Production Staff

Producer/director		John Junkerman
Writer/music consultant		Elijah Wald
Editor		William A. Anderson
Camerapeople		Foster Wiley, Joan Churchill, Brett Wiley
Sound recordists		John Tyler, John Paulson, Matt Sakakeeny, Mark Griswold
Executive producers		Paul Johnson, Mitsuo Kojima
Producer		Toshio Murayama
Coordinating producers		Cathleen O’Connell, Jana Odette
Coproducers 		Leah Mahan, Hillary Wells, Cynthia Johnson, Elizabeth Taylor-Mead, 	Lucia Small, Mark Siegel, Amy Young, John Hiller
Associate producer		Theo Pelletier
Additional camera		Mike Flannery, Tamara Goldsworthy
Multitrack recording		Big Mo (Greg Hartman and Kevin Wait), Jim Medlin
Assistant editor		Shayna Casey, Cathleen O’Connell 
Sound editing		John Paulson, Todd Hulslander, Joanna Champagne
Mixing engineers		Greg Hartman, Kevin Wait, David Wilcox, Ron Freedland
Field producers		Pete White, Doug Miller, Maia Harris, Foung Heu, Gary Burger, Jim 	O’Neal
Production assistants		Samantha Head, Toshi Eto, Tim Burke, Jannae Jacks
Support staff		Charlotte Battles, Marie Gray (Smithsonian Productions), Vanessa 	O’Neill, Irena Fayngold, Tamar Kupiec (Filmmakers Collaborative)
Interns		Ben Horowitz, Danielle Sultresse, Anu Tannen, Amy Woods
Radio executive producer	Wesley Horner
Radio producer		Marge Ostroushko
Radio writer			Brian Newhouse
Radio production manager	Todd Hulslander
Radio audio engineer		Rima Snyder
Radio assistant producer	Tasya Rosenfeld

Key Personnel Bios

Producer/Director John Junkerman has been making feature documentaries since the early 1980s.  He directed the Emmy award-winning "Dream Window: Reflections on the Japanese Garden," which was produced by the Smithsonian and presented nationally on PBS by WETA.  Junkerman's first film, "Hellfire: A Journey from Hiroshima," was nominated for an Academy Award and won the Grand Prize at the San Francisco International Film Festival; it was broadcast nationally on PBS.  This was followed by a Japanese production, "Uminchu: The Old Man and the East China Sea," which portrayed the life of an 81 year-old marlin fisherman on a small Okinawan island.  It was released theatrically in Japan and won the Grand Prize at the New England Film Festival. 

Writer/Music Consultant Elijah Wald is a musician and writer, based in the Boston area. A student of Dave Van Ronk and Jean-Bosco Mwenda, he has recorded albums and tapes of American and African music. For the last 15 years, he has had a second career as a writer, mostly about music and culture. He is the world and roots music writer for the Boston Globe, and his work has also appeared in various magazines. He co-authored Exploding the Gene Myth, a book on the dangers of modern genetic technologies, and recently completed work on a biography of the folk-blues singer Josh White. He is currently working on a book about contemporary Mexican corridos.

Director of Photography Foster Wiley demonstrated his lyrical style and intuitive touch on the Smithsonian special "Dream Window," a film that was brought to life by his elegant camerawork.  The production won a national Emmy for cinematography.  He is also a master of the hand-held verite camera, which has been featured on numerous documentaries for the PBS Frontline series, Bill Moyers specials, and ABC News.  Wiley's credits include a number of Emmy award-winning films, among them "Islam" for Smithsonian World (1986) and "Retreat from Beirut" for Frontline (1985); he shot, codirected and edited the Peabody and DuPont award-winning "Campaign: The Choice" for Frontline (1988).  Wiley also produces educational films for National Geographic.

Director of Photography Joan Churchill has worked as cinematographer and director on a number of highly acclaimed films, including several films about American music: Searching for Jimi Hendrix, a feature documentary directed by D. A. Pennebaker; Black or White and Remember the Time, behind-the-scenes MTV documentaries of the Michael Jackson videos; and Arrested Development in the House for Channel 4, U.K., a feature dicumentary about the hip-hop group.  Churchill has also directed and photographed a number of important social-issue documentaries, including Asylum in 1991.  This documentary about life inside a California prison for the criminally insane was nominated for an Emmy.

 Editor William Anderson has credits on over 50 features, television dramas, music videos and documentaries.  He edited the Pat Metheny Group's long-form music video, "More Travels" and the video for James Taylor's hit, "Gotta Stop Thinkin' 'Bout That" (both 1992).  Anderson was supervising editor/associate producer of the Fox Television series "Against the Law" (1990); editor of the multiple Emmy-winning mini-series "Concealed Enemies" (1984); and editor of ten American Playhouse features.  He collaborated with director John Junkerman on the Oscar-nominated "Hellfire: A Journey from Hiroshima" (1986) and on the Smithsonian special "Dream Window."  He also edited "Looking for Richard," a theatrical feature documentary directed by Al Pacino, for which he won the A.C.E. award for best documentary editing. 

Radio Series Executive Producer Wesley Horner has been executive producer for Smithsonian Productions on the nationally broadcast series, Jazz Smithsonian with Lena Horne, Black Radio: Telling It Like It Was with Lou Rawls, and Folk Masters from the Barns at Wolf Trap.  He was also executive producer for Spirits of the Present: The Legacy from Native America and the founding producer of the National Public Radio daily arts and performance program, Performance Today.  At WGBH Boston he was Music Projects Director from 1979-1983, where he produced the first live from Europe broadcasts on public radio in the United States ("The Magic Flute" from Salzburg and "Vienna Philharmonic New Year's Day Concert").    

Radio Series Producer Marge Ostroushko has worked in public radio for the past 20 years.  She first worked as a producer for A Prairie Home Companion and then in program development and marketing as Manager of Cultural Programs at Public Radio International.  Programs included: Whad’Ya Know? with Michael Feldman; Rabbit Ears Radio; The Miles Davis Radio Project..  Recent work includes radio production for Independence Day Concert and Guitar: Electrified, Amplified and Deified.

Senior Recordist John Tyler has been working in music for twenty years as saxophonist, teacher, live sound recordist, and sound producer.  He has extensive work in a variety of music genres including folk and traditional, classical chamber, early music, and jazz.  He has compact discs released by the Smithsonian’s Folkways records, the Smithsonian Institution Press Recording Division, Golden Apple Records and Deutsche Harmonia Mundi.  Tyler was recordist and soundmixer for programs that have received four Gold Awards and four Silver Awards from the CPB.  He has also received Silver and Bronze awards from the New York Festivals.  Tyler recorded and post-produced the national radio programs Folk Masters, and Jazz Smithsonian .

Project Advisors

The Smithsonian Center for Folklife Programs and Cultural Studies has provided curatorial support and advice to the project.  The Office is dedicated to cultural conservation through scholarly research, professional advocacy and public programs that promote continuity, integrity and equity for traditional cultures.  Among its activities are the annual Festival of American Folklife on the Mall in Washington, DC; the recording and publishing efforts of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings; and broadcasts on Radio Smithsonian.

Senior Project Advisor Anthony Seeger, Ph.D., is the director of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings and curator of the Folkways Collection..
Project Advisor Thomas Vennum, Ph.D., is senior ethnomusicologist at the Smithsonian, and a specialist in the music and culture of the Ojibwe.
Project Advisor Diana Parker, is the director of the Festival of American Folklife. 

Additional general advisors

John Charles Camp, Ph.D., Maryland State Folklorist
	Maryland State Arts Council, Baltimore, MD
Guthrie P. Ramsey, Jr., Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Music
	Tufts University, Medford, MA
Nicholas Spitzer, Ph.D., Director, American Routes Radio Series
	New Orleans, LA

Regional Advisors

Philip Nusbaum, Ph.D., Folk Arts Program Associate
	Minnesota State Arts Board, Saint Paul, MN
C. Ray Brassieur, Ph.D., Director, Oral History Program
	State Historical Society of Missouri/Western Manuscripts Collection, Columbia, MO
David H. Evans, Ph.D., Professor of Music
	The University of Memphis, Memphis, TN
Judy Peiser, Executive Director
	Center for Southern Folklore, Memphis, TN
William R. Ferris, Ph.D., Chairman
	National Endowment for the Humanities, Washington, DC
Worth Long, ethnomusicologist
	Atlanta, Georgia
Barry Ancelet, Ph.D.
	Department of Modern Languages, Univ. of Southwestern Louisiana, Lafayette, LA
Ben Sandmel, Writer/Musician/Record Producer
	New Orleans, LA
Bruce Boyd Raeburn, Ph.D., Curator
	Hogan Jazz Archive, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA

Producing Organizations
 
The Filmmakers Collaborative is an incorporated nonprofit association of independent film and video producers, formed in Boston in 1987.  The association was founded by seven Boston filmmakers, including River of Song producer/director John Junkerman, to produce documentaries that foster intergenerational and intercultural understanding.  Among the films produced by members of the Collaborative are:  A Jumpin' Night in the Garden of Eden, a feature documentary on Klezmer music by Michal Goldman; Paul Stekler's Last Stand at Little Bighorn (American Experience);  Laurie Kahn-Leavitt’s feature docu-drama, A Midwife's Tale; and Goldman’s A Voice Like Egypt about Egyptian singer and pan-Arabic cultural figure Umm Kulthum.

Smithsonian Productions is the video and audio production center for the Smithsonian Institution.  The center serves the public by producing radio and television programs for broadcast and video, audio, and multi-media programs for museum exhibitions. Smithsonian Productions’ programs have won many awards, including the Peabody Award, Emmy Award, and New York Festivals’ Gold Medal.   

Smithsonian Folkways Recordings maintains the Folkways Records archive and continues the Folkways tradition of releasing significant recordings with high-quality documentation.  The label is administered by the Smithsonian Center for Folklife Programs & Cultural Studies, which supports the work of traditional artists and is committed to cultural diversity, education, and increased understanding.

KajimaVision Productions was established in 1963 as a member of the Kajima Group.
Their activities first centered on corporate communications, but they soon broadened their scope to include scientific and cultural subjects.  KajimaVision's productions have received both domestic and international recognition.  One of their feature films, "The Dawn of Skyscrapers," was selected as best film of the year for youth by Japan's Ministry of Education.  They have also produced documentary series for Fuji Television and prime-time specials for Nippon Television.  KajimaVision's 1992 co-production with the Smithsonian, "Dream Window: Reflections on the Japanese Garden," was the company’s first international venture.