Description: Agents
of Change examines the untold story of racial conditions on
college campuses that led to protests across the country at over 1000
colleges. Through the stories of the film’s characters who were
caught at the crossroads of the civil rights and black power
movements at a pivotal time in American history, their struggle
echoes the questions about inclusiveness, identity and racial
stereotyping that lie at the heart of the Black Lives Matter movement
of today.
Biography: Frank
R. Dawson is an associate dean, and former chair of the communication and media
studies department at Santa Monica College. Frank is also a producer,
writer, and founding partner in NuHouse Media Group, a company
originally formed to develop and produce TV series, movies for
television, and cable television features in association with CBS
Entertainment Productions. Currently, NuHouse develops projects
independently. Frank served as Universal's production executive on
the NBC dramatic series, Miami
Vice.
He was a producer of Tavis Smiley’s first television talk show
series pilot. Frank Dawson earned his undergraduate degree from
Cornell University and a master of science degree in television and
radio from the Newhouse School at Syracuse University, where he has
been inducted into the school’s professional gallery of
distinguished alumni.
Abby Ginzberg,
has been producing award-winning documentaries about race and social
justice for the past thirty years. Her documentary, Soft
Vengeance: Albie Sachs and the New South Africa won
a Peabody award and an Outstanding Achievement Humanitarian Award
from the Global Film Awards. Abby was consulting producer for the
Academy Nominated short documentary film, The
Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement. Abby’s
documentaries, Soul
of Justice: Thelton Henderson’s American Journey and Cruz
Reynoso: Sowing the Seeds of Justice have aired on public television and been screened at film festivals
and won numerous awards, including a Silver Gavel and CINE Golden
Eagle for Soul
of Justice.
Her short films, Cracking
the Habit and recovering
lives, uncovering hope,
have been critical in helping to document model programs for both
adult and juvenile drug courts, as well as other successful programs
for at-risk youth. She has also documented the innovative work of
cities in combatting the HIV epidemic with films about Oakland, Miami
and the Bronx. She is the president of the Berkeley Film Foundation,
which has awarded over $900,000 in grants to documentary filmmakers,
is on the Boards of the Thelton Henderson Center for Social Justice
at UC Berkeley Law School, The Impact Fund and the Yale Law School
Visual Advocacy Project.
