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MICHELLE ESRICK
Director/Producer
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Michelle Esrick is a filmmaker, actress, activist and poet. Michelle has worked on a number of documentaries about art, music and social change. She has worked on projects such as My Generation, Barbara Kopple's film about the three Woodstock Festivals. Esrick has also produced such notable events as "Activism With A Sense Of Humor" at Theater for the New City in NYC (2001), "Poems Not Fit for the White House" at Lincoln Center, including Arthur Miller, Mos Def, and Andre Gregory (2003), and "Unconventional Heroes: An Evening of Performance to Honor Courageous Resisters" including Steve Earle and Odetta (2004).
Since 1999 Michelle has been documenting the life of Wavy Gravy.
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DA PENNEBAKER
Executive Producer
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DA (Donn Alan) Pennebaker is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of cinema verité filmmaking. In 1959, he joined with other filmmakers to produce the highly acclaimed and revolutionary "Living Camera" series of documentaries and developed one of the first fully portable 16mm synchronized camera and sound recording systems, making possible the revolutionary cinema verité movement.
In the 60s, Pennebakers portrait of Bob Dylan, Dont Look Back (1967) broke all box office records for documentaries, and Monterey Pop (1967), starring Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix, were two of the earliest films using real-life drama to have a successful theatrical distribution.
Since 1977, Pennebaker has partnered with Chris Hegedus on a host of acclaimed films including The Energy War, Town Bloody Hall, Delorean, Moon Over Broadway, and Startup.com. The team received the D.W. Griffith Award for Best Documentary of the Year and an Academy Award® nomination for their 1994 Clinton campaign film The War Room featuring James Carville and George Stephanopoulos. Most recently they co-directed with Nick Doob Elaine Stritch at Liberty which won two Primetime Emmy® Awards. Music-related films they have made together include The Music Tells You (about Branford Marsalis), Open Hand (about Suzanne Vega), Depeche Mode 101, Keine Zeit, Searching for Jimi Hendrix, Down from the Mountain, and Only the Strong Survive. Pennebaker is the producer for Hegedus and Doobs feature film Al Franken: God Spoke about the pugnacious political satirist Al Franken.
He is the recipient of numerous awards including career awards from the International Documentary, Full Frame Documentary, and Hot Doc Documentary festivals.
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DAVID BECKER
Producer
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David Becker recently completed producing and directing the feature-length documentary Small Steps, which follows the creation and first year of the High School for Contemporary Arts, a new small school located inside one of New Yorks most dangerous high schools. The film is produced by two-time Academy Award winning filmmaker Barbara Kopple.
Becker coordinated the recent restoration and re-release of Barbara Kopples landmark documentary Harlan County USA, including a Sundance premiere, theatrical release, Criterion Collection DVD bonus features and soundtrack on Rounder Records. He has collaborated with Ms. Kopple on several nonfiction projects, including Shut Up and Sing, My Generation, I Married
, The Hamptons, and Confident for Life: Kids and Body Image.
Becker created and produces the video podcast documentary series Magnetic Baby. The series follows Brooklyn-based rock band Semi Precious Weapons as they navigate the rapidly changing record industry.
He has also created short films for organizations such as Vital Voices, People for the American Way, the Soho Partnership, the Ray of Light Foundation at Sachi & Sachi, the Union Square Hospitality Group and Hal Jacksons Talented Teens.
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DANIEL B. GOLD
Director of Photography
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Daniel B. Gold won the 2002 Sundance Excellence in Cinematography Award for his work on Blue Vinyl, which he both co-directed, co-produced. That film also garnered him two Emmy Nominations: one for Research, and one for Best Documentary. In 2002, Blue Vinyl was broadcast on HBOs America Undercover.
Gold Co-directed, Produced, and Photographed Everythings Cool, a new film which was an official entry in the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and winner of the Audience Award at the Eckerd Film Festival. Golds work as DP will also be featured in several new documentaries during 2007, including Coma, a 90-minute Moxie Firecracker special on HBO; New Orleans, an Insignia Films two-hour PBS special American Experience; and a theatrical release of Toots Shore: Bigger Than Life, which premiered at Tribecca film festival in 2006.
Recent broadcast credits as DP include The Nazi Officers Wife (A&E Special), Breaking the Violence (Lifetime Special), and Colonial House (sequel to the PBS series Frontier House. Prior to concentrating on feature documentaries, Golds camerawork was frequently seen on Saturday Night Live, Dateline NBC, and the Hallmark Channel.
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EMORY JOSEPH
Music Supervisor/
Composer
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Emory Joseph has had a successful and diverse 25 year career in music. His songs have been recorded by Bonnie Raitt, and his voice and compositions have appeared commercially as work for television, radio, and now feature film. He brings a musicologist's understanding of regional American and World music, and the ability to write and
produce recordings in a wide range of styles and colors. A close friend of Wavy Gravy, he has a unique perspective on the complexity of the subject's intimate relationship with music and musicians. His latest album "Fennario - Songs by Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter" is a 12 song tribute to the principle songwriters for the Grateful Dead.
www.emoryjoseph.com
www.myspace.com/fennariocity
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KAREN K. H. SIM
Film Editor
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Ms. Sim began her documentary filmmaking career as an editor on Maro Chermayeffs Juilliard for the PBS series American Masters. She then further honed her skills in storytelling by working with Frontline producer/director Ofra Bikel, editing a number of her films, including An Ordinary Crime and The Burden of Innocence, both of which won an Emmy. Most recently, she co-produced and edited Liz Garbus's Shouting Fire: Stories from the Edge of Free Speech which premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.
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EMMA JOAN MORRIS
Consulting Editor
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| Emma Joan Morris is an Emmy Award winning producer/director/editor whose work includes the feature documentary Something Within Me, winner of the Audience Award, Film Makers Trophy and a Special Grand Jury Award at the Sundance Film Festival. She has recently completed a feature documentary on Marfan Syndrome and a short film on offshore wind power. Her other editing credits include Shut-Up and Sing, the Academy Award winning documentary Close Harmony and the Emmy Award winning Voices of Sarafina. |
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