John Whitehead
Producer/Director

Whitehead’s work has appeared on PBS, the Discovery Channel, the FX Network and the Learning Channel. He began his career as a cameraman and editor, first in TV news and then in documentaries. As a cinematographer, his credits include programs for Frontline and P.O.V.

From 1989 until 1996, Whitehead was senior producer for arts and culture at Twin Cities Public Television (TPT) in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he wrote, produced and directed a wide variety of programs for PBS. His TPT credits include the documentaries Not Quite American: Bill Holm of Minnesota; Mississippi, MN; A State Fair Scrapbook; Showcase: Paul Cebar and The Milwaukeeans and the television adaptation of Howard Mohr's best-selling How To Talk Minnesotan. Whitehead produced the pilot season of the series Portrait and the second season of TPT's award-winning Tape's Rolling!

In 1996, Whitehead left TPT to pursue independent projects. His independent work includes Clay, Wood, Fire, Spirit, a video portrait of potter and environmentalist Richard Bresnahan, broadcast on PBS (winner, two 1997 Midwest Emmys); and Wannabe: Life and Death in a Small Town Gang, which aired on Independent Lens in 1999. Most recently, he wrote, produced and directed Death of The Dream: Farmhouses in the Heartland, a documentary about abandoned farmhouses and the lives of those who lived in them. He is currently in production on UnCommon Ground: Minnesota's Once and Future Landscapes, a four-part documentary series on the environmental history of the state.

Whitehead's work has won numerous awards including the Chicago Film Festival Award, a Corporation for Public Broadcasting Award and six regional Emmys. He spent 1993–94 as a William Benton Fellow, a yearlong study program for media professionals at the University of Chicago.

Ben Sandmel
Producer

Sandmel is a drummer, record producer, writer and folklorist who lives in New Orleans. In addition to playing drums with The Hackberry Ramblers, he has produced two albums by the group. The latest, Deep Water, was released on his own Hot Biscuits label and received a Grammy nomination as the Best Traditional Folk album of 1997. Sandmel has also played drums with such blues musicians as Sunnyland Slim, Jimmy Johnson, Boogie Bill Webb, and Big Duskin. He produced Webb's Drinkin' and Stinkin' and Duskin's Cincinnati Stomp.

As a journalist, Sandmel has written the liner notes for more than 100 albums and contributed articles to publications including Rolling Stone, The Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, The Chicago Tribune, Down Beat and The Oxford American. Sandmel's article "Mr. K-Doe Goes To Washington" was anthologized in DaCapo Best Music Writing 2000; his book, Zydeco! (with photographer Rick Olivier) was published in 1999 by The University Press of Mississippi.

Sandmel is the Cajun/zydeco/blues/country programming consultant for the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, where he also programs the Music Heritage Stage, a venue devoted to oral history and interviews with festival performers. Mr. Sandmel has a BA in Folklore from Indiana University, and works with the Louisiana Folklife program as a field researcher and a presenter/programming consultant for the state's annual Folklife Festival.