GLIMMERGLASS FILM DAYS STAFF
Margaret “Peggy” Parsons, Founder and Artistic Director
Ellen Pope, Executive Director, Otsego 2000
Jennifer Armstrong, Finance and Operations Manager, Otsego 2000
Peg Odell, Program and Communications Manager, Otsego 2000
Xander Moffat, Technical Director/Programmer
Camden Breckenridge, Cooperstown Graduate Program ‘27, Film Days Intern
GLIMMERGLASS FILM DAYS STEERING COMMITTEE
JoAnn Gardner is a strong advocate for the importance of film in the classroom. Prior to moving to Otsego County a decade ago to raise a family and try her hand at farming, JoAnn split time between New York City and Los Angeles working on a number of commercials, movies, and television shows. Most recently she helped organize the first Women in Film Weekend sponsored by FilmCoop and was the academic advisor to the award-winning Cooperstown Central School Media Club.
Peter Hutchison is an award-winning filmmaker, bestselling author, educator & activist. Director & producer of over a dozen feature-length documentaries, his work has focused primarily on issues regarding social & economic justice. His films include "Requiem for the American Dream: The Principles of Concentration of Wealth & Power” with Noam Chomsky; and "The Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History of Neoliberalism”, with George Monbiot. His work in understanding the seeds of hate and violent extremism have resulted in the pair of critically-acclaimed films "The Cure for Hate: Bearing Witness to Auschwitz" (American Public Television/PBS) and “Healing from Hate: Battle for the Soul of a Nation” (Amazon Prime). His books include the Sunday Times #1 bestselling "The Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History of Neoliberalism”, with George Monbiot (Penguin); and the NYTimes bestselling “Requiem for the American Dream”, with Noam Chomsky (Seven Stories).
He is the recipient of 2 U.S. Government Targeted Violent & Terrorism Prevention grants to underwrite the Cure for Hate Social Impact program, with which he continues to tour America with ex neo-Nazi Tony McAleer to educate young people about the roots of hate. A sought-after commentator on issues of hate, racism and masculinity, he has appeared on NBC, CBS, PBS, NPR, FOX and The Minority Report. A frequent speaker at the invitation of colleges & universities, he holds an M.S. in Counseling Psychology with a focus on Addictions and Systems Dynamics.
Jim LaCava is a sportsman, artist, physician and cinephile long committed to preserving the unique and historic natural beauty of Otsego County and its environs. He has faith in the power of films to foster productive discourse through the insights and emotions they engender.
Xander Moffat, Film Days technical director/programmer, is an independent filmmaker and creative services consultant. Through his company, LunaSea Pictures, he produces narrative and documentary projects along with commissioned commercial work. Moffat also uses his background in media to support various non-profits, helping organizations share their stories across various formats. Moffat studied film at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. He is currently based in Portland, Maine but makes the trip back to Cooperstown often.
Margaret (Peggy) Parsons, Film Days founder and Artistic Director, founded the film program at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, an exhibition program and archival collection. She has served as board member for major film organizations including the Robert Flaherty Seminar and Washington Environmental Film Festival and has been on the editorial boards for The Moving Image and the Getty Trust’s Program for Art on Film. She has been a judge for international film festivals including Syracuse, Nashville, Turin, and Poznań, and her work in film preservation has earned her awards from the governments of France, Czech Republic, Italy, Romania, and Georgia. Other interests include folk and self-taught art, and her articles have appeared in Raw Vision, Folk Art,Folk Art Messenger, New York Folklore, Curator, and The Moving Image.
Ellen Pope is executive director of Otsego 2000, a small non-profit dedicated to preserving the historical, cultural, agricultural, and environmental assets of the Otsego Lake region surrounding Cooperstown, New York. She is responsible for the overall management and direction of the organization and its programs including efforts to protect the region from shale gas extraction and other industrial threats, preserve its rich historical buildings, hamlets and landscapes, and promote local sustainability primarily through the Cooperstown Farmers’ Market and other economic development initiatives like the Film Days. Prior to joining Otsego 2000, she spent 17 years in transatlantic exchange and policy, five of those at the French-American Foundation in New York, and twelve at the German Marshall Fund of the United States in Washington, D.C., where she managed the Marshall Memorial Fellowship leadership program for seven years before launching the Comparative Domestic Policy program, a major initiative focused on transatlantic exchange of best practices in urban and regional policy.
Van Broughton Ramsey received six prime time Emmy nominations for costume design and two Emmy wins for the miniseries, “Lonesome Dove” and “The Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All.” He was awarded the Costume Designers Guild Career Achievement Award and three nominations for outstanding costume design for television. Van is a graduate of Baylor University and the University of Texas.
Inspired by Carl Sagan’s Cosmos, Erik Stengler became an astrophysicist before pursuing a career in science communication, specializing in science centers and science in film. He worked in science centers in Spain for 12 years and in parallel took courses in film analysis, screenwriting, and film music, and collaborated with the early years of the international festival of film music Fimucité. Before coming to Cooperstown, he taught on a science communication master’s degree in Bristol (UK), for 10 years, including courses on science museums as well as documentary and wildlife filmmaking. He has published articles on science communication through online video and on Michael Crichton’s work, of which he is a collector. Erik now teaches on science museums at the Cooperstown Graduate Program and looks forward to continuing to cultivate his passion for the audiovisual language with Glimmerglass Film Days.
Sydney L. Waller, independent consulting curator and private gallerist, currently focuses on projects where agriculture and culture converge. She manages the estate of farmer/self-taught artist Lavern Kelley (1928-98), whose art stems from an era of sustainable farm practice, and a family tree farm near Cherry Valley. Ms. Waller has initiated many successful cultural programs, alternative art spaces and community events over several decades. She first brought the Black Maria Film Festival to town in a film series she spearheaded in the 1990s for Gallery 53 Artworks, an alternative art space she co-founded. While at Gallery 53, she also launched popular annual community events like Upstate Chic, ‘the show that showed you could stay warm and still be cool. ’ While leading other Upstate non-profits, she championed, among other programs, the Greater Adirondack Poetry Festival for children and co-established Griffiss International Sculpture Garden in Rome NY on a former military base. Ms. Waller is also experienced in fund development and non-profit management.
SPECIAL THANKS TO
The Cooperstown Graduate Program-SUNY Oneonta
