FILMMAKERS

In 2009, we started collecting long "oral history" interviews on video of LA Progressives -- activists, philanthropists, and people who are both - in hopes of documenting and preserving those who have dedicated much of their lives to crafting a more equitable society. We feel it is a privilege to be part of this extended community. The excerpts below come from longer interviews. We intend to add new interviews continually, and in doing so, help to strengthen the next generation of progressive voices.    

- Julie and Brogan

ADVISORY COMMITTEE

SUSAN ADELMAN is a feminist, activist and a philanthropist who was inspired by her times, and her mother, Lucy Adelman. In the late 1960's and early 1970's, Susan was in SDS, worked for the Liberation News Service and went to Cuba with the Venceramos Brigade. She developed her feminism by reading, travelling, and especially by talking to women about their lives, relationships and aspirations. Susan serves on the Boards of The ACLU of Southern California, and the Venice Family Clinic, and has been active in CODE PINK since its founding.

MIKE FARRELL, an actor, writer, director and producer, is President of the board of Death Penalty Focus, Co-chair Emeritus of the California Committee of Human Rights Watch, spokesperson for Concern America, and author of "Just Call Me Mike; a Journey to Actor and Activist" and "Of Mule and Man."

DAVID FERTIG, an activist, attorney and musician, is a director of the Ash Grove Foundation and the L.A. Blues Society, and is president of the Fertig Freedom Foundation. Raised in a radical progressive household, he was steeped in community, labor and political organizing, which led him to various roles as an organizer, administrator and board member of assorted progressive activist and political organizations, eventually attending Peoples College of Law ('82-'86) and serving on its board (83-'98) and as faculty for many years. As an attorney, while also pursuing extensive litigation on behalf of workers and community activists, he engaged in various efforts to help protect community access to media, in both television and radio. From 2001 to 2004, Dave Fertig worked successfully in a leadership role (as a national board member and as an attorney for the board) to help rescue Pacifica Foundation from imminent dissolution by a board most of whom had abandoned Pacifica's mission. Since then, in addition to his legal work, he has worked to bring people and communities together through music and other arts, in order to heighten political awareness across cultures and spur activism for progressive goals.

MICHELE PRICHARD joined the Liberty Hill Foundation Funding Board in 1982, became the Executive Director of the Foundation in 1989, and transitioned to Special Projects in 1998.  Michele has an M.A. in Urban Planning from UCLA and has served as a Senior Fellow to the UCLA School of Public Affairs since 2007.  She serves on the Board of Green LA Coalition and is President of the Board of the Venice Community Housing Corporation.

MARGE TABANKIN was a student activist, and after graduating from the University of Wisconsin with a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science, she went to Washington D.C. to work on the Youth Citizenship Fund's Campaign to pass a Constitutional Amendment to lower the voting age to 18.  She was the first woman to head the National Student Association. Under President Carter, she was Director of Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA). From 1981 -1988, she was Executive Director of the ARCA Foundation, and from 1988 -1994, she was Executive Director of the Hollywood Women's Political Committee where she helped to raise millions of dollars for progressive causes and candidates.

CAROL A. WELLS is an activist, art historian, curator, lecturer, writer, and poster collector. Trained as a medievalist, she taught the history of art and architecture for thirteen years at California State University Fullerton. Wells began collecting human rights and protest posters in 1981 and produced her first exhibition the same year.  In 1988, Wells founded the Center for the Study of Political Graphics [PoliticalGraphics.org] and serves as its executive director. CSPG is an educational and research archive that collects, preserves documents and circulates posters relating to diverse movements for social change. The archive now contains more than 75,000 posters from 1900 to the present, including the largest collection of post World War II posters in the United States. Wells has curated more than 60 theme-based traveling exhibitions that have traveled throughout the world, and her articles on art and politics have appeared in numerous publications and catalogues. She believes that the power of graphics can combat public apathy and feelings of helplessness, and help open up a truly democratic arena for political debate.