International Women’s Day – Eve Moran and Rana Segal.mp4

FESCH.TV INFORMIERT:

My Life Making Documentary Films
Cliff Dwellers Club
March 8 2022

Hi thanks for inviting me to speak at this year’s International Woman’s Day event.
I am going to talk about my life making documentary films and show a few short clips.

I was a student at Columbia College when I first decided to become a filmmaker. I was studying music and dance. Then one day after my dance class, I went to a movie in the Studebaker Theater with some friends. It was called Images, a Robert Altman film about a schizophrenic woman who writes children’s fantasy stories. She is haunted by apparitions who may or may not be real. During the movie I had an epiphany. I decided that I wanted to make films and I thought I could do it. This was the mid 1970’s.

The next thing I knew I was taking a film course at Columbia College and shooting films with a wind up Bolex camera and I loved it. There were not many women in the film program at that time and I had to be assertive enough to not get left behind and get my hands on the equipment. It became my dream to make movies. After graduation from Columbia, I went on to study film at NYU. When I returned to Chicago, I started at the bottom working as a production assistant, teleprompter operator, sound person, grip, gaffer and production manager. At this time, I was starting to shoot films as cinematographer, getting as much experience as possible and building a reel, filming fashion, music videos, documentaries and shooting performances at the Columbia College Dance Center.

Since then I have worked as a director, producer and cinematographer for over 30 years. My work has aired on PBS, The Learning Channel, and Discovery Health Channel and (can be seen daily at the Field Museum of Chicago in the Africa exhibit.)

I have shot many different films and videos: fashion, music videos, commercials, industrials and many documentaries. Some of the documentaries I have filmed are: Chicago Riverfront: Where the Present Meets the Past, about Chicago architecture, When the Spill Hit Homer, about the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, Blue Collar and Buddha about Laotian Refugees and racism in a small town in Illinois, and Surviving Domestic Violence. Shooting and directing Painting the Town, a segment for Artbeat Chicago and I shot and produced Shifting Sands: On the Path to Sustainability, about the fight between industrialists and environmentalists to save the Indiana Dunes.

I have been very lucky. I have been able to travel the world to locations such as Europe, Senegal, Borneo, Kamchatka (Russia), Guatemala, and Sao Paulo and to meet interesting people –

It has been important to me during my career to highlight films about women – to show their courage, bravery, strength, resilience, and persistence.

GWENDOLYN BROOKS
The Oracle of Bronzeville, a ½ hour documentary about making the sculpture of Gwendolyn Brooks, who was the first African-American to win the Pulitzer Prize. I followed sculptor, Margot McMahon, as she created the bust of Gwendolyn Brooks from concept to final bronze portrait of the acclaimed writer and poet. We see Margot’s creative process, juxtaposed with the life of poet Gwendolyn Brooks. Believe it or not, this statue is only the second realistic statue of a woman in a Chicago park. This is the promo for the film.

Show Gwendolyn Brooks Promo 5:29

IDA B. WELLS
Laurie Little and I are producing, The Light of Truth: Richard Hunt’s Monument for Ida B. Wells. This film is about the life of Ida B. Wells and the creation of the monument that sculptor Richard Hunt, is creating to honor her. Richard Hunt is an African American sculptor who studied at the Art Institute of Chicago with Nellie Barr and became a celebrated artist.

Ida B. Wells was born enslaved in 1862. She is internationally known for fighting against injustice, especially lynching, and was a civil rights activist, journalist, and suffragist. She participated in the Suffrage March in 1913 in Washington, D.C. Before the march, the Southern delegates demanded the black women go to the back of the parade. She refused and as the march was in progress she entered into the procession with the Illinois contingent. This is a short promo of the hour long film.

Show The Light of Truth promo video 3:33

In closing: To me, filmmaking is creating and sharing stories of people and experiences that help us understand the larger universe and the human experience, creating compassion and breaking barriers. Film is a universal language. I have always hoped that film would help to pull back the veil of hate, and create more understanding in the world.