PERSONNEL

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Craig Rice

Mr. Rice’s credits as director and executive producer include the feature length documentary Half Past Autumn: The Life and Works of Gordon Parks. Made for HBO, the film won the Tree of Life Award from The Friends of the Motion Picture Academy, was nominated for three Emmy awards, an NAACP Image award, and was selected to the museum of Television and Radio in the year 2000. In his career as a documentary producer and director, he has been involved in documentaries such as Funkytown, Ingrid Chavez: Artist, Bobby: Bobby Brown, Art Pepper: Note From a Jazz Survivor, the ABC television special We Teach Our Children, and Our Sacred Land with Chris Spotted Eagle for PBS. He’s been assistant director on feature films including Brother From Another Planet and Purple Rain and has produced several full length films for the pop star Prince, including Graffiti Bridge. He’s directed dozens of music videos with artists including Prince, Patti LaBelle, and the Sounds of Blackness. Rice the commercial producer and award-winning director has helmed high-end commercials for clients such as Amoco, Nike, Kraft, Target Stores, The United Way, McDonald’s, and the Partnership For Drug Free America. In November 2001, Mr. Rice was named executive director of the Minnesota Film & TV Board. He will aid in fundraising for American Lynching while also playing a key role in project decisions.   

DIRECTOR & CO-PRODUCER: Gode Davis

Mr. Davis has been a prolific writer, producer, and director of film, video and documentary projects for nearly 20 years. As a feature writer for OMNI, he interviewed physicist David Bohm, neurologist Oliver Sacks, and biochemist Rupert Sheldrake for his historic commissioned print article "Accessing the Collective Mind." Mr. Davis's previous documentary film projects include The Nature of Biology; Winter: The Saint Paul-Sapporo Connection: the award-winning but controversial The Palestinian Question: and the 1998 film Tunnel Visions - called "succinct and captivating television" by PBS affiliate WGBH-Boston. Davis was a principal writer on the latter feature -- a scientific, environmental, and sociopolitical program examining the implications of Boston Harbor's giant sewage outfall tunnel. 

CO-PRODUCER: James Fortier

An accomplished award-winning filmmaker in his own right, James is the Director and DP for one 90-minute episode of the national PBS documentary series Native Americans in the 21^st Century for Native American Public Telecommunications.  He was the Director, Co-Writer and DP for Alcatraz Is Not An Island, (ITVS/KQED) which aired nationally on PBS in 2002, and was an official 2001 Sundance Film Festival Selection.  Additionally, James was the Director of Photography for several Native American and First Nations productions, including the short drama Looks Into the Night, starring Tantoo Cardinal, and the CBC documentary Today Is a Good Day: Remembering Chief Dan George among others.  More recently he was the Writer, Producer and Director of the Minnesota PBS environmental documentary Voices For the Land, and he was the Writer and Associate Producer for the five-time Emmy Award winning 6-hour Ojibway PBS documentary series Waasa-Inaabidaa: We Look In All Directions.  James is currently the DP for the HDTV PBS series Great Museums, produced by Echo Pictures and is developing a new PBS documentary tentatively titled I Is Not For Indian, about how Native histories, cultures, and issues are presented and “taught” in the public schools.  He is Co-Producer and Director of Photography for the documentary American Lynching: Strange and Bitter Fruit.

CONSULTING PRODUCER: Lorraine Norrgard

Lorraine Norrgard is a filmmaker based in Duluth MN at WDSE/PBS Eight where she has recently completed a six part historical documentary series (book, Music CD, and Website) on the Anishinaabe/Ojibwe that was nominated for eleven regional Emmy awards and received five, including Directing Non-News for Norrgard.  She also received the 2002 Producer’s Award from the American Indian Film Institute in San Francisco for the series and Best Documentary Feature.  An alumni of the American Film Institute’s Directing Workshop for Women and PBS’s Producer’s Academy at WGBH, Norrgard has focused her work on Native American issues and culture and has won numerous awards for her documentaries from Red Earth Film Festival, Wind and Glacial Voices, National Education Association, American Indian Film Festival in San Francisco, National Indian Education Association, and she was nominated for the D.L. Maybery Award in Minnesota. She has produced more than 25 feature documentaries that have appeared in numerous festivals including, Taos Talking Picture Festival, Santa Clarita International, Hawaii International, Silver Images, Dreamspeakers, etc.   She has a master’s degree in Communications from the University of Hawaii, East-West Center and worked overseas for the United Nations Development Program for many years in the Asia Region.  She is a Board Member of IFP Minneapolis/St. Paul, and resides in Cloquet, MN with her husband and four children. 

ASSOCIATE PRODUCER: Alf Wilson

Alf Wilson, founder-president of Rupicola Productions, was the creator of "Gone Birding!", the renowned bird-identification video hosted by award-winning actress Jane Alexander. An excellent producer, he will track down leads for interviews, arrange filming schedules, and research content.

EDITOR & SECOND WRITER: Mike Yearling

Co-writer and editor of Alcatraz Is Not An Island, Mike Yearling is an award-winning creative director working in film, television and corporate video. He was a producer, writer and editor for Cyberlife, a nationally broadcast television news show on The Discovery Channel, which explained Internet developments innovations to a layperson audience.  In his work as a strategic communications consultant, Mike produces legislative-lobbying pieces and new product marketing films. His clients include SBC, Visa, Pottery Barn, Levi Strauss, and BMW.  

PRODUCTION ASSISTANT: Lisa A. Reels

Activist and advocate for DARE (Direct Action for Rights and Equality,) International Answer (Act Now to Stop the War & End Racism,) NAHT (National Alliance of Hud Tenants,) and People to End Homelessness. 

WEBMASTER & RESEARCHER: Greta Methot

Greta Methot earned her PhD in English from the University of Rhode Island.  Her scholarly work focuses on racial violence in post-Civil War American literature.  She is pleased to lend her research skills and technical knowledge to the American Lynching project.

GRASSROOTS INITIATIVE COORDINATOR: Peter Asen

Peter holds a bachelor's degree from Brown University in Africana Studies and Philosophy, and was recipient of the first ever Anna Julia Cooper Award for academic achievement, from the Brown Africana Studies department. An activist, organizer, and writer, Peter works for the Civil Justice Project at Ocean State Action in Cranston, RI, and has written for such publications as Labor Notes, Rhode Island Monthly, and the Progressive. He is former managing editor of the College Hill Independent in Providence, where he currently resides. He can be reached at peter@AmericanLynching.com.

PAST PERSONNEL

Tracy P. Stilwell, Production Assistant

Michael DiBenedetto, Production Assistant

Gregory C. Ricci, Webmaster