Green Bananas has brought together two filmmakers and two environmental professionals. In additon, we've assembled an invaluable team of advisors and a fabulous network of volunteers and donors.
Supervising Producer … J. Gary Taylor
He was principal investigator in a three-year research project at the Center for Environmental Management at Tufts University. Funded by the Environmental Protection Agency, this project examined international environmental policy and practice in five multinational companies. He has testified and prepared technical reports for the U.S. Congress and global lending institutions, and served as the director of International Earthcare Network, which set up a consortium of private and public sector institutions concerned with cooperation on the environment and development. He is the co-author of Smart Alliance: How a Global Corporation and Environmental Activists Transformed a Tarnished Brand.
Supervising Producer … Patricia Scharlin
Together with Gary Taylor, her decades of experience gave her the insight and contacts necessary to co-author the book on which this film is based. Smart Alliance: How a Global Corporation and Environmental Activists Transformed a Tarnished Brand was published earlier this year by Yale University Press. It has been called "one of the fairest treatments of environmental and trade issues."
Associate Producer … Jennifer Pritheeva Samuel
Assistant Editor … Erik Satre
Dr. Garry M. Brewer, Frederick K. Weyerhauser Professor of Resource Policy and Management, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Dr. Brewer has a long professional interest in environmental issues in developing countries.
Dr. Noel J. Brown, President, Friends of the United Nations and Professor, University of Denver. Dr. Brown was Director of the North American Regional Office of the United Nations Environment Programme until his retirement.
Margaret Flaherty, Director, World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Geneva. WBCSD is an association of some 170 multinational companies that underwrite research and case studies that examine the business case for sustainable development.
Smokey Forrester, documentary producer. Until 2003, Forrester was the Executive Producer of video projects at the Museum of Natural History. He has produced many documentaries for PBS and is now working on a series about American Indians and environmental justice.
Chris Palmer, producer. In 1983, Mr. Palmer founded the non-profit National Audubon Society Production, of which he was president before founding and leading National Wildlife Society Productions in 1994. He is currently Director of the Center for Environmental Filmmaking at American University.
Magnes Welsh, Corporate Responsibility Communications Consultant. Ms. Welch supervised the publication of Chiquita Brand's pioneering corporate responsibility reporting series of voluntary public reports. She is currently helping other large companies re-think and re-design their CSR strategy.
Note: The advisors serve in their personal capacities. Their organizations are for identification purposes only.
ADVISORS
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FISCAL SPONSOR
Writer/Director … Purcell Carson
Purcell is a documentary filmmaker, editor and director based in New York. She found her way to Green Bananas via California's Central Valley and her documentary portrait of its orange-growing community. Her work looks at the institutions and human forces that shape our environment.
Purcell's award-winning editorial work has brought many worlds into her edit room, from a piano factory in Ben Niles's Note by Note: The Making of Steinway L1037 to the Hollywood stunt set in Amanda Micheli's Double Dare (PBS's Independent Lens). She has also edited Rachel Libert's Beyond the Walls: The Road to Redemption and Gabe Rhodes and Keefe Murren's August in the Empire State (Sundance Channel). Purcell assisted on Local News (a five-part series for PBS), American Masters (PBS) and New York Justice (A&E). She has recently directed and edited Ad Lib: Williamsburg Unscripted for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Before turning to documentary, she produced interactive media, first for The Voyager Company (a partner to The Criterion Collection) and then for Fodor's, one of Random House's internet division.
Director of Photography … Hope Hall
Hope Hall's award-winning cinematography has appeared on MTV, A&E and MSNBC. Her multiple award-winning film, This is for Betsy Hall, premiered at Sundance, has worldwide broadcast distribution and has been used widely in eating disorder education and outreach circles. In 2000, she was awarded a year-long independent study fellowship at the Whitney Museum. She has also directed multi-channel installation video projection for the Guggenheim's Art of the Motorcycle exhibition and Eve Ensler's show, The Good Body. Last year, she shot a documentary on Project Minga, a fair trade venture in Ecuador. She was videographer for Beyond Conviction, a feature documentary about mediation between victims and offenders in Pennsylvania prisons, and a field producer/shooter for First Year, a feature documentary for MTV. Hope is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley where she studied history.
Gary Taylor is the co-founder of The Environment Group, a firm that helps companies and NGOs understand and respond to issues of the environment and sustainable development, and published the successful policy and practice newsletter for Fortune 1,000 managers, "Environment, Health and Safety Management". He worked for Time, Inc. and private industry before earning a doctorate at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Sciences. Gary has consulted internationally for UNEP, the Organization of American States, the World Conservation Union, the World Environment Center, and a variety of private-sector clients. He has done fieldwork in Haiti, Cameroon, Egypt, Venezuela, Mexico and Canada, and written and edited educational materials on environmental issues for USAID and UNESCO. He is a consultant to the World Bank on intellectual property issues among indigenous peoples.
Patricia Scharlin is the co-founder of The Environment Group and was the international editor for "EHS Management". Previously, Patricia was founding director of the international office of the Sierra Club, where she published a monthly newsletter for decision-makers and pioneered programs seeking common ground between corporations and NGOs in environment and development issues. She was editor-in-chief of publications at the Carnegie Endowment for Peace and organized and reported on off-the-record meetings on international conflict issues for high-level government officials. In 1992, Scharlin was the Special Editor of the Overseas Press Club magazine, "Deadline." She chaired the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development at the U.N. As a consultant, she has developed international programs for the Environmental Law Institute and the Environmental Health Institute and has directed research projects and public information campaigns in Latin America on conservation and management of tropical ecosystems.
Jen is a recent graduate of Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs and currently works in photography and documentary film, most recently for Frontline. She has worked and traveled extensively in the Caribbean, including two years volunteering for the Peace Corps on the island of Dominica.
Erik hails from Vermont where he launched his television career making a magazine show for the Department of Agriculture. He works currently is the post-production supervisor for PBS's In the Life.
Jackie Ball, President, Ball Associates. Ms. Ball has many years of experience in the packaging and marketing of educational materials to teachers. She has worked in both film and print.
This project would not be possible without the generous support of our donors.
Many thanks to the individuals who have volunteered their time, expertise, guest rooms and ideas.
This film is fiscally sponsored by Women Make Movies, a 501C3 media arts organzation in New York. Happily, Women Makes movies accepts online contributions to this project.
© 2007 Green Bananas, LLC. Photo credits: Purcell Carson for Green Bananas and ©Jennifer Pritheeva Samuel