Stories Lived

Jury

Meet our awesome and inspiring Jury, whom we cannot thank enough for their participation in the Stories Lived project:

 

SidneyKirpatricksmSidney D. Kirkpatrick

Sidney D. Kirkpatrick is a New York Times best-selling author and award-winning documentary film director.

His critically acclaimed non-fiction books include A CAST OF KILLERS, TURNING THE TIDE, LORDS OF SIPAN, EDGAR CAYCE: AN AMERICAN PROPHET, THE REVENGE OF THOMAS EAKINS, and HITLER’S HOLY RELICS, winner of the history prize at the San Francisco Book Festival.  A compelling and accomplished speaker, Kirkpatrick has lectured at the Smithsonian, the National Archives, UCLA, and Edgar Mitchell’s Institute of Noetic Science.  HBO, the History Channel, the Discovery Channel, A & E Television, NBC, and the BBC have all featured his work.

Kirkpatrick completed his education in 1982 with an MFA from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where he worked on several short films with classmates Spike Lee (Malcom X) , Ernest Dickerson (Walking Dead) , and Ang Lee (Life of Pi) , and optioned his first screenplay.  His thesis film, “My Father The President” won the 1982 American Film Festival and a CINE Golden Eagle.

Biographical profiles of Kirkpatrick have appeared in The New York Times, Time Magazine, The New Yorker, and Playboy.

 

DamianFitzimmonsDamian Fitzimmons

Damian Fitzimmons is a filmmaker and Creative Director of Brave Man Media – a boutique production company with offices in Delray Beach, Miami, and Los Angeles.  He brings twenty years of filmmaking experience to each and every one of the projects that he is involved with.

He wrote his first screenplay, THE HOLY LAND, developed with Ruby Films and the UK Film Council in 2001.  Damian has had several commissions from the BBC’s Afternoon Plays Series including VIVA LAS BLACKPOOL and THE SINGING CACTUS. His latest writing collaboration, THE CALL UP, is due for release this May.  Along with Brave Man Media, Damian has produced and directed films for the Broward County Cultural Division’s Fort Lauderdale Airport’s Terminal Three Terrazzo Installation, for Florida based designer Eazy Bean, commercials for The IT Advisors, Hanley Center, Budsies and Cruise One.

Damian and Brave Man Media recently directed and produced their first feature film, AFTER MIDNIGHT, one of the few independent feature films to be shot entirely in South Florida.

 

johnpooleJohn W. Poole

John W. Poole is a video producer for National Public Radio (NPR). He makes documentary films and multimedia presentations for the web and digital platforms, extending the reach and power of traditional photojournalism with moving pictures and sound.

In 2007, Poole came to NPR to help develop a visual media strategy, combining the organization’s audio storytelling strength with still and motion photography. His work has led to two national Emmy nominations for the NPR Music series ‘Project Song’ and one for an investigative series on traumatic brain injury.

Over his 15-year career, Poole has covered a range of subjects, including national elections in South Africa and the United States, the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and their aftermath, the effects of global climate change, and conservation issues in Peru and Namibia.

Poole was part of a small team of visual journalists who developed the documentary video department at The Washington Post in 1998. That work was recognized with the first-ever Edward R. Murrow award for multimedia journalism in 2004.  His work on a feature story about violinist Joshua Bell contributed to a Pulitzer Prize in 2008.  The White House News Photographers Association has honored Poole with more than 20 awards for his work, including the 2005 Video Editor of the Year. His film, “The Sheriff of Gay Washington,” produced for The Washington Post, screened in festivals across the country and was optioned by HBO Documentary Films in 2006.