| Counting the Dead (7 min) US |
Wednesday 10/22, 7:00 PM (Session 18)
Director/Producer: Catharine Axley
Description:
Gladys Hansen is an eighty-eight year-old former city librarian who has dedicated fifty years of her life to searching for the dead of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire. After discovering that San Francisco did not have a list of the people who died during, or as a result of the 1906 Earthquake and Fire, Gladys began combing newspapers, tax records, registries, and reaching out to genealogy societies to create a list of those who died. She soon found out that the city had grossly underestimated the number of dead, and in fact, had intentionally downplayed the fatalities and damage from the Earthquake to avoid discouraging future investments in city business. As the Dead List grew and grew, Gladys became the pivot point for hundreds of families who wanted to find out more information on missing relatives. Gladys has since collected hundreds, and possibly even thousands, of letters of passed-down memories and eye-witness accounts. Through these, Gladys has reconstructed the historical record and enabled us to experience the multi-generational effect of death and loss due to natural disaster.
Biography:
Catharine Axley is currently a first-year student in Stanford's MFA in Documentary Film and Video program. Prior to that, she held a few positions with documentary film production companies in New York. She most recently worked at Dog Green Productions, where she was line producer, associate producer, and assistant editor on Good Fortune - The Story of Morgenthau, a two hour documentary on the Morgenthau family that is to air on PBS in 2014. She also worked on three films including The Road to Nasiriyah, a film about the looting of archaeological sites in Iraq after the 2003 invasion. Catharine received a bachelor’s degree in history and ethnicity, race and migration from Yale University, where she made Living In Paradise, a documentary short of her own that took a critical look at international cruise ship tourism on Haiti's northern coast.
Contact Information:
e: catharine.axley@gmail.com
©2014 United Nations Association Film Festival (UNAFF)
