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Valerie Lapin Ganley
Producer/Director/Writer
Valerie has been working in the field of film and video production for the past twenty years as Producer, Director, Writer, Associate Producer and Researcher. In 1998, she founded Share Productions, an independent video production company that produces documentaries that explore class, gender and race issues, and the challenges and benefits that ethnic and religious diversity bring to society. The company strives to create programs that are entertaining, informative and can stimulate dialogue to foster greater understanding among people of different cultures.
Share Productions first undertaking was the production of Shalom Ireland which was produced, directed and written by Valerie and is her first feature length film. The one-hour documentary, inspired by Valerie's discovery that her Lithuanian great-grandparents were the first Jewish couple to be married in Waterford, Ireland, is about Irelands remarkable, yet little known Jewish community. The film has met with great success on the film festival circuit with more than 100 screenings scheduled around the world so far.
Valerie recently directed and produced Everywhere We Go, a 40-minute video documenting the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride, a twelve day bus journey across America taken by immigrant workers to focus public attention on the difficulties facing immigrant workers and to call for reform of U.S. immigration policy. The video, which is being use to help build a new civil rights movement for immigrant workers and their families, aired on Free Speech TV in 2006.
While working as an Associate Producer on KQED TVs documentary series Bay Window, Valerie won two Emmy awards for Price of Prosperity: Squeezed Out, which examines how middle income families are struggling to survive in Silicon Valley; and Heart of the Game about personal relationships in non-professional sports. She contributed to numerous other award winning documentaries including the KCET special Dropouts which won an Emmy, and the PBS special Not In Our Town which won the National Educational Media Film & Video Festival Gold Apple, the National Education Association Excellence in Broadcasting Award, the CINE Gold Eagle and the Jewish Video Festival Lindheim Award. Not In Our Town is the story of the residents of Billings, Montana who joined together to fight against anti-Semitism and white supremacist activity in their community. The accompanying outreach campaign, comprised of a series of film screenings throughout the country, received widespread acclaim and served as a model for how films can stimulate social activism.
As Research Director for the PBS series Livelyhood about the changing nature of work in America, and Associate Producer for the PBS series Digital Divide Divide which examines whether widespread computer use is creating new opportunities in education and the workplace or deepening social divisions of race and gender and between rich and poor, Valerie developed program themes, conducted research and identified stories and characters for the series. As Communications Director for The Working Group, a production company specializing in television programs and educational videos about labor workplace issues, Valerie worked with PBS station managers and programmers to distribute programs and with PBS publicists and mainstream, labor, and alternative media to publicize the shows.
Aidan Kelly
Narrator
Aidan is a Dublin-based actor with extensive stage, film, television and radio experience. Appearances at the Abbey and Peacock Theatres include Jack Clitheroe in The Plough and The Stars, Barbaric Comedies, Juno and The Paycock and Suckin’ Dublin. Aidan recently appeared as Tom in the Druid Theatre’s production of The Good Father, directed by Garry Hynes for the Galway Arts Festival. Other theatre includes; Women in Arms (Storytellers), Zoe’s Play (The Ark and The Kennedy Center), The Shaughraun (The Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh), Comedians, Much Ado About Nothing (Bickerstaffe Theatre), Diarmuid and Grainne, Buddleia, The Trilogy and Native City (Passion Machine), Howie The Rookie (Bush Theatre, London and Magic Theatre, San Francisco), The Dead School (Macnas), Philadelphia Here I Come! (Druid Theatre Company), Hype (Broke Theatre Company), Sive (Andrews Lane Theatre and National Tour), Frugal Comforts also at Andrews Lane and No Comet Seen (Punchbag). Film and television credits include Dean in Bachelors Walk (RTE) and The Smiling Suicide Club, Majella McGinty, Durango, Michel Collins, Making The Cut and Fair City. Radio includes Stopping the Rising, Flaherty’s Window and The Man With No Ears. Aidan won the Sunday Tribune Award for his performances in Howie the Rookie and Comedians.
Andrew Gersh
Editor
Andy is a creative and experienced editor and post production supervision with an extensive background in national and international productions. He has worked on a wide range of award-winning documentaries and shorts for ABC News, BBC, The Discovery Channel, LucasFilm LTD., PBS, and TBS. Andy has won several Peabody Awards, and International and National Emmys. Andy’s Editing, Sound Design and Post Production Supervisor credits include: The People’s Century, a 26-part series for PBS and the BBC, which won Peabody and International Emmy Awards; Rock & Roll, a ten-part series for PBS and the BBC, which won Peabody and National Emmy Awards; Moon Shot, a four-part series for TBS which won Peabody and National Emmy Awards; The Making of STAR WARS, Episode I: The Phantom Menace; the 3-part series for PBSWhat’s Up in the Universe?; WNET and The Discovery Channel’s Cathedrals of the Sky; WGBH’s Nova: Alive on Everest and The Tribe That Time Forgot; Blackside Inc.’s six-part series for PBS Breakthrough on scientists of color; Magnolia Films documentary for PBS, Rumi: Poet of the Heart; America, a ten-part series and De Gaulle and France, a three-
part historical documentary for WGBH; and PBS Frontline programs on California’s electricity crisis and safetyand environmental concerns of SUVs.
Jaime Kibben, Cinemathographer
Gretchen Stoeltje, Sound Recordist
John Cook, Camera
Gary Mercer, Camera
Brendan O'Brien, Production Assistant and Navigator
Carl Weichert, Graphic Artist and On-line Editor
Julian Giardinelli/Philo Television, Motion Control Camera
Martin Waldron, Voice of Father Creagh
Scott Hirsh, Voice Over Recording Engineer
Paul James Zahnley CAS/Disher Music & Sound, Re-recording Mixer
Mimi Ash, Archival Materials Research
Gabrielle Brocklesby, Archival Materials Research
Sigal Landesberg, Archival Materials Research
Travis Green, Graphics Assistant and Digitizer
Gerardo Castoreno Additional Graphics
Samantha Hardie, Intern
Kathleen Skillicorn, Intern
Bay Area Video Coalition, post-production facility
Metropolis Editorial, post-production facility
Tommy Ellis Studios, Narration Recording
Special thanks to Carol and Ben Briscoe, Debbie and Joe Briscoe,
Judy Charry, Carl and Jessica Nelkin, Dermot Keogh and Cleo and
Joe Morrison for participating in the documentary.
Sponsored by Film Arts Foundation, San Francisco, California.
Funding for production of Shalom Ireland was provided by the American Ireland Fund, Ammerman Foundation, Fleishhacker Foundation, The David and Barbara B. Hirshhorn Foundation, the Morris J. & Betty Kaplun Foundation, Inc., Pacific Pioneer Fund, Peninsula Community Foundation,Ira M. Resnick Foundation, The Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation, the Allen and Ruth Zeigler Foundation and individual donors. Shalom Ireland was made in association with RTE. Support for distribution provided by Donal Denham, Consul General of Ireland, Western States and the Irish Arts Foundation.
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