Wanuri Kahiu's films and stories don't need tragedies. Her "Afro-bubblegum" art is fun and even frivolous, and rejects the idea that she needs to grapple with dark, violent problems. At the same time, she has come to see her work of representing herself and her community as a political statement, by putting black people in front of the camera. Kahiu gives her Brief but Spectacular take on her art.

Who people tell you they are is often different from how they act, says award-winning filmmaker Laura Poitras, whose latest film, "Risk," looks at WikiLeaks and Julian Assange. By observing subjects like Edward Snowden make decisions in real time, she gets to experience the immediate drama of her story and change her opinion. Poitras gives her Brief but Spectacular take on making documentaries.

"Each of us has much more to offer than the worst thing we’ve done," says Alexander McLean, an activist and attorney who has been working in prisons since he was 18. McLean, founder of the African Prisons Project, shares the inspiring story of a former prisoner named Susan and gives his Brief but Spectacular take on the power of law in the hands of the poor.

Growing up, Georgina Kleege hated Helen Keller; she saw the famous author and activist as a reproach to her own experience as a young blind woman. But she found a new way to relate to Keller later on, writing her a book of letters. Kleege, a lecturer at University of California, Berkeley, offers her Brief but Spectacular take on blindness.