Biography

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Mary Skinner
San Francisco Bay Area
Director Producer
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Supplementary Information
Title/Occupation:  Consultant  Director  Educator  Grant Writer  Producer  Publicist/Marketing  Researcher  Writer 
Services Provided:  Film Festivals/Marketers  Narration/Translation  Seminars/Workshops 
Gender: Female
Race: Caucasian/White
Citizenship: US
Languages Spoken: English, some French and Polish

Brief Message to Members: 

Available in the SF Bay Area for coaching, producing, directing, story consulting, writing, research and marketing

Biography: 

Mary Skinner devoted seven years to producing and directing "IRENA SENDLER In the Name of Their Mothers", a 60 minute doc about a group of young Polish women who outfoxed the Nazis during WWII to save the lives of thousands of Jewish children. The daughter of a WWII Warsaw war orphan, she has a very personal appreciation for the story of Irena Sendler. The film premiered in Poland on TVP in 2010 and in the US on National PBS in May of 2011. It went on to win the 2012 Gracie Award for Outstanding Documentary, the Best Documentary Audience Award at the UK Jewish Film Festival, and the Accolade Best in Show Award for 2012. It has been an Official Selection at Film Festivals around the world, including the 2010 Cinetech International Film Festival in San Jose. In October of 2012 it will screen as an Official Selection of the United Nations Association Film Festival in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Mary Skinner began her career in story-telling after graduating from UC Berkeley’s renowned theater program in the 1970s. Together with fellow graduates W. Stuart McDowell and Gloria Skurski she helped to launch the Riverside Shakespeare Company in New York City. Over its two decades, Riverside produced works by Shakespeare, Marlowe, and Brecht and served as a training and performance venue for actors and directors such as Tom Hanks, Raul Julia, Helen Hayes, Victor Argo, and Austin Pendleton. During the 1980s Mary worked in a variety of corporate marketing positions in New York and San Francisco where she produced ad campaigns, TV commercials, corporate videos, and web sites. She was a VP and Marketing Director at PaineWebber and JP Morgan in New York, and at Wells Fargo, Charles Schwab and Intuit in San Francisco. In 2001 she began studying ad working on documentary films in New York. She established her production company “2B Productions” in 2003 and produced and directed the short film KIRKUT, in addition to her feature film about Irena Sendler. She is currently residing in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she continues to work as a director, producer, writer and marketing consultant for a wide range of clients, including independent filmmakers.