Attending Filmmakers & Special Guests

Ehgartner will be discussing THE AGE OF ALUMINUM.
 
Bert Ehgartner is an investigative journalist and filmmaker from Vienna/Austria who is well known for his critical acclaim of modern medicine. He also wrote several books on health and science topics. The current film was based on his recent book “Dirty Little Secret – The Aluminum Files”. Bert Ehgartner lives with his family near Vienna.

Eldaief will be discussing RAFEA: SOLAR MAMA.
 
Mona Eldaief works as a director, director of photography and editor on documentary film and television projects around the world. Documentary feature credits include Control Room, Startup.Com, A Wedding in Ramallah, and Her Name Is Zelda. Television credits include programs for Frontline World, Discovery Channel, ABC News, and MTV News and Docs. Mona also implemented a video diary exchange program between Israelis and Palestinians, which allowed young people in Israel and the West Bank to create video diaries that were then shared to initiate an ongoing dialogue about the conflict. She continued documenting global stories through video exchange for the international film event Pangea Day. For this live broadcast, Mona sent camera phones to NGOs and UNHCR refugee camps around the world and produced and edited their first-person film narratives.

Ennis will be discussing LUNARCY!  

Simon’s first feature, the dark comedy "You Might As Well Live", premiered at the 2009 Slamdance Film Festival where it won the Dos Equis Most Interesting Film Award. Ain’t It Cool News praised it for “making me gut laugh, which most comedies can’t.”

Evans will be discussing RAFEA: SOLAR MAMA.

Mr. Evans' main responsibilities include overseeing the implementation of the Bank’s Environment Strategy, in particular, for integrating environmental objectives in lending and non-lending operations; providing leadership to the global environment agenda with internal and external stakeholders including the expansion and strengthening of global environmental partnerships.  Evans is also a key spokesperson for the Bank on climate change and related programs, such as Carbon Finance, with a primary responsibility of implementing and integrating climate concerns into operational work. 

Fitzhugh will be discussing STARBOARD LIGHT.
 
After growing up in Montpelier, VT and spending a year abroad before college working and studying in France and Italy, I began my career at Brown University ('02) by starting Glimpse, a nonprofit multimedia platform for young people living and studying abroad to share stories about personal cultural experiences abroad. Seven years later the company was acquired by National Geographic where I continued to run it as a new division of National Geographic for three years. In 2010, I started redfitz (redfitz.com) and turned my full-time attention to directing, producing and shooting primarily documentary films. My first, SOCCER CITY, was acquired by the National Geographic Channel International, ESPN Classic, and SnagFilms. In summers, I also spend some time leading photo and film expeditions abroad for National Geographic Student Expeditions.

Fleming will be discussing POTOMAC: THE RIVER RUNS THROUGH US.
 
POTOMAC, The River Runs Through Us brings together several of Peggy Fleming’s professional interests: natural history, environmental protection, cultural anthropology, the visual arts and Washington DC. She has a Masters Degree in Cultural Anthropology from George Washington University. Peggy worked as a National Park Service Ranger, Botanist/Naturalist for the natural National parks in Washington DC.  She and Raclare Kanal wrote “Annotated Checklist of Vascular Plants of Rock Creek Park, National Park Service, Washington, DC.” The voucher specimens are in the United States National Herbarium in “The District of Columbia and Vicinity collection”, in the Natural History Building of the Smithsonian Institution.  Peggy’s next career is photography. Her photographs are in: American Folklife Center, Library of Congress; Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America; Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture: D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities; Kiplinger Research Library, The Historical Society of Washington, D.C.  She has published three books: In Her Place: inner views and outer spaces [2000]; Small Town in the Big City: the shopkeepers and business community of Chevy Chase, Washington, DC at the beginning of the 21st Century.[2005]; CROWN ME! Capital Pool Checkers Club [2010]  Currently Peggy is in the MA program, for documentary filmmaking at American University.

Flesher will be discussing SOURLANDS: STORIES FROM THE FIGHT FOR SUSTAINABILITY.
 
Jared Flesher is an award-winning reporter, photojournalist, and documentary filmmaker. His articles have been published by The New York Times Online, The Wall Street Journal Online, The Christian Science Monitor, Grist, The Huffington Post, the Columbia Journalism Review, New Jersey Monthly, Inside Jersey, Edible Jersey, and many other publications.



Jared's first feature documentary, The Farmer and the Horse, was released in August 2010. It has aired more than 40 times on PBS in New Jersey and is distributed nationally by Chelsea Green Publishing and Passion River Productions. His latest film, Sourlands, was released in June 2012 and has screened at film festivals, universities libraries, and other great places throughout the United States. Sourlands is distributed nationally by Chelsea Green Publishing.



Jared graduated magna cum laude from the University of Richmond with a degree in journalism.

Flint will be discussing HOT WATER.
 
A film school graduate from California State University, Long Beach in 1988, Kevin dreamed of becoming a filmmaker since he saw Star Wars as a child. It wasn’t until 2001 that Kevin found the story that would become his first feature film. His twin brother decided to quit his banking career to pursue a new career as a professional trapeze artist with the most elite circus in the world, Cirque du Soleil. Filmed across the globe over 8 years, the resulting film was the multiple award winning documentary, “Catching Dreams”.

Starting his own production company in 2008, Kevin has been the Director of Photography on numerous projects, including the feature film The Ridley Project, which he shot and directed on location in Costa Rica. He lensed the award winning feature documentary On Sacred Ground, the story of Native Americans continued struggle to preserve sacred sites in South Dakota, along with the indie homeless drama Wake-up Call.

Kevin was the Cinematographer on the new and wildly popular film “Craigslist Joe” which tells the inspirational story of a young man who decides to survive for thirty days relying on only what he can get from Craigslist.

More recently, Kevin accepted a position with Rogers Entertainment Group to head up their documentary division, directing and shooting the documentary feature, Hot Water, about Uranium mining and its health impact on surrounding communities. Kevin’s next feature “The Long Road Home” starts filming in April 2013, the story of a father and son’s journey on the Appalachian Trail while battling life threatening cancer.

Fox-Penner will be discussing RAFEA: SOLAR MAMA.

Dr. Peter Fox-Penner, principal and chairman of The Brattle Group and board member of the Solar Foundation, specializes in economic, regulatory, and strategic issues in network industries. His practice centers on energy and environmental policies and electric regulation, planning, and competition issues. He is also experienced in the natural gas, communications, transportation, and environmental industries and is a frequent expert witness on these issues. Peter is a frequent speaker on energy topics and the author of numerous published articles and books, including the highly acclaimed Smart Power: Climate Change, the Smart Grid, and the Future of Electric Utilities (Island Press, 2010).  

Furmage will be discussing CHATTAHOOCHEE: FROM WATER WAR TO WATER VISION and POTOMAC: THE RIVER RUNS THROUGH US.

I am PhD student in the department of anthropology at American University. Potomac is my first film. I have worked on smaller community-based documentary projects on issues impacting low-income residents in Washington, DC. I'm interested in conservation work that includes local communities and using film as a way of engaging both local communities and conservation practitioners. 

Gages will be discussing BIDDER 70.
 
Beth and George Gage, as Gage & Gage Productions, have created award-winning documentaries since 1993. In a complete “about-face” they turned from careers producing and directing TV commercials and fictional features in Los Angeles to producing documentaries with a conscience in Telluride, Colorado.

Gage & Gage Productions creates compelling personal films that will empower viewers, initiate dialogue and prompt action on provocative issues. Concentrating on the environment and social justice, they present issues underrepresented in the current media. Their films educate, entertain, inspire and motivate viewers to become actively involved in humanitarian and environmental issues.

Gage & Gage Productions has completed seven longform documentaries. These films have been distributed theatrically, on television, educationally, and for consumer DVD. They have screened in national and international markets. The films have won dozens of awards at national and international film festivals and have been highly acclaimed by film reviewers.

Gallagher will be introducing and discussing The Art of Falconry Program.
 
Tim Gallagher has been fascinated by birds of prey since childhood and has traveled on several expeditions to Greenland, Iceland, Canada, and Alaska to study them. He is the author of five books, including Falcon Fever, a memoir tracing his lifelong interest in falconry. His most recent book, Imperial Dreams, recounts his perilous search for the long-lost Imperial Woodpecker in the mountains of Mexico. Tim has been Editor-in-Chief of Living Bird at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology for more than two decades.

Grabowska will be discussing THE ENDS OF THE EARTH.
 
Environmental filmmaker John Grabowska has produced films from the subarctic to the subtropics. His films have won awards at festivals around the world and have been nationally broadcast as primetime specials on PBS. He has been a guest lecturer at the National Geographic Society, the Smithsonian Institution and many universities, and has led environmental media workshops in Argentina and Panama.

Grabski will be discussing MARKET IMAGINARY.
 
Joanna Grabski is a professor of art history and visual culture at Denison University. Her research and teaching focus on artists, creative expression, and visual life in urban Africa, especially in Dakar, Senegal and Brazzaville, Congo. Joanna’s essays have appeared in journals and edited collections published in the USA, Europe, and Africa. She directed and produced the documentary film, Market Imaginary (2012), following several years of ethnographic work on Dakar’s sprawling Colobane market, famous as a crossroads for second hand clothing, shoes, and electronics. The film explores the market and its neighborhood from the “inside out.“ It highlights the creative economy of second chances for people, objects, and the urban environment as well as the possibilities for transforming seemingly used objects sustainably and creatively.

Guerra will be discussing DESIGN IS ONE: LELLA AND MASSIMO VIGNELLI.
 
Roberto Guerra’s previous films include portraits of artists and profiles of international personalities in the worlds of design and fashion. The films have always been characterized by a sense of involvement and intimacy with the subjects and by a depth of cultural sub-text. Some of the titles include: Frida Kahlo, Oskar Kokoschka, Hans Haacke, Seventy Five Years of Cinema (as seen through the eyes of Henri Langlois), Chanel, Chanel,The Story of Fashion (a three-hour series on twentieth century fashion),The Beauty Queens (a three-hour series profiling Helena Rubinstein, Elizabeth Arden and Estee Lauder), and By Design, a six-part series profiling Karl Lagerfeld, Elliott Erwitt, Lella and Massimo Vignelli,Milton Glaser, Benjamin and Jane Thompson, and Richard Sapper. The films are international in scope and of timeless significance.  Over thirty films have been broadcast by major networks in over thirty-five countries, including ABC Australia, TV Ontario Canada, Antenne 2 France, ZDF Germany, RAI TV 2 Italy, Channel Four UK, PBS, A&E, BRAVO, The Learning Channel, USA. The films have also been featured in international film festivals in New York, Edinburgh, London, Cannes, Montreal, and Los Angeles, as well as at major museums and other venues, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the United Nations, Harvard University, and in the film museums of Paris, Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, Rome, and Tokyo. The films have also successfully penetrated the home video market, and have been critically acclaimed in both the Arts and TV pages of major international magazines and newspapers.