The Working Group, creators of Not In Our Town, makes television shows designed to get people to talk to each other. Founded in 1988, the Oakland based media company has produced other nationally acclaimed public television series, including We Do the Work and Livelyhood, which tell the funny, poignant and critical stories of America's working people -- stories rarely told by this country's major news organizations and television networks.
The Working Group has been recognized as a leader in television outreach efforts because of its landmark Not In Our Town PBS specials, which sparked an ongoing national dialogue about how communities are grappling with hate violence and intolerance. Not In Our Town was awarded the National Education Association trophy for Advancement of Learning Through Broadcasting, the CINE Golden Eagle Award, and the National Educational Media Network Gold Apple Award.
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Co-founder of The Working Group, Patrice O'Neill has been a producer and executive producer of successful national television series on PBS for over 15 years. The Working Group's story of how the town of Billings, Montana, responded to a rash of hate crimes, Not In Our Town, set a new standard for television that builds community. What began as a half-hour PBS special 10 years ago has turned into a national movement. O'Neill was executive producer of Not In Our Town Northern California, the series' first coproduction with San Francisco PBS affiliate KQED including regional content and a localized Web site. Her passion for television that creates community dialogue continues with The Fire Next Time, a national PBS special that examines burning divisions over growth and the environment in a northwest Montana town. O'Neill was also executive producer and producer of the innovative and award winning 10-part Livelyhood PBS series about workplace change. Her other award-winning documentaries for the We Do the Work series include Family Fuel: A Coal Strike Story, This Far by Faith and Leaving Home. O'Neill was also executive producer of The Working Group's special Test of Courage: The Making of a Firefighter. Before launching The Working Group, O'Neill was a freelance public affairs producer, with credits including KQED-San Francisco's "Express" and KRON's "Weekend Extra" and "Home Turf."
Rhian Miller is a senior producer and co-founder of the Oakland-based documentary company The Working Group. With O'Neill, she produced Not In Our Town, andNot In Our Town II. Miller was also a producer of Not In Our Town Northern California, a coproduction with San Francisco PBS affiliate KQED, the first special of the series with regional content and a localized Web site. Miller has helped lead various Not In Our Town outreach campaigns, which have accompanied the PBS broadcasts of each program and continue today. In 2000, at the invitation of the U.S. ambassador to the Czech Republic, Miller helped lead a delegation to screen Not In Our Town in Prague for civic leaders and students troubled by hate crimes against the Republic's Roma population. Miller has also produced many of The Working Group's other award-winning programs, including titles from the series Livelyhood, and We Do the Work. Before joining The Working Group, Miller directed the award-winning film Strikestory about the 1934 San Francisco General Strike, and she edited the internationally acclaimed independent feature Shuttlecock.
Will Durst, host of the series Not In Our Town, has also hosted the national PBS series Livelyhood and We Do the Work. He was also the host and creator of The Durst Ammendment, a political humor series on San Francisco PBS affiliate KQED. Durst has been called "a modern day Will Rogers" by the Los Angeles Times, "heir apparent to Mort Sahl and Dick Gregory" by the San Francisco Chronicle, a "hysterical hybrid of Hunter Thompson and Charles Osgood" by the Chicago Tribune, and "the dark Prince of doubt" by the Washington Post. Durst writes a daily Internet column, was a contributing editor to both National Lampoon and George magazines, and continues to pen frequent contributions to various periodicals such as the New York Times and his hometown the San Francisco Chronicle. This five-time Emmy nominee is also a regular commentator on National Public Radio and CNN.
Pamela Calvert is director of outreach for the Not In Our Town series, and she co-produced The Working Group's documentary The Fire Next Time. A longtime professional in the field of media and social change, Calvert was the former outreach manager for the Independent Television Service, where she developed award-winning campaigns for such public television productions as Frontline: The Farmer's Wife and La Ciudad. Prior to joining ITVS, she was outreach and organizing director for Judith Helfand's Peabody Award-winning documentary, A Healthy Baby Girl. Calvert co-produced Kirsten Tretbar's independent documentary, Zenith, on a small Kansas town's response to the farm crisis, which aired on NBC and was a 2004 Templeton Epiphany Award nominee. She was a founding board member of Working Films, which develops strategic partnerships between filmmakers and activists.
Kelly Whalen's television and radio documentaries have aired on the Public Broadcasting System, MSNBC, TechTV and American Public Media. She was a coproducer of The Working Group production The Fire Next Time, and producer of Not In Our Town Northern California. Whalen was also a producer of The Working Group's national PBS documentary series, Livelyhood, about work and globalization, and a field producer for Life's Labors, a Marketplace Productions radio series about the changing economy. She was a co-producer of an MSNBC Investigates documentary about girls in the juvenile justice system and is a frequent contributing producer to the statewide PBS public affairs program, California Connected. Also a magazine and feature writer, Whalen has published work in the San Francisco Chronicle Magazine and online for the PBS international documentary series, FRONTLINE/World. She received a master's in journalism from UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism. Whalen was one of eight journalists selected for the Spring 2005 International Reporting Project Fellowship to document hate-crime activity in Russia.
Jon Fromer has worked with The Working Group and Patrice O'Neill on several productions and was a segment producer on Not In Our Town II and Not In Our Town Northern California. Fromer has been producing compelling television since 1970. Before joining San Francisco PBS affiliate KQED in 1992, he worked for the Bay Area's KRON-TV for 22 years when it was the NBC affiliate. His work has received high ratings from viewers as well as from his peers in the broadcast industry. A partial list of Fromer's honors and awards includes 13 Northern California Emmys, one national Emmy, two Iris Awards from the National Association of Television Program Executives, three Broadcast Industry Awards and "Best of Festival" at the International Latino Film Festival in Los Angeles. More important than the honors Fromer has received is the human touch and appreciation for the diversity of the community that is reflected in all his work. Fromer has produced more than a thousand programs, ranging from popular youth series to powerful documentaries.
For more information about the producing team of Not In Our Town, Northern California: When Hate Happens Here, the third installment in the NOT IN OUR TOWN series and the first special with regional content and a localized Web site.
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