People Behind the Movie
Eva Jefferson Paterson (Executive Producer): Eva is the President and Founder of the Equal Justice Society (EJS), a national advocacy organization, strategically advancing social and racial justice through law and public policy, communications, the arts, and alliance building. Prior to creating EJS, Eva worked at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights for 26 years, serving as its Executive Director from 1990 through 2003. She also co-founded and chaired the California Coalition for Civil Rights for 18 years. Eva is the Founder and CEO of a film production company, Joy and Magic, which has produced two films — one for the 25th anniversary of the Lawyers’ Committee and one with the late Marlon Riggs on race and racial stereotypes, entitled Changing Images Through Action.
Marcus Shelby (Composer): Marcus has been playing the acoustic bass for 23 years, building a diverse and accomplished biography. He was the bandleader of Black/Note and is currently the Artistic Director and leader of The Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra, The Marcus Shelby Septet and The Marcus Shelby Trio. Marcus has won innumerable awards, grants and private commissions, including the 1991 Charles Mingus Scholarship, which allowed him to study with composer James Newton and legendary jazz bassist Charlie Haden. His groups have recorded ten albums, and he has composed original scores for more than 30 cinematic, theatrical and dance pieces, including the Port Chicago Jazz Ballet, commissioned by the Equal Justice Society. Marcus currently teaches at Berkeley, Stanford and San Francisco State.
PRODUCTION & POST
Rick Butler (Cameraman): Rick has won four Emmy® Awards for his work as a cameraman and director. He has over 25 years experience in broadcast, corporate and narrative film and video production, including extensive documentary work that has aired nationally on PBS and on commercial networks. He spent more than five years as a staff cameraman for ABC, and has directed several documentaries for KQED. His film about the Fillmore district, historically San Francisco’s most diverse neighborhood, documents the tragic mistakes made during the city’s “urban renewal” era, and serves as an object lesson on how government policy can destroy a community. He also directed two documentaries about the making of computer animated feature films for Disney/Pixar. Rick describes himself as an advocate for social change.
Peter McCandles (Cinematographer): Peter received his MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, began his career as an experimental filmmaker and photographer, then moved into commercial work, independent features and shorts, and documentaries. Peter received two National Endowment for the Arts Awards, and his film Pool of Thanatos recently premiered at The Sundance Film Festival. As a cinematographer, his projects include the Emmy® award winning documentary Of Civil Wrongs and Rights: The Fred Korematsu Story, the critically acclaimed Celebration: Rev. Cecil Williams and Glide Church, and Gyalyum Chemo: The Great Mother, a documentary on His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s mother that broadcast nationally on PBS in April 2006. Peter’s most recent work is The Bridge, a film about suicide and the Golden Gate Bridge that premiered at the 2006 TriBeca Film Festival in NY.
Susan Marya Baronoff (Producer): Growing up as the only Jewish girl in a Midwestern town, Susan developed a keen sense of “otherness” which led to her career as artist and de facto anthropologist. After training at the prestigious Northwestern University drama department, Susan performed and directed theater pieces around the world, from Lincoln Center to Beirut. The Washington Post dubbed her “the funniest woman in Washington” for her work with the satire troupe Gross National Product. Susan has written drama criticism and feature articles for major newspapers. She produced and directed award-winning videos, including a series on child abuse at Army bases. Susan graduated from the Warner Brothers TV Writers Workshop, then wrote for numerous television shows and independent films, including the reality show Starting Over, where she served as Show Producer during its Emmy® award winning second season. Susan is currently working on a new documentary-style mini-series for HBO.
Karyne Holmes (Editor): Karyne has worked as a video journalist and editor for thirty years, including stints at Lucasfilms and KRON-TV. She edited [and/or co-produced?] About Race, which won the George Foster Peabody Award for best documentary. Four of her projects have won Northern California Emmy Awards, including How We Played The Game, a film about heroes of the Negro Baseball League, and Port Chicago Mutiny: A National Tragedy, a documentary hosted by Danny Glover, about the 1944 mass court martial of black sailors, and the efforts of three California congressmen — more than four decades later — to overturn their convictions. Her works have also won a Thomas M. Storke International Journalism Award, a Northern California Society of Professional Journalists Award, a Northern California Radio/Television News Directors Award, a National Pew Center Batten Prize, and a James Beard Foundation Award.
Michael Rugen (Head Writer): Michael is a San Francisco attorney and free-lance writer with a long history of involvement in racial justice issues. After graduating from Colgate University and New York University School of Law, he has practiced law in New York and San Francisco for more than 30 years. Michael has devoted extensive time to race and poverty-related matters, from walk-in legal clinics, to individual and class action civil rights cases, to death penalty appeals, to diversity in the legal profession. He has been a Director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights for many years, and served for two years as its Co-Chair. He is a Director of the Glide Economic Develop-ment Corporation. Michael’s writing focuses on issues of race, poverty and politics.
MARKETING
Rodney K. Williams (Marketing Consultant): Rodney is a consultant to a new natural products venture backed by IDEO, Inc., a California-based innovation and design firm. He previously held senior positions at some of the most highly regarded consumer product firms in the country. As Vice President of Marketing for Robert Mondavi Corporation, Rodney managed the top-selling wine brand in the U.S. Before entering the for-profit sector, Rodney worked for the Community Workshop on Economic Development, an association of 65 Chicago-based CBO’s. As the Product Director, he worked with NEDLC to assist twelve CBO’s in developing for-profit subsidiaries. Rodney has been a member of the NEDLC board since 2004. He received his B.A. in Political Science from Amherst College and his M.B.A. from Kellogg Graduate School of Business, with concentrations in Marketing and Finance.
Cornelius Moore (Distribution and Funding Consultant): Cornelius is Co-Director of, California Newsreel, which specializes in films about the African American experience, African films and films on the global economy. Cornelius was instrumental in launching several documentaries about race, including Ethnic Notions, the classic documentary on black stereotypes. He organized the theatrical release of Black Gold, a documentary on fair trade coffee, and established a partnership with OXFAM America to help promote it. Cornelius organizes screenings at academic conferences, to reach the educational market. He has been on the Advisory Board of the San Francisco International Film Festival, a judge at several film festivals, a funding panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller and MacArthur Foundations, and a board member of the California Council for the Humanities.
Keith Kamisugi (Viral Marketing, PR, Web): Keith is director of communications at the Equal Justice Society. He was previously a regional spokesman for Verizon Communications, an account manager for a tech PR agency and an independent consultant for a diverse portfolio of companies. Keith was born in Hawai’i, attended the University of Hawai’i, and served on the executive staffs of two Hawai’i governors. He has managed communications for the UNITY: Journalist of Color convention in 2004 and several Asian American Journalists Association conventions. Keith is a producer for the documentary, “Vincent Who?“, and also manages the website for Lane Nishikawa’s “Only The Brave“.
