CONNIE FIELD | Director, Producer Connie Field is an Academy Award nominated, and Emmy Award winning, director who has made a number of high profile documentaries that have been shown all over the world. Before getting involved in film she worked as an organizer in many social and human rights organizations where she established her commitment to progressive social change which she has carried into her film career. Many of her films focus on hidden histories, stories that had not been told before which should be an important part of our collective memories. Her most recently finished films are The Whistleblower of My Lai and Oliver Tambo. Some of her previous work includes Al Helm: Martin Luther King in Palestine, about an African American gospel choir touring Palestine in a Palestinian play about Martin Luther King Jr; the seven-part series Have You Heard From Johannesburg, on the global movement that ended Apartheid in South Africa, which aired on PBS and the BBC in January 2012; Freedom on My Mind a history of the civil rights movement in Mississippi; the feminist classic The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter and ¡Salud! on Cuba's role in the struggle for global health equity. She has won numerous awards including Academy Award nominations, the Sundance Grand Jury Prize, a primetime Emmy Award, British Academy Award Nominee, Best Series, and Best Feature Documentary from numerous festivals, as well as having her films listed as the Best Doc of the Year or One of the Ten Best Films of the Year by a number of film critics. Her work has been broadcast in over 30 countries including Japan, Brazil, South Africa, Britain, Australia, Denmark, Germany, France, Spain, England, and in the US. She is a recipient of the John Grierson Award as most outstanding social documentarian, and a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship and is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
He is the resident sound designer for the Berkeley-based theatre company Central Works, having designed over 50 world-premiere plays for the company, as well as dozens of other theatrical productions for companies including Shotgun Players, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Theatre Rhino, TheatreFIRST, and others. Under the name Thomas Carnacki he records and performs what is occasionally referred to as "experimental music", having released several lps, cds, and eps under that monicker. Over the course of over a decade of activity, Carnacki (or Scharpen) has worked with luminaries such as Carla Bozulich, Nurse With Wound, irr. app. (ext.), and Carla Kihlstedt. Carnacki has scored films (e.g. Steven Okazaki's HBO documentary "Heroin: Cape Cod, USA", Sylvia Schedelbauer's "Sounding Glass") and dance performances (e.g. Margaret Jenkins Dance Company's "Skies Calling, Skies Falling", Micaela Gardner's "Landward"). An avid proponent of terrestrial radio, Scharpen co-hosts KALX 90.7fm's weekly film show "Film Close-Ups" and produces the weekly "Artsinreview" program.
AWARDS
Two time Academy Award Nominee, Best Feature Documentary
Primetime Emmy Award, Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking
Sundance Grand Jury Prize Winner
Best Limited Series, International Documentary Association
Audience Award, Independent Lens, PBS
Gold Hugo, Chicago International Television Festival
British Academy of Film and Television Arts, Best Documentary Feature Nominee
Erik Barnouw Award, Organization of American Historians
John Grierson Award, American Film Festival
John O'Connor Award, American Historical Association
Henry Hampton Award, Council on Foundations
Best of Northern California, National Educational Film Festival
Distinguished Documentary Award, International Documentary Association
National Educational Association Award for Excellence in the Advancement of Learning through Broadcasting
Gold Hugo, Chicago International Film Festival
Golden Marazzo, Festival dei Popoli
Gold Award, Worldfest-Houston
CINE Golden Eagle
Golden Athena, Athens Festival
Best Documentary Feature, Canadian Film Board
Best Documentary Feature, Pan-African Film Festival
Audience Award, Pan-African Film Festival
London International Film Festival, Best Documentary Feature Nominee
