by Ashley Cohen for Winter Film Festival
See the NYC Premiere of the documentary film Us vs. Them on February 21 @5:50PM at REGAL Union Square (850 Broadway) as part of New York City’s 14th Annual Winter Film Festival. Tickets now on sale!
The documentary US vs. THEM invites audiences to reconsider their preconceived notions about criminal justice, no matter where they are on the political spectrum.
To say the United States is divided seems like an understatement. Families stop speaking to each other based on who they voted for. Many people now live in echo chambers, engaging only with those who share their views. Anyone outside those boundaries are deemed an ‘other,’ and therefore perceived as a threat. These rigid labels have dangerous side effects, just turn on the news to see the consequences of the ‘us vs them’ mentality.
Charlie Grady, the originator of the documentary, concludes that “as human beings, we’re just tribal. We want to feel comfortable. We want to be with people who think and look and act like us most often.” And so people cling to rigid labels of identity, reducing complex situations to trendy hashtags.
Grady can’t be defined by a single word. He has served Connecticut communities through decades of experience working in law enforcement, from being a motorcycle cop to an FBI specialist. During that same time he was pursuing creative passions such as drumming, acting, playwriting, and bookwriting. He also runs five different nonprofits. He is able to achieve all of this by combining his father’s skill of compartmentalization with his mother’s passion for living life to the fullest. He says, “I never wanted to be pigeon holed or put in a box because too many people try to label us.” That same multidisciplinary approach informs his work, he treats every person he meets as more than what society labels them to be.
As Grady narrates in the documentary, “we are not defined by the worst decisions we’ve made in our lives. Anyone can cross that line at any point.” Alex Vishno, the director of the documentary and founder of the production company A2V Media, grew up just outside of New Haven. He describes the area as “you’re driving down the perfectly great, wonderful area, through Yale, through this, that, and it’s like, don’t turn left here, because if you go two blocks that way, it can get very rough very quick.” In just about 40 minutes, Us vs Them goes through what happens in those rougher parts of town, the parts that the average suburbanite might not be aware of.
Besides being the narrator of Us vs Them, Grady is also the writer and executive producer. He personally knows the “cast of differences and expertise” from his work in the community. Interviewing someone is a very empathetic process, “you put yourself in a bunch of different people’s shoes constantly,” says producer and fellow Connecticut-local Chris Stocklin. He continues to describe filming these sections as “very casual, we don’t script anything or anything like that, and we’re just talking and being curious.” Many of the subjects are sharing very personal information, some about the darkest moments of their lives. They all felt comfortable to share their stories because of the trust in this production to tell their stories truthfully.
In order to make a documentary, Stocklin says you need to have “proper voices who know what they’re talking about and portray it in a way that’s digestible.” Stocklin used to work as an engineer, where he would excel at describing technical information and putting the value of what it is into layman terms for anyone to understand, which also applies to storytelling. Vishno gives an overview of the editing process as “cut[ting] up those interviews to build a narrative and build the story.” As for b-roll, Grady says they “started to see what matched the verbal, to what matched the visual and then we filled in the gaps” with his narration scenes. There are guiding questions to assist in this process: What do you really want to get across here? What will propel the story forward? Once they got to the core of that segment’s message and goals, the visuals naturally followed.
The editing process is where everything comes together. Vishno uses his background in the music industry as an invaluable tool for pacing. He says, “the idea in music was if you didn’t capture someone’s ear within the first 6 seconds, they would skip to the next song or stop playing your tape.” With documentaries, it’s a similar goal of keeping people watching by not giving away too much in the beginning and having a build up to “an eye-opening moment.” Music itself is important to the editing process. As Grady explains, “if you really pay close attention to it, every beat of music matches what’s happening in the film. Every stop or break is intentional.” It is a delicate balance of ensuring that the music adds to the scenes but doesn’t overpower it. There are also times where the music drops and there are moments of silence, which are also incredibly impactful.
A2V Media, originally just Vishno and Stocklin, has now grown to a team of seven creatives.
They all work collaboratively, everyone can chime in with their ideas. Stocklin explains, “constant communication with our team and making sure everyone’s taking care of themselves” is vital to preventing burnout and ensuring some work-life balance. Vishno says the goal of his production company is “to capture [clients’] passion, their love, … why are they doing this?” As a local Connecticut production company, clients approach them to promote their own small businesses, but these aren’t just simple commercials. From micro-documentaries to social media content to this full-length documentary, A2V Media finds the heart of each project through storytelling.
This documentary gives a lot of information to think about, reveals the limits on some widely held assumptions, and may change the audience’s entire worldview. Grady classifies the film as educational, as a project in acceptance and societal norms. Us vs Them doesn’t only talk about the current systemic problems, it also gives many solutions too. There is hope for a future where there is more of a focus on rehabilitation and reintegration of the formerly incarcerated back into society, where they can have a chance to help support their communities. As Grady narrates early on in the documentary, “till the world understands that we live in gray, nothing’s gonna change.” It all starts with changing perceptions and realizing that there is a better way. There are more similarities between law enforcement officers and drug dealers than you might expect. They all have families that they are providing for. Grady says, “If I can convince you to see past the uniform, I’ve succeeded.”
About Winter Film Festival
Winter Film Festival is an all-volunteer women and minority-run organization as part of Winter Film Awards Inc, a 501(c)3 organization founded in 2011 to celebrate emerging talent in local and international filmmaking.
The 14th Annual Winter Film Festival runs February 18-22 2026 includes a diverse mixture of animated films, documentaries, comedies, romances, dramas, horror films, music videos and web series of all lengths. Our five-day event is jam-packed with screenings and Q&A sessions at NYC’s REGAL Union Square, six Education sessions/workshops and a variety of filmmaker networking events all coming to a glittering close on February 22 with our red-carpet gala Awards Ceremony.
Winter Film Festival programs are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. Promotional support provided by the NYC Mayor’s Office of Media & Entertainment.
For more information about Winter Film Festival, visit WinterFilmFest.org
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