Southern Circuit - Tour of Independent Filmmakers

Jean Marie Offenbacher graduated from NYU with honors in Philosophy and Film. Her initial work in film was as an artist, creating 16mm experimental films. She worked in post-production on three documentaries, including Ken Burns' Thomas Hart Benton. Her career in post-production mainly focused on studio feature films, including Reversal of Fortune with Glenn Close, American Heart with Jeff Bridges, and The Rapture with David Duchovny. From 1994 to 1996, she worked on various projects for BBC and Prisma Films providing production management services. She produced and directed her first feature documentary, Tea on the Axis of Evil, after spending the larger part of 2004 to 2006 filming throughout Syria. She is currently shooting a feature documentary in Algeria that explores the relationship between imposed identity and violence in that society.

Jen White became a camera junkie at the age of twelve while earning a photography badge in Girl Scouts. After three years working gigs as a babysitter to feed her ever-growing film stock habit, she spent a few hours watching a movie she wasn't old enough to see and her life has never been the same since. After graduating from Columbia College - Chicago with a B.A. in film production in 1999, Jen moved back to her home town of Austin, Texas, where she works primarily as a cinematographer. She has lensed multiple feature films, documentaries, and award-winning shorts and music videos. Her work has aired on A&E, TLC, Discovery, MTV Europe, and PBS, as well as festivals around the world. When she's not shooting projects for other directors, Jen pulls double duty as director and cinematographer for music videos, live concerts, short films, and the occasional documentary or commercial. She is currently preparing her next feature film, a collaboration with her mentor, to be shot in downtown Chicago in 2010. Between Floors is Jen’s feature film debut. The film examines the human condition through a uniquely claustrophobic lens, intercutting between five stuck elevators and the people trapped inside them. Each elevator becomes an existential purgatory, forcing its occupants to not only confront their isolation, but themselves and each other in varied and unexpected ways. Taking place entirely in five elevators, Between Floors is as unusual as it is arresting, blurring lines of genre, tone and form while its characters are stripped bare—trapped, alone, waiting—and we get to watch what happens. Awkwardly funny, numbingly tragic, anxiously crushing, and ultimately liberating, the film features a colorful variety of characters stripped of control, slowed to a halt, and forced to reflect... until the doors open.

Karen Hunter is the founder of Rose Mountain Productions and producer-cinematographer of three award-winning documentaries. Karen's initial vision of Rose Mountain Productions was sparked when an opportunity arose to travel with a team of doctors and researchers to videotape families with Huntington’s disease in the barrios of Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela. Karen witnessed extremely poor living conditions and unimaginable poverty in these communities, which left a long and lasting impression. Following her experiences in the Venezuela barrios, Karen earned a professional certificate in digital filmmaking in 2005. By the beginning of 2009, she completed three feature-length documentaries as a producer. Titled “PlaybyPlayMen and The Art of the Perfect Call,” “Henry O!” and “Bleacher Boys,” her documentaries have won numerous awards. The film she is sharing on the Southern Circuit Tour, “Bleacher Boys,” tells the story of five men who share a common passion: Major League Baseball. All are masterful storytellers whose tales become easy for us to identify with and whose perseverance we can admire. The line-up includes: Ed Lucas, a reporter for the New York Yankees; Pat Cannon, who lost his sight more gradually as he continued the struggle to keep his dream alive; Neal Freeling, who was born without sight but fell in love with baseball announcer Mel Allen’s voice as his words brought the game to life; Craig Lynch, who has never seen a baseball field in his life, but who now sits in the bleachers at Wrigley Field reporting on games for the Chicago Cubs; and Paul Parravano, known as the MIT King and honored for his remarkable contributions to this prestigious university.

After earning an MFA in Film from UCLA, Zachary Godshall premiered his first feature, Low and Behold, at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. A fictional film that includes documentary footage to tell a story in post-Katrina New Orleans, Low and Behold garnered numerous awards at festivals around the US. Currently, Godshall lives in his native south Louisiana, where he teaches Film and Screenwriting at Louisiana State University. While finishing God's Architects, Godshall was awarded an Artist Fellowship by the Louisiana Division of the Arts and named to the Southern Artistry Register. Godshall is also presently writing a screenplay adaptation of the soon to be published novel by the award-winning writer David Madden. God's Architects is Godshall’s first documentary and his second feature film. God's Architects tells the stories of five visionary builders and their enigmatic creations. With neither funding nor blueprints, these builders, unbeknownst to one another, dedicate their entire lives to creating architectural worlds and realms that for most of us exist only in the wilds of the imagination. In the fall of 2005, filmmaker Zack Godshall set out with a camera, tripod and microphone to interview and document the work of Floyd Banks, Jr., a divinely inspired castle-builder living in the east Tennessee hill country. Three and a half years later, Godshall completed a feature-length film that both examines and celebrates the work of Banks along with four other solitary builders who have constructed similar monuments. Beyond the builders and their work, the film indirectly functions as a personal essay that explores the nature of inspiration and one's dedication to a creative project, no matter how absurd or mysterious the circumstances may seem. God's Architects features builders from Arkansas, California, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee.

Tonya S. Holly has 17 films to her credit, including Toy Soldiers, starring Louis Gossett, Jr. and Sean Astin. She also cast the Oscar award-winning film Blue Sky, starring Jessica Lange and Tommy Lee Jones. She has worked with CBS, HBO, NBC, FOX, Morgan Creek, Universal, Buena Vista, and many independent productions. She also founded the Alabama Filmmakers Association in 1991 to help promote film in the state of Alabama and to develop sound stages in Northwest Alabama. She has produced and directed numerous plays, commercials, and the music video This Day which included over 30 songwriters and nearly 1000 voices. She produced the largest gathering of Muscle Shoals musicians in history on a double CD set called One Voice. She also opened Gem-Star talent agency in 1989 to develop local talent in Northwest Alabama. In When I Find the Ocean, the journey of a lifetime begins for young Lily Strickland, not out of her love for adventure, but out of heartache. Longing for the father she lost to the ocean, and having no way to say goodbye, Lily strikes out on her own to begin a journey of the spirit and the heart. Her mother has found a new man to share her life with and Lily is the bearer of unpleasant secrets in his life which only she knows. Leaving behind a safe, loving environment with her grandparents (Diane Ladd and Lee Majors) and loving mother (Amy Redford), she faces not only her fears but the obstacles the wilderness presents. With her faith and belief that her father will guide her, she sets out with her trusty dog. With the help of a friendly tugboat captain (Bernie Casey), she follows her dream to find the ocean and to finally set her heart at peace. The film stars Lily Matland Holly, Academy Award® Nominee Diane Ladd, Golden Globe nominee Lee Majors, Academy Award® Nominee Graham Greene, Richard Tyson, Bernie Casey, Amy Redford, George Lindsey, and David Fralick.

The Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers will showcase the feature-length documentary The Reckoning: The Battle for the International Criminal Court, produced by Paco de Onis and directed by Pamela Yates, in March 2010. Pamela Yates is the recipient of a 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship. She is the Director of the Sundance Award-winning When the Mountains Tremble, the Producer of the Emmy Award-winning Loss of Innocence, and the Executive Producer of the Academy Award-winning Witness to War. Most recently she directed State of Fear (2005), a feature length documentary that tells the epic story of Peru’s 20-year “war on terror” based on the findings of the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission. State of Fear was featured in the 2006-2007 Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers. Pamela is a co-founder of Skylight Pictures, Inc. and is a member of the Director’s Guild of America (DGA) and The Writers Guild of America (WGA). Paco de Onís grew up in several Latin American countries and is multi-lingual (Spanish, Portuguese, English, Italian, French). Prior to the ICC project, he produced State of Fear. Paco also has produced documentaries for PBS (On Our Own Terms with Bill Moyers), National Geographic (Secrets from the Grave), New York Times Television (Police Force, Paramedics), and MSNBC (Edgewise with John Hockenberry).

Launched in 2002, the International Criminal Court (ICC) is the first international tribunal of its kind — a permanent criminal court created to prosecute individuals, no matter how powerful, for crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide. The Reckoning, a feature-length documentary filmed in High Definition on four continents, follows the dynamic and charismatic Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo, Deputy Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, and Senior Trial Attorney Christine Chung as they issue arrest warrants for the Lord’s Resistance Army leaders in Uganda, put four Congolese warlords on trial at The Hague, challenge the UN Security Council to support the Court’s call for an arrest warrant for the President of Sudan on charges of genocide, and shake up the Colombian justice system. Filmed at ICC headquarters in The Hague for three years with unprecedented access to the inner workings of the Court, the dreamers behind it, and the obstacles they need to overcome as they create a new paradigm for global justice. The Reckoning puts in high relief the mounting drama of the international justice movement, embodied in this tiny court in The Hague that is struggling to change the world and how we think about justice.

Jim Cozza produced and directed the award-winning short films River Rat, for National Geographic, and Autumn Waking, which featured Edie Falco. His training in filmmaking came via Hollywood picture editing crews, working with noted directors including Kathryn Bigelow (Blue Steel), John Frankenheimer (Against the Wall), Alan Parker (The Commitments), and Wayne Wang (Smoke). He went on to edit a number of independent features and numerous programs for US television. More recently, he’s produced, directed, and/or edited television for NBC, PBS and the Discovery Channel. Frank the Rat is his first feature film as a writer and director. Frank the Rat explores the deep but fragile bond between siblings who have grown apart but can’t get by without each other. Billy lives in a run-down industrial neighborhood in New York City, with no real job, or place to call his own. His sister, Lisa, appears to be doing better, but she just ran out on her fiancé, and that’s only the beginning of her problems. One day Lisa shows up on Billy’s doorstep with a plan to save both of them: hit the road together and find Frank, the father they haven’t seen in twenty years. Along the way, they meet some uniquely American characters, have adventures both good and bad and, naturally, nothing goes according to plan.

Trained at Yale University and the American Film Institute Conservatory, filmmaker Peter Esmonde spent more than a decade working in New York and Los Angeles at various tasks in the film industry: writer, researcher, story analyst, assistant editor, sound editor, associate producer, and so on. After toiling as a producer at Discovery Channel in the mid-1990s, Esmonde was targeted by executive headhunters, and spent some years foraging in the corporate jungles of North America. He finally emerged in 2005 as a producer and director of documentary films. Esmonde has also taught film, media, and information design at various American universities. Trimpin: The Sound of Invention is his first documentary feature. The film explores the outrageous work and agile mind of a wildly creative artist/inventor/composer/engineer. Recipient of a MacArthur Genius Award and many other accolades, Trimpin (who uses only his last name) combines music-making machines and kinetic sculpture with homegrown computer technology. Working six days a week, 12 hours per day, he has no use for galleries and agents, and has neither web site nor cell phone; in fact, Trimpin agreed to be the subject of this feature only reluctantly. Filmmaker Peter Esmonde set out to document the processes of a highly creative person working in many fields, with a motley assortment of media and collaborators, across a variety of situations. His film deliberately highlights Trimpin’s moments of discovery, relentless problem-solving, and eccentric decision-making. What results is an amusing, kinetic exploration of a creative genius in perpetual motion.

After college graduation, Eric Bricker spent a few years acting with the California Repertory Company and the Utah Shakespearean Festival. Upon settling in Los Angeles, he turned his focus toward film and television production where he worked with such notable talent as Jerry Seinfeld, Alec Baldwin and Danny Aiello. Meanwhile, Eric explored his affinity for music, playing percussion with the likes of Kenny G and Perry Farrell at the Coachella Music Festival. As his passion for filmmaking grew, so too did his art consultation firm, Artistic Designs Unlimited, which was formed in 1996. It was in 1998, when in need of vintage photos of San Francisco, that Eric was led to Julius Shulman. At the outset an enduring friendship between the two began. Recognizing the extraordinary amount of humanity and profundity Shulman and his work possessed, Eric put into motion his inspiration for Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman. Narrated by Dustin Hoffman, Visual Acoustics explores the monumental career of 97-year-old architectural photographer Julius Shulman. Populating his photos with human models and striking landscapes, Shulman combined the organic with the synthetic, melding nature with revolutionary urban design. The resulting images helped to shape the careers of some of the greatest architects of the 20th Century, with Shulman documenting the work of Richard Neutra, Rudolph Schindler, Pierre Koening, John Lautner, and many others. Taking its aesthetic cues from Shulman's own sensual and nuanced photography, the film's narrative is built from a blend of Shulman's own images as well as in-depth interviews with architect Frank Gehry, designer Tom Ford, artist Ed Ruscha, actress Kelly Lynch, writer Mitch Glazer, publisher Benedikt Taschen, Academy Award-nominated cinematographer Dante Spinotti, and a host of others.

Katrina Browne is the seventh generation descendant of Mark Anthony DeWolf, the first slave trader in the family. She launched the work on her documentary film Traces of the Trade and the family process it involves in 1999. She came to that work and to filmmaking from writing a Masters thesis comparing civic life in ancient Greece to the untapped potential of film to catalyze civic dialogue today. She wrote this thesis while earning a Masters in Theology at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California. Prior to her graduate studies she earned her B.A. from Princeton University, where she studied cultural anthropology with a focus on oral history. Traces of the Trade tells the story of Browne's New England ancestors, the largest slave-trading family in U.S. history. At Browne’s urging, nine fellow descendants of her prominent family agree to journey with her to retrace the steps of the Triangle Trade. The group gathers in their old hometown of Bristol, Rhode Island. They discover disturbing historic documents that require a rethinking of American history as the 4th of July parade rolls by. Slavery was business for more than just the DeWolf family—it was a cornerstone of Northern commercial life. They travel to slave forts in Ghana where they meet with African-Americans on their own homecoming pilgrimages. Then they visit the ruins of a family-owned sugar plantation in Cuba. At each stop the family grapples with the contemporary legacy of slavery, not only for black Americans, but also for themselves as white Americans. Browne pushes them forward as they make their way through the minefield of race politics, and debates about reparations. They also come face-to-face with their love/hate relationship to Yankee culture and privilege, and struggle with how to take public action given all that they now know.