Press:

Rhett Turner

Turner will be discussing The Endangered Rivers Program.

Rhett Turner, President of Red Sky Productions based in Atlanta, Georgia, is a producer and director of photography who has focused on international documentaries for global television audiences since 1999. His state of the art production company has traveled to virtually every part of the world – Africa, Asia, Antarctica, Europe and South America. Turner has shot award-winning programs in high definition for the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, including Journey of a Masterpiece: Lion and Serpent, Renzo Piano: Designing a Village for the Arts and Verocchio’s David Restored. He has served as director of photography for programs that have aired on CNN and TBS, including Rwanda Gorilla, El Lobo: The Song of the Wolf and Pollinators in Peril. Turner was director of photography on the monumental PBS series narrated by Walter Cronkite, Avoiding Armageddon, and he produced as well as shot Antarctica: The Spirit of Adventure.

Lizabeth Rogers

Rogers will be discussing HOT WATER.
 
According to Liz, a thirty year career in the entertainment industry was just the first step toward her ultimate goal – that of being a documentary filmmaker.
Telling real stories are her passion. ‘Hot Water’ is the third of Liz’s documentaries, following the multiple award winning films, ‘On Sacred Ground’ and ‘Catching Dreams’. She started her career in broadcast management, at radio stations owned by Olympia Broadcasting covering the entire western United States and rounded out her expertise in the ‘business’ of the business by working in advertising and commercial production. In the early 90’s she worked for Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme and their manager as they toured the world with Frank Sinatra.

She worked with Stephen Paul, renowned sound engineer and microphone guru – whose modifications to Neuman microphones are known to recording engineers and audiophiles worldwide. It was during these years that she began recording and producing jazz artists, doing forensic sound work and integrated software and computer systems design and customization into her work.

She joined Warner Bros. studios in 1994 and helped transition their video and post production facilities to a fully automated computer system for scheduling, billing and reporting during daytime hours – and worked nights on sound mixing stages learning all aspects of the recording process. She retired in 2000 to work with Don Rogers in the development of Digital Cinema through Technicolor Labs and his company Real Image Digital and consulted on the software systems installation and training for Pacific Title and Arts Studio, SounDeluxe and Ryder Sound.

Determined to make a difference, Liz has dedicated her life to her work with groups and companies whose focus is on environment, education and health. She is currently on the board of The Hestia Gaea Foundation whose mission is to support educators in health, nutrition and the environment.


She is also on the board of GardenChef Paul Company, whose founder Paul Wenner invented the Gardenburger and currently is the producer of the GardenBar – a whole food savory bar. Liz has worked with Paul on the development of the GardenBar since its beginning and is currently editing and designing his latest book release, titled “The Power of our Forks”.

Suzanne McMannis

McMannis will be discussing EMPOWERED: POWER FROM THE PEOPLE.
 
Suzanne McMannis homesteads with her husband, Lynn, on 50 acres in Freeville, NY. After building their barn and straw bale house and putting in an orchard, gardens, ponds, and pastures for their sheep and dairy cow, they started an organic vegetable CSA that keeps them completely out of trouble with its never-ending workload. They heat and cook with wood and have lived off-the-grid for a decade (with a 1kW Bergey wind turbine and 720W of solar panels).

Alec Pedersen

Pedersen will be discussing HOW I BECAME AN ELEPHANT.
 
As a producer, Alec has contributed to such groundbreaking documentary films as The Cove, UNITY – Shaun Monson’s epic second chapter in the EARTHLINGS trilogy which is coming to US theaters this summer, as well as the follow-up to The Cove, hitting theaters next year.

Alec’s undercover film work with Cove director Louie Psihoyos, Charles Hambleton, and other Oceanic Preservation Society team members during the film’s successful Academy Award season in 2010 exposed a popular Santa Monica, CA restaurant that was serving endangered sei whale, horsemeat, and blowfish. This sting operation resulted in a federal grand jury indictment to the restaurant and two of its sushi chefs with fines of up to $1.2 million and up to 67 years in prison. It is illegal to sell any kind of whale meat in the U.S.

Alec Pedersen lives in Los Angeles and owns a successful financial planning practice in Beverly Hills. Among his other duties in the field of animal conservation, Alec is proudly serving as the CFO on “How I Became an Elephant.”