FILM PRODUCTION

Ann Fessler – Producer, Director, Archival Footage Researcher, Editor — for more information about the Director look under the heading FESSLER.

The archival footage used in GIRL LIKE HER was culled from various sources including footage housed in The United States National Archives and Records Administration, Prelinger Archives, HBO Archives, Archive Films, Getty Images, the National Film Board of Canada and from a documentary film by Dennis Goulden (see below).

Dennis Goulden – Cinematographer

Goulden has generously contributed his footage from I’ll Never Get Her Back to A GIRL LIKE HER. Fessler has called Goulden’s film the only compassionate documentary about a surrendering mother from the time period. Goulden’s film provides a crucial counterpoint to the scripted educational films and newsreels that Fessler critiques in her film–films that helped shape the public perception of adoption and surrender in the 1950s and 60s.

Dennis Goulden has worked as a cameraman, editor, writer, executive producer, producer and director on hundreds of films and has received over a dozen Emmys and hundreds of other awards. He was producer of the Montage television series for WKYC in Cleveland from 1965 to 1978 and in that capacity produced a film I’ll Never Get Her Back, which follows a young woman as she enters a home for unwed mothers and surrenders her child.

After 13 years of producing the Montage series, which featured documentary films that addressed national issues that were relevant to Cleveland, he worked as Executive Producer at WKYC; Local Programming Director of WVIZ-TV the Cleveland PBS station; and Director of Programming and Executive Producer of North Coast Cable. He has continued to produce documentaries with his own company, DBG Communications, Inc. and currently produces special projects at WKYC in Cleveland.

more about Dennis Goulden: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Goulden

more about Montage: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montage_(TV_series)

Mary S. Lampson – Editorial Consultant

Mary Lampson is an award-winning independent documentary filmmaker and editor. Lampson co-edited the academy-award wining documentary Harlan County, USA (1976) and worked as an editor on many other independently produced documentary features including A Lion in the House (2006), Kimjongilia (2009) and We Still Live Here (As Nutayunean). She has worked with Emile de Antonio, Ricky Leacock, D.A. Pennebaker, Barbara Kopple and, most recently, with Julia Reichert, Steve Bognar and Anne Makepeace, Michael Tucker and Jill Eikenberry. Lampson has also worked in the dramatic format. Her film Until She Talks was produced independently and aired on the PBS series American Playhouse. Until She Talks won Best Film Made for Television at the Mannheim Film Festival, a Cine Golden Eagle, a Blue Ribbon at the American Film Festival and Best Short Dramatic Film at the Athens Film Festival. She has produced over 25 short live action films for Sesame Street. She has been a fellow and advisor at Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute. She also teaches filmmaking to children as an artist-in-residence at all levels of K-12.

Mike Majoros  –  Post Production, Online Editing and Sound Mix

Mike has spent the last 20 years Directing and Editing feature-length documentaries about a broad range of subjects. He was an Editor and writer for The Singing Revolution (2006), Director of Rolling (2004) and Director and Cinematographer for Unfinished Symphony: Democracy and Dissent (2001). He worked as a sound editor forseveral episodes of The American Experience PBS TV series Eyes on the Prize. His work has received dozens of awards, and has been screened internationally at festivals including Sundance and Berlin, as well as on PBS.

MUSIC

Mike Reid – Singer, Songwriter, Composer and Musician

“Towards a Dimming Light” – original composition, pianist

“My Lord What a Mornin’ ” – original composition, pianist

Mike Reid’s songs have been recorded by Bonnie Raitt, Anita Baker, Bette Midler, Prince, George Michael, Nancy Wilson, Etta James, Kenny Rogers, Ann Murray, Wynonna Judd, Alabama, Joe Cocker, Tanya Tucker, Willie Nelson, Collin Raye and Tim McGraw. Among the songs that Mike has composed are “I Can’t Make You Love Me”(Raitt, Michael and Prince), “My Strongest Weakness” and “To Be Loved By You” (Judd), “In This Life” (Raye and Midler), “Sometimes I Wonder Why” (Baker), “Forever’s As Far As I’ll Go” (Alabama) and “Everywhere” (McGraw).

Reid’s first number one country hit song was “Inside” by Ronnie Milsap. He has composed more than 30 top ten country and pop hits. Twenty-one of which have gone to number one on the charts. He has been the recipient of ASCAPS’ “Songwriter of the Year” award and one of the many songs that Milsap recorded, “Stranger In My House”, has earned a Grammy award.

Mike Reid was a defensive tackle for Penn State and went on to be a 1st round draft pick for the Cincinnati Bengals. He was Rookie of the Year and Voted NFL All-Pro in 1972 and 73. At age 27, he left his successful career in football to pursue music.

more about Reid: http://mike-reid.com/Bio.html

more about Reid: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Reid_(American_football)

Jacqueline Schwab – pianist

“I Wonder as I Wander”  traditional hymn, arranged and played by Schwab

Jacqueline Schwab is a folk and classical improvisational pianist who plays “gorgeously spare piano” (The Boston Globe). Chosen by Ken Burns for numerous public television documentaries, Jacqueline has performed on the soundtracks for the Grammy award-winning Civil War, the Emmy award-winning Baseball and Mark Twain, among others.

Jacqueline has played on over forty recordings. Her signature style defies easy categorization, fitting somewhere in the crossover between folk, traditional, classical and new age music. Although many people connect improvisation with jazz, Jacqueline’s inspirations are traditional music of England, Scotland, Ireland, and America, blues, vintage tangos, Bach’s dance suites, nineteenth-century parlor piano, and the turn-of-the-twentieth-century sounds of Satie, Debussy and Bartok for starters.

more about Schwab: http://www.jacquelineschwab.com/bio.html

FUNDING:

A GIRL LIKE HER was made possible, in part, by the following: 

LEF Foundation, Moving Image Fund, Film, Project Develop Grant, 2002

Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University, Radcliffe Fellowship, 2003–2004

Rhode Island State Council for the Humanities, Independent Research Grant, 2003

Rhode Island Foundation, New Work Grant, Film Project, 2003

LEF Foundation, Moving Image Fund, Film Production Grant, 2003

Rhode Island School of Design, Faculty Professional Development Grant, 2009 and 2012

Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, Film Project Grant, 2009

Additional support was provided by:

Exhibition Development Seminar, Artist-in-Residence Program, Maryland Institute College of Art 2002-2003

The Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women, Brown University, 2002-2003