Elaine Velazquez is an independent filmmaker with decades of experience illuminating important social issues through the power of personal stories. Her work includes Gaining Ground, Moving Mountains (SE Asian refugees facing the culture shock of arriving in America after the Vietnam War); Some Of These Days (a personal look at women aging in our society) and three social action videos produced for ballot initiative campaigns: Common Cause/Common Sense, Fighting For Our Lives and Gay Lives Culture Wars. Her award-winning work has been broadcast nationally on PBS and on WNET (New York City), Oregon Public Broadcasting and KPTV (Portland, OR) and screened at numerous film festivals and venues including Margaret Mead Film Festival, American Film & Video Festival, Chicago International Film Festival, Denver International Film Festival, Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival and the New York Museum of Modern Art.
Barbara Bernstein is a musician, composer, performance artist, radio and video producer. Her award-winning radio documentaries have been internationally broadcast on public and community radio stations and her features have been heard on NPR, PRI, the BBC, Pacifica Network News, This Way Out and Making Contact. Her work includes Sacrifice Zones, (about the pressure to turn the Pacific Northwest into a fossil fuel export hub); Fighting Goliath (about the turbulent growth of tar sands development); Heavy Weather (exploring connections between increasing extreme weather and our changing climate and landscapes); Sculpted By Fire (about the important role that fire plays in shaping western forests and sustaining healthy forest ecosystems); Salmonlands (about the cultural significance of diminishing salmon runs in the Northwest); Rivers That Were (about the industrialization of the Colorado and Columbia Rivers); In Jesus’ Name (an in-depth investigation of the Christian Right) and Gaining Ground, co-produced with Elaine Velazquez. She also plays viola and cuatro in a French Cabaret and Tango band.