The Filmmakers
Richard Whymark
Producer and Director
Richard got his degree in 1998 in Broadcast Journalism and almost immediately started coproducing Jim Hightower’s radio show for ABC Networks. At the same time, he was working as a camera operator for PBS on their political discussion and gardening shows. For one of his first jobs, he was fortunate enough to work as a camera assistant on a documentary piece about Lady Bird Johnson.
While working at the University of Texas’ radio station, he received a rather curious local award for “Best Women’s Show Host Who’s Not A Woman” from the Austin Chronicle. For this show, he produced a weekly 60-minute discussion about many topics pertaining to women on or off campus.
Since then, he has worked in a variety of jobs in broadcast media, filming not only interviews and documentaries but also concerts, feature films and experimental shorts. He has worked in the U.S., the U.K., Eire, Switzerland, France and Australia on myriad films and videos.
More relevantly, the documentaries he has worked on have been on topics which range through:
- his maternal grandfather, a POW in Japan during WWII
- his paternal grandfather, also in the Pacific Theatre – for the Nimitz Museum
- homelessness in Austin, generally (“homeless in Austin”; Dir.: Stacy Schoolfield)
- homeless women in Austin (Dir.: Nevie Owens)
- animal rescue (“Rescue Me”; Dir.: Stacy Schoolfield)
- urban development and its impact on the environment (“The Unforeseen”; Prod: Robert Redford and Terrence Malick)
- the first female jockey in America – Wantha Davis
- the Texas youth prison system (“Burned”; Dir.: Emily Pyle)
- the life of Blaze Foley (South By SouthWest 2009 film festival premiere)
- the Blues Family Tree Project (Dir.: Harold MacMillan)
- a history of Texas music (series – in development), and
- various short pieces about Austin music for both BBC radio and BBC TV.
His roles in each of these have ranged from camera assistant through DP / camera operator to
producer / director.
Nevie Owens
Co-Producer
Nevie has trained as assistant editor to Richard Linklater’s editor -Sandra Adair -on many projects including, “Rolling Kansas”, a Richard Linklater football documentary and Academy Award-Nominated “Before Sunset”.
Her work as an editor has screened at festivals throughout North America. The short film, “Roberta Wells” can be found on the “2004 Best of Slamdance” DVD. Most recently, Nevie edited the feature film “Jumping Off Bridges” and the documentary “Mexiphobia”, which is her directorial debut. She also directed and edited a short form documentary about homeless women in Austin.
Currently she is editing “Burned”, a documentary about incarcerated youth within the Texas Youth Commission.
Lara Andre
Post-Production Supervisor
Lara’s family was friends with Fiore for some of her life in America; she is based in Washington DC.
She has worked as a video editor and producer for 14 years, creating documentary programming for Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Discovery Health, CMT, and HGTV, as well as educational and installation videos for the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans, LA.
Leah Ross
Researcher; gender studies
Having received a BA and an MA in Women’s Studies and Gender Studies (with a minor in psychology), Leah is now a fifth year PhD student, writing her dissertation on public memory and documentary film.
She has attained myriad awards in her field, including:
- Women’s Studies Award, Program in Women's and Gender Studies, University of Texas atAustin: for outstanding service to the Center and its Programs.
- Special Travel Grant, Office of Graduate Studies, U of Texas at Austin: for presentation at the fifth annual EU Feminist Research Conference, Gender and Power in the New Europe, Lund, Sweden.
- Research Fellowship, Program in Women's and Gender Studies, U of Texas at Austin.
- Women’s Studies Award, Department of Women's Studies, State University of New York at
Albany: for academic excellence and significant feminist contributions to the women’s community.
In addition to these awards, she was also a Facilitator in the Department of Women’s Studies at the State University of New York at Albany: Introduction to Feminism; she was one of eleven students accepted into the Undergraduate Teaching Collective and created an undergraduate curriculum for Women’s Studies 101.
Rachel Andre
Researcher / Fact-checker; art and biography
Rachel has been a writer for Assignment Discovery, TLC Elementary School and various Animal Planet projects. In addition, she wrote lesson plans/curriculum to complement these series.
She has also been a writer for the Welfare to Work Partnership - researching and writing articles for companies involved in welfare reform. In this role, she led high-profile outreach efforts such as a press conference for Bill Clinton, a conference with Al Gore and various events and town halls with mayors, governors and other key people across the country.
In addition, she was a company Web content manager, writing all Web content and developing/researching/writing news articles for professional photographers.
Rachel’s family was friends with Fiore for much of her life in America and owns some of her sculptures.