Speakers’ Bios
Speakers’ bios and photos are being posted regularly — panelists are still being booked, so check back soon
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Carol Atwood is the founder and CEO of Spartacus Media Enterprises, a social mission media company which produces conferences, convenings and advisory support for mission-driven media makers and their supporters and provides frequent keynote speakers and participants at various media conferences. Spartacus Media produced “Investing in Media that Matters Gathering at Sundance.” Spartacus Capital, a division of Spartacus Media provides consulting and advisory services to organizations requiring high level strategic partnerships and/or support for fundraising for both grant and equity/debt. Carol is on the board of the Filmmakers Collaborative, The Calvert Foundation, King Arthur Flour, and IW Financial.
Courtney Babin is currently a compositor and editor at National Boston Studios in Brookline, MA. She was an editor for two original reality shows produced by NESN, including “Be A Bruin” and “Sox Appeal.” Courtney has also been the primary editor for three feature length films including “Soul Sisters,” “Dream The Movie” and most recently “Tricks of A Woman,” shot entirely on the RED camera systems. When Courtney is not in her editing suite, you might be able to catch one of her shows at TSNY (Trapeze School of New York), as a featured flying trapeze artist.
A telecine veteran, Steve Baldwin has been transferring and color correcting motion picture film and HD for 20 years. He has worked on broadcast commercials, TV shows and feature films for a great variety of clients. He is currently Director of Film Services at National Boston Studios.
Doug Block is a documentary director, producer and cameraman based in New York City. His most recent film, 51 Birch Street, produced in association with HBO and ZDF/Arte, was named one of the top ten films of 2006 by the New York Times and one of the outstanding documentaries of the year by the National Board of Review. His previous films, Home Page and The Heck With Hollywood!, were both released theatrically in the U.S. and broadcast internationally. His documentary credits as producer and cameraman include: Silverlake Life, Jupiter’s Wife, A Perfect Candidate, Love and Diane, Paternal Instinct, American Harmony and A Walk Into the Sea: Danny Williams and the Warhol Factory. Doug is also the founder and co-host of The D-Word (www.d-word.com
Andy Carvin (http://www.andycarvin.com) is Senior Strategist for National Public Radio’s Social Media Desk. As coordinator of NPR’s social media strategy, he has helped NPR programs learn how to use user-generated content, crowdsourcing and social networks to promote dialogue and collaboration with the general public. He is also author of the PBS blog learning.now (http://www.pbs.org/learningnow), which focuses on the impact of Internet culture on education. Prior to coming to NPR in 2006, Andy was the director and editor of the Digital Divide Network (http://www.digitaldivide.net), an online community of more than 10,000 educators, community activists, policymakers and business leaders in over 140 countries working to find solutions to the digital divide.
Bestor Cram has over twenty-five years of experience as a director, producer and cinematographer. With a degree in economics from Denison University and a tour of duty as a U.S. Marine Officer in Vietnam, he pursued graduate studies at the West Surrey College of Art and Design in Guildford, England. In 1982, Bestor founded Northern Light Productions and produced How Far Home: Veterans After Vietnam. Under his direction, Northern Light has created broadcast documentaries that focus on social issues in contemporary society, science, art and history. His work also includes interpretive multi-media exhibit experiences for museums, national parks and visitor centers. Bestor is a recipient of a Massachusetts Media Fellowship, and his independent project, Unfinished Symphony, screened in competition at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. His recent documentary work includes The Special, Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison and with co-producer/director Judy Richardson, Scarred Justice: The Orangeburg Massacre 1968.
A 20 year veteran in the New England Film and Video market, Dan Cronin is a Managing Director at National Boston. He develops broadcast programming and works with corporate marketing VP’s to produce videos that help sell and market their products. He was a past Partner and President of Pisces Productions in Boston and worked with the New England Patriots as Game-Day Director of Entertainment for 10 years. Some career highlights include directing the first NFL-Europe game event at Die WaldStadium in Frankfurt Germany, 1991. Most Recently he was the Executive Producer for Production of Veria Channel TV’s series “What’s The Alternative.”
Sandi DuBowski is the Producer of A Jihad for Love, about the global struggle of Islam and homosexuality which premiered at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival, 2008 Berlin Film Festival and launched its US theatrical release with First Run Features at the IFC Center. DuBowski is the Director of Trembling Before G-d, which premiered at Sundance, was the recipient of 12 awards, has been seen by more than eight million viewers in the US, Israel, Canada, Germany, South Africa, and the UK and airs on the BBC, The Sundance Channel, ZDF-Arte, HBO Latin America, Israel’s Keshet/Channel Two, and other TV stations worldwide. He created Trembling on the Road to document this life-changing movement for the DVD and launched www.filmsthatchangetheworld.com to engage people through global house parties and online events. DuBowski’s work has been funded by over 50 foundations including The Creative Capital Foundation, The Steven Spielberg Righteous Persons Foundation, Renew Media/The Rockefeller Film/Video/Multimedia Foundation, and The Jerome Foundation. DuBowski has spoken on numerous panels at conferences and and has been a mentor for Crossover Australia and the Outreach Consultant for The Good Pitch at Silverdocs. He is directing a new film called Soul Trainer.
Sandra Forman is an attorney with a diverse practice in the areas of entertainment and copyright law. Her clients include film and television producers and directors, writers, animators, publishers, distributors, and multi-media producers. Ms. Forman is “of counsel” to the law firm of Rich May where she leads the firm’s entertainment, copyright and trademark practice group. In addition to her legal practice, she has served over the past several years as project director and legal counsel on the Eyes on the Prize Re-Release Project. Eyes on the Prize is the Emmy Award winning documentary series on America’s Civil Rights Movement. Ms. Forman was recently chosen by readers of Women’s Business as one of the region’s top ten lawyers. She serves on the Board of Directors of Filmmakers Collaborative, the Advisory Board of the Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, and the Advisory Committee of Women in Film and Video New England.
Robert Greenwald is a producer, director, political activist, and founder and president of Brave New Films which has produced a series of short political videos, including the Fox Attacks and Real McCain campaigns. He supervised the construction of Brave New Studio, a high-tech studio where organizations produce content to advance the progressive movement. Greenwald’s documentaries include: Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers (2006), an expose of what happens when corporations go to war; Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price (2005), detailing the retail giant’s assault on families and American values; and Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism (2004), about the right-wing opinion factory known as Fox “News” and he has produced a trilogy of political documentaries: Unprecedented: The 2000 Election (2002); Uncovered: The War on Iraq (2003), which he also directed; and Unconstitutional (2004). Prior to documentary work, Greenwald produced and directed more than 55 television movies, miniseries and feature films. His films have garnered 25 Emmy nominations, two Golden Globe nominations, the Peabody Award and the Robert Wood Johnson Award. He was awarded the 2002 Producer of the Year Award by the American Film Institute.
Marc L. Grubb is the owner and chief technologist of fusion IT, a Mac consultancy specializing in creative businesses. He is a member of the Apple Consultants Network, holding numerous Apple certifications. He is active in the Massachusetts Production Coalition and the Boston Final Cut Pro Users Group (BOSFCPUG). On his blog, creative-reaction.org, he explores the numerous factors affecting creativity within a business environment.
Jim Jermanok is an award-winning writer, director and producer in narrative and documentary feature films. Jim wrote and produced the highly acclaimed romantic comedy, Passionada, which was released in over 150 countries. Jim recently won the Grand Jury Prize at the Seattle International Film Festival for his film Em. He is about to finish directing Agganis, a documentary about Harry Agganis, the legendary New England athlete of years past. Jermanok is a former ICM Agent who represented Shirley MacLaine, Diudley Moore, Helen Hayes, Alan Arkin and General H. Norman Schwarzkopf.
Scott Kirsner is a journalist who writes about the ways that new technologies are changing the entertainment industry. He writes regularly for Variety and The Boston Globe, and edits the blog CinemaTech. Most recently, Scott is the author of Fans, Friends & Followers: Building an Audience and a Creative Career in the Digital Age Previously, he wrote “Inventing the Movies,” and “The Future of Web Video: New Opportunities for Producers, Entrepreneurs, Media Companies and Advertisers.” Scott has spoken and moderated panels at the Sundance Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, South by Southwest, the NAB Futures Summit, among others.
Tom Koch is Vice President of PBS Distribution, a worldwide broadcast co-production, acquisition, distribution, and new media business development company jointly owned by PBS and WGBH-Boston. PBS Distribution seeks out and manages co-production partnerships with producers and broadcasters and directs the sale of PBS, WGBH programs and programs of independent producers to media companies globally. PBSd represents acclaimed television series Wide Angle, Frontline, NOVA, American Experience, This Old House, New Yankee Workshop, and award winning independent producers Ken Burns, Alex Gibney, Eugene Jurecki, David Grubin, Jon Else, David Sutherland, among others. Koch is also a Board member of the International Emmy Committee, a founding partner of the European Television and Media Academy, and member of the Discovery Campus advisory board
Karen Laverty got her start in media working as the Director of Development for George Armitage, the director and producer of Grosse Pointe Blank and Miami Blues. From 2006 to 2008 she attended the Rotterdam School of Management at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, The Netherlands and received her MBA in Marketing. While in school she consulted on the European marketing plan for Segway. She is currently the online publicist for NOVA and NOVA scienceNOW where she creates their online marketing strategies. NOVA is the highest rated science series on television and the most watched documentary series on public television. It is also one of television’s most acclaimed series, having won every major television award, most of them many times over.
Sheila Leddy is the Executive Director at The Fledgling Fund. She has worked with The Fledgling Fund since its inception and has played a key role in developing its overall strategy in close collaboration with the Fund’s president and board. She plays a leadership role in both its Community Funding and Creative Media Initiatives, developing grant guidelines, reviewing and developing projects and assessing their potential to advance the Fund’s mission. She recently co-authored the working paper, “Assessing the Creative Media’s Social Impact” which serves as the model for evaluating the Fund’s creative media work. Prior to The Fledging Fund, she was a senior associate with The Crimson Group, Inc. She also worked at Harvard Business School where she developed curriculum materials that examined the corporate role in the social sector. Sheila received her MBA from Boston University Graduate School of Management with a concentration in Health Care and received her BA from the University of Notre Dame.
Ruby Lerner is the founding Executive Director and President of the Creative Capital Foundation an innovative arts foundation modeled after venture capital concepts. Prior to Creative Capital, Ruby Lerner served as the executive director of the Association of Independent Film and Videomakers (AIVF) and as publisher of the highly regarded Independent Film and Video Monthly. Having worked regionally in both the performing arts and independent media fields, she served as the executive director of Alternate ROOTS, a coalition of Southeastern performing artists, and IMAGE Film/Video Center, both based in Atlanta. Since 2000, she has received the Catalyst Award from the National Association of Artists Organizations (2007), the BAXten Award from the Brooklyn Arts Exchange (2007), a Creative Leadership Award from the Alliance of Artists Communities (2005), the Artist Advocate Award from the Alliance of New York State Arts Organizations (2003), and a Special Citation from Artists Space for her support of individual artists (2003). Lerner is currently a consultant for the Alliance of Resident Theaters under Art New York, serves on the advisory committee for the annual Documentary Festival at the Museum of Radio and Television, is a founding member of the steering committee for WNET’s REEL New York, and is a board member of the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art in Ridgefield, Connecticut.
Harvard University’s Nieman Foundation for Journalism has named WGBH’s Lisa Mullins one of its 2009-2010 Nieman Fellows. For 11 years, Lisa has been chief anchor for PRI’s THE WORLD, the global news magazine produced at ’GBH and broadcast on 280 public radio stations nationwide. As a Nieman fellow this fall, she’ll temporarily exit the studio and enter the classroom as part of the oldest mid-career fellowship program for journalists in the world. Nieman fellows come to Harvard for a year of study, seminars and special events—and this year will feature a new multimedia curriculum. As her core project, Lisa will conduct a real-time critical assessment of the resurgence of diplomacy in US foreign policy during the first 16 months of the Obama administration. During her time away, THE WORLD’s Marco Werman will assume duties as the primary anchor. Congrats to both! More info: http://www.nieman.harvard.edu.
Alyce Myatt, Executive Director of Grantmakers in Film + Electronic Media, previously worked as a consultant to independent media organizations and the philanthropic community. Clients included the Center for Digital Democracy, the Council on Foundations, Free Speech TV, the National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture, Emerson College, TVE Brasil, the Heinz Endowments, and the Annie E. Casey and Skillman Foundations. Prior to her return to consulting, she was vice president of programming for PBS and was a program officer for media at the MacArthur Foundation. Over the years she has provided program development, production and planning services to a variety of clients in television, radio, and for the Internet. Her production credits include the Smithsonian Institution, Nickelodeon, and the ABC News magazine, 20/20.
Joel Olicker, CEO and co-founder of Powderhouse Productions, started making comedy and monster movies on a Bell & Howell windup super 8 camera when he was 10 years old. As a member of the AV squad at Junior High School 194 in Queens, he spent many a period projecting biology films to snoozing eight graders. But while others slept, Joel was absorbing cinema. He began his professional career in New York City as an editor for the CBS children’s series Captain Kangaroo, and then at ABC network news. In Boston, Joel landed at WGBH, where he edited, produced, directed and wrote for the series, “Frontline,” “The American Experience,” “Nova,” “The Secret of Life” and “Evolution.” Joel has taught Film and TV Production on the faculties of Hampshire College and The Maine Film and Television Workshops. Since founding Powderhouse, Joel has created dozens of hours of prime-time television while overseeing hundreds of hours more. His award winning ratings hit, “Engineering The Impossible” launched the engineering genre on cable. His cult classic “American Plumber” continues to rack up literally thousands of views on You Tube.
Nancy Porter
has produced and directed documentaries for PBS first as a producer at WGBH-TV Boston, and for the last 17 years as the owner of her own production company. Nancy has won a National Emmy®, an American Film Festival Blue Ribbon and three Cine Gold Eagle Awards. Porter was the first recipient of the Women in Film and Video New England Image Award for Vision and Excellence. In 2005, Typhoid Mary: The Most Dangerous Woman in America for the PBS science series NOVA, was nominated for an Emmy® Award as Best Historical Documentary. Other Porter films for NOVA include High Tech Babies, Can You Still Get Polio?, Will Venice Survive its Rescue?, and Secrets of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Porter’s programs for the PBS history series American Experience are Amelia Earhart, The Wright Stuff, Alone on the Ice, and Houdini. Recently Porter produced and directed with Harriet Reisen (Producer/Writer) a feature length docudrama, Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women.
Kate Raisz —an award-winning producer, director, and writer with twenty years of experience in broadcast television—launched 42°N Films in 2001. Her films have been seen on National Geographic, Discovery, History Channel, Animal Planet and PBS as well as in museums, aquariums and other educational venues. She has directed productions in more than fifteen countries in Europe, Latin America, and Africa. Currently, she is working on high-definition productions that focus on natural history and underwater exploration.
John Rule has been active in the equipment rental industry locally for the past 25 years. After working at a local lighting and grip house and managing a film equipment rental company, Mr. Rule founded Rule Broadcast Systems in 1990. The company offers professional audio and video equipment sales and rentals in a broad range of formats and product choices, and specializes in HD and 24P equipment and technical expertise. Mr. Rule has been an active and vocal promoter of High-Definition acquisition and post-production. In 2008, Rule Broadcast and Boston Camera merged.
With over 35 years of production and post-production experience in television programming, commercials, long format films, media for the web, live television, news and sporting events, Bill Stuart brings a wealth of experience to all of his projects. Bill led National Boston’s post-production efforts into High Definition in the late 90’s. He has been a presenter of HD workshops to Discovery Networks, National Geographic Television, ABC Affiliates, The Weather Channel and CBS. Versed in all the current HD Formats; file and tape, Bill is the go-to guy for creating effective post-production work-flow processes for the Independent Film Maker. Bill worked as colorist for “Tricks of a Woman” shot completely on the Red Camera.
David Tamés is a filmmaker and media technologist. He recently joined the Studio Foundations department at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design as Media Arts Studio Manager. He has worked in key creative roles on a range of award-winning projects including “Never Met Picasso”, “The East Village”, and “Smile Boston Project”. David served as Project Manager launching MIT TechTV, a video sharing site for the MIT Community. He earned a M.S. in Media Arts and Sciences from the MIT Media Laboratory. David serves on the Board of Directors of Filmmakers Collaborative and often speaks at film festivals and industry events. He blogs at Kino-Eye.com.
Steve Whatley After 20 years in his own Graphic Design Studio doing both print design and photography, Steve started moving into Video and Animation in the early 90’s. Steve worked in both 2D (After Effects) and 3D for corporate and Broadcast Television. In October of 2000, Steve was recruited by Adobe to become a Systems Engineer for Dynamic Media and travels widely presenting Digital Video software and solutions to Adobe customers. You can visit Steve’s blog “aftereffectscookbook” and AdobeTV.
Anne Zeiser is an award-winning strategist whose background as a broadcast journalist, marketing executive, and social advocate uniquely positions her as the architect of successful, outcomes-driven media campaigns. Before founding Azure Media to provide strategy to media companies, Anne was Executive Director of Marketing, Publicity & Media Platforms/Director of National Strategic Marketing at PBS/WGBH where she oversaw strategy, marketing and publicity, impact campaigns and affiliate relations for PBS icons including Masterpiece Theatre, Mystery!, NOVA, American Experience, FRONTLINE, Antiques Roadshow, This Old House, Arthur, Curious George, Zoom, and Design Squad, as well as numerous groundbreaking multi-media special projects. Previously, Anne was Senior Vice President of Public Relations and Strategic Planning at McDougall Advertising, Marketing and PR (later Bozell) and has held senior positions in several other advertising agencies (Mullen, Cabot/Arnold Worldwide) overseeing national corporate, consumer and public affairs accounts. Anne also was an accomplished local and national news producer for CBS, where she contributed to 60 Minutes. She began her career in government. Her work in journalism, marketing communications, and public affairs has received top industry honors and she is a member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and a Board Member of the Filmmaker’s Collaborative.
