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)
Mission
Submission
Films
Schedule
Tickets
Traveling Festival
Special Screenings
Sponsors
Support
Volunteers
Press
Links
Awards
Contact
Archive
Mailing List
If you would like to receive periodic updates about UNAFF events, please click HERE to join our mailing list.

Facebook


Twitter

Support UNAFF!
We are a nonprofit organization and if you like what we do, please consider making a donation.

paypal





SELECT A FILM:
After Tiller
Alumbrones
Angel Azul
The Apothecary
Barefoot
The Barefoot Artist
Bastards
The Box
Brave Miss World
Broken City Poets
A Civil Remedy
Counting the Dead
Dance Up From the Street
Disruption
Drones in My Backyard
Dry Season
The E-Waste Tragedy
Facing Fear
Families Are Forever
The Forgotten
Freedom Summer
G-DOG
Generation Z: Child Soldiers of the Zetas
The Gold Spinners
Growing Home
Heart of Sky, Heart of Earth
I am a Girl
In Plain Sight
In The Wake of Stalin
It All Started With Mom
It's Up to You
Jesus was a Commie
JFK: A President Betrayed
The Kill Team
Killing Her is a Ticket to Paradise
King's Point
Languages in Survival: Menik
The Last Battle
The Last Season
Libya, the Migrant Trap
Light and Dark
Maria of Many
Marshland Dreams
Matthieu Ricard, On the Path to Compassion
Mestizo
The Mural
My Stolen Revolution
The Pad Piper
Pakistan's Hidden Shame
A People Without a Land
Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall
Red Lines
Regarding Susan Sontag
Running from Crazy
Sewing Hope
Slomo
Slums: Cities of Tomorrow
Stumped
The Supreme Price
Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People
To Kill a Sparrow
Tomorrow We Disappear
Trashed
True Son
Valentino's Ghost
When You Can't See The Film
White Earth
The Wild Years
Wrenched
Young Voices for the Planet: Kids vs Global Warming