Creator Diplomacy: Changing The Face America Shows The World

Shortly after Election Day, 30 documentary filmmakers received an invitation from the U.S. Department of State to participate in a startup program called the American Documentary Showcase. The DOS wanted these filmmakers to present their films all over the world. FLOW, our global water crisis doc, was among those asked to participate. Read more of FLOW Producer Steven Starr's delegate introduction for ADS.

About the ADS:

The American Documentary Showcase is a curated program of contemporary documentaries that is offered to US Embassies for screening abroad. Funded by, and as a cooperative program with, the Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs of the US Department of State, the Showcase is designed to promote American documentaries and their filmmakers at international overseas venues, including US Embassy-organized events and/or US Embassy-supported international documentary film festivals.

The goal of the Showcase is to offer a broad, diversified look at life in the United States and the values of a democratic society as seen by American documentary filmmakers. The Showcase is intended to demonstrate the role documentary plays in fostering understanding and cooperation.

The American Documentary Showcase is funded in part by a grant from the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs to the University Film and Video Association.

Featured Films:

America's Lost Landscape: The Tallgrass Prairie
Director/Producer/Writer: David O'Shields
Producer/Executive Producer: Daryl Smith
Cinematographer: William Carlson
Editor: Clayton Condit
Composer: Brian Keane
Running Time: 60 min.
website 

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America's Lost Landscape: The Tallgrass Prairie tells the rich and complex story of one of the most astonishing alterations of nature in human history. Prior to Euro-American settlement in the 1820s, one of the major landscape features in North America was 240 million acres of tallgrass prairie. But between 1830 and 1900—in the space of a single lifetime—the tallgrass prairie was steadily transformed to farmland. This drastic change in the landscape also brought about an enormous social change for Native Americans; in an equally short time their cultural imprint was reduced in essence to a handful of place-names appearing on maps.

America's Lost Landscape examines the record of human struggle, triumph and defeat that prairie history exemplifies, including the history and culture of America's aboriginal inhabitants. The story of how and why the prairie was changed by Euro-American settlement is thoughtfully nuanced. The film also highlights prairie preservation efforts and explores how the tallgrass prairie ecosystem may serve as a model for a sustainable agriculture of the future.

The extraordinary cinematography of prairie remnants, original score and archival images are all delicately interwoven to create a powerful and moving viewing experience abut the natural and cultural history of America.

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DAVID O'SHIELDS has been a working member of the production community since 1985. In addition to his work in public television, he has extensive experience as a cameraman and director in commercial television. O'Shields founded New Light Media in 1995 to pursue his dream of making important and engaging documentary films. New Light Media's goal is to develop a diverse and distinctive body of documentaries. The natural environment, democracy, race and American history are primary areas of interest. The company is based in Cedar Falls, Iowa, and has offices in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

DR. DARYL SMITH is the director of the Tallgrass Prairie Center and professor of biology and science education at the University of Northern Iowa. Dr. Smith has served as head of the Department of Biology, president of the Iowa Academy of Science, board member of the Iowa Chapter of the Nature Conservancy and National Association of Biology Teachers, director of the Twelfth North American Prairie Conference and director of Iowa Prairie Conferences 1991-01. His awards include Distinguished Service—Iowa Academy of Science, Environmental Educator—Iowa Sierra Club, Conservation Educator—Iowa Wildlife Federation, Noteworthy Service—Iowa Nature Conservancy and Notable Achievement—Iowa Association of Roadside Managers. A native Iowan, Smith has been involved in prairie reconstruction and restoration for 30 years.

Another Day in Paradise
A Film by Mitchell Block, Maro Cheymayeff, Deborah Dickson
Director/Co-Producer: Deborah Dickson
Producers: Mel Gibson, Bruce Davey, Nancy Cotton, Maro Chermayeff, Mitchell Block
Cinematographers: Axel Baumann, Ulli Bonnekamp, Mark Brice, Robert Hanna, Wolfgang Held
Editor: Sabine Krayenbuehl
Composer: Christopher Tin
Running Time: 90 min.
website * article

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More than 5,000 sailors live onboard the USS Nimitz, a nuclear aircraft carrier. All have been forced to leave friends, family and loved ones behind for a six-month deployment to the Persian Gulf, during which they'll face confining quarters, harsh temperatures, extreme work conditions and conflicts over faith and duty. Another Day in Paradise focuses on a pilot, Marine and sailor in different phases of fatherhood and impending fatherhood, as they struggle with family issues while serving their country in the high-stakes, dangerous environment of an aircraft carrier.

Created from the same pool of material as the PBS series Carrier, Another Day in Paradise is an intimate, vérité film about three men—pilot Doug Booher, Marine Randy Brock and ordnanceman Chris Altice—performing disparate but connected roles on the Nimitz, from flying F-18s to maintaining the aircraft to loading bombs. Going deeply into the personal lives of these individuals, this film portrays them dealing with life as fathers and soon-to-be fathers, while also confronting and questioning issues surrounding their work onboard ship and the role of the Navy in a time of war.

Filmed between May and November 2005 onboard the USS Nimitz, Another Day in Paradise addresses the themes of love and war, examining what motivates the men and women on board the USS Nimitz. For some, it's patriotism; for some, it's each other; and for many, it's just counting the days until they get home to families and loved ones. Allowing the pilots, sailors and Marines to speak for themselves, the film offers a rare glimpse into the thoughts and lives of the people who are fighting out there for the American people.

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DEBORAH DICKSON, a three-time Academy Award nominee, is an independent filmmaker based in Brooklyn, New York.

Her film Ruthie and Connie: Every Room in the House premiered at the 2001 Berlin Film Festival and won over 14 awards at festivals worldwide, including best documentary at the Seattle Film Festival and the Nashville Film Festival. The film was short-listed for an Academy Award nomination and broadcast on Cinemax in 2004. The Education of Gore Vidal premiered at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival and was broadcast on PBS' American Masters.

Frances Steloff: Memoirs of a Bookseller, which Dickson produced, directed and edited, premiered at both Sundance and Berlin, and was nominated for an Academy Award. It was broadcast on WNET. Suzanne Farrell: Elusive Muse (co-directed with Anne Belle) premiered at the New York Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award in 1997. Lalee's Kin (the eighth film in collaboration with Susan Froemke and Maysles Films) premiered at Sundance in 2000 and was nominated for a Spirit Award and an Academy Award. It won a DuPont Award in 2004.

In addition to Another Day in Paradise, Dickson has recently completed Witnesses To a Secret War, a documentary film about the CIA's Secret War in Laos—a side show to the war in Vietnam—and the Hmong soldiers who fought for the Americans but were left to fend for themselves after the communist takeover in 1975.

Dickson received a BA in English literature from Barnard College and an MFA in film from New York University.

Autism: The Musical
Director/Producer/Cinematographer: Tricia Regan
Producers: Perrin Chiles, Sasha Alpert
Executive Producers: Jonathan Murray, Joey Carson, Janet Grillo, David S. Glynn, Kristen Stills
Editor: Kim Roberts
Composer: Mike Semple
Running Time: 94 min.
website

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In 1980, autism was a relatively rare disorder, diagnosed in one in 10,000 children in the United States. Now it is one in 150. The dysfunctional brain and nervous system of people with autism traps them in their own self-absorption, limiting their ability to take in what the world offers and to communicate back

Autism: The Musical counters today's bleak statistics with one woman's optimistic pledge to lead a group of children with autism in defying diagnosed expectations by writing, rehearsing and performing their own full-length musical.

Following five Los Angeles children over the course of six months, director Tricia Regan captures the struggles and triumphs of their family lives and observes how this musical production gives these performers a comfort zone in which they can explore their creative sides. Once these children step out of their inner worlds, they learn to work together, moving from chaos to collaboration, rising to not only express their own inner lives of self-awareness, but to connect with each other.

Both on and off stage, Autism: The Musical is a call-to-arms, bringing attention to a modern-day epidemic, all the while celebrating the way the human spirit can overcome any challenge.

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TRICIA REGAN is an award-winning director, producer and cinematographer of documentary film and television. Her film work has been theatrically distributed and broadcast on five different continents and in six different languages and includes A Leap of Faith, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 1996, and Soldiers Pay (2004) which she co-directed with filmmakers David O. Russell and Juan Carlos Zaldivar. For television, Regan directs, produces and shoots for ABC, Fox, NBC, MTV, VH1, Lifetime and TLC. This is Regan's first feature film cinematography credit.

Beginning Filmmaking
Director/Producer/Editor: Jay Rosenblatt
Cinematographers: Thomas Logoreci, Ella Rosenblatt
Running Time: 23 min.

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It has been two-and-a half years since Ella said she wanted to be a filmmaker. Now she is turning 4, and her filmmaker dad has given her a video camera for her birthday. Beginning Filmmaking takes us through one year of trying to teach a preschooler how to make a film. Ella rises to the challenge, but on her own terms. We experience the joys and frustrations both of being a parent and of being a child, and find that you do have to be careful what you wish for.

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JAY ROSENBLATT has been making films for over 20 years. He is a recipient of a Guggenheim and a Rockefeller Fellowship. His films have received many awards and have screened throughout the world. A selection of his films had a one-week theatrical run at New York's Film Forum and throughout the country. Articles about his work have appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Sight & Sound, Filmmaker and The Village Voice.

The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)
Director/Producer/Cinematographer/Writer: Ellen Kuras
Co-Director/Editor/Writer: Thavisouk Phrasavath
Producer: Flora Fernandez-Marengo
Executive Producer: Cara Mertes
Composer: Howard Shore
Running Time: 96 min.
website * trailer * article * filmmaker Q&A

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Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath's debut film, The Betrayal (Nerakhoon), tells the story of a family's epic journey from war-torn Laos to the mean streets of New York. Filmed over the course of 23 years, The Betrayal movingly chronicles the family's struggle to reckon with that which was left behind while forging a new and difficult life in a foreign land. Phrasavath gives a first-hand account of his own boyhood survival of war, his later escape from persecution and arrest in Laos, his miraculous reunion with his family and their journey to America, and the second war they had to fight on the streets of New York City. Phrasavath's mother also gives powerful testimony of her unflagging efforts to single-handedly raise and shepherd a family of ten amidst almost constant danger.

In The Betrayal (Nerakhoon), Kuras and Phrasavath have created a lyrical film that fluidly incorporates archival footage, cinema vérité, interview material and visually poetic montages. The result is a story of what it means to be in exile, of the far-reaching consequences of war and of the resilient bonds of family. Phrasavath's unforgettable journey reminds us of the strength necessary to survive unthinkable conditions, and of the human spirit's inspiring capacity to adapt, rebuild and forgive.

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An unprecedented three-time recipient of the Sundance Film Festival's Best Dramatic Cinematography Award, ELLEN KURAS has worked with such acclaimed filmmakers as Tom Kalin (Swoon), Spike Lee (4 Little Girls, Summer of Sam, Bamboozled), Rebecca Miller (Personal Velocity, Mary Harron (I Shot Andy Warhol), Nancy Savoca (If These Walls Could Talk), Jonathan Demme (Heart of Gold), and Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). She has also earned the Eastman Kodak Best Cinematography Focus Award for Ellen Bruno's Samsara, an Emmy Award for her work on A Century of Women, and an Emmy Award nomination for Spike Lee's 4 Little Girls.

The Betrayal (Nerakhoon ) is Kuras' directorial debut.

Active within the Laotian-American community in the US and Canada, THAVISOUK PHRASAVATH is a creative consultant for developing Lao TV and other media.

During his early years in Brooklyn, he served as the primary liaison/translator for Laotians living in New York City and surrounding areas. His background in community work includes assisting gang prevention for youth and family crisis intervention and working with the police department as a liaison and interpreter for the Lao community in addressing domestic and gang-related issues. Formerly an Area Policy Board Member, Thavisouk has consulted for the New York City Board of Education. Thavisouk's film work extends into writing, editing, directing and shooting; he has also directed and edited music videos for independent artists, is a published poet and has won awards for his painting and illustration work. Thavisouk graduated with honors from Pratt Institute with a degree in electrical engineering. The Betrayal (Nerakhoon ) is his first film as both subject and filmmaker.

Children in No Man's Land
Director/Producer/Cinematographer: Anayansi Prado
Executive Producers: Julia Parker Benello, Wendy Ettinger, Judith Helfand.
Cinematographers: Heather Courtney, Kevin Leadingham
Editor: Alejandro Valdes-Rochin
Composer: Robert F. Trucios
Running Time: 39 min.
website

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Every year, more and more children are immigrating to the United States without a parent or legal guardian. At any given time, an average of 700 unaccompanied minors are being detained by the US Department of Homeland Security Department. Some of these children come to the United States seeking asylum, others with the hope of being reunited with family members already living here, and all are simply in search of a better future for themselves. These children are driven by a strong survival instinct that assures them that the US is their last resource, their salvation. They are willing to risk it all for a chance at a new life. And they do.

Children in No Man's Land is a 40-minute documentary uncovering the plight of the 100,000 unaccompanied minors crossing the US/Mexico border every year. Focusing on the Arizona/Sonora Desert border area, this work takes an up-close-and-personal look at the stories behind both successful and unsuccessful border crossing attempts by Mexican children seeking to reunite with family in the US or in pursued of work and a better future.

Through a series of interviews conducted at shelters along the Mexican border, Children in No Man's Land gives a face and a voice to a situation that might be more complex and dangerous than any of us—and certainly the children involved—can imagine. We hear from the children themselves about why they embark in such a dangerous journey and what it's been like for them so far.

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An award-winning documentary filmmaker, ANAYANSI PRADO was born in Panama and moved to the United States as a teenager. She later attended Boston University where she received a BA in film. Her debut documentary, Maid in America, about the lives of Latina immigrant women working as domestic workers in Los Angeles, screened nationally on the PBS Independent Lens series and in over 40 film festivals in the US and around the world. Prado subsequently served as an executive producer on the Discovery en Español series Voces de Cambio, about humanitarian issues in the Latino community.

Children in No Man's Land is Prado's second documentary feature.

Prado has received a Rockefeller Media Fellowship and is the recipient of two Media Grants from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, as well as grants from Creative Capital, the Paul Robeson Media Fund, Pacific Pioneer Fund, Independent Television Services (ITVS), The Fledgling Foundation, Chicken & Egg Pictures. She was named one of three up-and-coming Latina filmmakers in the United States by Latina Magazine.

Prado's company, Impacto Films, is geared toward the production of documentaries with a social impact. Continuing with her vision of film and visual arts as powerful tools for social impact, she recently founded The Impacto Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the empowerment of indigenous youths and their communities through hands-on training in photography, filmmaking and digital media.

Prado is currently in production of Give Us Your Retired, Your Rich, Your Americans, a documentary that explores the growing phenomenon of Americans retirees migrating to Latin America—specifically to Panama—and the effects and challenges faced by both the retirees and the local Panamanian communities in which they live.

Craft in America Episode 1: Memory; Episode 2: Landscape; Episode 3: Community
Directors: Nigel Noble (Memory), Daniel Seeger (Landscape), Hilary Birmingham (Community)
Executive Producers: Carol Sauvion, Kyra Thompson
Cinematographers: Don Lenzer (Memory, Community), Peter Pilafian (Landscape), Allan Palmer (Community)
Editors: Yaffa Lerea (Memory), Leonard Feinstein (Landscape), Lillian E. Benson, A.C.E. (Community)
Writer: Kyra Thompson
Music: Laura Karpman
Running time for Each Episode: 56 min.
website

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Whether our eyes are those of sophisticated appreciators or just people on the street, we are likely unaware of the many ways that craft and design touch our lives.

Craft in America is an amazing multimedia effort with a simple mission: To explore the vitality, history and significance of the handmade in the United States and demonstrate its impact on our nation's cultural heritage.

Craft in America is presented in three self-contained but interrelated episodes. Episode I: Memory takes a personal tour through craft's history in this country by looking at some of the pioneers of the new craft movement in America. Episode II: Landscape looks at the sublime and complex relationship between craft artists and their environment, examining the processes through which natural materials become finished works of craft as well as some of the deeper messages that creators hope to attach to their work. Episode III: Community focuses on the spiritual connection artists have to their communities through craft, thus revealing the deeply held belief that craft is about more than just the making an object; it is about connecting to one another across social and geographical divides.

Craft in America introduces viewers to a relatively unfamiliar world through the memories, insights and experiences of craft's contemporary pioneer-practitioners. These invitingly human stories, along with the visual nature of finished craftwork and the processes that make it possible, make for powerful and affecting television.

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CAROL SAUVION is the creator and executive producer of Craft in America, and the executive director of Craft in America, Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to presenting the origins, artists and techniques of craft in the United States and their impact on our nation's cultural heritage. The Craft in America series results from the organization's mission to promote and advance original handcrafted work through programs in all media.

NIGEL NOBLE is an Academy Award-winning producer/director of films and television, whose work is characterized by a sense of compassion and a keen eye for the telling moment. His work has earned him many awards as both a director and a producer, including an Oscar, a second Oscar nomination, two Emmy Awards, two ACE awards, two Telly's and a Peabody Award. Noble recently produced They Killed Sister Dorothy, which won both Jury and Audience Best Documentary Awards at the South by Southwest Film Festival. Noble has also just completed producing and directing his third production for The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous (2008 Telly Award), and has just completed the 90th anniversary film for the AFSC, the American Friends Service Committee (also a 2008 Telly Award).

DANIEL SEEGER has worked extensively as a producer, director and cameraman on many documentaries, including the award-winning Clearwater, the story of the construction and launch of the Hudson River sloop Clearwater, and her maiden voyage from Maine to New York.

HILARY BIRMINGHAM wrote and directed the critically acclaimed film Tully, which was nominated for four Independent Spirit Awards in 2003. She developed New Passages (1996), an ABC primetime special, executive-produced by Barbara Kopple; and Generations (1996), a feature documentary on the 25th anniversary of the Woodstock Music Festival.

Eat at Bill's: Life in the Monterey Market
Director/Producer/Cinematographer/Editor: Lisa Brenneis
Editor: Stella Dunn
Running time: 67 min.
website

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Eat at Bill's: Life in the Monterey Market is a video documentary about the phenomenon that is the Monterey Market, a small family-owned produce market in Berkeley, California. The market has served as a crossroads and wellspring, an oasis that sustains a small army of customers, artisans and farmers. What are the characteristics that sustain this successful small enterprise?

Over the last 30 years, Bill Fujimoto, the market's owner, has been a tireless supporter, mentor and customer for the hundreds of small (and formerly small) farms the market supports.

Bill's enthusiasm and experience fuel the enterprise and illuminate the market's wide world of small growers and diverse customers, which include a small army of well-known chefs and food-thinkers such as Alice Waters and Michael Pollan.

Eat at Bill's is a celebration of the Monterey Market's diverse network of customers and suppliers, and a valentine to small enterprises everywhere.

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LISA BRENNEIS grows organic citrus with her husband in Ojai, California. Eat at Bill's: Life in the Monterey Market is herfirst feature-length video documentary She supports her movie habit by writing technical reference books for Peachpit Press.

Empowering the Yard
Directors/Producers: Erin Persley, Emily Kirsch, Vincent Horner
Executive Producers: National AIDS Fund, San Francisco State University Health Equity Initiative and the Health Education and Cinema Departments at San Francisco State University
Cinematographers: Erin Persley, Vincent Horner
Editors: Erin Persley, Vincent Horner
Running time: 15 min.
website

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Set in Oklahoma, where more women are incarcerated per capita than anywhere else in the country, Empowering the Yard looks at HIV prevention from the perspective of incarcerated women who are using peer education to empower themselves, their families and their communities. The HIV Peer Education Program provides an opportunity for incarcerated women to teach each other about the issues they face, including safe sex, sexually transmitted infections, drugs and violence. The documentary follows five HIV Peer Educators who explain why incarceration rates for women are so high and speak to the self-esteem and empowerment they have gained through the HIV Peer Education Program.

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Born in Atlanta, Georgia, and raised in Florida, where she attended the University of Florida, ERIN PERSLEY directed and edited several shorts including Berkeley of the South (2004) and Struggle for Choice (2002), which dealt with social justice subjects ranging from abortion to the anti-war student movement. Currently at the graduate film program at San Francisco State University, Persley combines her hybrid filmmaking with producing and coordinating other shorts including Fragile Distance (2007) and A Green Mountain in the Drawer (2007). Her first graduate work, Please Report Any Suspicious Activity (2007), focused on the airport institution and used poetics to explore overzealous security measures and unseen spaces. Following Empowering the Yard, Persley is currently working on her master's thesis, Living Inside Out, which concentrates on women transitioning back into society after spending time in prison. With her deep commitment to provocative documentary filmmaking, she intends to change how people interact with their community, other cultures and one another.


When it comes to working for justice, opportunity and peace in urban America, EMILY KIRSCH exudes a fierce passion. As the Bay Area Organizer for the Green-Collar Jobs Campaign at the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in Oakland, California, Kirsch works with local green businesses, labor unions, environmental groups and community-based organizations to create an inclusive green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty. Kirsch is a graduate of San Francisco State University with a self-designed major in urban health, justice and sustainability.


VINCENT HORNER recently completed his undergraduate coursework at San Francisco State University. He strives to continue using film and music as means to promote social justice and peace-work. He currently lives in Oakland, California.

A Fair to Remember
Director/Cinematographer: Allen Mondell
Producers/Writers: Allen Mondell, Cynthia Salzman Mondell
Cinematographer/Editor/Co-Producer: Phil Allen
Composers: Carl Finch and Brave Combo
Running time:90 min.
website

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It's a tradition etched in the personal memories of millions from around the globe—a place where generations have come to gaze upon the world's tallest cowboy, soar on North America's highest Ferris wheel and consume the most exotic delicacies this side of the Rio Grande. Now attended by three-and-a-half million people every fall, the Great State Fair of Texas not only entertains, but also reflects some of the most pivotal times in American history. A Fair to Remember takes the viewer on a roller-coaster ride chronicling the history of the fair, from its inception in 1886 to its destination today as the largest fair of its kind in the country. The film's charming characters, original music and lively animation combine with archival footage that features Elvis Presley, President Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Houdini, the Corny Dog and Big Tex. While being an evocation of everything Texan, and featuring a substantial agricultural component, this fair seeks to bring something of the nation as a whole, and the outside world in general, to its crossroads, its city and its regional audiences.

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ALLEN MONDELL and CYNTHIA SALZMAN MONDELL are the founders of Media Projects, Inc., a nonprofit video production and distribution company. Together, they have produced over 35 documentaries about historical subjects and social issues. Their films have won numerous national awards and have been selected for prestigious screenings in the United States and abroad. Some have received specialized theatrical distribution and have aired on PBS and national cable networks. The Mondells have just completed The Monster AmongUs, a documentary about the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe today, and are editing A Reason to Live, a documentary about depression and suicide among young adults 15 to 24 years old. Another of their films, Sisters of '77, documenting the story of the first federally funded National Women's Conference in Houston in 1977,aired nationwide in 2005 on the award-winning public television series, Independent Lens. Highlights from the body of their work include Films from the Sixth Floor, six films about the life, death and legacy of President John F. Kennedy; West of Hester Street, a docudrama about Jewish immigration through the port of Galveston in the early 1900s; Make Me a Match, a warm-hearted look at the trials and tribulations of Jewish matchmaking in contemporary society; Funny Women, a short film celebrating 50 years of women comedians in American television; and Who Remembers Mama?, an emotional look at the economic and legal problems confronting middle-aged, divorced homemakers. Together the Mondells have received such notable awards as a Lone Star Emmy, four CINE Golden Eagles, a Bronze CINDY, three Telly Awards, a Silver Gavel from the American Bar Association, and a recognition award from the Dallas Metro Association for Outstanding Contribution to the Dallas Metro Association Counseling Profession.

FLOW: For Love Of Water
Director/Cinematographer: Irena Salina
Producer: Steven Starr
Co-Producers: Gill Holland, Yvette Tomlinson
Executive Producers: Stephen Nemeth, Caroleen Feeney, Lee Jaffe, Augusta Brown Holland, Brent Meikle, Cornalia Meikle, Hadley Meikle
Cinematographer: Pablo de Selva
Editors: Caitlin Dixon, Madeleine Gavin, Andrew Mondshein, A.C.E.
Composer: Christophe Julien
Running time: 84 min.
website * trailer * article * filmmaker Q&A

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Irena Salina's award-winning documentary is an investigation into what experts label the most important political and environmental issue of the 21st Century: The world water crisis.

Salina builds a case against the growing privatization of the world's dwindling fresh water supply with an unflinching focus on politics, pollution, human rights and the emergence of a domineering world water cartel.

Interviews with scientists and activists intelligently reveal the rapidly building crisis, at both the global and human scale, and the film introduces many of the governmental and corporate culprits behind the water grab, while begging the question, "Can anyone really own water?"

Beyond identifying the problem, FLOW also gives viewers a look at the people and institutions providing practical solutions to the water crisis and those developing new technologies, which are fast becoming blueprints for a successful global and economic turnaround.

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Born in France, IRENA SALINA started her career at 15 as a radio journalist in Paris, then worked in production in various capacities on numerous US films before writing and directing her first short, See You on Monday, sponsored by LifeTime Television for the Hamptons Film Festival. Her first film, Ghost Bird: The Life and Art of Judith Deim (2000), is an award-winning documentary that delves into the remarkable life of St. Louis-born artist Judith Deim. Ghost Bird was featured at many festivals, won Best Documentary at the 15th Fort Lauderdale Film Festival, the Presidents' Award at Mexico's prestigious Ajijic Film Festival, and is an Evergreen Audience Favorite on the Sundance Channel.

STEVEN STARR is the founder of the award-winning online creator platform Revver.com, previously managed KPFK-FM, largest community radio signal in the U.S., co-founded P2P pioneer Uprizer, user-generated platform LA.IndyMedia. Prior to that, writer/director and/or producer of various award-winning films such as Joey Breaker and Johnny Suede, co-creator/producer of The State for MTV/CBS, headed the New York film office for the William Morris Agency, working with clients such as Ang Lee, Tim Robbins, Larry David, Joseph Papp and Andy Warhol, and started off as a concert promoter for Bob Marley and the Wailers.

Frontrunners
Director: Caroline Suh
Producer: Erika Frankel
Cinematographer: Gregory Mitnick
Editor: Jane Rizzo
Running time: 83 min.
website * article *

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Frontrunners, a feature-length documentary, follows the most recent elections for student body president at the ultra-competitive Stuyvesant High School in New York City, and explores how politics works at its most nascent level.

As the film unfolds, the candidates might seem like archetypes. There is the favorite, a popular heartthrob; the rich cheerleader; the slacker jock; and a lone wolf. But each ends up being more complex than they might first appear.

The candidates worry about their images and see their shortcomings, and they pick running mates accordingly. Can you really win without an Asian on your ticket—when the voting public is more than 50 percent Asian? Is an all-female ticket automatically a loser? Will anyone vote for an outsider? And who will be charismatic enough to win the televised debate and knowledgeable enough about the real issues to impress the newspaper editorial board?

In politics, nothing is inevitable, especially at Stuyvesant, where the voting public is made up of skeptical students who may be the best and brightest in the country. And Stuyvesant's 3,200 students, from the five boroughs, reflect the diversity of the entire nation—teenagers of all ethnicities and economic backgrounds, children of privilege mixing with first generation immigrants, all there based on merit.

As Frontrunners unfolds, the story takes on undertones familiar to anyone who has been a spectator to a national campaign, revealing that young people have an implicit understanding of how strategy, race, gender, personality, platforms, charisma, height and hairstyle figure into a winning campaign.

Teenagers, it turns out, are also political animals. But in the end, Frontrunners is also about a bunch of very smart, very funny teenagers who take things seriously, regardless of the stakes.

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CAROLINE SUH has produced numerous documentaries for PBS, Trio (Final Cut: The Making and Unmaking of Heaven's Gate), History Channel (10 Days: Antietam), A&E and Sundance Channel (Iconoclasts), among others. Frontrunners is her first documentary feature as director. Suh currently has two feature documentaries in development.

The Garden
Director/Producer/Cinematographer/Editor: Scott Hamilton Kennedy
Executive Producers:Julie Bergman Sender, Stuart Sender
Editors: Alex Blatt, Tyson Fitzgerald
Composers: Doug DeAngelis, Gabriel Tenorio
Running time: 80 min.
website * trailer * filmmaker Q&A

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The 14-acre community garden at 41st and Alameda in South Central Los Angeles is the largest of its kind in the United States. Started as a form of healing after the devastating LA riots in 1992, the South Central Farmers have since created a miracle in one of the country's most blighted neighborhoods: Growing their own food…Feeding their families…Creating a community.

But now, bulldozers are poised to level their 14-acre oasis.

The Garden follows the plight of the farmers, from the tilled soil of this urban farm to the polished marble of City Hall. Mostly immigrants from Latin America, from countries where they feared for their lives if they were to speak out, they organize, fight back and demand answers:

Why was the land sold to a wealthy developer for millions less than fair-market value? Why was the transaction done in a closed-door session of the LA City Council? Why has it never been made public?

And the powers-that-be have the same response: "The garden is wonderful, but there is nothing more we can do."

If everyone told you nothing more could be done, would you give up?

The Garden has the pulse of vérité with the narrative pull of fiction, telling the story of the country's largest urban farm, backroom deals, land developers, green politics, money, poverty, power and racial discord. The film explores and exposes the fault lines in American society and raises crucial and challenging questions about liberty, equality and justice for the poorest and most vulnerable among us.

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SCOTT HAMILTON KENNEDY's debut documentary, OT: our town, was an official selection and won awards at some of the top film festivals in the world. In its theatrical release, OT garnered rave reviews and was selected for several "best of" lists. OT was also honored by being "short-listed" for an Oscar nomination and was nominated for Best Documentary at the Independent Spirit Awards. Kennedy started his career in music videos, making several number-one internationally aired videos. As a director, Kennedy has worked with Showtime, CBS, AMC, Roger Corman and Mattel. Kennedy is currently developing his narrative feature script Up River, an urban adventure set on the LA River, which he developed through the Film Independent Directors Lab. He is also in post-production on a reality series entitled Fame High, about the LA County High School for the Arts, which follows freshman and seniors through a school year as they try to become successful actors, singers, dancers and musicians.

The Hobart Shakespearians
Director/Producer: Mel Stuart
Executive Producer: Sandra Sheppard
Cinematographer/Editor/Co-Producer: Alex Rotaru
Running time: 52 min.
website * article

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Imagine the sight and sound of American nine- and eleven-year-old children performing Shakespeare's Hamlet or Henry V—and understanding every word they recite. Imagine them performing well enough to elicit praise from such accomplished Shakespearean actors as Ian McKellen and Michael York, and to be invited to perform with the Royal Shakespeare Company in England. Such a spectacle would be highly impressive in the toniest of America's private schools. But what if the kids were the children of recent Latino and Asian immigrants attending a large Los Angeles inner-city public school in one of America's toughest neighborhoods?

That is the astonishing story told by the documentary The Hobart Shakespeareans, which discovers how one man's uncommon commitment and resourcefulness have opened up worlds of opportunity for his "disadvantaged" students—and perhaps have demonstrated a way forward for America's beleaguered public education system.

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MEL STUART was born in New York, and during his college years aspired to become a composer. After graduating from New York University, however, he decided to change direction and began to pursue a career as a filmmaker. In 1954, he began working as an assistant editor for a company that made commercials. There, Stuart became a special assistant to avant-garde filmmaker Mary Ellen Bute. Several years later, Stuart obtained a position as a film researcher for Walter Cronkite's breakthrough series, The 20th Century. In 1959, David Wolper asked Stuart to join a newly formed production company. For the next 17 years, Stuart served as a key executive with the Wolper Organization. During that time he produced and directed dozens of documentaries, including The Making of the President, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Four Days in November and Wattstax. He also directed various features including Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium.

In 1977 the Wolper Organization was acquired by Warner Brothers. Since that time, Stuart has been an independent producer and director. Among his productions have been documentaries such as Man Ray: Prophet of the Avant-Garde and Billy Wilder: The Human Comedy, AFI's 100 Years-100 Movies and Inside the KGB.

Stuart's latest directing efforts have been a series dealing with the lives of well-known American poets and The Hobart Shakespeareans. Among the many acknowledgments of his work have been four Emmys, a Peabody Award, an Academy Award nomination and numerous awards from festivals around the world.

Made in LA
Director/Producer: Almudena Carracedo
Producer: Robert Bahar
Cinematographer: Almudena Carracedo
Editors: Lisa Leeman, Kim Roberts, Almudena Carracedo
Writers: Almudena Carracedo, Robert Bahar, Lisa Leeman
Composer: Joseph Julian Gonzalez
Executive Producers: Cara Mertes, Sally Jo Fifer
Running time: 70 min.
website * article

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Made in L.A. follows the remarkable story of three Latina immigrants working in Los Angeles garment sweatshops as they embark on a three-year odyssey to win basic labor protections from trendy clothing retailer Forever 21. In intimate observational style, Made in L.A. reveals the impact of the struggle on each woman's life as they are gradually transformed by the experience. Compelling, humorous, deeply human, Made in L.A. is a story about immigration, the power of unity and the courage it takes to find your voice.

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Born in Madrid, ALMUDENA CARRACEDO is Emmy Award-winning director and producer of Made in L.A. Five years in the making, Made in L.A. is her first feature documentary. Her previous documentary, Welcome, A Docu-Journey of Impressions, focused on Tijuana as a border town; it received the Sterling Award for Best Short Documentary at Silverdocs Documentary Festival and screened in numerous national and international festivals. Almudena is the 2008 recipient of the National Association of Latino Independent Producers ESTELA Award, and has served as a jury in several film festivals, including the Silverdocs Documentary Festival, Valladolid International Film Festival and Santiago's International Documentary Festival in Chile (FIDOCS).


ROBERT BAHAR is an Emmy Award-winning documentary producer and the director/co-founder of Doculink.org, a grassroots and online community of over 2,000 documentary-makers. He is producer/co-writer of Made in L.A.. Bahar previously produced and directed the award-winning documentary Laid to Waste, and has line-produced and production-managed independent films including ITVS's Diary of a City Priest, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and Pittsburgh, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. He has served on the board of the International Documentary Association and holds an MFA from The Peter Stark Program at USC.

A Man Named Pearl
Directors/Producers: Scott Galloway, Brent Pierson
Cinematographer: J. Steven Anderson
Editor: Greg Grzeszczak
Composer: Fred Story
Running time: 78 min.
website

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A Man Named Pearl tells the inspiring story of self-taught topiary artist Pearl Fryar, whose unlikely journey to national prominence began with a bigoted remark.

In 1976, Pearl took a job in a can factory in Bishopville, South Carolina. New to this rural southern town, he and his wife Metra looked at a house for sale in an all-white neighborhood. The Fryars' real estate agent was notified by neighbors in the prospective neighborhood that a black family was not welcome. A homeowner voiced the collective concern: "Black people don't keep up their yards."

That concern motivated Pearl to prove that misguided man wrong. His goal was modest, but clear: to become the first African-American to win Bishopville's "Yard of the Month" award.

Realizing he would have to do something spectacular, Pearl began cutting every bush and tree in his yard into unusual, abstract shapes. He didn't know it then, but he was creating a magical wonderland that would, in time, not only garner local recognition, but draw thousands of visitors from across the United States and around the world.

Now 68, Pearl has been featured in dozens of local and national magazines and newspapers. The media interest that Pearl and his topiary garden generates helps steer much-needed tourist dollars into Bishopville and Lee County, the poorest county in the state of South Carolina.

But the impact that Pearl and his art have had on his community is not just economic. Visitors who wander Pearl's three-and-a-half-acre property quickly recognize that love is the garden's central theme. Meticulously etched into the ground in huge, flower-filled letters are three words: LOVE, PEACE & GOODWILL. These are the guiding principles by which Pearl lives his life and how he's been "keeping up his yard" for nearly 30 years.

A Man Named Pearl is a subtle and intriguing film that opens both hearts and minds. It offers an upbeat message that speaks to respect for both self and others, and shows what one person can achieve when he allows himself to share the full expression of his humanity.

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SCOTT GALLOWAY has produced or executive-produced more than 650 television programs for networks including ABC, A&E, Court TV, ESPN, Food Network, HGTV, History Channel and the Travel Channel.

In 1999, Galloway co-founded Tentmakers Entertainment, a television and film production company based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Tentmakers went on to produce more than 500 television programs for six different networks.

Highlights of his television career include writing and producing the A&E documentary special America's Castles and subsequently overseeing the highly acclaimed series of the same name.He produced the Court TV series Crime Stories and The Greatest Trials of All Time, including the New York Film and Television Award-winning documentary The Scottsboro Boys. Galloway co-created and supervised the HGTV series Restore America. He co-created and executive-produced the Food Network series Food Finds and Food Fight and more than 20 network specials.And he created and executive-produced the Turner South Network series Blue Ribbon and Three-Day Weekend, two of the network's highest-rated series and a Telly Award winner.

In 2006, Galloway formed Susie Films to specialize in high-end documentary film production. In addition to A Man Named Pearl, Galloway recently directed and produced the feature-length documentary Children of All Ages.

Miss Navajo
Director/Producer: Billy Luther
Executive Producers: Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato
Cinematographer: Gavin Wynn
Editor: Mike Rysavy
Composer: David Benjamin Steinberg
Running time: 60 min.
website

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From World of Wonder Productions and filmmaker Billy Luther, whose own mother was crowned Miss Navajo 1966, the film reveals the inner beauty of the young women who compete in this celebration of womanhood. Not only must contestants exhibit poise and grace as those in typical pageants, but they must also answer tough questions in Navajo and demonstrate proficiency in skills essential to daily tribal life: fry-bread making, rug weaving and sheep butchering.

The film follows the path of 21-year-old Crystal Frazier, a not-so-fluent Navajo speaker and self-professed introvert, as she undertakes the challenges of the pageant. It is through Crystal's quiet perseverance that we see the strength and power of Navajo womanhood revealed. No matter who takes the crown, this is a journey that will change her life. Interspersed with pageant activities are interviews with former Miss Navajos, whose cheerful recollections of past pageants break the tension the current contestants are undergoing.

Their memories provide a glimpse into the varying roles Miss Navajo is called upon to perform: role model, teacher, advisor and goodwill ambassador to the community and the world at large. For more than 50 years, Miss Navajo Nation has celebrated women and their traditional values, language and inner beauty.

As winners of the pageant, women are challenged to take on greater responsibility, becoming community leaders fluent in the Navajo language and knowledgeable about their culture and history. The film reveals the importance of cultural preservation, the role of women in continuing dying traditions and the surprising role that a beauty pageant can play.

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BILLY LUTHER studied film at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, and worked on projects for the Smithsonian Institution's New York City National Museum of the American Indian Film and Video Center. A past honoree of Film Independent's Project: Involve program, Luther was recently selected for the 2006 Sundance Institute/Ford Foundation Fellowship, Corporation for Public Broadcasting/PBS Producers Academy at WGBH in Boston, and Tribeca Institute's All Access Program with his feature documentary Miss Navajo, which world-premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, had its national television premiere on Independent Lens on PBS and is the winner of Michael Moore's 2007 Special Founders Prize. He is in production on the documentaries Grab and The Untitled Indian Marching Band Project. Luther belongs to the Navajo, Hopi and Laguna Pueblo Tribes.

No Short Climb: "Race Workers" and America's Defense Technology
Director/Producer/Writer: Robert Johnson Jr.
Cinematographers: Ed Kearney, Alonso Perkins, Robert Johnson Jr.
Editors: Robert Johnson Jr., Kirstyn Lichfield
Running time: 58 min.
website

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During the period immediately following the Great Depression, young African-American men and women graduated from high schools and colleges across the nation with degrees in the sciences. However, they found themselves unemployed and unemployable. Though large numbers of scientists, technicians and support staff were widely recruited from prestigious colleges and universities, racial barriers kept these ranks limited to White applicants. As the US geared up for the approaching war in Europe, efforts were made to aggressively recruit and place Blacks in positions in both the military and civilian service corps. Serving as the experimental proving grounds for a host of "state-of-the art" defense weaponry, Fort Monmouth brought on board its first African-American professionals in 1940. These new hires became engineers, project specialists and technicians, and as the war progressed, women were brought in to replace the men who were transferred overseas. In spite of barriers that hindered acceptance, promotion and recognition of their accomplishments, African-Americans made major contributions to the success of this facility. No Short Climb combines personal memoir with archival footage, still photography and graphics to present a first-hand account of the previously unknown story about the contributions of African-American scientists and technicians during the Second World War.

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ROBERT JOHNSON JR. is an associate professor and chair of the Communication Arts Department at Framingham State College in Massachusetts. He has produced over two-dozen history of science documentaries, which have aired on PBS and cable throughout the US, Canada and England. He completed his BA at Rutgers University and his MFA at the Art Institute of Chicago. He has also exhibited work in photography, video, painting and mixed media.

Note by Note: The Making of Steinway L1037
Director/Producer: Ben Niles
Cinematographers: Ben Wolf, Luke Geissbuhler, Ben Niles, Geoff O'Brien
Editors: Purcell Carson, Geoff O'Brien
Running time: 81 min.
website

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The most thoroughly handcrafted instruments in the world, Steinway pianos are as unique and full of personality as the world-class musicians who choose them above all others. Noteby Note follows the creation of a Steinway concert grand, from the forest floor to the concert hall, exploring the relationship between the musician and the instrument, chronicling the manufacturing process, and investigating what makes each Steinway unique in this age of mass production. Each piano's journey is complex, spanning 12 months, 12,000 parts, 450 craftsmen and countless hours of fine-tuned labor. Filmed in key Steinway locations—the factory, Steinway's reserved "Bank," and private auditions—Note by Note is a loving celebration of not just craftsmanship, but of a dying breed of person who is deeply connected to working by hand. To this end, this is an ode to the most unexpected and perhaps ironic of unsung heroes. It reminds us of how extraordinary the dialogues can be between an artist and an instrument—crafted out of human hands but borne in the materials of nature.

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BEN NILES is a documentary filmmaker and award-winning graphic designer. During his 15 years as a graphic designer, Niles directed and produced photo-shoots, videos, commercials and print campaigns for commercials and entertainment clients including Atlantic Records, Nantucket Film Festival and the Jacob Burns Film Center. In his years in the record industry, Niles created album packages for Collective Soul, Jewel and Jon Brion; celebrated box sets for Phish and George Carlin; and packages and identities for jazz musicians Cyrus Chestnut, James Carter and Henry Butler. A graduate of University of Georgia at Athens, Niles attended an intensive fine arts study abroad program located in Cortona, Italy.

One Bridge to the Next
Director/Producer: Kim A. Snyder
Producer: Peggy Rajski
Cinematographer: Greg Poschman
Editors: Shilpi Gupta, Li-Shin Yu
Running time: 31 min.
website

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One Bridge to the Next addresses the emerging field of street medicine. In 1992, Dr. Jim Withers began doing night rounds on the streets of Pittsburgh, offering medical assistance and support to the homeless. Fifteen years later, the organization he founded, Operation Safety Net, is a pioneering model in a growing movement to provide healthcare to the homeless. Dr. Withers and his team navigate riverbanks, bridges and alleyways to bring medical help and social justice to those who have fallen through the cracks of society. The complex condition of the chronically homeless is depicted through vivid characters—a 70-year-old former architect, a laid-off steel mill worker and an ex-drag queen failing from cancer. In a time when our national healthcare policy is under increasing scrutiny, this story illuminates the committed efforts within a single urban area to create a humane society and dignity for those on our streets.

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KIM A. SNYDER is an award-winning documentary filmmaker. She most recently co-founded the BeCause Foundation to produce a series of documentaries designed to raise awareness about socially conscious global issues and inspire philanthropy through the power of film. Following her short documentary One Bridge to the Next, about the burgeoning field of "street medicine," Her most recent short, Crossing Midnight, focuses on the healthcare crisis in Eastern Burma and an extraordinary community of refugees battling the odds to help their own. Her next work is set in America's rural South, where on the eve of the recent election, a town deals with issues of immigrant integration and reckons with its segregated past.

Snyder directed and produced the award-winning documentary I Remember Me, which won numerous festival awards including Best Documentary at the Denver International Film Festival, the Audience Award at the Sarasota Film Festival and an Honorable Mention at the Hamptons International Film Festival. I Remember Me was distributed theatrically in the US by Zeitgeist Films and has been distributed on DVD in over 22 countries. She has also directed and produced numerous short documentaries for cable network Plum TV.

Snyder has also published numerous articles for Variety and worked as media producer for the Hamptons International Film Festival, producing commercials, trailers and promotional media.

In 1994, Snyder associate produced the Academy Award-winning short film Trevor, directed and produced by Peggy Rajski, which became the cornerstone of The Trevor Project, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to suicide prevention among gay youth. Snyder also served on the admissions review committee for New York University's Graduate Film Program, and has been a producer's rep for several critically acclaimed foreign films including Crows (New Yorker Films), directed by Dorota Kedzierzawska. Snyder graduated with a masters in international affairs from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

The Order of Myths
Director/Producer: Margaret Brown
Producer: Sara Cross
Executive Producer: Christine Mattsson-McHale
Cinematographer: Michael Simmonds
Editors: Michael Taylor, Geoffrey Richman, Margaret Brown
Running time: 80 min.
website * trailer

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The Order of Myths is a documentary about Mobile, Alabama's Mardi Gras. Celebrated since 1703, American Mardi Gras was born in Mobile. In 2007, it is still racially segregated.

Filmmaker Margaret Brown, herself a daughter of Mobile, escorts us into the parallel hearts of the city's two carnivals to explore the complex contours of this hallowed tradition and the elusive forces that keep it organized along enduring color lines.

Though the film captures the historical traditions and social codes of the separate black and white Mardi Gras celebrations, The Order of Mythsis not a cinematic essay. It is not a polemic on race or a document of good guys versus bad guys. It is not a film of obvious questions and easy answers. It goes much deeper, and by its very nature, is both disturbing and captivating.

With unprecedented access, Brown traces the exotic world of centuries-old traditions and pageantry, and uncovers a centuries-old connection between the white Mardi Gras Queen's slave-trading ancestors and the African-American Queen's heritage, as well as subtle and not-so-subtle interracial social codes that cast a shadow on the proud Mobile traditions the white residents invoke.

It is the coronations of the all-white Mobile Carnival Association (MCA) and the all-black Mobile Area Mardi Gras Association (MAMGA) that provide the central narrative through which we view the festivities. Each organization has its own separate parades, balls and royal court; the MCA and MAMGA Kings and Queens cross the color divide only briefly to visit each other's event.

The Order of Myths ventures behind the merriment of Mardi Gras to reveal a tangled web of historical violence, power dynamics and intertwined and interdependent race relations, and. illuminate the complexity of race in the modern South.

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MARGARET BROWN is the producer and director of the acclaimed documentary Be Here to Love Me: A Film About Townes Van Zandt, which was released in the US by Palm Pictures, and received worldwide theatrical distribution in 2005.

Brown recently directed the music video Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe for Okkervil River, and produced Cat Power's Living Proof video, directed by Harmony Korine. Brown produced Six Miles of Eight Feet, which won a Student Academy Award in 2000, and was the cinematographer for Ice Fishing, which received a Special Jury Prize at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival, and for which she received the Nestor Almendros Award for Cinematography from the New York University Graduate Film Program.

Brown earned her BA in creative writing from Brown University and her MFA in film from New York University.

The People's President: Man, Myth, and the Media
Director/Producer: Chuck Workman
Producer: White House Historical Association
Cinematographers: Bruce Liffiton, John Sharaf
Editors: Jeremy Workman, Chuck Workman
Running time: 57 min.
website

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America's perception of the presidency is often driven by image. The People's President: Man, Myth, and the Media looks at the role of Hollywood film and network/cable television in both shaping and reflecting America's views of the presidency.

For as long as film has captured the president, Hollywood has been there to provide its take on the nation's leader. In 1915, Abraham Lincoln was portrayed in Birth of aNation. Henry Fonda played Young Mr. Lincoln in 1939. Fonda also played a fictional president in Meteor, trying to protect citizens from a runaway asteroid headed for Earth. With the help of the Soviets, and Sean Connery, the world is saved from annihilation.

In The People's President, Workman has woven together 130 clips from film (Kisses formy President, All the President's Men, Dave) television (The West Wing, Truman) newsreels and press coverage to explain the traits we treasure in our leader and the danger of idealizing the heroic president at the expense of understanding the daily grind of governance.

When Hollywood and television productions meet the presidency, viewers are presented with a mix of bio-pics and complete fabrication—both of which tend to give us the president we all wish to call our own. As film critic Richard Schickel comments, "When people set off to make a movie about a president, whether it's a fictional one or a real one, I think they start out good heartedly and seriously. And it's going to get into some of the ideas and some of the issues that plagued this president; ‘We're going to deal with that," but then the reality of movies take over. . . .And the reality of movies is always toward simplification."

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CHUCK WORKMAN has been involved in filmmaking and theater for more than 30 years as an award-winning director, writer and producer. Workman's theatrical short, Precious Images, won an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short and has become the most widely shown short in film history, appearing in schools, museums, international conferences, numerous film festivals and over 1,000 theaters worldwide. Workman produced and directed the acclaimed documentaries Superstar, about Andy Warhol, and The Source, about the Beat Generation. A new film on JFK, In Search of Kennedy, will come out in 2009. He is a former president of the International Documentary Association.

Praying with Lior
Director/Producer: Ilana Trachtman
Cinematographers: Slawomir Grunberg, Ari Haberberg
Editor: Zelda Greenstein
Composer: Andy Statman
Running time: 87 min.
website

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An engrossing, wrenching and tender documentary film, Praying with Lior introduces Lior Liebling, also called "the little rebbe." Lior has Down syndrome, and has spent his entire life praying with utter abandon. Is he a "spiritual genius," as many around him say? Or is he simply the vessel that contains everyone's unfulfilled wishes and expectations? Lior— whose name means "my light"—lost his mother at age 6, and her words and spirit hover over the film. While everyone agrees Lior is closer to God, he's also a burden, a best friend, an inspiration and an embarrassment, depending on which family member is speaking. As Lior approaches Bar Mitzvah, the Jewish coming-of-age ceremony, different characters provides a window into life spent "praying with Lior." The movie poses difficult questions, which as What is "disability"? Who really talks to God? Told with intimacy and humor, Praying with Lior is a family story, a triumph story, a grief story, a divinely-inspired story.

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ILANA TRACHTMAN is an award-winning producer/director of documentaries and children's television programs. She has produced and directed programs in both English and Spanish for PBS, Showtime, Lifetime, HBO Family, ABC-TV, Sundance, Trio, A&E, Thirteen/WNET, The Biography Channel, Discovery and Sesame Workshop. Trachtman is especially experienced with content-rich, character-driven cinema vérité. She directed two episodes of PBS' Texas Ranch House, a reality/documentary series set in 1867. Other favorite projects include the Lifetime documentary special Our Heroes, Ourselves, profiling four grassroots women heroes in America, and hosted by Marlo Thomas; 24w/, a day in the life series following pop culture icons such as Vera Wang, Tina Brown and Damon Dash; Biography: Sylvia Plath; and the HBO Family series My Favorite Book, in which five-year-olds explain their own versions of favorite children's books. Trachtman's work has been awarded Emmys, a CINE Golden Eagle, Tellys, Media That Matters Awards and environmental awards. She is currently the supervising producer on Big Ideas for a Small Planet, a series for the Sundance Channel about environmental innovators. Praying with Lior is her first independent film.

Project Kashmir
Directors/Producers/Writers: Senain Kheshgi, Geeta V. Patel
Executive Producers: Diana Barrett, Geralyn Dreyfous
Cinematographer: Ross Kauffman
Editors: Shartmila Ariathurai, Billy McMillin
Composer: David Robbins
Running time: 88 min.
website

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Project Kashmir is a feature documentary in which the directors—two American friends, one a Pakistani-American Muslim, the other an Indian-American Hindu—investigate the war in Kashmir and find their friendship tested over deeply rooted political, cultural and religious biases they never had to face in the US. Project Kashmir explores war between countries and war within oneself by delving into the fraught lives of young people caught in the social/political conflict of one of the most beautiful—and most deadly—places on earth: Kashmir.

Beautifully lensed by Academy Award® winning filmmaker Ross Kauffman, the film captures the stunning beauty of Kashmir, while expertly interweaving deeply moving personal stories of Kashmiris with those of the two American women, who strive to reconcile their ethnic and religious heritage with the violence that haunts their homeland.

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SENAIN KHESHGI is a Pakistani-American journalist and filmmaker who has produced, written and directed projects for numerous networks including CNN, ABC NEWS, PBS, Discovery and the BBC. Kheshgi co-produced her first feature documentary, The First Year, with Academy Award-winning director Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth), which was broadcast on PBS and went on to earn the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award. She has also produced and assisted on projects with Shari Berman and Robert Pulcini (American Splendor) and Sophie Fiennes (Hoover Street Revival).

Kheshgi was a Sundance Institute Fellow, where she attended the Documentary Editing, Composer and Producing Labs (2006), and a Tribeca All Access Fellow (2005). She is a recipient of the Rockefeller Foundation/ Renew Media's Media Arts Fellowship and was recently awarded the Asia Society's Asia 21 Fellowship. Kheshgi recently served on the selection committee for the International Documentary Association's (IDA) DocuWeek Documentary Showcase. She was also selected as a Filmmaking Fellow for Jehane Noujaim's global Pangea Day project. Kheshgi serves on the board of advisors for Cine, a theater in her hometown of Athens, Georgia, and the board of directors on the International Documentary Association, and has served on the artistic board of LA art festival ArtWallah.

Kheshgi is also developing a documentary about the current state of affairs in Pakistan. Her keen interest in exploring religious and cultural conflict, human rights, and interfaith dialogue through film and media inspired her to make Project Kashmir.


GEETA V. PATEL is an Indian-American writer and director for both documentary and dramatic feature films.

Patel was a Sundance Institute Directing Fellow, where she participated in the Editing, Composer and Producing Labs (2006), and a Tribeca All Access Directing Fellow (2005). She is a recipient of the Asia Society's Asia 21 Leadership Fellowship. She has served on the nomination committees for the Rockefeller Foundation/Renew Media's Media Arts Fellowship, as well as the selection committee for the IDA's DocuWeek Documentary Showcase. She is a board member on The Center for Multifaith Education in New York and has served as a member of the artistic board for the LA-based art festival Artwallah.

Patel is currently directing One in a Billion, a comedic feature documentary that follows an Indian-American actor/comedian as he struggles with his desire to marry an Indian woman and his inability to actually date one. She is also working on a dramatic feature, The Spoon (Chamcha), a thriller about a son's investigation of his father's murder in a remote Indian village. Research for her first novel, The Laughing, led her to make the documentary Project Kashmir.

Red Gold
Directors: Travis Rummel, Ben Knight
Producer: Travis Rummel
Associate Producer: Lauren Oakes
Cinematographer/Editor: Ben Knight
Running time: 54 min.
website

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The Bristol Bay region of Southwest Alaska is home to the Kvichak and Nushagak Rivers, the two most prolific sockeye salmon runs left in the world. Mining companies Northern Dynasty Minerals and Anglo American have partnered to propose development of an open-pit and underground mine at the headwaters of the two river systems. The exploration site is the second largest combined deposit of copper, gold and molybdenum ever discovered, and has an estimated value of more than $300 billion.

Despite promises of a clean project by officials, the accident-plagued history of hard-rock mining has wrought one of the biggest land-use battles Alaska has ever faced. Documenting the growing unrest among native, commercial and sport-fishermen, Red Gold is a portrait of a unique way of life that will not survive if the salmon don't return with Bristol Bay's tide.

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TRAVIS RUMMEL grew up within the confines of suburban New Jersey, in the shadow of New York City. Exposed to the grandeur and open spaces of the western US throughout childhood, he knew he needed to move that way. He attended Colorado College and graduated in 2001 with a degree in international political economy. Moving to Telluride, Colorado, to pursue guiding white water rafting and fly fishing after college, he met Ben Knight while shooting still photographs for the local newspaper. After witnessing the power of film to inspire and affect change at the Telluride Mountainfilm Festival, Rummel decided to partner with Knight, and Felt Soul Media was born. The two began to shoot, produce and edit short films. With the success of their initial effort, The Hatch, they continued making films and four years later produced their first feature, Red Gold.

BEN KNIGHT headed westward from his home in North Carolina at the age of 17 to follow his dream of documentary work and photojournalism. For 10 years, he worked as the photo editor for the Daily Planet in Telluride, Colorado. His still photography, video and editing skills are entirely self-taught. For years he operated the projector at the Telluride Mountainfilm Festival, soaking in the style of the films that showed from around the globe. In 2008, Knight stood upon the stage at the Mountainfilm Awards to accept the Director's Choice Award as well as Audience Choice for Best Film for Red Gold.

Sputnik Mania
Director/Producer/Writer/Cinematographer: David Hoffman
Producer/Editor: John Vincent Barrett
Producer: Eric Reid
Executive Producer: Jay Walker
Writer: Paul Dickson
Running time: 87 min.
website

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Fifty years ago, at the height of the Cold War, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first satellite to orbit the earth, bringing America to its knees in awe—then fear. Initially thrilling as a marvel of science, Sputnik was soon viewed by America a weapon of mass destruction. Sputnik Mania explores the fast-moving series of events that brought the world's super-powers to the brink of nuclear war, and includes the story of two ex-generals whose private agreement prevented World War III.

The film leads us through the first year following the launch of Sputnik. In 1958, a nuclear weapon was tested in the atmosphere by either Russia or the United States every three days. By the end of that year, nothing was the same. Sputnik spurred us into an arms and space race, necessitating the creation of an academic army of scientists and engineers. This led to the development of NASA, massive reforms in our education system, and the discoveries that enabled many of the consumer technologies on which we depend today (the Internet, cell phones, global positioning systems, credit card verifications and high-definition televisions). The launch of Sputnik also led to widespread panic, fear and anxiety as leading politicians and the media whipped the public into an escalating mass frenzy; only months after Sputnik's launch, 60 percent of Americans thought that nuclear war was imminent and that 50 percent of the American population would likely die.

Sputnik Mania sings an uncannily prophetic song of the past to the tune of the present. It tells a story of great relevance to issues facing the 21st century.

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DAVID HOFFMAN is one of America's veteran documentary filmmakers. Many of Hoffman's reality-style films present a view of recent American events and how the American people experienced them. During his 40-year career, he has made four feature-length documentaries—King, Murray; It's All Good; Sing Sing Thanksgiving with BB King; and Earl Scruggs: His Family & Friends. King, Murray earned the Critics Award at the 1970 Cannes Film Festival.

Hoffman has also made more than 100 primetime documentary television specials and series, mostly for PBS and Turner Broadcasting. Among his most notable projects include the acclaimed 10-part Ten Who Dared; the landmark six-part PBS series Making Sense of the Sixties; Turner Broadcasting's Moon Shot, which earned a George Foster Peabody Award; and episodes of the PBS series American Experience and NOVA.

Hoffman has founded several startup companies and is founder and CEO of Sagas, for locally based remote video interviewing.

Hoffman founded his production company, Varied Directions, 35 years ago and spent much of his career making films in Camden, Maine. Today he lives and works in Santa Cruz, California.

Street Fight
Director/Producer/ Cinematographer/Writer/Editor: Marshall Curry
Executive Producers: Liz Garbus, Rory Kennedy, Cara Mertes, Sally Jo Fifer
Composer:James Baxter
Running time: 82 min.
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Street Fight chronicles the bare-knuckles race for Mayor of Newark, New Jersey, between Cory Booker, a 32-year-old Rhodes Scholar/Yale Law School graduate, and Sharpe James, the four-term incumbent and undisputed champion of New Jersey politics.

Fought in Newark's neighborhoods and housing projects, the battle pits Booker against an old-style political machine that uses any means necessary to crush its opponents: City workers who do not support the mayor are demoted; "disloyal" businesses are targeted by code enforcement; a campaigner is detained and accused of terrorism; and disks of voter data are burglarized in the night.

Even the filmmaker is dragged into the slugfest, and by Election Day, the climate becomes so heated that the Federal government is forced to send in observers to watch for cheating and violence.

The battle sheds light on important American questions about democracy, power and—in a surprising twist—race. Both Booker and James are African-American Democrats, but when the mayor accuses the Ivy League-educated Booker of not being "really black," it forces voters to examine both how we define race in this country.

Street Fight tells a gripping story of the underbelly of democracy where elections are not about spin doctors, media consultants or photo opportunities. In Newark, we discover, elections are won and lost in the streets.

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MARSHALL CURRY was the director, producer, director of photography and editor of the Academy Award-nominated documentary, Street Fight.

In 2005 Marshall was selected by Filmmaker Magazine as one of "25 New Faces of Independent Film," and he was awarded the International Documentary Association (IDA) Jacqueline Donnet Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award.

In 2007 he received the International Trailblazer Award at MIPDOC in Cannes.

He has been a guest lecturer at Harvard, Duke, New York University and other colleges, and he has served on juries for the IDA and Hot Docs Film Festival.

Before making Street Fight, Curry worked for a number of years as a senior producer at Icon Nicholson, a New York multimedia design firm, where he produced and directed interactive documentaries and websites for the Mashantucket Pequot Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and others.

Independently, he has shot, edited and directed a number of short films including The Day The Indians Won (for the Rainforest Foundation US), which tells the story of the Panará Indians in Brazil who successfully won back their land, and Negril Elementary (for the Rockhouse Foundation), which chronicles an education project in Jamaica.

Curry is a graduate of Swarthmore College, where he studied comparative religion.

Through Deaf Eyes
Directors/Producers: Lawrence Hott, Diane Garey
Cinematographers: Allen Moore, Michael Chin, Stephen McCarthy, John Baynard
Writer: Ken Chowder
Editor: Diane Garey
Executive Producers: Dalton Delan, Karen Kenton
Composers: Judy Hyman, Jeff Claus
Running time: 120 min.
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Through Deaf Eyes explores nearly 200 years of Deaf life in America. The film presents the shared experiences of American history—family life, education, work and community connections—from the perspective of deaf citizens. The film includes interviews with former Gallaudet University president, Dr. I. King Jordan, and actors Marlee Matlin and Bernard Bragg, as well as historians and deaf Americans with diverse views on language use, technology and identity. The film presents the story of Deaf life in America—a story of conflicts, prejudice and affirmation that reaches the heart of what it means to be human.

Through Deaf Eyes does not approach the topic of deaf history from the perspective of sentimentality or of overcoming the inability to hear, nor does it deny the physical reality of being deaf. The documentary takes a straight-forward look at life for people who are part of the cultural-linguistic group who use American Sign Language and often define themselves as "Deaf"—with a capital, and cultural, "D"—and deaf people who, for a variety of reasons, do not identify with the Deaf cultural community. The history often shows that intersections between deaf and Deaf people are many and that oppression and discrimination are common experiences.

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LAWRENCE HOTT has been producing documentary films since 1978, when he left the practice of law to join Florentine Films. His awards include an Emmy, two Academy Award nominations, a George Foster Peabody Award, the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Journalism Award, the Erik Barnouw OAH History Award, 14 CINE Golden Eagles, and first-place awards from the San Francisco, Chicago, National Educational, and New England Film Festivals.

In 2002 and 2003, Hott completed three films for PBS broadcast: Imagining Robert: My Brother, Madness and Survival; The Harriman Alaska Expedition Retraced;and Ohio: 200 Years. Imagining Robert was selected by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as one of the outstanding documentaries of 2002. From 2004 to 2008, Hott produced and directing four more national PBS productions: Niagara Falls; Through Deaf Eyes; Audubon: Drawn from Nature for American Masters; and The Return of the Cuyahoga. He is now in production on 1812: The War We Forgot and Thin Ice: The Bering Sea at the Dawn of Global Warming.

Hott was the Fulbright Fellow in Film and Television in the United Kingdom in 1994. He received the Humanities Achievement Award from the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities in 1995; a Massachusetts Cultural Council/Boston Film and Video Foundation Fellowship in 2001; and the Rosalynn Carter Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism in 2001. He has served as a panelist for the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Massachusetts Cultural Commission and the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities. He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Directors Guild of America.

DIANE GAREY has had a distinguished career as a documentary and feature editor and producer. She edited and co-produced Wild by Law, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 1992 and was broadcast as part of the American Experience series on PBS. In 1997 she edited Divided Highways, winner of an Emmy Award for Outstanding Historical Programming, a George Foster Peabody Award, and Best Documentary at the New England Film Festival. She received the Humanities Achievement Award from the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities in 1995.

Garey, with her husband Larry Hott, has made over 23 films for national PBS broadcast.

Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North
Director/Producer/Writer: Katrina Browne
Co-Director/Editor/Writer: Alla Kovgan
Co-Director/Executive Producer: Jude Ray
Co-Producer/Executive Producer: Elizabeth Delude-Dix
Co-Producer: Juanita Brown
Cinematographer: Liz Dory
Composer: Roger C. Miller
Running time: 86 min.
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This personal documentary tells the story of first-time filmmaker Katrina Browne's New England ancestors, the largest slave-trading family in US history. At Browne's invitation, nine fellow descendants of her prominent family agree to journey with her to retrace the steps of the Triangle Trade. The group gathers in their old hometown of Bristol, Rhode Island, where disturbing historic documents require a rethinking of American history as the 4th of July parade rolls by. They quickly learn that slavery was business for more than just the DeWolf family—it was a cornerstone of Northern commercial life, contrary to myths that the South alone is to blame. They travel to slave forts in Ghana where, they meet with African-Americans on their own homecoming pilgrimages, and then on to the ruins of a family-owned sugar plantation in Cuba. At each stop, the family grapples with the contemporary legacy of slavery, not only for people of African descent but for themselves as white Americans. Back home, they dive directly into debates about reconciliation and repair, and seek to take public action given all that they now know. The issues the DeWolf descendants confront dramatize questions that apply more broadly, in the US and in the world: What, concretely, is the legacy of slavery—for diverse whites, for diverse blacks, for diverse others? Who owes who what for the sins of the fathers? What history do we inherit as individuals and as citizens? How does Northern complicity change the equation? What would repair—spiritual and material—really look like and what would it take?

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KATRINA BROWNE devoted nine years to the making of Traces of the Trade, and to the related family and community dialogue process, which involved hundreds of people. The film premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, and then aired on PBS's award-winning P.O.V. series. Traces of the Trade has received several awards and critical acclaim and is engendering powerful, honest, and heart-felt dialogue in public screenings across the country. Browne previously served as outreach planning coordinator for the film adaptation of Anna Deavere Smith's award-winning play Twilight: Los Angeles, about the LA riots. Earlier, she worked as a senior staff person at Public Allies, an AmeriCorps program that she co-founded in 1991 to recruit more young people and people of color into community leadership and nonprofit careers. Browne has an MA in theology from the Pacific School of Religion and a BA from Princeton University, where she studied cultural anthropology with a focus on oral history.

Specialists:

Claire Aguilar, M.K. Asante Jr., Mitchell Block, Diane Carson, Harrison Engle, Martha Foster, Betsy McLane, Patrick Murphy, Sandra J. Ruch, Bart Weiss, Thomas White

This program was funded in part by a grant from the United States Department of State. The opinions, findings and conclusions stated herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the United States Department of State.

The American Documentary Showcase is a Cultural Presentation of the United States of America