Humanities Advisors: Experts who have joined our proposal to California Humanities for a California Documentary Project Production grant. 

• Fenton Johnson: An acclaimed writer whose work has explored LGBTQ identity and the AIDS epidemic for more than three decades. He is the author of three novels and four works of creative nonfiction, including his memoir Geography of the Heart, which is regarded as a landmark account of caregiving and resilience during the AIDS crisis. Johnson is professor emeritus in the Creative Writing Program at the University of Arizona. He has served as a media arts consultant for the Rockefeller Foundation, the NEA, and the Sundance Institute.

• Jenni Olson: A longtime, multifaceted figure in the queer indie film world, Jenni Olson was recognized with the Berlin Film Festival’s prestigious Special TEDDY Award in 2021 for her decades of work championing LGBTQ film and filmmakers. She has served on dozens of films as consulting producer, archival producer, and advisor. She is a former co-director of Frameline (the San Francisco International LGBTQ Film Festival) and currently works for the national LGBTQ media advocacy organization GLAAD.

• Greg Youmans: A professor of English and of Film and Media Studies at Western Washington University whose scholarship and criticism have appeared in Camera Obscura, e-flux, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and the Oxford Handbook of Queer Cinema, among other publications. In 2011, he published a book-length study of the paradigm-shifting gay and lesbian documentary Word Is Out (1977). Youmans earned his PhD from the History of Consciousness program at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Advisory Allies: Film professionals connected with Peter Adair who have volunteered to provide perspective on how the people and experiences represented in the film are portrayed and to give feedback on the film as it develops.

Janet Cole: Produced Absolutely Positive (Sundance Film Festival, PBS/BBC; IDA Distinguished Achievement Award) and the 30th Anniversary DVD of Word Is Out. Conceived and supervised production of Positive: Life with HIV, a series for ITVS. A producer of Paragraph 175. Producer and executive producer of Regret to Inform (Oscar and Emmy nominations, Peabody Award). Executive producer credits also include Promises (two Emmys, Oscar nomination), Heart of the Sea (PBS), Granny D Goes to Washington (PBS), and Freedom Machines (PBS/POV).

Laurie Coyle: Directed and produced Adios Amor: The Search for Maria Moreno, about a Chicana farmworker organizer, funded by NEH and California Humanities and broadcast on PBS VOCES; and Orozco: Man of Fire, co-directed with Rick Tejada-Flores, funded by NEH and broadcast on PBS American Masters.

Leslie Farrell: Associate producer of Absolutely Positive at Adair & Armstrong. Directed, wrote, and produced My Brother's Keeper for the PBS series America's War on Poverty. Series producer of African American Lives. Created Sports on the Silver Screen and Journey of the African American Athlete for HBO. Winner of Emmy, Peabody, and two duPont-Columbia awards.

Sally Jo Fifer: Former President and CEO of the Independent Television Service (ITVS), which she led for 22 years. She launched the PBS series Independent Lens and executive produced films and docuseries for public television that earned 16 Oscar nominations, 37 Primetime Emmy Awards, and 35 Peabody Awards.

Michael Lumpkin: Former Executive Director and Artistic Director of Frameline, Executive Director of the International Documentary Association (IDA), and Director of AFI Festivals and AFI Docs. He also co-produced the HBO documentary The Celluloid Closet.

Lauretta Molitor: Director of Impresario: The Fabulous DIY Showbiz Life of Marc Huestis and Born Kicking. Veteran SF Bay Area sound recordist whose films include The AIDS Show, Sally!, We Were Here, and Crip Camp.  Nominated for an Emmy for Best Sound in Documentary for The Celluloid Closet.

Emiko Omori: Began her career at KQED in 1968 as one of the first camerawomen in news documentaries. Wrote and directed Hot Summer Winds for American Playhouse and the Emmy-winning Rabbit in the Moon. Directed To Chris Marker, An Unsent Letter. Taught filmmaking at San Francisco State University.

Kristine Samuelson: Emerita faculty member, Stanford University. She taught in the Stanford M.F.A. Documentary program for 32 years, where her students included Johnny Symons; she also taught Haney Armstrong as an undergraduate. She has been the recipient of artist fellowships from the NEA and the California Arts Council and is a former ITVS board member. Her most recent film (co-directed with John Haptas) is Life Overtakes Me, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for a 2019 Academy Award.

Veronica Selver: Co-director of Word Is Out and editor of Absolutely Positive. She produced and co-directed IRMI (2020). Her earlier films include KPFA on the Air, Raising the Roof, and Cape Song. She also co-directed and co-edited You Got to Move and First Look. 

Jack Walsh: Executive produced national series and documentaries at KQED. His independent producer credits include Hope Along the Wind: The Life of Harry Hay and Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton's Cafeteria. Served as executive director of the National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture. Made his directorial debut with Feelings Are Facts: The Life of Yvonne Rainer, broadcast nationally on PBS.