Biography

My Profile
Will Parrinello
Sausalito
Filmmaker
Tags: Tribeca Film Festival  Sundance Channel  short documentaries  San Francisco Bay Area  public television  profile documenatries  political/social issue documentaries  docs about the arts  Docs about Faith and Spirituality  Character-driven Documentaries  American Masters  academy awards  
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Supplementary Information
Title/Occupation:  Cinematographer  Director  Editor  Producer 
Services Provided:  Equipment Rental  Film/Video Editing  Post Production Facility 
Gender: Male
Race: Caucasian/White
Citizenship: US
Languages Spoken: English

Biography: 

Producer/Director Will Parrinello has been making award-winning documentaries for twenty five years. Along with his filmmaking partners John Antonelli and Tom Dusenbery at the Mill Valley Film Group he recently completed the eighth installment of The New Environmentalists, a two time Emmy Award winning series profiling grassroots activists – all recipients of the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize. Narrated by Robert Redford, the films have been awarded the Sol d’ Or at the Catalan International Environmental Film Festival, the Mion Environmental Award, the Environmental Conservation Award at the Vatavaran, India Environmental Film Festival, the Audience Award at the Woods Hole Film Festival and numerous others.

Will’s recent documentary Mustang – Journey of Transformation tells the remarkable story of a Tibetan culture pulled back from the brink of extinction through the restoration of its most sacred sites. Narrated by Richard Gere, the film features the Dalai Lama, the King of Mustang, world renowned restoration architect John Sanday, Himalayan art conservator Luigi Fieni and Richard Blum, founder of the American Himalayan Foundation, the NGO that worked closely with the people of Mustang to restore the monasteries. The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, received an Audience Award at the Maui Film Festival, Best Film On Mountain Culture at the Taos Mountain Film Festival, Special Documentary Jury Award at the EcoVision Film Festival in Palermo, Sicily, and Best Documentary at the Sundial Film Festival. Mustang was broadcast nationally on PBS and is distributed by PBS Home Video and Shorts International.
http://www.pbs.org/mustang/

Emile Norman - By His Own Design, is a profile of the self-taught California artist who, until age 91 worked with the same passion for life, art, nature and freedom that inspired him through seven decades of a changing art scene and of turbulent times for a gay man in America. The film received the HBO Audience Award from the Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, was nominated for an Emmy, and aired nationally on PBS. http://www.pbs.org/arts/exhibit/emile_norman/

Dreaming Of Tibet is a film about the resilience of the human spirit under the most dire circumstances. It is an intimate portrait of three Tibetan exiles who are working for the survival of their culture outside of their homeland. The film received an Audience Award at the Amnesty International Film Festival, Cine Golden Eagle at the New York Festivals, a Chris Award from the Columbus International Film Festival and screened for the Congressional Human Rights Caucus. It was broadcast on PBS stations.
http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/dot.html

Parrinello was honored by the Chicago International Film Festival with a Gold Hugo Award for his documentary Little Italy, an affectionate exploration of Italian American identity. The film’s critical and popular success led to PBS’s production of a series on ethnic identity in America. Little Italy received an Award of Creative Merit at the American International Film Festival and a Golden Gate Award Certificate from the San Francisco International Film Festival. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tO_AQhUFEVY

Will co-produced and edited the feature length documentary Kerouac. This profile of the beat generation author was broadcast on A&E, PBS, and The Learning Channel and played theatrically in every major U.S. market. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwnFz9945hs He co-directed, shot and edited Yen For Baseball, a behind-the-scenes look at a Japanese/American Major League All-Star series and the cultural differences influencing the game. Yen was broadcast on PBS, receiving a sports special Emmy Award nomination and Best in The West Award from PBS. Parrinello co-produced, shot and edited Sumo Basho, a look at the first accredited Sumo match in America as seen through the eyes of two American champions. The film was broadcast on PBS receiving an Emmy Award nomination and the Best Film Gold Award at the Houston International Film Festival.

He shot and edited In The Light Of Reverence, Toby McLeod’s feature documentary about Native American sacred sites and indigenous land rights issues. The film was the top rated program in the PBS series POV’s 2001-summer season. Parrinello is one of three directors of photography on McLeod’s four part series Loosing Sacred Ground, looking at sacred landscapes around the world and promoting strategies to protect the ecological integrity of these endangered places. Parrinello was director of photography on Rick Goldsmith’s Academy Award nominated feature documentary Tell The Truth & Run - George Seldes & The American Press.