Filmmakers in ResidenceAlumni Filmmakers in Residence
Unorthodox
Anna Wexler
2007-2008 Filmmaker in Residence
More About Unorthodox:
http://www.unorthodoxmovie.com/
Anna Wexler has co-directed and co-produced several short films, including “A Piece of Cake” (winner of the 2006 Chris Pomiecko Prize and 2005 Cambridge University Cinecam 48 Hours Film Festival) and “Spice Cream” (grand prize winner, 2007 TechTV Showcase). She graduated from MIT in 2007 with degrees in Brain and Cognitive Science, and Humanities and Science with a focus in Writing. During her time at MIT, Wexler gained experience in science writing by interning at WGBH’s NOVA and at Harvard University’s Office of News and Public Affairs. Her science and travel writing have won numerous awards and have been published in outlets ranging from neuroscience journals to travel magazines. Wexler is a world traveler who has embarked on many expeditions, including a solo bicycle journey across Mexico, a motorcycle tour of remote northern Vietnam, and month-long treks in Nepal and Turkey.
Project Synopsis:
A year spent in Israel is a rite of passage for most teenagers brought up in the American Modern Orthodox Jewish community: nearly all high school graduates, both religious and non-religious, embark on this journey of spiritual renewal. Anna Wexler, along with fellow filmmaker Nadja Oertelt, set out to follow a new generation of young Jews as they spent their year in Israel. In addition to conventional documentary cinematography shot in the US and in Israel, narration throughout the film weaves Anna’s own story with that of the three subjects. Awaken explores the role of society, family and nations in influencing beliefs, the nature of religious metamorphoses, and the border dividing Orthodoxy and mainstream society. Awaken is a film that not only documents the unique year in Israel among the Orthodox Jewish population, but also represents a more universal narrative—the story of anyone who has ever truly confronted her most deeply rooted beliefs.
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The Way We Get By
Gita Pullapilly and Aron Gaudet
2007-2008 Filmmakers in Residence
More About The Way We Get By (Trailer, Photos, Etc.)
http://www.thewaywegetbymovie.com
Visit The Way We Get By YouTube Page
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheWayWeGetByMovie
Gita Pullapilly is an award-winning television journalist and film producer. In 2008, she was inducted into the Royal Society of the Arts for her work as a filmmaker. She has produced stories in the U.S., Jordan and India for PBS, CBS, CNN and ABC. In 2006, Gita was selected as a participant in the Sundance Producers Conference at the Sundance Institute for The Way We Get By. In 2005, Gita was the first filmmaker chosen as a Fulbright Senior Scholar to Jordan. She is a member of IFP, IDA, Women in Film and Video, and the Color of Film Collaborative. Gita was born and raised in South Bend, Indiana. She graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a B.B.A. in Finance and holds a master's degree from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.
Award-winning director, screenwriter and editor, Aron Gaudet has worked on films in the United States, Jordan and India. In addition, Aron has produced Boston Red Sox and Boston Bruins promotional spots for New England Sports Network (NESN). Aron has won numerous awards in television including a total of 5 Telly Awards, 2 Emmy nominations, 2 Vermont Association of Broadcasters awards, and a Michigan Association of Broadcasters award. He is directing Dungby Productions’ feature-length documentary film, The Way We Get By, which has been getting national attention, including a mention in U.S. News & World Report. In August 2006, Aron attended the Sundance Producers Conference at the Sundance Institute with Film Producer, Gita Pullapilly. Aron is a member of the International Documentary Association (IDA) and IFP and is a graduate of New England School of Communications (NESCOM).
Project Synopsis:
“When your time comes, whether you got a million people around you or there’s nobody…you’re still gonna go.” Bill Knight’s realization about his own inevitable death is at the heart of The Way We Get By, a story about three elderly people battling their greatest fears and finding a reason to live. The film examines the lives of three Maine Troop Greeters as they put their politics aside to keep a promise to support the American troops. The story’s three characters must overcome tremendous obstacles-- health issues, emotional losses and financial difficulties-- to live a life on-call, 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, traveling to the airport to greet complete strangers. To date, the Maine Troop Greeters have greeted over 600,000 troops, as 75% of all soldiers and marines heading to and returning home from Iraq, fly through Bangor’s tiny airport.
The story is told through the eyes of BILL KNIGHT, an eccentric WWII veteran looking for a cure for his loneliness after the death of his wife. JOAN GAUDET, a 74-year-old woman who has spent her life taking care of her 8 children and 12 grandchildren and now must cope with the news that two of her grandchildren are headed to war. And JERRY MUNDY, a jolly veteran who spends most of his time talking about life with his best friend Mr. Flannigan…his dog.
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Animas Perdidas
In 1999, two brothers were deported from the US to Mexico. Within two weeks, one of the brothers overdosed on heroin in a seedy Tijuana hotel room, his body unclaimed for two months in a mass grave. "Animas Perdidas" explores the family drama that unfolds from the lives of these two men, both raised in the US and veterans of the US military, who were deported from the only country they knew and had sworn to protect. Interviewing family members, and weaving together family photographs, letters, and verité footage, Navarro's film explores larger questions of national identity, immigration, and U.S. border tensions as her family confronts its dark but resilient past.
Monika Navarro
2006-2007 Filmmaker in Residence
"Animas Perdidas" (Lost Souls) is Monika Navarro's debut documentary feature. Monika received a $100,000 grant though the Linking Independents and Co-producing Stations (LINCS) initiative. "Animas Perdidas" will be produced in partnership with Independent Television Service (ITVS) and in association with WGBH. The documentary is also funded in part by an Emerging Artist's Grant from the City of Ventura Council for the Humanities and was selected to screen at the 2006 IFP Market as a Work-in-Progress in the Spotlight on Documentaries. Monika is a first-generation Mexican-American and was raised in Ventura, California. She has lived and traveled in Mexico, and served as a youth delegate in 2000 with the Chiapas Media Project. Monika received her BFA in Studio Art from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Tufts University in 2003, and currently lives in Massachusetts.
The Mosque in Morgantown
As a West Virginia mosque confronts a challenge from a local Muslim feminist, the conflict becomes a lens to explore the larger dilemmas facing American Islam. Through vérité-style scenes and intimate interviews, "The Mosque in Morgantown" opens a window for non-Muslims to understand what goes on inside the often closed doors of the local mosque — and holds up a mirror in which Muslims can reflect on their own experiences. Through it all, it will offer a meditation on social change, American identity and the nature of religion itself.
Brittany Huckabee
2006-2007 Filmmaker in Residence
Brittany Huckabee is the principal of Version One Productions, Inc., a television production company based in Boston and Washington, D.C. Prior to founding Version One Productions, Huckabee served as a frequent producer and director for the Washington-based production company New River Media, where her credits included four documentaries and two weekly series that aired nationally on PBS. Most recently, Huckabee produced, directed and edited the three-hour historical documentary series "Heaven on Earth: The Rise and Fall of Socialism."
Prison Pups
"Prison Pups" is a one-hour documentary profiling the service-dog training program in two minimum-security prisons in suburban Massachusetts. The film follows several inmates throughout the 10 to 14 months they live with and train the puppies to be service dogs for the disabled, deaf and handicapped. The resulting story explores the fragile connections among the inmates, the confined space in which behaviors are closely monitored, and the dogs that contribute to their transformation. Tackling prison stereotypes, the film challenges audiences to think more broadly about the issues of rehabilitation and punishment within the prison system.
Alice Bouvrie
2005-2006 Filmmaker in Residence
Alice Bouvrie has more than twenty years of film and documentary experience. After graduating from the Director's Guild of America Producer's Training Program in 1986, Bouvrie worked as an assistant director on feature films, TV series and specials, and commercials for eight years. Bouvrie's most recent film, "Iditarod... A Far Distant Place," won Best Cinematography at the New England Film Festival 2000 and the First Place Audience Award for Documentary at Film Fest New Haven 2000. She earned a Master's Degree in Film Production from Boston University and a Master's Degree in Intercultural Relations from Lesley University. Bouvrie lives in Arlington, MA.
Romeo
The feature-length documentary explores the epidemic of battering through the eyes of Antonio, a counselor for violent men. Romeo addresses the themes of masculinity, isolation and abandonment and the simultaneous acceptance and condemnation of violence in our society. It examines the complexities of violence and the duality of many batterers as competent, non-violent men at work and controlling, abusive perpetrators at home.
Lorna Lowe Streeter
2005-2006 Filmmaker in Residence
Lorna Lowe Streeter is a Boston native who currently
lives in Somerville, MA. Her first film, Shelter, was released theatrically in 2003 and was named Best Discovery by the Boston Society of Film Critics. Prior to her independent work, Streeter worked at MTV Networks and Sony Pictures Imageworks, where she earned credits on several films including Anaconda, Starship Troopers and Contact. A graduate of Howard University, Streeter completed her law degree from the University of Southern California in 2000.
Traces of the Trade
"Traces of the Trade" tackles the hidden history of New England's major role in slavery. From 1769 to 1820, Browne's ancestors'DeWolf fathers, sons and grandsons'sailed their ships from Bristol, Rhode Island to West Africa to trade rum for Africans. Captives were taken to plantations that the DeWolfs owned in Cuba or were sold at auctions. Sugar and molasses were then brought from Cuba to the family-owned rum distilleries in Bristol. The Triangle Trade drove the economy not only of Bristol, but also of many other Northern port cities.
Browne joins nine DeWolf descendants on a risky journey that retraces the Triangle Trade route from Bristol, to the coast of Ghana, to the plantations in Cuba. The journey challenges the entire DeWolf clan, creating consternation and conflict in the extended family. Ultimately, Traces of Trade shows a white family realizing that they need to face the past if they are going to find their way to right relationships'personal and institutional'with African Americans today.
"Traces of the Trade" premieres June 24th at 10pm, as part of the P.O.V. 2008 schedule.
Katrina Browne
2003-2005 Filmmaker in Residence
Before launching her film "Traces of the Trade" in 1999, Browne served as Outreach Planning Coordinator for the film adaptation of Anna Deavere Smith's critically acclaimed play about the LA riots, "Twilight: Los Angeles." She has also worked as a senior staff person at Public Allies, an AmeriCorps program now operating in ten cities that she co-founded in 1991 in Washington, DC to recruit more young people and people of color into nonprofit careers. Katrina's film includes the work of Academy Award-nominated editor Bill Anderson and editor/co-director Alla Kovgan.
Alla Kovgan
2003-2005 Filmmaker in Residence
Alla Kovgan is a Boston-based filmmaker/curator/ intermedia artist, born in Moscow (Russia). Her 16mm films and videos have been screened at film festivals and theatrical venues around the world – including Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts (US), Lincoln Center (New York), Brooklyn Academy of Music (US), DeCordova Museum (US), Centre George Pompidou (France), Teater Utan Kayu (Jakarta, Indonesia) to name a few. Since 1999, Alla has been involved in dance and film collaborations – creating intermedia performances (with KINODANCE and Elaine Summers), making dance films (with Alissa Cardone, Victoria Marks and Nicola Hawkins), working on documentaries about dance (on Contemporary African Dance or on an encounter of Bill T. Jones and a Russian prima ballerina Natalia Balakhnicheva). Since 2000, she has been teaching and curating dance film and avant-garde cinema worldwide and acts as an International Director of St. Petersburg Dance Film Festival KINODANCE and as a co-Curator of Balagan Experimental Film Series. Alla is also a documentary filmmaker. Her recent documentary endeavors include editing and co-directing “Movement (R)evolution Africa” produced by Joan Frosch and “Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North” by Katrina Browne.
Till Death Do Us Part
Till Death Do Us Part reveals the love stories behind death row marriages. The film profiles three women who married death row inmates whom they did not know before their incarceration.
Morgan Faust
2004-2005 Filmmaker in Residence
Morgan Faust has produced, directed, and edited documentary films independently and for Errol Morris' First Person and WGBH's American Experience. She was also the Associate Producer for the third hour of WGBH's They Made America. Morgan's first film, The Treasure of Thomas Beale, won a Best Director Award at the Blue Ridge Film Festival. She is a 2000 graduate of Dartmouth College.
Russia's Pepsi Generation
Production still from Russia's Pepsi GenerationAfter the world celebrated the end of the Cold War in the 1980s, a generation of Soviet children faced a new realm of possibilities. Was it liberating or devastating when Gen X Russians learned that the world they had been groomed to inhabit would soon no longer exist? Using previously unseen materials from Russian archives, Soviet children's television shows, cartoons, home movies, training films, and feature films, the documentary interweaves the visual world's records with the narratives of people who came of age during Perestroika.
Robin Hessman
2004-2005 Filmmaker in Residence
Hessman graduated from Brown University with a dual degree in Russian and Film. She earned her graduate degree in film directing from the All-Russian State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) in Moscow, Russia. Her Academy Award-winning documentary short (co-dir James Longley), Portrait of Boy with Dog won over 40 prizes in international film festivals and aired in several countries. In the US, Hessman produced for PBS and The History Channel. She co-produced the award-winning documentary film, Tupperware! which premiered on PBS on American Experience in 2004 and has aired in over 10 countries. Hessman also co-produced a one-hour biography of culinary master, Julia Child -- Julia! America's Favorite Chef, which aired on the PBS series, American Masters. In 2003 Hessman was selected to participate in the CPB/PBS Producers Academy and in 2004 she received a CPB fellowship to attend INPUT in Barcelona.
For the Love of Movies: A Story of American Film Criticism
For the Love of Movies: A Story of American Film Criticism puts faces and voices to the bylines of America's most important film critics, and, for the first time ever, cameras are turned on the critics' own astonishing history. From silent era before bylines to the contemporary moment, when youth-minded Internet reviewing challenges the print establishment, this compelling documentary tells all.
This one-hour documentary reveals the rich history of this fascinating, often misunderstood, profession that has developed along with cinema itself. Today's most reputable and articulate North American critics speak on camera about their writings and aesthetic positions, and tell their personal stories about how they became absorbed in thinking about, and writing about, the movies.
Gerald Peary
2005-2006 Filmmaker in Residence
Gerald Peary has been a much-published North American film critic for more than twenty-five years. Since 1996, he has been a weekly film critic and columnist for the Boston Phoenix. He has served on critics' juries and has been president of critics' juries at many film festivals around the world. A PhD in Communications from the University of Wisconsin, Peary has taught film studies and screenwriting classes at many universities, and heads the film program at Suffolk University, where he is a professor of communications. Since 1997, he has been the curator/programmer for the Boston University cinematheque, bringing filmmakers to BU to discuss their craft.
Amy Geller
2005-2006 Filmmaker in Residence
Amy Geller got her start in film as the Associate Director of the Boston Jewish Film Festival, where she worked for two years before becoming involved in production. Geller served as television field producer and production manager for J. Arnold Productions, whose work is seen regularly on network television, A&E, HBO, MTV and CNN. In addition to acting as producer and line producer on several shorts films, educational and medical series, and documentaries, including the notable PBS/BBC broadcast docudrama Murder at Harvard, Geller also produced the Sundance Institute supported, independent feature entitled Stay Until Tomorrow.
The Expeditionist
Heddi Siebel's film imagines the creative life of Anthony Fiala, an eccentric, poetic commander and photographer of the Ziegler Expedition of 1903. Fiala was the first person to shoot motion picture film in the Arctic. The film tells the story of the goals that drive him to extremes to return with images of the unknown.
Heddi Vaughan Siebel
2004-2006 Filmmaker in Residence
Heddi Vaughan Siebel is a visual artist whose work has appeared at numerous galleries around New York and New England.