Filmmaker Bios

Barbara Attie & Janet Goldwater, Producer/Directors

Janet Goldwater & Barbara Attie

Barbara Attie and Janet Goldwater have worked together since 1990, making award-winning documentaries for national and international broadcast. In 2005 their contribution was recognized when they were awarded the Pew Fellowship in the Arts.
 

Attie and Goldwater are currently in production on two documentaries. GOUNDO'S DAUGHTER is the story of a Malian woman who seeks asylum in the U.S. in order to prevent her two-year-old daughter from being circumcised. A GET FOR CYNTHIA follows an Orthodox Jewish mother of five who, after 18 years of domestic violence gets a civil divorce from her husband only to find that he won't give her a get - or a religious divorce.

Prior to ROSITA Attie & Goldwater collaborated on MAGGIE GROWLS, an ITVS-produced biography of Gray Panther founder Maggie Kuhn. MAGGIE GROWLS was selected to launch PBS' Independent Lens series in February 2003, and was awarded the Henry Hampton Award for Excellence in Film & Digital Media from the Council on Foundations in 2004.

Other broadcast documentaries by Attie and Goldwater include I WITNESS: SHOT DOWN IN PENSACOLA, which traces the escalation of anti-abortion violence in Pensacola (broadcast regionally in 2000); LANDOWSKA: UNCOMMON VISIONARY, a biography of the celebrated harpsichordist Wanda Landowska (broadcast nationally on PBS in 1999 and aired widely throughout Europe, Israel, and Japan); and MOTHERLESS: A LEGACY OF LOSS FROM ILLEGAL ABORTION, the story of four individuals whose mother died from unsafe abortion (broadcast regionally in 1998 and used widely in women's studies programs nationwide). Attie also produced (with Martha Lubell) DARING TO RESIST, about three teenage girls in the anti-Nazi resistance (narrated by Janeane Garofalo, and broadcast nationally on PBS in 2000).   Attie & Goldwater Productions

Sharon Mullally, Editor

Sharon Mullally

Sharon is an Emmy Award winning independent producer-director and editor whose work regularly appears on local and national public television. Her most recent editorial work includes QUEEN OF THE MOUNTAIN (Martha Lubell Productions, 2005), an intriguing portrait of an eccentric American archaeologist working in Turkey in the 1950's and FROM PHILADELPHIA TO THE FRONT (Gelles and Bernstein, 2005) about Jewish WWII veterans. Recent work as a producer/director includes KNEE DEEP (2004) with Ann Tegnell, FADI FLIES A KITE (2003), RUFUS JONES - A LUMINOUS LIFE (2002) with Barbara Attie, winner of a CINE Golden Eagle Award, and DARING TO RESIST. Sharon has been a board member and workshop leader for PIFVA (Philadelphia Independent Film/Video Association) and an instructor at the Scribe Video Center. Her editorial work has appeared in the Human Rights Watch Film Festival, the DoubleTake Documentary Festival, and the Philadelphia Festival of Independents.

Peter Brownscombe, Camera

Peter has worked as a freelance cameraperson since 1984. His most recent full-length documentaries are MAGGIE GROWLS, DARING TO RESIST, LANDOWSKA and ARGUING THE WORLD. Prior to 1984 he worked for seven years as field camera for KTCA TV (PBS) in St. Paul, MN. Freelance clients include: Frontline, NOVA, Newshour with Jim Lehrer, Great Performances, BBC Panorama, BBC Newsnight, ARD Television (Germany), Deutsch Welan (Germany), and IKON Television (Holland). Selected awards include: Gold Plaque, Chicago International Film Festival; Blue Ribbon, New York Film Festival; Bronze, Houston International Film Festival; CPB award; Charles Stuart Mott Award; and the Dupont Columbia Citation.

Sumi Tonooka, Original Score

Sumi Tonooka

Sumi is an acclaimed musician in the areas of performance and composition. She has composed the scores for numerous documentaries, including the Academy Award nominated FAMILY GATHERING (1988), SUSUMU (1991), DARING TO RESIST (1999) which was co-produced by Barbara Attie, and QUEEN OF THE MOUNTAIN (2005). A highly praised jazz pianist, Tonooka has recorded five cd's, the most recent of which is Secret Places, with Rufus Reid (bass) and Lewis Nash (drums). Her original compositions have been called "provocative and compelling" by the New York Times. A 1993 commission from Meet the Composer and an NEA Jazz Fellowship led to the New York premier of the Taiko Jazz Project, wherein Tonooka scored eight interrelated pieces based on the I Ching to feature taiko master Kenny Endo. To find out about her new recordings and projects go to SumiTonooka.com.

Ransom Weaver, Animation

Ransom Weaver

Ransom has worked in interactive design and programming since 1993 with a focus on animation and digital video. In addition to web design, he has been lead programmer and animator for a multimedia curriculum for engineering and a health education web game. He has done technical animation for expert witness legal testimony, and flash character animation for children's music. In 2004 he was responsible for video editing and effects in the cinematic play "Deep Sleep," performed in the Annenberg Prince Theatre with live actors interacting with two screens of projected actors. Recently he has been providing content for MoovHD, a high definition satellite channel featuring experimental animation and video.   ransomweaver.com