Wendy Parkman, Judy Finelli & Lisa Denker

Project Title: The Judy Finelli Project (working title)
Recipient Organization: Circus Center
Fiscal Sponsor: Bay Area Video Coalition
Lead Artist: Lisa Denker
Genre and Date Awarded: Media Arts, June 2006
To Be Presented: Anticipates television broadcasts, film festivals, and special interest screening events

Filmmaker Lisa Denker and Circus Center (with the fiscal sponsor Bay Area Video Coalition) are collaborating on a one-hour documentary film of Judy Finelli. Through a curious portrayal of Judy life story, the documentary will reveal Judy’s influential contribution to the American New Circus Movement through her co-founding of the San Francisco School of Circus Arts. Judy followed her life’s passion by becoming a dedicated circus arts performer. In 1989 she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. The progression of the illness over time completely immobilized her, removing her ability to perform. After years of searching for a remedy, enduring the isolation accompanying this severe illness, and facing her own mortality, Judy returned the Circus Center as a teacher-mentor. Through the reconnection with this essential aspect of her life, circus now offers her a unique antidote.

Judy Finelli’s career stretches from the period in America when circus froze in the traditional shadow of “The Greatest Show on Earth,” through the rebellious 1960s, when the ring disappeared and circus became accessible; and then, into the 1970s, when the influence of the touring Moscow Circus elevated circus to an art, revolutionizing America’s concept of what a circus could be. Judy Finelli traveled to Russia in 1970 to experience circus through visiting circus schools. The concepts she discovered on this visit never left her and, in 1984, she co-founded the San Francisco School of Circus Arts with Wendy Parkman.

Developed through a close artistic partnership between filmmaker Denker and performer Finelli, The Judy Finelli Story will tell a life story, celebrate circus history, and explore the Bay Area’s circus arts legacy. The film will present Judy’s life experience through the use of personal narrative—from both her written manuscript and interviews; visual images combined with Finelli’s voice-over; and day-in-the-life moments of Judy at home and at the School of Circus Arts. The film also will incorporate interviews with former Pickle Family Circus members, students, and a few of Judy’s friends and family members as well as live-action footage of circus arts training, rehearsal performances, and archival footage.

Circus Center is home to the San Francisco School of Circus Arts, the Clown Conservatory, the San Francisco Youth Circus, and The New Pickle Circus. It was originally established as an outgrowth of The Pickle Family Circus, and currently serves approximately 900 students every year. Spectacle Magazine has called it, “America’s premiere center for training in the circus arts.” Many students who trained at the San Francisco School of Circus Arts have gone on to careers with Cirque du Soleil, Cirque Eloize, Cirque Knee, Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus, the New Pickle Circus, Stomp, and many other companies.

Lead artist Lisa Denker has worked in several capacities in both independent and commercial film. Her prior independent film, Heart of the Sea/Kapolioka’ehuki, a one-hour portrait of Hawaiian surfing legend Rell Sunn, was broadcast nationally on PBS and internationally. The film has garnered many awards, including PBS’s Independent Lens Audience Award (2003); the Audience Award Best Documentary Feature at the San Francisco International Film Festival (2003); and the Aloha Spirit Award at the Hawaii International Film Festival (2002).

LEAD ARTIST

Lisa Denker, Director/producer, videographer & editor

Lisa Denker started working in film after attending the Art Center School of Design film program. She was the Art Director for the independent feature Gas, Food and Lodging, directed by Alison Anders and the Grammy Award “Ain’t It Heavy,” rock video for Melissa Etheridge; and was the Set Decorator for the feature film Citizen Ruth, directed by Alexander Payne. She then went on to union work on films such as Warner Brothers’ Batman Returns, directed by Tim Burton.

Close to a decade later, Lisa wanted to get back to creating her own films. She applied her talents as a director and cinematographer on several independent film projects, including Swell (1996), and Every Child Should Have a Chance (2001)—conceptualizing, storyboarding, building dramatic moments, and finding the narrative spine.

Lisa Denker’s Heart of the Sea/Kapolioka’ehukai (2002), a one hour portrait of Hawaiian legend Rell Sunn, was broadcast nationally on PBS’s Independent Lens as well as internationally. The film has garnered many awards, including PBS’s Independent Lens Audience Award (2003); the Audience Award Best Documentary Feature at the San Francisco International Film Festival (2003); the Aloha Spirit Award at the Hawaii International Film Festival (2002); and awards at numerous other festivals.

Lisa Denker became interested in Rell Sunn’s story while researching a film on the history of women’s surfing. She writes, “It was reading about Rell Sunn that drew me into imagining an intimate film about her.” As Lisa’s research went deeper and she saw into Rell’s many layers—her generous personality, her passion and zest for living, complicated by the built-in conflict of living with cancer—it was clear to her that the story could be a dramatic film. Denker ultimately storyboarded the film as a day-in-the-life project, acting as both director and principal cinematographer. Her goal was to bring viewers into Rell’s world to experience her indelible spirit, her triumphs as a surfer, and her connection with the sea that transcended both her pursuits as a water-woman and a life-threatening illness.

LEAD ARTIST

Lisa Denker

Lisa Denker possesses diverse talent and interests. She was an All-Star Collegiate athlete, and played international volleyball while on the Jr. National Team. In 2005, she pursued her interest in outrigger canoe paddling, Lisa’s team placed 20th overall, out of 72 canoes in the World Cup of outtrigger canoe paddling, the Na Wahine O Ke Kai, Molokai to Oahu Hawaii. Growing up in a family of artists, Lisa was always making things with her hands and developing her visual skills. She studied film-making at Los Angeles City College and the Art Center College of Design film program. Financial difficulties forced her to break off her academic pursuit and go directly into the film industry, working as an Art Director & Set Decorator on a Johnny Depp-directed short narrative film, followed by an independent feature: Gas, Food and Lodging (Dir. Alison Anders); the Grammy Award winning “Ain't It Heavy” rock video for Melissa Etheridge, and the Set Decorator for the feature film Citizen Ruth (Dir. Alexander Payne) among other projects. She then went on to union work on films such as Warner Brothers Batman Returns (Dir. Tim Burton). While working in narrative features, Lisa worked as a residential decorator consulting with actor/actress clients Jeff Goldblum, Laura Dern, Daphne Zuniga, as well as non-film industry clients.

Following her move to the Bay Area, Lisa pursued directing & cinematography, working on industrials, educational films, and documentaries. In addition to film-making, Lisa used her decoratoring skills, consulting on a project for a 9,500 sq. ft. residential restoration-remodel in Berkeley. In 2001, this 1911 Edwardian Craftsman won the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Assoc. Preservation Award. The project received national recognition in 2002 in being awarded Best in All Categories Remmie Award by San Francisco National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI) and Best Whole House Remodel Remmie Award.

Lisa Denker’s Heart of the Sea / Kapolioka’ehukai (2003), a one hour portrait of Hawaiian legend Rell Sunn, was broadcast nationally on PBS’s The Independent Lens, as well as Broadcast internationally. The film has garnered many awards, including PBS’s Independent Lens Audience Award 2003, the Audience Award Best Documentary Feature at the San Francisco International Film Festival 2003, the Audience Award at the Newport Beach Film Festival, the Aloha Spirit Award at the Hawaii International Film Festival 2002, and Best Documentary Award at the Ashland Independent Film Festival.

Lisa Denker is currently directing, producing and filming The Judy Finelli Project (working title), which has received initial funding from the Creative Work Fund. She is also in production on Relative Obscurity, a documentary film portrait of Bay Area artist Lisa Kokin.

Gary Thomsen(Judy's husband), Lisa Denker, Wendy Parkman, & Judy
Finelli.

OTHER COLLABORATING ARTISTS

Composer - Bobby Johnston

Bobby Johnston is quickly earning a reputation as one of the most unique composers working in independent film today. He records exclusively with acoustic instruments and performs every note of music himself.

A friend dubbed Bobby’s studio "the museum of musical instruments" because of the array of instruments at his disposal. The studio houses familiar orchestral elements (piano, timpani, upright bass, orchestral bells, horns, harpsichord, cello…), folk staples (guitar, banjo, mandolin, organ, harmonica…), world instruments (talking drum, duduk, tabla, bamboo flute…) and a number of unusual, altered, invented and found instruments. Bobby uses instruments in both traditional and unorthodox ways, seeking out fresh orchestrations and performance techniques, giving each film an effective, individual, musical voice.

Bobby’s credits include several award-winning documentaries and independent features. His film music has also been featured extensively on the long-running NPR program "This American Life," lending its poignant, lyrical quality to the show’s dramatic, first-person style of storytelling. In winter of 2004, La-La Land Records released Bobby’s original score to the film "King of the Ants.” The score received enthusiastic praise from major film music publications. This set the tone for Bobby’s most recent scoring assignments: Edmond was written by David Mamet and directed by Stuart Gordon. William H. Macy leads an impressive cast, including Julia Stiles, Joe Mantegna, Bai Ling, Mena Suvari, Denise Richards and Bokeem Woodbine. For this score, Bobby was accompanied by Ozomatli frontman Asdru Sierra on trumpet. Edmond premiered at the Venice Film Festival.

Wristcutters: A Love Story was written and directed by Goran Dukic. It stars Patrick Fugit, Shannyn Sossamon, Tom Waits, John Hawkes, Shea Whigham and Will Arnett. Bobby performed all instruments on this score, utilizing everything from cello to kazoo. Wristcutters premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, where Bobby was also a featured performer at the Sundance Music Café.

John Rogers, Additional videography

During 30 years working in video as a director and producer, cameraperson, and editor, John Roger’s credits include several award winning television documentaries and over 100 educational, industrial, and corporate videos and commercials.

Seeking a synthesis of his interests in art, cinema, and social activism, John began working with the first generation of portable video tools in 1970. These early video works screened at the Kitchen Video Gallery, Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Museum of Modern Art. Migrating into the emerging culture of guerilla television, community access, and political video making, John’s first documentary was a video on the release of the Pentagon Papers, shot with Daniel Ellsberg in 1972. Soon afterwards, he joined the pioneering San Francisco video collective Optic Nerve.

Optic Nerve played an important role in the growth of the early Bay Area alternative media community and created several video documentaries, which were among the first to be broadcast on public television in the United States.

In 1980, John became a founding partner of Ideas in Motion, where he is a producer/director, cameraperson, and editor. Ideas in Motion produces media ranging from documentaries to educational videos, and promotional and advocacy videos for the nonprofit sector. Ideas in Motion’s documentaries have been broadcast extensively on local and national public television, including the PBS science series NOVA. Productions have received awards from the Chicago Film Festival, National Educational Film Festival, Philadelphia International Film Festival, Intercom Festival, Cine Latino Festival, Tokyo International Science and Technology Film Festival, National Wildlife Film Festival, American Film Festival, U.S. Film and Video Festival, International Communication Film and Video Festival, and the Computer Press Awards.

Working as an independent Director of Photography, John has contributed to numerous other productions, including “Discovering Dominga,” (PBS/POV, 2003), “Barbie Nation,” (PBS/POV, 1998), the PBS series “Beyond the Dream,” and segments for Frontline and A&E. He is currently Director of Photography on two hour-long documentaries on Bay Area architecture of the Arts and Crafts Movement.