FEBRUARY ONE

The Filmmakers

Dr.Steven Channing Executive Producer

Steven Channing brings a wide range of experiences as an historian, author and Emmy Award winning filmmaker. He began his professional life as an academic historian, with a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina. He taught at the Universities of Kentucky, Stanford, Duke and Genoa, Italy, and was a research fellow at Johns Hopkins. His published books include the Allen Nevins Prize winning study Crisis of Fear - Secession in South Carolina and The Confederate Ordeal for Time-Life's Civil War series.

Beginning in the 1980’s, he began to communicate true stories about the American past through documentary and educational television. His initial productions include America's 400th Anniversary, narrated by Andy Griffith, and Loyalty On Trial which explores Constitutional history, and received the American Bar Association's Silver Gavel award. The following year, he produced the historical drama Alamance for PBS, on the coming of the American Revolution. Alamance was an Emmy Award winner.

February One is his most recent film project. Next up, Steve plans to bring his enthusiasm for preserving and sharing stories of our past to the great story of race and leadership in Durham, North Carolina in a project entitled Durham: A Self-Portrait.You can email Steve at: schanning@videodialog.com

Rebecca Cerese,Producer

Rebecca Cerese, a New York native, moved to Chapel Hill 14 years ago. She graduated from The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, with a degree in Communications and English. She has been employed at Video Dialog Inc. for 5 years, working on various videos for non-profit organizations, like the Ford Foundation. Many of these videos document educational reform initiatives in inner city areas, through programs such as GEAR UP and Project GRAD. She recently finished producing her first historical documentary entitled February One about the 1960 civil right Sit Ins that happened in Greensboro, NC.

rcerese@videodialog.com

Thomas Vickers, Editor/Additional Writer

Bio to come.

Cynthia Hill, Co-Producer

Cynthia Hill is producer/director and co-editor for Tobacco Money Feeds My Family. She grew up in Pink Hill, North Carolina, where many of her family members, friends, and neighbors farmed tobacco. Hill began her production career working on health education media. For four years she worked as an editor at GLC Productions, a post-production facility in New York City whose clients included MTV, PBS, Lifetime, Nickelodean, and many others. Currently Hill is co-producing February One, a documentary film about the 1960 Greensboro, North Carolina, lunch counter sit-ins—an event credited with re-igniting the civil rights movement. Email Cynthia at filmworks@docsouth.com

Daniel Blake Smith, Writer/Co-Producer

Dan is currently a professor of History at the University of Kentucky. Some of his writing credits include: Alamance, a one-hour drama about a backcountry uprising in Revolutionary North Carolina. (Winner of a regional Emmy, Silver Telly 1998. ) Black Indians: An American Story," a one-hour documentary about the often forgotten intermixture and cultural connections between Native Americans and African-Americans. This critically acclaimed, prize winning documentary was narrated by James Earl Jones with music by the Neville Brothers. You can contact Dan at dbsmit01@uky.edu

Warren Gentry, Cinematographer/Videographer

Warren Gentry is a graduate of the University of North Carolina and attended the New York University Summer Film Program, where his World of Silence PSA received a Bronze Award from the New York International Film Festival. He began work as a key grip in feature film productions before launching a successful career as director, producer, and film and video cameraman. He directed the Emmy-Award winning historical drama Alamance for VDI.

Kenneth Conyers, Audio

Bio to come.

Scott Pearsons, Music/Score

David Tyson, Additional Camera

Martin Brown, Additional Camera

Curtis Ganson, Additional Camera

Laura Edwards, Project Development