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Los Angeles-based Say Yes Quickly
Productions principals
Lydia Nibley and Russell
Martin bring fifty years of combined
experience to their work in television and film. Their best-selling
book projects have been translated into numerous languages
throughout the world, and the television and film projects
they have created, or to which they have contributed have
won numerous awards. Lydia and Russell are known for synthesizing
the historic and contemporary elements of a story, grounding
narrative in careful research, and making complex ideas readily
comprehensible and deeply humane. Lydia Nibley is an executive
producer and the director of Two Spirits. Russell
Martin is one of the film’s producers.
Producer Alexis Fish brings considerable
experience with independent film, cable programming, and
feature and documentary production to her work on Two
Spirits. She served as Senior Vice President of the
Q Television Network. She financed John Cameron Mitchell’s Shortbus,
and produced the documentary, Pretty Things, which
aired on HBO. She was the line producer on the Sundance award-winning
feature Quattro Noza, and was selected to attend
the Producer’s Network at the Cannes Film Festival
and the Producers Conference at the Sundance Institute. Her
short films and features have won numerous awards and have
been screened internationally.
Betsy A. McLane is the former Executive Director of the
International Documentary Association and retains the title
of Director Emeritus of the IDA. She has taught film and
documentary history, social responsibility in the media,
and other media- and film-related topics at several universities,
including Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, and the
University of Southern California. Betsy has served
as a juror at the Sundance Film Festival, the American Film
Institute Awards, and numerous national and international
film festivals, and has served as an advisor to the Sundance
Film Festival, the International Advisory Committee for the
Toronto Documentary Forum, National Endowment for the Arts
Media Arts grant program, and a number of International Documentary
Congresses at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Betsy is an associate producer of Two Spirits and
is involved in shaping the film, as well as expanding its
national and international reach.
David A. Armstrong, Two
Spirits' director
of photography, began his career in documentary film and
has since served as the principal cinematographer for more
than a dozen feature films, including each of the films in
the Saw horror series. He also directed Outlander,
was assistant camera on Billion Dollar
Baby, and has shot numerous television productions including
Crime & Punishment
and Lyric Cafe.
Editor Darrin Navarro recently edited Bug for
famed director William Friedkin, and the film received the
FIPRESCI Prize at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. He produced
and edited the documentary film The Painter’s Voice,
also directed by William Friedkin, as well as the feature
films Grace; Momma’s Man, an official
selection at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival; Hate
Crime, an official selection at the 2005 Palm Spring
International Film Festival, and numerous
other features, documentaries, and shorts.
In addition to shooting footage for Two Spirits,
cinematographer Scott Ransom worked on seventeen
feature films, including serving as cinematographer on Mr.
and Mrs. Smith, On Deadly Ground, and Bushwhacked.
His television credits include program series and documentaries
for BBC TV, the Discovery Channel, and HBO.
Kevin Bowe is a sound engineer, boom operator
and foley artist who has worked on over thirty features,
including Shortbus,
and The Station Agent. He has also provided sound
for television series and pilots including Strangers
With Candy, and While She Was Out (HBO) as
well as numerous documentary films, including Two Spirits.
Under the direction of Roland Mesa and Barry
Samson, Toy Box Entertainment is
a full-service entertainment company that creates trailers,
television campaigns, behind-the-scene specials and other
marketing materials for major motion-picture studios as
well as corporations. Toy Box is based in Burbank and provides
a full range of production and post-production services—from
concepts to scripting, from producing and directing shoots
to delivering final product. Some of their promotional
campaigns for films include Alvin and the Chipmunks,
Horton Hears a Who, Monster House, Chaos Theory, Live Free
Or Die Hard, The Meerkats and many others. Clients
include Save the Children, Sony Electronics, 20th Century
Fox, New Line Cinema, Paramount Pictures, RKO Pictures,
Sony Pictures, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society,
Walden Media, Walt Disney Company, Warner Bros., Lionsgate
Television, and The Weinstein Company.
Denver-based Just Media, led by executive
director Henry Ansbacher and creative director Daniel
Junge, is a nonprofit organization that produces
documentary films, and also supports a variety of innovative
media projects through creative collaboration, fiscal sponsorship,
and strategic funding. Just Media helps give voice to those
who are disenfranchised and underrepresented in the culture
by bringing their powerful stories to diverse audiences.
Just Media’s film, Iron Ladies of Liberia,
premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2007.
Their most recent film, They Killed Sister Dorothy,
won both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at the
South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin in 2008, and will
be distributed by HBO. As a creative partner and the project's
fiscal sponsor, Just Media offers an opportunity for foundations,
corporations, and individuals who provide funding to Two
Spirits and the Fred Martinez Project to do so via a
tax-exempt organization with 501(c)(3) status.
The Two
Spirits Advisory Board
Pauline Mitchell, Fred’s mother,
was devoted to her youngest son and, following his death,
was torn between the
Navajo cultural injunction to never again speak of the dead
and her deep desire to make the circumstances of his murder
widely known in the hope that she might help save lives. She
has emerged as a shy but effective spokesperson for
gay and transgendered rights and the essential human right
of free self-expression. She struggles to find seasonal
work and to help raise her grandchildren who live nearby
and attends to the needs of her elderly mother, who
lives a
traditional Navajo life in Monument Valley, and her father,
who lives with her in Cortez. She is consulting closely
with the Fred Martinez Project and
is
an important
part of the film.
Wesley K. Thomasis the Academic Dean of
Humanities and Social/Behavioral Sciences at Diné College
and is a widely recognized anthropologist who studies, among other subjects, cultural
ideas about gender, and Navajo culture and language. He is the co-author
and co-editor of an anthology titled Two-Spirit People: Native American Gender
Identity, Sexuality, and Spirituality. Much of the information in the film
is also explored in his book Navajo Third Gender, to be
published by the University of New Mexico Press in 2009. He
is the co-author and co-editor of an anthology titled Two-Spirit
People: Native American Gender Identity, Sexuality, and Spirituality.
He has many years of experience working with the
Native American gay and lesbian community and two-spirit
gatherings, and brings his rich personal history as
a Navajo to his involvement in the Fred Martinez Project
and the documentary film Two Spirits. His association
with this project continues his work on behalf of Native
Americans who have died as a result of racism and homophobia.
Author-activist Mark Thompson began his writing career at
the national newsmagazine The Advocate, reporting
on culture and politics in Europe and contributing to the
publication over the next two decades as a feature writer,
photographer, and senior editor. Mark edited the book Long
Road to Freedom: The Advocate History of the Gay and Lesbian
Movement, documenting the gay and lesbian struggle for
civil rights. He is also known for his influential trilogy
of books dealing with gay spirituality, Gay Spirit: Myth
and Meaning, Gay Soul: Finding the Heart of Gay
Spirit, and Nature and, Gay Body: A Journey Through
Shadow to Self. The three books form an autobiographical
memoir combining elements of Jungian archetypes, gay history
and mythology, and spirituality. Mark has contributed to
numerous anthologies and collections and frequently lectures
on gay history and culture. He provides a key interview in Two
Spirits, and
with his life partner, Episcopal priest and author Malcolm
Boyd, provides important advice and support to the Fred Martinez
Project.
Cathy Renna is the principal partner at
Renna Communications in New York, and she serves on the
advisory
board of the Matthew Shepard Foundation and Live Out Loud!
Renna
is
recognized
as a major force behind the success and growth of the Gayand
Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD)—where she
worked for fourteen years. Following the beating death of
Matthew
Shepard in 1998, she helped activists in Laramie, Wyoming
coordinate local, national, and international media and coverage
of the tragedy and subsequent murder trials. She also was
one of the key activists working with Fred Martinez's
family, the media, and the police following Fred's murder
in Cortez, Colorado. She is spear-heading a national media
campaign
for the project, working with nonprofit partners, and will
appear in the film.
Simon Aronoff is a public interest communications
expert with a deep commitment to advancing lesbian, gay,
bisexual, and transgender equality. Most recently, he served
as a special projects consultant for Parents, Families and
Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG National), and prior
to that was the deputy director of the National Center for
Transgender Equality. He has also worked in the San
Francisco and Washington DC offices of Fenton Communications
providing media support for a wide range of clients in the
progressive movement. Simon has developed campaigns
on behalf of the ACLU, National Center for Lesbian Rights,
and Equality California, among others, and was a founding
board member of the Transgender Law Center. Based in Washington,
DC, Simon is a vice president at Renna Communications and
is developing the national and international media and
education and outreach efforts associated with Two
Spirits.
Richard (Anguksuar) LaFortune is a citizen
of the Yupik tribe and the director of the media project
2SPR-Two Spirit Press Room, an effort to make Native
voices heard more powerfully in all media. Beginning in the
mid-1980s, Richard was part of a community of Native community
members who began the international organizing efforts that
resulted in the ongoing International Two Spirit Gatherings.
His professional work in health and human services, arts
and culture, and philanthropy and public policy are currently
directed at reducing the suicide rate of Native youth, as
well as the issue of Native American language revitalization.
Richard is an advisor to Two Spirits in fundraising
and content development.
Will Roscoe has served as project coordinator
for the Gay American Indians History Project and edited Living
the Spirit: A Gay American Indian Anthology. His research
on the Native American two-spirit tradition has appeared
in numerous journals and publications. His book, The
Zuni Man-Woman, received the Margaret Mead Award of
the American Anthropological Association and a Lambda Literary
Award. He has since published Queer Spirits: A Gay Men’s
Myth Book and Changing Ones: Third and Fourth Genders
in Native North America a comprehensive series of studies
of two-spirit people and traditions. In 2003, he received
a Monette-Horowitz Achievement Award for research and scholarship
combating homophobia. He serves as an advisor to the documentary
and the outreach efforts associated with it.
Dr. George E. Tinker teaches courses in
American Indian culture, history, gender and sexuality, and
religious traditions
at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado, and
is a frequent speaker on these topics in the U.S. and
internationally. His publications include Spirit and
Resistance: Political Theology and American Indian Liberation and Missionary
Conquest: The Gospel and Native American Genocide. He
contributes his scholarly understanding and his personal
experience as
an Osage Indian to the discussions of Native theology depicted
in the film. His long involvement with efforts to counter
discrimination and racism, his research into two-spirit traditions,
and his counseling of Native and GLBT studentsbring additional
depth to the Fred Martinez Project.
Brian McNaught is the author of four watershed
books on gay issues and works to educate the public and institutions
about how to successfully handle gay and transgender issues.
He has consulted with 200 colleges and universities and has
produced and is featured in a series of critically-acclaimed
educational DVDs, which are used as college texts throughout
North America. He also educates senior managers and employees
on gay and transgender issues at corporations such as Deutsche
Bank, Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, UBS, Chrysler,
Ford, Morgan Stanley, Merck, DuPont, Hewlett-Packard, Motorola,
S.C. Johnson & Sons, Chubb, SONY, AT&T, Lehman Brothers,
Goldman Sachs, Lucent, Avaya, Agilent Tech., and NCR. Public
Broadcasting stations regularly air his programs, "Growing
Up Gay and Lesbian," "Homophobia in the Workplace," and "Gay/Straight:
Can We Talk?"
Lori B. Girshick is a sociologist, writer,
and community activist whose work focuses on societal inequalities
and social justice. She teaches sociology at Chandler-Gilbert
Community College in Chandler, Arizona where she serves as
President of the Equality Maricopa Employee Group and as advisor
to the student LGBTQA group. Lori has published numerous
articles and is the author of four books including Transgender
Voices: Beyond Women and Men, published
by the University Press of New England in 2008. She conducts
trainings nationally and internationally around the issues
of LGBT-related violence and LGBT sensitivity. Lori is part
of a network of educators who are using the Fred Martinez Project
and Two Spirits in a variety
of education and outreach efforts throughout the U.S. and
internationally.
Fred
Martinez Project Staff and Volunteers
Denise (Dede) de Percin is coordinating
Fred Martinez Project and Two Spirits events and outreach
in Colorado, and contributing her expertise with nonprofit
organizations at the local, state, and national levels. Ms.
de Percin was the founding executive director of the Colorado
Anti-Violence Program and is now the Executive Director of
the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative. She has served on
the boards of the Northwest Coalition for Human Dignity,
the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, and the
Colorado Coalition Against Domestic Violence, among others,
and is currently a mayoral appointee to the Denver Gay Lesbian
Bisexual Transgender (GLBT) Commission.
Travis Goldtooth is an Outreach Coordinator
for the Fred Martinez Project and the film Two Spirits,
and is working with regional and national Native American
and Two-Spirit
organizations in that capacity. Travis grew up on the Navajo
reservation near Teec Nos Pos, Arizona, and attended Montezuma-Cortez
High School as a senior the year Fred was a freshman. He
shares a similar life history with Fred in many ways, although
in safely graduating from high school and building a successful
life, he provides a striking contrast to the tragedy that
befell Fred. Travis has been active in grassroots organizing
and community outreach for several years and is often asked
to speak about the nadleeh perspective. He was voted
Miss International Two-Spirit Society and continues to travel
widely, dancing and singing at Pride events and Pow
Wows. Travis is providing critically important outreach within
the Navajo Nation, and is creating alliances with a broad
network of organizations, governing bodies, and media outlets
that will ensure the wide distribution and use of the film
within Native American communities nationwide.
Tim
Wilson is an Outreach Coordinator for the
Fred Martinez Project and the film Two Spirits.
Over the past 25 years, he has gained extensive experience
as a grassroots
organizer,
facilitator, trainer, team leader, board member, and administrator
while working locally, regionally, nationally and internationally.
Tim has worked with organizations such as PFLAG (Parents,
Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), AIDS Treatment
News, NABWMT (National Association of Black and White Men
Together), Community Shares of Colorado, the Mayor's Gay
and Lesbian Advisory Committee of Denver, and the Gay and
Lesbian Police Advisory Task Force of Los Angeles. His membership
and active participation in NGLTF Creating Change Conferences
(National Gay and Lesbian Task Force) and ILGA World Conferences
(International Lesbian and Gay Association) have enhanced
his understanding of the interconnectedness of GLBT issues
worldwide. Tim is creating alliances between the Fred Martinez
Project and those who have a stake in its subjects and themes,
and who can maximize the impact of the public education and
grassroots organizing potential it provides. He is also serving
as a liaison with educators, policy makers, law enforcement,
libraries, communities of faith, and nonprofit partners.
John
Peters-Campbell is an art-history professor
and Cortez-area activist who immediately supported
Pauline Mitchell following her son Fred Martinez,
Jr.'s murder. John Worked tirelessly to help enure
that the killer was brought to justice and that the
horror of the crime was understood by people in the
community and by the media. He and Fred's mother ultimately
traveled together to anti-hate gatherings around the
country, including the renowned Southern Comfort Conference,
held in Atlanta each September. John remains a close
friend of the surviving members of the Fred Martinez
family; he provided field coordination and logistical
support for the production of the film, and appears
in it as well.
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