Stable Life | Sarah MacPherson and Tricia Creason Valencia, Producers

"Stable Life" portrays a year in the life of Denicia Martinez, a racetrack groom in Northern California. She is an undocumented immigrant from rural Mexico, living in a tack room on the racetrack with her husband and children, working long hours tending the horses for very little pay. Despite the squalor of her surroundings, Denicia is optimistic about her prospects: her job is stable, her two US citizen boys are in school, and her oldest son has begun a promising career as a jockey. The high-risk, high-stakes, high-intensity environment of the racetrack mirrors the situation faced by many undocumented workers in America, where harsh immigration policies force them to make long-shot gambles that have little chance of paying off.

The Heretics | Crescent Diamond and Joan Braderman, Producers

The Heretics is a feature-length experimental documentary film about the Women’s Art Movement of the 1970s, based on the stories of the original women of the famed Heresies Collective. Together, they published Heresies: A Feminist Publication on Art and Politics from 1977-1992, vowing to increase the visibility of women artists in the art  world. The Heretics documentary, thirty years later, revisits these women, interviewing them as they write, create and install new pieces.  Joan Braderman's work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, NYC, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, The Institute of Contemporary Art in London, and the Georges Pompidou Center in Paris, among others. She is a founding member of The Heresies Collective.

The Russell City Blues | Scott Pearson, Producer

During the ‘40’s & ‘50’s musicians such as Big Mama Thornton, Fillmore Slim, and Billy Dunn made ramshackle Russell City one of the liveliest stops on the West Coast blues circuit. Both local and recently-transplanted blues musicians learned their stage chops and transformed the heritage of Texas and Louisiana country blues into the unique, urbane blues today found in clubs all up and down the West Coast. But in the ‘60’s, the black, white, and brown residents and musicians of Russell City were forced out, their homes and hallowed juke joints wiped off the map to make room for an industrial park. Russell City became a memory, a coda to a catchy blues number. Through the recollections of the people who played and the people who listened, The Russell City Blues explores the connections between music, culture, place, and politics.

Crime After Crime | Yoav Potash, Producer

"Crime After Crime" is a documentary about the national movement to end domestic violence, and local efforts on behalf of one survivor of abuse.

The 2009 Panelists

Ivan Jaigirdar
Ivan Jaigirdar is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of 3rd I South Asian Films, the Artistic director of San Francisco International South Asian Film Festival and the  BollyhoodCafe. Prior to founding 3rd I, Jaigirdar served as Creative Director and Programmer at Artist Television Access (he is still on the board),and has helped curate programs for numerous festivals including San Francisco International, Asian American Film Festival, Madcat International Women's Film Festival, the Black Film Festival, and NoisePop. Also an accomplished filmmaker, Jaigirdar's work has in screened in festivals all over the world.

Erica Deiparine-Sugars
Erica Deiparine-Sugars is the Director of Programming at ITVS.  Prior to joining ITVS  in 2008 she was the Education Director for a national media education organization.  Erica has worked in the media arts community in San Francisco and Chicago extensively for the last 10 years and has collaborated on programs for media arts organizations, the US Department of Education and public television.  Her background is in documentary film and broadcast news production.

Marlene Velasco Begue
Marlene Velasco Begue is an independent producer and documentary consultant. Currently, she is the producer for “Latin Pulse/Pulso Latino,” a bilingual English/Spanish news magazine on Link TV covering relevant news from Latin America, now in  its third season.  Marlene has over 20 years of international experience working as a producer, consultant, programmer and film and video trainer for youth and adults. She has seved as a juror, panelist and screener for numerous organizations including  SF International Film Festival, Latino Public Broadcasting, SF International Jewish Film Festival,  SF Latino International Film Festival, and El Salvador Second Video Festival.