SIPA Alumna Edet Belzberg Receives MacArthur ‘Genius’ Award

SIPA Alumna Edet Belzberg Receives MacArthur ‘Genius’ Award

By Kristin Sterling

Edet Belzberg

Edet Belzberg, SIPA ‘97 and documentary filmmaker, was leaving the Jewish Historical Society where she was conducting research for a film when she received an unexpected call on her cell phone. The caller encouraged her to sit down. Fearing something was wrong, Belzberg stopped in the first store she passed, a bedding store. The caller then revealed incredible news — Belzberg is among 25 people selected as 2005 MacArthur Fellows. Also known as “Genius Awards,” the fellowship comes with $500,000 in “no strings attached” support over the next five years.

Because of the foundation’s strict, anonymous nomination process, Belzberg didn’t even know that she was being considered for such an award. She remained captive on a comfortable bed in the store for nearly an hour before regaining her composure and taking the subway home.

“This is life-altering and seemingly unfathomable,” says Belzberg. “It provides a documentary filmmaker with an incredible amount of freedom. I am extremely grateful beyond words to the MacArthur Foundation. It is something I never would have imagined.”

Belzberg, age 35, is planning to use the grant for research and development for several films that she has been thinking about over the years. She also will consider starting a fund to help other young documentary filmmakers.

Her signature film, Children Underground, was nominated for an Academy Award in 2002. Belzberg spent four years creating the film, which follows homeless children living in a train station in Bucharest, Romania, and personalizes the dangerous and chaotic world of these children. Critically-acclaimed throughout the United States and Europe, the film has focused international attention on child welfare in post-communist Romania.

Belzberg’s characteristically intense and detailed treatment of the lives of children also defines her recently completed film, Gymnast, which follows the top three American female gymnasts for two years before, and two years after, the 2000 Olympics. The film shows what happens to young athletes physically and mentally when they do, and don’t, attain their goals.

“We are delighted that SIPA alumna Edet Belzberg has won this richly deserved recognition,” says SIPA Dean Lisa Anderson. ”Her combination of artistic creativity and public policy impact is precisely what we try to nurture at the School of International and Public Affairs.”

Belzberg received a B.A. from the University of Colorado, Boulder and an M.A. from Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs. She is a frequent lecturer at Columbia’s Journalism School and has taught at NYU.

Including this year’s fellowships, 707 people, ranging in age from 18 to 82, have been named MacArthur Fellows since the program’s inception in 1981. In addition to Belzberg, Terry Belanger, Columbia alumnus and former faculty member and assistant dean of Library Service, also has been named a 2005 MacArthur Fellow. Belanger currently is University Professor and Honorary Curator of Special Collections, as well as a rare book preservationist, at the University of Virginia. Belzberg and Belanger join more than 28 other Columbians who have been named MacArthur Fellows, more recently including: Caroline Walker Bynum, Barbara Fields, Edward Hirsch, Richard Howard, Sherry Ortner, Pedro Sanchez, Kara Walker and Patricia Williams.
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David Carroll Naturalist Author/Illustrator Unaffiliated Warner, New Hampshire Age: 64 David Carroll has the eye of an artist, the mind of a scientist, the voice of a great storyteller, and the soul of a conservationist.  An illustrator, author, and naturalist for over forty years, he has made voluminous, detailed observations of the ecology of the deciduous hardwood forests and wetland habitats around New England, especially near his home in central New Hampshire.  His understanding of the plants and animals that comprise these natural systems makes him a valuable resource for herpetologists, ecologists, and conservationists, providing a meticulous chronicle of life in areas threatened by human encroachment and imparting essential insights for those attempting to protect them.  Freshwater turtles are the central focus of his studies, particularly the increasingly rare spotted and wood turtles.  With an artist’s sensibility, David Carroll immerses himself in wetland environments, gaining a deep understanding of the lives of swamp-dwelling creatures and the threats to their survival.  He has published four books on aspects of natural history and wildlife preservation, including Swampwalker’s Journal (1999), detailing his expeditions and illustrated with precise sketches and maps, and Self-Portrait with Turtles (2004), a memoir that describes his lifelong fascination with swamps and the creatures that inhabit them.  Through his artwork, writing, fieldwork, and speaking, Carroll helps people of all ages see the beauty, history, and value in swamps, marshes, bogs, kettle ponds, and rivers. David Carroll received a B.F.A (1965) from Tufts University.  He is the author and illustrator of Trout Reflections (1993) and The Year of the Turtle (1996), in addition to his more recent books.  Carroll’s artwork has been exhibited at such institutions as the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, Dartmouth College Museum and Galleries, and the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center at the University of Connecticut.  He is also an active lecturer and consultant to conservation institutions throughout New England.

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Born on December 2, 1946, David was eleven when his parents moved from England to Bloomfield, New Jersey. He found himself having to adjust from an idyllic English childhood to life in a fast-paced American city. During this period of change, he began to draw seriously. So exciting did he find this process that he chose to pursue an undergraduate education at the Rhode Island School of Design. He received a bachelor’s degree in architecture, then spent his fifth year at RISD in the European Honors Program, studying in Rome, Herculaneum, and Pompeii.After a short period working as an interior designer, a junior high school teacher, and a teacher at RISD, Macaulay began to experiment with writing and illustrating books. His first book, Cathedral, was published in 1973. Since then, he has created a number of spectacular books about various subjects, including the construction of a Roman city (City), the erection of the monuments to the pharaohs (Pyramid), the building of medieval fortresses (Castle), and the evolution of a New England mill town (Mill), as well as such picture books as Rome Antics, Shortcut, and Black and White (a Caldecott Medal Winner).

David Macaulay’s elaborate show-and-tells have made him beloved by adults and children throughout the world. His books have sold more than two million copies in the United States alone and his work has been translated into a dozen languages. Three of his titles-Cathedral,Castle, and Pyramid- have been made into popular PBS television programs. Macaulay has garnered a number of awards: the Caldecott Medal and Honor Awards, the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, the Christopher Award, an American Institute of Architects Medal, the Washington Children’s Book Guild Nonfiction Award, a Hans Christian Anderson Award nomination, the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis, a Dutch Silver Slate Pencil Award, and the Bradford Washburn Award, presented by the Museum of Science in Boston for an outstanding contribution to science.

David Macaulay lives with his family in Rhode Island.

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Speaking Engagements
Mr. Wiseman is available for lectures and workshops. Requests for guest appearances should be made well in advance. Please contact Karen Konicek at info@zipporah.com.

Frederick Wiseman, Chronicler of the Western World

Philippe Pilard (originally published in La Sept/Arte)

Fred Wiseman is probably one of today’s greatest living documentary filmmakers. For close to thirty years, thanks to the Public Broadcast Service (PBS), he has created an exceptional body of work consisting of thirty full length films devoted primarily to exploring American institutions. Over time these films have become a record of the western world, since now more than ever as we approach the century’s close, nothing North American is really foreign to us.

The institutions that Wiseman examined early in his career – a hospital, a high school, army basic training, a welfare center, a police precinct – have “problems” that the filmmaker uncovers. His approach reveals the profound acknowledged and unacknowledged conformity and inequality of American society. Wiseman’s films are also a reflection on democracy. What do his films portray, the “American dream” or the “air conditioned nightmare”? Both, but also a questioning of the world and of existence.

Occasionally, his films describe less circumscribed institutions – the world of fashion, a public park, and a ski resort. In addition to examining the social and ethical questions he is not afraid to confront the “big” metaphysical questions particularly in the films about handicapped children and dying patients. The filmmaker is trying to encompass all of human experience in his films.

In the past, Wiseman had already made movies outside the borders of his own country, in the Sinai, in Germany, and in Panama. In each of these films, however, his subject was Americans abroad.

In 1993, in his film BALLET, he followed the American Ballet Theatre rehearsals in New York and performances in Europe. For a long time Wiseman had wanted to make a film in France and in 1995 he tackled that most French of institutions, The Comedie Francaise. Both in BALLET and LA COMÉDIE-FRANÇAISE Wiseman raises questions about the conditions necessary for artistic creation: how to create those conditions which allow a director, an actor, or a dancer to achieve the goal of a perfect even sublime performance; how the specific dialect for the theatre works, the dialect which both places in opposition and transcends the solitude of individual creation and group collaboration.

“Documentaries, like theatre pieces, novels or poems are forms of fiction,” claims Wiseman. Over the years his films have become more a skillful mix of observation, testimony, reflection, an absence of prejudice, and courage, and humor. A complex body of work, as great works of fiction (novels, drama, music, and film) can be, with the same profundity, contradictions, and questions without answers.

Movies: Playing amateur filmmaker to preserve Grandpa’s stories

Movies: Playing amateur filmmaker to preserve Grandpa’s stories

Sean P. Means Salt Lake Tribune

Article Last Updated:

I walked up to the familiar front door of my wife’s grandfather’s house, lugging a camera bag and a tripod, and I said to myself, “Don’t screw this up.” I’ve done countless interviews with movie stars, filmmakers, government officials and people from all walks of life. So I usually don’t get nervous at the prospect of asking questions and getting people to open up about their lives. But this interview wasn’t for a news story. It was for my family. And it would be on videotape. My wife – a direct descendant of Utah pioneers and our family’s de facto historian – asked me to record her grandfather’s stories, so that our children could hear them when great-grandpa (who is 83) is no longer around to tell them in person. Grandpa has lived an eventful life, including a childhood in southern Utah during the Depression, service in the U.S. Navy during World War II, and surviving a horrific motorcycle accident in downtown Salt Lake City in the ’50s. I went in as prepared as possible. And I got some help from Ken Burns. The famed documentarian now is unspooling his seven-part film on World War II, “The War,” on PBS stations, including KUED, Ch. 7. (Part 5, titled “FUBAR,” airs tonight at 8.) In connection with the movie, which began when Burns realized that a thousand World War II veterans were dying every day, Burns’ production company teamed with the Library of Congress to encourage submissions to its Veterans History Project. The Veterans History Project, begun in 2000, aims to collect audio and video interviews with veterans from the last century of war – World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Persian Gulf, Afghanistan and Iraq – along with memoirs, letters, photos, maps and documents. On PBS’ website for “The War” (www.pbs.org/thewar), Burns and his colleagues have written a “Field Guide” for interviewing World War II veterans. It tells you how to find a veteran to interview, instructions on how to set up your camera, provides sample questions to spark a conversation, and tips for making your interview subject comfortable. In short, Burns has distilled decades of filmmaking experience into a few downloadable pages. So, armed with plenty of advice, I set up the tripod in front of Grandpa’s recliner and pushed the “record” button. Turned out I didn’t have to prepare a lot of questions. Grandpa was happy to talk, and only needed the opportunity. Grandpa started saying I should know “how I met my sweetheart” – my wife’s grandmother, with whom he was married for 60 years, until her death two years ago this October. This story began with Grandpa being drafted into the Navy in 1942, and covered his entire service during World War II – on board the USS Markab, a destroyer tender that repaired shot-up ships in the Pacific theater from the Aleutians to the Philippines. He talked about the mortar shell that whizzed over his head (the closest he ever got to being shot), the beautiful cascades of water cannons from ships on V-J Day, and how he turned down a chance to sail into Tokyo Bay for the surrender ceremony so he could get home to his sweetie that much sooner. I didn’t have to say a word, other than the occasional nod of the head, for at least half an hour – and only then because we were interrupted by phone calls from Grandpa’s daughters. We finally stopped two hours after we started, though we both could have kept going for hours more. Leaving Grandpa’s house after our session, I thought of what Burns said when he was in Salt Lake City last month, explaining why he stopped resisting the urge to make a movie about World War II: “I realized that, hey, I’m in the memory business, and every time one of these veterans died, it was like a library burning down.” I felt honored that I could play amateur documentarian for a day, and preserve Grandpa’s library of stories so my kids could pass them on. — * SEAN P. MEANS writes the daily blog, “The Movie Cricket,” at http://blogs.sltrib.com/movies. Send questions or comments to Sean P. Means, movie critic, The Salt Lake Tribune, 90 S. 400 West, Suite 700, Salt Lake City, UT 84101, or e-mail at movies@sltrib.com.

Documentary Traces Growth of Surfing

By Jaclyn Anderson
3 Oct 2006

Consumption, consumerism, and corporation-principles that surfers once loathed- have accelerated surf culture into a mainstream entity.

What once started out as a rebellious sub-culture is now embraced by popular culture.

Surfing’s enormous growth is documented in a new film directed by Chris Cutri, assistant professor in the Communications Department.

The documentary, called “Riding the Wave,” focuses on how surfing culture has become mainstream, specifically through fashion, and how individuals find their identities through what they buy and what they wear, Cutri said.

Surfing has grown into a billion-dollar industry. In 2004, the surfing and skate industry made $5.6 billion, Cutri said.

Cutri interviewed the C.E.O. of Quiksilver, the C.E.O. of Hurley, the president of Billabong USA, and several professional surfers for the documentary.

Some long-time surfers say surfing culture in the west started out as a rebellion against the idea of consumption and the corporate world, and they argue there has been a shift from what surfing used to be due to surf corporation marketing, Cutri said.

Former professional surfer, Dave Parmenter, points the finger at surf corporations for the commercialization of surfing.

“In order to grow and get that big and prosper, they’ve had to basically sell out to the mainstream and market the good things about the surfing lifestyle to non-surfers,” Parmenter said.

Malcolm Botto, who researched identity issues for the documentary, said surf brands have grown in popularity because they make it easy for people to feel like they fit in.

“In our capitalist world all you need to do is consume the cultural products and you’re in, Botto said in an email interview. “Surfing is a lifestyle with a particular world view people really like. Many may wear surf brand clothing not necessarily because they surf but because they like what surfing stands for, or because they want to belong to the group of people that identify themselves with surfing.”

Parmenter said surf corporations target the insecurity of youth.

“Kids today are so petrified of being uncool that they don’t know what cool or uncool is anymore,” Parmenter said. “They can’t even tell so they just want to exist in this camouflage all the time so they don’t have to make those choices.”

Nate Stanley, a 23-year-old junior from Minneapolis, Mn., said all the “cool kids to normal kids” in his elementary school wore surfing brands. “Back in the day it was awesome to wear Billabong, Stucci, Redsand, Mossimo, Quiksilver, all those surfing shirts with the big logo on the back and the little logo on the front,” Stanley said.

Surf corporations, like Quiksilver, take credit for much of the recent popularity of surfing and surf culture.

Greg Macias, vice-president of marketing for Quiksilver, said in an email interview that surf corporations spend millions of dollars to promote riders, events, camps, and their products.

“All of this energy is aimed at making the lifestyle more attainable and desirable to young people globally,” he said. “The draw of the sport and the lifestyle are there already but these groups of people [surf corporations] have definitely accelerated its popularity.”

“Riding the Wave,” which will be finished around the end of October, will be shown at the North American Sociology Sport Conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, in November. Cutri plans to send the documentary to film festivals.