FILM TEAM
DIRECTOR - Johanna Demetrakas writes, directs, and edits documentary and fiction work. Her first documentary, Womanhouse, about a ground-breaking feminist art installation, won the AFI Independent Filmmaker's Grant, a place in the Whitney Museum's New American Filmmaker Series and international recognition at festivals such as The Venice Biennale, Paris and New York. Her second art doc, Right Out of History, The Making of Judy Chicago's Dinner Party, was broadcast on PBS and the BBC after acclaim at the London, Berlin, and Baltimore Film Festivals. Her art documentaries have been in many museum shows including the major exhibit, "Los Angeles 1955 - 1985," at the Pompidou Museum in Paris, 2006.
Since winning the Discovery Program Award and making the dramatic short, Homesick, in 1989, (Sundance, Houston Fest winner, SHOWTIME broadcast) Demetrakas turned her energies to writing and directing drama as well as documentaries. Her credits include L.A. Law, Doogie Howser, MD, Unsolved Mysteries, and several docu-dramas for CBS and NBC. For Some Nudity Required, (Sundance, Washington Film Fest. 1998) Demetrakas combined her documentary and narrative skills to dramatize the story of a woman's descent and transformation in Hollywood's exploitation film world. She co-directed Bus Rider's Union with Haskell Wexler (Chicago Film Fest. 2000).
Amandla! A Revolution In Four Part Harmony, an epic documentary edited by Demetrakas, won both the Audience and Freedom of Expression Awards at Sundance, 2002, The International Film Critics Documentary Award, and many others as well as being nominated for 5 Emmys, including for Editing by Demetrakas.
PRODUCER - Lisa Leeman's first film, Metamorphosis: Man Into Woman, won the Filmmakers' Trophy at Sundance, 1990. Leeman co-directed and edited the feature documentary Who Needs Sleep with Haskell Wexler (Sundance, 2006). Leeman most recently directed the feature doc Out Of Faith, (PBS, winter 2008), and is currently directing the theatrical doc One Lucky Elephant. She co-wrote & edited the Emmy Award winner Made In LA (Silverdocs, LAFF; POV/PBS, 2007). Other writing credits include Not In God's Name (featuring the Dalai Lama), which explores the similar values underlying all faiths, and their potential for bridging perceived differences, and the theatrically released feature doc Naked In Ashes, which follows an ascetic yogi and his young disciple in India.
Other credits include the Emmy nominated Fender Philosophers, (PBS) and Breaking Up (ARTE). Lisa has served on the Sundance Film Festival documentary jury and on the board of the International Documentary Association. She teaches documentary producing at USC, has taught filmmaking in China & Jordan, and writes articles about the ethics of documentary filmmaking. She spent a decade editing award-winning social issue documentaries, including Renee Tajima-Pena's The Journey Home (PBS Special); Michelle LeBrun's Death: A Love Story (Sundance ‘99); Laura's Simon's Fear And Learning At Hoover Elementary (POV; Winner, Freedom of Expression Award, Sundance ‘97); Marco Williams' In Search Of Our Fathers, on women-headed African-American families (FRONTLINE, PBS); Will My Mother Go To Berlin?, Micha Peled's personal essay on Jewish-German relations (ARD, PBS); Stanley Nelson's Methadone: Curse Or Cure? (PBS); It Was A Wonderful Life, Michele Ohayon's film on middle-class homeless women (PBS); and the TBS series The Native Americans and America's Music: The Roots Of Country.
EDITOR - Kate Amend, ACE received the Outstanding Achievement in Editing Award from the International Documentary Association for her body of work, which includes two Academy Award-winning documentaries: Into The Arms Of Strangers: Stories Of The Kindertransport, The Long Way Home, and the 2001 Oscar-nominated documentary short On Tiptoe: Gentle Steps To Freedom.
Amend also edited Beah: A Black Woman Speaks, directed by Lisa Gay Hamilton, which received the Grand Jury award at the 2003 AFI Film Festival, the 2005 Peabody Award and aired on HBO. Her recent work includes the documentary Jimmy Carter: Man From Plains, directed by Jonathan Demme, and The Brothers Warner, directed by Cass Warner.
Other credits include Steal A Pencil For Me (2007); Thin (2006), and The World According To Sesame Street (2005) which premiered at Sundance 2006; Peace By Peace: Woman On The Frontlines (PBS, 2004); Pandemic: Facing AIDS (Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and HBO, 2003)
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY - Pablo Bryant has traveled across the US, the UK, Canada, China, and Tibet to shoot Crazy Wisdom. He previously worked on Tulku, a feature film that will be broadcast on the CBC in 2008. He was the videographer for The Journey, a documentary on human sex trafficking, as well as the film, Souldiers On The Urban Frontier, with the C4 film collective. He was staff cinematographer for local entertainment news show Roughcut LA.
