Kathy
Leichter
is a documentary film producer, media activist, and one of
the founders of Mint Leaf Productions. Kathy recently co-produced
and co-directed the award-winning PBS documentary,
A DAY'S WORK, A DAY'S PAY, about three
welfare recipients who become leaders in the fight against
workfare in New York City. Currently she is the executive
director of THE WORKFARE MEDIA
INITIATIVE, a media activism project which trains
current and former welfare recipients to show A
DAY'S WORK, A DAY'S PAY to community organizations,
unions, students, communities of faith, policymakers, and
others. Kathy was the producer of the VSM Productions' MOTHERS
AND DAUGHTERS: MIRRORS THAT BIND, a documentary about
the impact of the mother/daughter relationship on a woman's
body, sexuality, and self-esteem, which is being used by women's
and girls organizations and universities across the country.
Formerly she worked at WQED, the Pittsburgh PBS station, where
she associate produced several social issue documentaries.
Kathy serves on the Workers Rights Board of Jobs With Justice
and is on the Advisory Board of several independent documentary
projects. She is currently developing a film about her grandmother,
an Austrian immigrant and renowned family therapist who lived
to be 92. Kathy is the mother of an eighteen month old, Otto
Justice Leichter Moran.
Jonathan
Skurnik (Producer, Director, Cinematographer)
Jonathan Skurnik is a documentary producer, director and cinematographer. Four of his films have broadcast on PBS and European Television, as well as on domestic Satellite and Cable stations. His films have been screened at the Museum of Modern Art, Lincoln Center and in art galleries in New York City and at over one hundred film festivals throughout the world. He has won numerous awards, including Best Documentary at the American Indian film festival, the Change Maker Award at the Media That Matters Film Festival, the Audience Award for best documentary at Outfest, the Harry Chapin Media Award for films about poverty and Best Documentary Award at the UrbanTV film Festival.
Jonathan has worked in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and South and North America. He has raised over half a million dollars for his films from ITVS, Native American Public Television, the MacArthur Foundation, the Fledgling Fund, the Paul Robeson Fund and many other foundations and private donors. He has sold thousands of his DVDs to Universities and Non-Profits and served on the steering committee of New Day Films, the only cooperatively run educational film distribution company in the US, with annual sales of over $1.5 million.
In addition to his documentary work, Jonathan founded the Workfare Media Initiative, The Youth and Gender Media Project and The Cante Sica Foundation, three foundation-funded grassroots outreach and engagement projects that provide transformational educational experiences through facilitated screenings and discussions and immersive digital resources on handheld devices and the web.
Jonathan has also led workshops and master classes in theory and production for filmmakers in the US and China and teaches broadcast investigative journalism at Chapman University and students in the Masters of Documentary Filmmaking program at the New York Film Academy. He has also written and directed a narrative feature and several short narrative films.
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