"Ghost Town to Havana is a heartbreaking, funny, and inspirational story about mentorship, life, love, murder, kids and baseball in Oakland and Havana today."
Eugene Corr
Producer/Director // Corr has broad experience in both fiction and non-fiction filmmaking. He wrote and co-directed the documentary Waldo Salt: A Screenwriter’s Journey, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award in 1991. He also wrote and directed the dramatic feature film, Desert Bloom (Jon Voight, AnnaBeth Gish) 1986 (Selection Officelle, Cannes Film Festival).
In addition, Corr has worked as a second unit director on major motion pictures, written or co-written dramatic features, and written for TV. He has directed episodic television, including such shows as: Crime Story, Miami Vice, Shannon’s Deal, I’ll Fly Away, and Arli$$. He has also directed television commercials for Chelsea Pictures, NYC. Most recently he co-wrote, with Edwin Dobb, the documentary, Butte, America for Pamela Robert's Rattlesnake Productions.
Roberto “Chile” Perez
Director of Photography/Co-Producer/Cuban Co-Director // Widely regarded as one of Cuba's finest cinematographers, Chile's images have traveled the world. He has worked as Director of Photography on hundreds of documentaries including productions for ABC, CBS, NBC, Discovery Channel and the Halogroup in the United States; NHK and TV Asahi of Japan; Canal Arte of France; and O Globo y Manchete of Brazil. Chile creates frames of great depth and stunning visual beauty, perfect to capture the raucous, sensuous, color-saturated vitality of Cuba.
Among his important documentaries are: "When I think of Che," "Lennon in Havana," "Cuban Art Series," and the documentary series, "Spiked Wings." He has received dozens of awards in national and international competitions.
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS //
Robert Deutsch
Former Cisco Executive, long-time baseball fan, member on the board of TechSoup Global, and numerous other nonprofits. Supporter of the the Oakland Royals and inner-city baseball.
Felix Braendel
Awaiting bio.
Ruth Shapiro
Ruth Shapiro works in and is an advocate for the arts. Her films have screened at Sundance, on PBS, and network TV. She is vice-president of Citizens Reach Out, a Bay Area non-profit.
CONSULTING PRODUCER //
Abby Ginzberg
Abby Ginzberg has been producing award-winning documentaries about race and social justice for the past 30 years. Her films have illuminated the lives of people whose steadfast commitment to justice is at the heart of their stories. Her most recent award-winning documentary, Soft Vengeance: Albie Sachs and the New South Africa just won a prestigious Peabody Award. The film has screened at film festivals around the world, winning two audience awards for Best International Documentary and the Grand Prize Humanitarian Award from the Accolade Film Awards. She was the Consulting Producer on The Barber of Birmingham, which premiered at Sundance, was nominated for an Oscar® in the Short Doc category in 2012 and aired on POV.
CINEMATOGRAPHERS //
Ashley James
Ashley James is co-founder of Searchlight Films and a member of the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame. His Director of Photography credits include Blacks & Jews; Street Soldiers; Crumb; The Color Of Honor; Booker; and Ancestors In America. Ashley James’ work has covered historical, racial, artistic, religious, and cultural topics for cable television and national broadcast, for which he has been awarded numerous grants and awards. A former ballplayer, Mr. James has deep roots in the Oakland community, where he is currently the station manager of KTOP/Channel 10, Oakland, CA. He continues working as Director of Photography on film projects around the world.
Monica Lam
Monica Lam's current work as a producer includes The Bonesetter’s Daughter: The Making of an Opera. She has produced international reports for the PBS series FRONTLINE/World, including Paraguay: Sounds of Hope, about a social entrepreneur’s effort to transform Paraguay through music, and China: Silenced, about Muslim Uighurs living in Xinjiang, China. Her most recent story for FRONTLINE/World, A Message from the Sea, took her to the Faroe Islands to examine how new research on mercury contamination is affecting the centuries-old whale hunting tradition there. Lam also co-produced and shot a news magazine piece about the American right-to-life movement and fertility technologies for Swiss National Television.
Steve Burns
Steve Burns was Director of Photography for the Showtime movieManhood, and the independent feature films Berkeley, Scheme C6and Attitude. He co-produced and was production designer for Heat and Sunlight which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. He art-directed the feature films Signal 7,On the Edge, the American portion of Until The End Of The Worldand the NBC TV movie of the week The Long Road Home. Mr. Burns also produced and shot additional photography for Stones and Paper, a documentary about the sculptor Isamu Noguchi, for the PBS seriesAmerican Masters.
Emiko Omori
Omori – who was also an Editor on Ghost Town to Havana – began her career as a cinematographer in 1968. She has freelanced as a cinematographer on many award-winning documentaries. In 1991, she wrote and directed the highly acclaimed drama, Hot Summer Winds, a co-production of American Playhouse and KCET. In 1999, her documentary/memoir, Rabbit in the Moon, about her family’s confinement in a World War II American concentration camp, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, was broadcast on POV, and won a National Emmy and numerous other awards. With Wendy Slick, she co-produced and directed Passion and Power: The Technology of Orgasm which premiered at Lincoln Center in New York.
Additional Cinematography: Liza Corr
EDITORS //
Gary Weimberg
Weimberg has spent the last three decades making award-winning documentaries as a producer, editor, writer, and cameraman, making films for ABC, PBS, HBO, Fox, the WB Channel, and others. He has won many national and international awards including two national Emmy Awards (Earth and the American Dream, HBO,1992; Loyaty and Betrayal: A History of the American Mob, Fox, 1994), and a recent nomination for a third Emmy for Soldiers of Conscience, PBS, 2007. Gary edited two documentaries that were nominated for Academy Awards (Memorial, 1989; and Superchief: The Life and Legacy of Earl Warren, 1991).
Matthew Baldwin
Starting his career as a graphic designer, Mr. Baldwin has edited work as varied as short animations, commercial productions, and documentaries for clients as diverse as the International Federation of the Red Cross, Google, Cisco, and BART.
ADDITIONAL EDITING //
John Nutt
Nutt – post production supervisor – has been editing film for 35 years. He has received a British Academy Award for his sound work on Amadeus, which also received an Academy Award for Best Sound. He was a Sound Editor on Apocalypse Now and The Black Stallion, both of which received Academy Awards in Sound.
Jennifer Chinlund
Jennifer has edited many award-winning documentaries, including films shown on PBS’s POV series: The Self Made Man, Discovering Dominga, Baby It’s You, and Complaints of a Dutiful Daughter, which won an Emmy and was nominated for an Academy Award. Other broadcast credits include Secrets of Silicon Valley and Beyond the Call, both on Independent Lens; Coming to Light: Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indian, American Masters; Ishi, the Last Yahi, American Experience and recently completed Children of the Amazon and Atomic Mom. A consummate filmmaker and collaborator, her innate sensibilities and talents as a storyteller, combined with her understanding of character and skills in deciphering complex historical subject matter make her an editor in demand. Her films have been shown at numerous film festivals including the Sundance, New York, Berlin, San Francisco, American, and Tribeca festivals.
FEATURING //
Coach Roscoe Bryant
Coach Roscoe Bryant has mentored youth in inner city Oakland for over 20 years. He has been a volunteer youth baseball coach, often working 20 or more hours a week on an entirely volunteer basis. After a neighborhood boy was murdered in front of his house, Mr. Bryant and his then-wife, Lehi, co-founded the Oakland Royals Baseball team in 2005. The idea was to give kids in his violent neighborhood, Ghost Town, something positive to do. Today there are five Oakland Royals Teams for youth ages 7-15. Coach Bryant's current passion is taking the Royals positive message of teamwork, peace, and achievement to inner city communities across the State of California. Mr. Bryant is the proud father of 3 children, Ralannah Cheyenne Bryant (Cosmetology/makeup artist), Roscoe Bryant III (San Jose State University, Junior), and Reuel Bryant (UC Irvine, Sophomore).
Coach Nicolás Reyes
Nicolás Reyes is a coach of young baseball players, ages 5 to 10 years, in Centro Habana, Cuba. He is a youthful 61 years, a coach for 38 years. Nicolás is a legend in Centro Habana, a celebrity on its streets and on rocky fields of dreams. He says, "I love to work with kids who don't even know how to hold a bat. If I was born again, I'd like to come back as what I am now, a coach of young players." Nicolas played shortstop for the powerhouse Habana Industrialies, the equivalent of Major League baseball in Cuba. As a player he was known as "the small pelotero with the huge heart." Happily married for 38 years, he is the proud father of four children and four grandchildren.
PROJECT ADVISOR/CALIFORNIA HUMANITIES SCHOLAR //
Michael Messner
Michael Messner is professor of sociology and gender studies at the University of Southern California. After receiving his B.A. and M.A. from C.S.U. Chico, Messner earned his Ph.D. in Sociology at U.C. Berkeley. His teaching and research focuses on gender and sports, men and masculinities, and gender-based violence. He is the author of several books, including It’s all for the kids: Gender, families and youth sports (California, 2009) Messner’s new book, co-authored with Max Greenberg and Tal Peretz, is Some men: Feminist allies and the movement to end violence against women (Oxford University Press, 2015). His honors include the Pursuit of Justice Award from the California Women’s Law Center, the Feminist Mentoring Award from the Sociologists for Women in Society, and the Jessie Bernard Award, presented by the American Sociological Association in recognition of contributions to the understanding of women’s lives.