Jury Members
Be the first to learn of the award-winning films, Saturday, 4:15pm, in the Stone Hall of the Foundry. Our jury spends hours deliberating our 2012 official selections and we eagerly anticipate their decisions to name our 2012 award winning films. Join us and honor the award winning film makers! A Saturday Morning/Afternoon Ticket or Weekend Pass is required. Limited seating. First come, first served. Champagne served, courtesy of Barefoot Winery.
Head Juror Alison Jones-Pomatto has worked as a professional stage manager, including productions for the Foothill Theatre Company. A former SYRCL board member, she now serves as member of the Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital foundation.
Doug Bertran is the Creative Executive of Bertran Media and has won numerous awards for his media productions for National Geographic Television, Nat Geo Channels, NOVA, PBS Nature, Animal Planet, the Discovery Channel, the BBC, and more. Doug integrates complex scientific, legal and policy analysis into conservation communications campaigns. While managing relationships with government agencies, land use organizations, private land owners, and conservation groups.
Roger Hicks is a founding member of SYRCL and was the organization’s spokesperson, then board president for 15 of the first 16 years. Roger continues to serve on the board and is an integral part of the Festival Committee. He is a physician at Yubadocs Urgent Care, which he founded with his wife, Linda Rachmel. He’s passionate about rivers, salmon, and the Wild & Scenic Film Festival. His film credits include Sicko. (Actually, that’s his only one.)
Aaron Leventman is the producer of the Bioneers Moving Image Festival in San Rafael, CA, part of the Bioneers Conference, which is a leading-edge forum presenting breakthrough solutions for people and planet. He previously worked for the Sundance Film Festival and was a curator for the Santa Fe Film Center. He has an M.F.A. from Columbia University’s film program, is an actor who has appeared in many feature films and shorts as well as theatrical productions, and is a published playwright whose works has been performed all over the U.S., most recently in New York City.
Fred Padula is an artist, filmmaker and educator. After receiving a BA in music, Fred began to work in abstract color photography. In 1962 he became interested in filmmaking and continues to work in this media. During the 1970′s he returned to music composition (electronic) as an outgrowth of film soundtracks. Also during the 1970′s, he became infatuated with flying small airplanes and from this new perspective began making aerial photographs. Fred has served on many film festival juries.
Catherine Stifter is a two-time Peabody award-winning independent editor and producer for community media projects around the US. As managing editor of “Crossing East”, Catherine shared a Peabody Award for the first public radio series to explore Asian immigration to the US. She also shares the Award for editorial work on “The DNA Files”. She’s worked in a wide variety of public media jobs for 30 years, most recently as editor for “Dealing With Diabetes: Three Stories From a California Epidemic” on Capital Public Radio. She’s co-writer of the international radio series, “Bioneers: Revolution from the Heart of Nature”. Her one-hour public radio documentary, “Saving The Sierra”, (co-produced with jesikah maria ross) aired on more than 200 US stations. Catherine lives on a solar-powered homestead deep in the forests of the California Sierra where she commutes to the Internet via satellite.
