldwell University as a Communications major where he will be graduating in May of 2015.
He currently relies on the kindness of strangers, as his only source of income is pizza delivery.
by 