Gemma Bulos

In 2001, Gemma performed as a professional jazz singer and actress who also taught pre-school across the street from the World Trade Center. On Tuesday, Sept 11, when she normally would've been getting off the train at 9:50a (around the time the planes hit), she called in sick. In response to this global tragedy, she wrote We Rise, a rousing peace anthem about uniting and healing in times of devastation. She left her life, gave away all her belongings, released her rent controlled NYC apartment, and with her meager savings began traveling around the world with just her back and guitar to mobilize a global peace movement called the Million Voice Choir to sing We Rise from around the world. This was a true grassroots movement since it was before Facebook, Twitter, IG, etc. By simple word of mouth - she had no marketing campaigns, no publicity machine, just her website and emails to her friends - she was able to mobilize groups in 100 cities in over 60 countries from around the globe to sing We Rise on September 21, 2004 in celebration of the UN International Day of Peace. This was her first foray into filmmaking, when she produced a music video of the movement featuring peace warriors from around the globe who participated - including Jane Goodall, Archbishop Desmund Tutu, Pete Seeger and many many others. For the next 10 years, she traveled to over 40 countries with her back pack, guitar and virtually no salary, using her music as an entry point to mobilize communities. She won the CG Vibes Award from Queen Latifah and CoverGirl for Women Changing the World Through Music and used the $10,000 award to bring water and sanitation projects to poverty and disaster stricken regions in the Philippines. She expanded her work to Africa to train village women to bring clean water to their villages in partnership with the late Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Laureate and first African woman to win the award. Over the decade, her work has provided clean water to nearly a million people in Asia and Africa - winning international awards at the World Economic Forum, Silicon Valley's Tech Awards and at the United Nations. This is where she began her accidental career as a filmmaker when she started producing short films capturing the amazing work the women in Africa were doing with limited resources, cultural barriers and virtually no funding. Her personal mantra, 'it takes a single drop of water to start a wave' is her invitation to everyone to recognize how powerful they are. To realize that their every thought, word and action will ripple out and affect those around them. And to use their power for good. In 2020, Gemma produced Christmas Freak, her first feature film. This was also her first co-starring role, first time co-composing and performing original songs for a feature film, and first time music producing a movie soundtrack. Christmas Freak received its first distribution deal the first week it was completed, and has been selected for numerous festival nominated for and winning a number of awards.