Member News & Notes

Laura Lukitsch screened a rough cut of Beard Club, a look at extreme facial grooming and the lifestyles that go with it, at Oddball Film & Video in June. The film was also featured in the recently published The Facial Hair Handbook.

Stephen Talbot will speak at the Commonwealth Club on July 23 focusing on Sound Tracks, his new series about music around the world. Talbot, currently wrapping up a pilot episode, will show excerpts and discuss the process of developing a new series that combines reporting, storytelling, travel and music performance.

Michael Palmieri and Donal Mosher’s gothic family portrait October Country premiered in the documentary competition at the Los Angeles Film Festival before screening at Silverdocs, where it was awarded the Sterling U.S. Feature Award. Along with the accolades, the directors received $10,000.

KQED’s series Truly CA broadcast Pete McCloskey: Leading from the Front on July 5. Produced by David L. Brown Productions and directed by Rob Caughlan, the film, narrated by Paul Newman, tells the inspirational life story of a true one of the nation’s first environmental lawyers, who was also one of the first lawyers to integrate his practice during the Civil Rights movement.

David L. Brown’s film A Span in Time, “the scintillating saga of the 2007 Labor Day weekend Bay Bridge construction project,” won an Emmy for Best Graphics and Animation and was nominated for Best Documentary. Congratulations to animator Charlie Canfield.

Christabel Savalas’s Endless Creativity: The Life of Helena Macree Tsavalas received the Aloha Accolade award at the Honolulu International Film Festival last March and was screened at the Palm Springs ShortFest in June.

Sheila Ganz was gratified to receive a $250 grant from fourth and fifth graders from P.S. 14 in Bronx, NY for her documentary Moms Living Clean. According to their teacher, the nine and ten year olds had found the film’s website and “wanted to do this for the children.”

Douglas Robbins reports that Debate Team, a SFFS fiscally sponsored project, is making its television broadcast premiere on KQED’S Truly CA program in July.

Sarah Entine screened Read Me Differently in June in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The SFFS fiscally sponsored doc will screen this fall at the Learning Disability Association of Canada and at the 60th annual conference of the International Dyslexia Association. Edited by Jennifer Chinlund, the film explores three generations of women in the filmmaker’s family, each afflicted by dyslexia.

Leslie Streit and Robin McCain organized a tour of the Henry P. Glass House, one of the first solar homes in America, in Northfield, Illinois and screened a clip-in progress from their upcoming documentary The Elly Glass Project. Chicago Bauhaus & Beyond sponsored the event as a fundraising activity for the film.

Will Parrinello’s doc Mustang: Journey of Transformation premiered at the Aspen Short Film Festival in April. Narrated by Richard Gere and featuring His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the film tells the remarkable story of a Tibetan culture pulled back from the brink of extinction through the restoration of its sacred sites. It went onto sold-out screenings at Tribeca, Ashland Independent Film Festival and Mountainfilm Telluride, and recently received a Special Jury Award at EcoVision and an audience award at the Maui Film Festival.

Stephanie’s Image, featuring 2009 Best Actress Oscar Nominee Melissa Leo, directed by Janis DeLucia Allen and written by J.P. Allen, will be distributed by Vanguard Cinema and released in March 2010. The film received multiple nominations at the 2009 Milan International Film Festival Awards and has screened at numerous festivals including MethodFest in Los Angeles.