The 4th responder

In a small New England city, a quiet revolution is unfolding. Northampton, Massachusetts, once responded to crisis with police and punishment; today, it’s rewriting what safety means through its Department of Health and Human Services. Led by Commissioner Meredith O’Leary and Deputy Commissioner Michele Farry, the city has merged housing, behavioral health, and crisis response into one system of care.

Through the eyes of public servants, responders, and residents, The 4th responder reveals a new model built on compassion instead of control. The film captures the messy, human work of turning empathy into policy — and the fragile hope that a small city might light the way for a nation in crisis.

This documentary has been following the story of public health from the Northampton perspective for almost a decade.

We are looking for marketing and funding support as we get this through the final stages of production.

We have a release date of March 23rd at the iconic Academy of Music theater in Northampton, Massachusetts.

While the nation debates policing and mental health, one small city builds a blueprint for both. This is the story of how Northampton, Massachusetts, made empathy its public policy — and what it cost to get there.

  • Michele Farry

    Producer/Director

    Michele Farry is a key figure in Northampton’s public health and human services ecosystem. As Deputy Commissioner of DHHS, she is steering significant innovation in how communities handle substance use, homelessness, crisis intervention, and service integration. Her emphasis on person-centered, trauma-informed, low-barrier care, combined with structural reform of municipal health and human services, positions her as a notable case study in modern public health leadership.

    Importantly, her work and perspectives have been shared beyond the local level. Farry has spoken about Northampton’s alternative-response and resilience-hub models in statewide and national forums, contributing to broader conversations on public-health transformation, harm-reduction strategies, and non-police crisis response. These platforms have highlighted Northampton as an emerging model for mid-sized cities seeking to modernize social-service delivery, demonstrating that her influence extends well beyond Massachusetts.

  • Billy Freeman

    Director of Photography

    Throughout the time Billy spent freelancing as a director of photography and a camera operator he has worked with and shot for the 2022 Winter Olympics, Presidential Forum with Joe Biden, MTV, ESPN, Verizon Wireless, CVS, CNBC, USA Today, NBC Sports, New York Fashion Week, Investigation Discovery, Bloomberg, Discovery, Food Network, The Cooking Channel, and many others.

    Many of these projects have gotten national recognition such as Webby Awards, as well as Telly Awards.