DOCUMENTARY MAKERS
Producer & Project Creator
Dr. Barbara Berney is a distinguished scholar in public health, environmental justice, and the U.S. health care system. Dr. Berney is Associate Professor at the City University of New York School of Public Health. She was inspired to produce the film by hearing eyewitness accounts from physicians, nurses and government staffers involved in the integration effort and those who struggled to provide health services in rural areas lacking the most basic medical care. She holds an MPH in Health Administration from UCLA and a PhD in Health Policy from Boston University where she was a Pew Scholar. Her diverse experience in public health includes working as a front line health worker in Watts for the Los Angeles County Health Department. She went from there to Washington, DC to be a policy analyst with the United Mine Workers Health and Retirement Funds and with the Bureau of Health Professions in the Department of Health and Human Services. She was recruited to be the Director of an OSHA-funded Occupational Health Education Center that provided occupational health education to women and minority workers. She went on to do an evaluation of a Foundation-funded program providing technical assistance to community groups dealing with toxic hazards for the Boston University School of Public Health. She served as staff a member of the White House Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments and for the Environmental League of Massachusetts where she was one of the people responsible for getting requirements for green schools into Massachusetts legislation. After completing her doctorate, she was recruited to the Hunter College School of Public Health, now the CUNY School of Public Health where she discovered the power of film and developed this dramatic documentary. 
Director
Charles Burnett, considered one of America's greatest filmmakers, was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi in 1944. He was one of the few blacks who had access to college education in the 1960s, and he studied at UCLA's Film Department. He was first noticed in 1981 with Killer of Sheep which won a prize at the Berlin Film Festival. Burnett's film The Glass Shield, a tense rapid-fire police drama on the corruption and racism that plagues the Los Angeles Police Department, was shown in competition at Locarno. 
Producer
Roberta Friedman's projects have ranged from the commercial, such as her work for George Lucas on Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back specializing in sparks, matte work, and swords, to the experimental, such as the interactive video The Erl King, the first interactive art piece, which was acquired by the Guggenheim Museum for its permanent collection. She worked with Michael Moore on "The Awful Truth," his weekly documentary series. for Bravo Channel and Britain’s Channel 4 in the U.K. She has also worked for HBO, A&E, WNET and more. She was the executive producer of HERE! Family, a television series about gay, lesbian and transgender families., that was broadcast on the HERE! Network. Friedman is currently an Associate Professor and the coordinator of the film program in the School of Communication & Media at Montclair State University. 
Producer/Director/Editor
Daniel Loewenthal has edited over 40 feature films. He has, working worked for major film studios (Paramount, Orion, Turner Productions) and independent producers (Dino Dilaurentis and Cannon films). Dan has edited in nearly every genre and format: action, comedy, independent films, music videos, commercials, infomercials, corporate videos, pieces for museum art installations and content for the web. He is alsoand is an accomplished director for short films and features. Until moving to New York he was a managing partner and president, of his company in Los Angeles, producing and directing projects that included a Discovery Channel series, Direct Response ads, documentaries, corporate videos and post-supervision and editing on feature films. He most recently produced the feature film Ggood Ffriday, and edited the feature film Lost Cat Corona. 
Writer and Contributing Producer
Anna Reid Jhirad’s programs have won Emmys, Cine Golden Eagles, an Academy Award nomination and other tributes: The Art of Norton Simon (Co-writer. Chris Statue at the Columbus International Film and Video Festival); Impressionists on the Seine (Primetime PBS. three Emmys); The Forest Where We Live (Best Environmental Documentary), A Place in the Land (Co-writer, Academy Award nomination for Documentary Short Subject). Writer
Leslie Clark is an award-winning producer and writer with over thirty years of experience in television production. She produced Walter Cronkite: Witness to History and wrote John Muir in the New World, both for American Masters, along with Earth on Edge and America in the Forties, all for PBS. Executive Producer
Tammy Robinson is the former Vice President and Director of Programming for Thirteen/WNET New York. Ms. Robinson oversaw the development and production of all national and local programming, including specials, mini-series and ongoing programs such as Nature, Great Performances and American Masters. She served as liaison with PBS for scheduling and editorial matters, business affairs, promotion, legal and finance and was actively involved in fundraising and establishing partnerships with private-sector entities. Her many awards include an International TV & Film Award, New York Festival, for The Power of the Past with Bill Moyers, the Film Council of Greater Columbus award for In Performance at the White House and a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Informational Series for Smithsonian World: Tales of the Human Dawn. She is currently President of the Board of P.O.V, public television’s award-winning documentary showcase. |
ON SCREEN NARRATOR
HUMANITIES ADVISERS
David Barton Smith, a health policy expert at Drexel University and author of The Power to Heal: Civil Rights, Medicare, and the Struggle to Transform America's Health Care System (Vanderbilt University Press, 2016) and many publications on racial and social issues in health care.
John Dittmer, author of The Good Doctors on the Medical Committee for Human Rights, which was formed in 1964 as an “ad hoc support group” to provide medical care for civil rights workers and to challenge discrimination in hospitals and medical associations.
Karen Kruse Thomas, civil rights historian and author of Deluxe Jim Crow, about health care, hospitals, and medical education in the South up to 1965 when Medicare was implemented.
Robin D.G. Kelley, the Gary B. Nash Professor of History at UCLA and author of numerous works on African American history, including Yo’ Mama’s DisFunktional!: Fighting the Culture Wars in Urban America and Make Our World Anew: A History of African Americans.
Gerald Oppenheimer, Professor at the School of Public Health and Management and in the Department of History, The Graduate Center, both of the City University of New York, is author of Shattered Dreams? An Oral History of the South African AIDS Epidemic and of AIDS Doctors: Voices From the Epidemic. He was previously the Broeklundian Distinguished Professor at Brooklyn College (CUNY).
Jonathan Rosenberg, Associate Professor of History at Hunter College, civil rights historian, and author of How Far the Promised Land?, and co-author of Kennedy, Johnson, and the Quest for Justice: The Civil Rights Tapes.
Executive Producer
Martin Dornbaum is an award winning producer, educator and writer with over thirty years in television production. Mr. Dornbaum specializes in medical humanities and films about individuals and communities outside the mainstream. He is an expert in utilizing media for the promotion of health education and policy. His films have appeared on local and national PBS, and his accolades include a CINE Golden Eagle and multiple Emmy nominations. Mr. Dornbaum Co-produced A Life Apart: Hasidism in America, which was short-listed for the Academy Awards, and his film Hiding and Seeking was nominated for an Independent Spirit award. Mr. Dornbaum received a Media Recognition Award by the Sigma Theta Tau -International Nursing Honor Society- Alpha Phi Chapter, and has been recognized by the National College Learning Center Association. Mr. Dornbaum serves on the Advisory Council of the NYSIM Center at Bellevue Hospital and Promoting Health in Haiti. He is currently Director of the Health Professions Education Center at the Hunter College -School of Health Professions -City University of New York. Most recently, Martin was inducted into the American Academy of Nursing as an Honorary Fellow. |
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Associate Producer
Vanessa Burrows is an historian of public health and civil rights whose research focuses on inequality and public policy. She holds a Ph.D. in the history of medicine and public health from the CUNY Graduate Center. |
Associate Producer
Madeline Gordon is a documentary film producer based in New York and Berlin. She began her career with the acclaimed editor Phillip Shane and has gone on to work with CNN, The Smithsonian Channel, and The Rockefeller Foundation. She is currently directing her debut feature film 'The Ark'. |
Multimedia Editor
Helina Selemon is a health and science journalist based in New York City. A scientist-turned-journalist with an interest in health policy and microbiology, her work has been on WBAI and NYCity News Service. |
Multimedia Editor
Madison Guptill is a graduate of CUNY Hunter College with a degree in Film. She is an aspiring documentary filmmaker and has contributed to the offline editing for the Power to Heal. |
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