Cast & Crew
MARYANN BRESCHARD PRODUCER, DIRECTOR, NARRATOR
Prior to directing and appearing in Running in High Heels, Maryann spent 17 years working behind the scenes in film, television and home video distribution. She began her career working at the now-defunct Bottom Line nightclub where she met and watched the big and small players of the music business for four years while she was earning her degree in Film and Television from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. She began her formal career at the William Morris Agency. She also ran the east coast Post-Production departments of WarnerVision Entertainment, a division of Time Warner and BMG Video and BMG Independents, the indie film arm of BMG Entertainment.
Most recently, she served as an Executive Producer for Wellspring Media where she produced over 500 DVDs including Akira Kurosawa’s Ran, Russian Ark, R.W. Fassbinder’s the Marriage of Maria Braun and the Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant. Her work included interviews with filmmakers such as Wim Wenders, John Woo, Edward Yang, and Catherine Breillat just to name a few. Frustrated and limited by the miniscule budgets allocated to the arthouse DVDs she produced, Maryann still was inspired by working with such great filmmakers. They encouraged her to create something strictly on her own terms and Running in High Heels is the result of that encouragement. For more information about Maryann, visit her website.
Cast
PHYLLIS SCHLAFLY
Phyllis Schlafly has been a national leader of the conservative movement since the publication of her best-selling 19 64 book, A Choice Not An Echo. She has been a leader of the pro-family movement since 1972, when she started her national volunteer organization now called Eagle Forum. Mrs. Schlafly's monthly newsletter called The Phyllis Schlafly Report is now in its 38th year. Her syndicated column appears in 100 newspapers, her radio commentaries are heard daily on 460 stations, and her radio talk show on education called "Phyllis Schlafly Live" is heard weekly on 45 stations. Both can be heard on the internet. Mrs. Schlafly is the author or editor of 20 books on subjects as varied as family and feminism. Mrs. Schlafly is a lawyer and served as a member of the Commission on the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution, 1985-1991, appointed by President Reagan. She has testified before more than 50 Congressional and State Legislative committees on constitutional, national defense, and family issues. Mrs. Schlafly is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Washington University, received her J.D. from Washington University Law School, and received her Master's in Political Science from Harvard University.
ELEANOR SMEAL
Eleanor Smeal is the President of the Feminist Majority Foundation. FMF, which was founded in 1987, is a cutting edge organization dedicated to women's equality, reproductive health, and non-violence. In all spheres, FMF utilizes research and action to empower women economically, socially, and politically. The organization believes that feminists - both women and men, girls and boys - are the majority, but this majority must be empowered. FMF's research and action programs focus on advancing the legal, social and political equality of women with men, countering the backlash to women's advancement, and recruiting and training young feminists to encourage future leadership for the feminist movement in the United States. To carry out these aims, FMF engages in research and public policy development, public education programs, grassroots organizing projects, leadership training and development programs, and participates in and organizes forums on issues of women's equality and empowerment. Its sister organization, the Feminist Majority, engages in lobbying and other direct political action, pursuing equality between women and men through legislative avenues.
SHERRYE HENRY
Sherrye Henry, author of the Deep Divide, is a congressional aide for Congresswoman Louise Slaughter of New York. Previously, Henry served as an administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration's Office of Women's Business Ownership. She's also an Emmy Award-winning broadcaster and continues to be active in environmental and family causes on Long Island, where she was a candidate for the State Senate.
ROSALIND WISEMAN
Rosalind Wiseman co-founded The Empower Program in 1994 to empower youth to stop the culture of violence. Reaching over 10,000 youth and educators each year, Empower recognizes that children live within a culture where they are socialized to be perpetrators, bystanders, or targets of violence. Empower's revolutionary approach teaches boys and girls to transform their silence into effective action. Rosalind is the author of Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends, and Other Realities of Adolescence (Crown, May 2002), which is in its 25th printing. In addition to two appearances on the New York Times bestseller list, Wiseman’s book has been adapted into the motion picture, “Mean Girls.” Rosalind speaks throughout the world at universities, corporations, schools, and associations including the American Association of University Women, Texas Governor's Conference on Women, Alliance of Girls Schools, Australasia, the National Crime Prevention Conference, the Young Presidents Organization, the Congressional Youth Leadership Conference, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, and the National Football League.
MYRNA BLYTH
Myrna Blyth, author of Spin Sisters, was the editor-in-chief of Ladies' Home Journal from 1981 to 2002 and also in charge of the business side of the magazine for more than a dozen years. She was also founding editor-in-chief and publishing director of MORE magazine. Ms. Blyth was also an official American delegate for the UN Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. She is currently a Commissioner on the President’s Commission on White House Fellows and a member of the Advisory Committee for the Office of Research in Women’s Health at the National Institutes of Health.
HEIDI HARTMANN, PhD
Dr. Heidi Hartmann founded Institute for Women's Policy Research in 1987 to meet the need for women-centered, policy-oriented research. She holds a B.A. in Economics from Swarthmore College and M.Phil and Ph.D. degrees in Economics from Yale University. In 1994, she was the recipient of a MacArthur fellowship award. Commonly referred to as the "genius grant," this fellowship was awarded to recognize her pioneering work in the field of women and economics. At IWPR, Dr. Hartmann has co-authored several reports including Unnecessary Losses: Costs to Americans of the Lack of Family and Medical Leave; Who Needs a Family Wage?: The Implications of Low-Wage Work for Family Well-Being; Women's Access to Health Insurance, Combining Work and Welfare: An Alternative Anti-Poverty Strategy and The Impact of Social Security Reform on Women. Before founding IWPR, she taught at Rutgers University and the New School for Social Research and worked at the National Academy of Sciences and the US Commission on Civil Rights. Dr. Hartmann is originally from Toms River, New Jersey.
NANCY PFOTENHAUER
Nancy Mitchell Pfotenhauer joined the Independent Women's Forum in 2001 from Koch Industries, where she was director of the Washington, D.C., office. Koch Industries is the second largest privately held company in the United States. A veteran television and radio commentator, she advocates for free market policy solutions to problems facing the nation. Her television and cable appearances include segments on ABC, NBC, CNN, CNBC, FOX and PBS. In 2004, Washingtonian magazine named her one of the most important conservative leaders in the nation's capital. In 1994, she appeared on the cover of the National Journal, which referred to her as one of the District of Columbia's rising stars. Additionally, Pfotenhauer has been featured in Newsweek, George, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post and The Washington Times.
BETTY SPENCE
Betty Spence became President of The National Association for Female Executives (NAFE) in 2001. From 1994-1999 at Catalyst, a non-profit committed to the advancement of women, Spence served as VP of communications and publications. She wrote Be Your Own Mentor (2001), a book on propelling your own advancement. In addition, she crafted speeches for the president and oversaw the editing and publication of two other books, Advancing Women in Business: Best Practices from the Corporate Leaders (1998) and Creating Women's Networks (1999). Spence cut her PR teeth at Hill and Knowlton in media relations, speech writing, and crisis counseling. Her career also included a stint at Chief Executive magazine and work as a contributing writer to the Los Angeles Times and The Christian Science Monitor. She holds a Ph.D. in English literature and honed her writing skills teaching literature, writing, and film studies at college and high school levels.
EMILY CSENDES STATE SENATE CANDIDATE, NEW YORK'S 29TH DISTRICT
Emily Csendes earned her Bachelors cum laude in Economics from Wellesley College and her M.B.A. in Finance from New York University amd enjoyed a successful career in Merrill Lynch's NASDAQ trading department. Like many New Yorkers, September 11th changed Emily’s life. Watching the attack on the World Trade Center across the street from her office changed her priorities. Emily gave up her successful finance job to become a public school teacher in Harlem and decided to engage in politics and run for public office.
STEPHEN M. EVANS III EMILY'S CAMPAIGN MANAGER
Before becoming active in politics, Stephen M. Evans III, worked on numerous films, television shows, mini-series, and corporate training films and served as a Camera and Production Assistant on independent films such as "trick" and "Hamlet". A native of Dallas, Texas, Stephen was educated at Southern Methodist University. Just prior to managing Emily's run for New York State Senate, Stephen mounted his own campaign for New York City's 3rd City Council District. He currently serves as Vice-President of The TR Group.
Crew
MORGAN-WILLIAM TURNER EDITOR
Morgan-William Turner has already been recognized in the New York DVD community as a prodigy-of-the-digital-trades. He was hired by Metropolis DVD (now M1 Digital, a division of Sterling Sound) in 2002 while still a student in Sheridan College’s Media Arts Program in Toronto. There Turner cut features for bands such as Sum41, Nickelback, Slipknot, Cesaria Evora and most recently the Rolling Stones and also produced shoots and managed the early stages of project planning and proposals. He has also provided editorial services for clients like Dancing Diablo Studio and Magnetic Laboratorium. In addition to editing Running in High Heels, Turner is currently an editor for Scholastic’s animated series produced for PBS, Maya and Miguel.
GREG LAPORTA COMPOSER
Greg Laporta has spent the last four years working on the music crew of two-time Academy Award winning composer, Howard Shore. Laporta’s cinematic music credits include Panic Room, the Score, Gangs of New York, Spider, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Aviator, and the upcoming A History of Violence and King Kong. In addition, Greg has scored various television documentary programming, most recently Shark Mountain which aired on PBS’s Nature series. Visit his website at SavageLaporta.
MANAHI TABER-KEWENE DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY
A native of New Zealand, Manahi Taber-Kewene studied film production under the guidance of the Emmy award-winning filmmaker, Larry Engel, after spending several years honing his expertise in photography and production in the advertising industry. In addition, Taber-Kewene was part of the editing team for Notorious Pictures' feature documentary, At The Green Line. Taber-Kewene’s work also includes directing and producing two documentary shorts, Bboy and We Lift Our Voices, and he is also editor for an upcoming Discovery Channel documentary shot in Bolivia. He is a graduate of the Film Program at Columbia University.