Geoff Pingree is an Emmy Award winning documentary filmmaker, a photographer, a writer, and Professor of Cinema Studies at Oberlin College. He earned both master’s and doctoral degrees at the University of Chicago and, before coming to Oberlin, worked in public television in Washington, DC, where he also directed Catholic University’s Program in Media Studies and George Washington University’s Institute for Documentary Filmmaking. He co-directed BLUE DESERT ~ Towards Antarctica, a multi-channel video installation shot in Antarctica that premiered at the Laconia Gallery in Boston, and he is currently completing The Return of Elder Pingree, a feature-length autobiographical documentary he shot in Guatemala. He co-founded and directs StoryLens, a non-profit organization that produces short independent documentary films about pressing social issues in order to promote education, encourage public dialogue, and facilitate political change.

 

Rian Brown is an independent filmmaker, artist, mother and professor of Cinema Studies at Oberlin College where she teaches film and video production. She is also the co-founder and co-director of Apollo Outreach, a media literacy outreach program for youth. She has written produced and directed many short films, Into the Scrum, Presence of Water and The Settler and Death of the Moth  which have screened at numerous film festivals and museums including the L.A. Hammer Museum of Art, Cleveland Cinematheque, The Wexner Art Center, Anchorage Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art in Cleveland, New York Shorts Festival, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Women in the Director’s Chair and many others. She co-directed multi-channel video installation, Blue Desert-Towards Antarctica shot on a three-week expedition to Antarctica, which premiered at Laconia Gallery in Boston. 

Video introduction by Alessandra Fredianelli