Welcome to the work of the late Janet Fitch

Janet Fitch was a director, producer and community engagement specialist based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She founded New Moon Productions in 2000 to create a diverse work environment for projects that expand thinking and actions within local, regional, and global communities. Janet passed away on December 20, 2023.

Janet’s first co-producer role in documentary film was Through One City’s Eyes: Race Relations in America’s Heartland (PBS 1999). The film’s award-winning community engagement campaign was also the topic of Fitch’s Masters Thesis in Journalism. At a time when engagement with documentary film was an emerging field, Fitch was awed by its powerful potential to create lasting impact. She became an established film professional, consistently applying lenses of race, class, gender, geography and generations, to both confront and circumvent the world of polarizing frameworks.

In her award-winning, 3-part documentary series, Guns, Grief and Grace in America (2000 - 2009), Janet depolarized discussion of gun violence by redirecting our focus to a frame of Public Health prevention. Recognition of her body of work at the intersection of the arts and social change included a range of accolades and awards, including the Milwaukee Business Journal’s Women of Influence Award in Public Policy Award, and multiple others awards in film, education and engagement categories. The gun violence prevention films lived long productive lives, serving as tools for deliberative dialogue around the issues of our times. Her later initiative, Beyond Gun Politics, offered a non-partisan city, state and national model for solution-seeking dialogue at the heart of the issue.

Janet’s final project was inspired by the readers' theatre play Most Dangerous Women, written by Jan Maher, which focuses on women's peace activism from the nineteenth century to the twenty-first. She planned a series of documentaries that would explore women's activism for peace, equality, and social justice in different parts of the United States, but finished only one of these, Most Dangerous Women: Women of the West (2022), before she died.

Janet’s films aired on PBS, Milwaukee Public Television, and were screened in numerous festivals and other national and international venues.

A few of Janet’s friends and peers have come together to share her powerful work with a broader audience at no cost. If you are interested in the topics she explored, we invite you to watch the films and share them with your friends, colleagues, or students in your community or classroom. Host a screening at your home, book club, library, or local organization, and take time to engage with the complex issues Janet explored. Use them to spark conversation, deepen understanding, and inspire change in your community. If you have questions or would like to connect, please reach out—one of our team members will get back to you.

Thank you to the Women’s Fund of Greater Milwaukee for financially supporting the creation of this archive.