WOKE UP BLACK

MARY F. MORTEN, PRODUCER/DIRECTOR
Mary F. Morten is a filmmaker, activist, and consultant committed to social change though video and film development. For the past two years, she and the Woke Up Black documentary subjects have toured the country with the film, including a week-long tour of New York City in February 2013. The film has been broadcast twice on PBS in Chicago and has been used for professional, educational and community development by organizations from After School Matters to the United States Department of Defense. In 2012, Woke Up Black won a Black Excellence Award for Documentary Film from the African American Arts Alliance of Chicago.

In the fall of 2012, Mary and the team started pre-production on Woke Up Black. Again., which will answer the often-asked question "Where are they now?" by exploring the current lives of the five Woke Up Black subjects in 2012-2013.

Mary is President of Morten Group (MG), a consulting firm specializing in social change through skills development, public policy and advocacy for nonprofit and for-profit clients in the Chicago area and nationwide. She is frequently seen in national and local media outlets for her expertise as a women's advocate. Her background includes 20 years of executive leadership at nonprofits and a mayoral appointment by Mayor Richard M. Daley in city government. She is the immediate past Director of the Office of Violence Prevention for the Chicago Department of Public Health and has also served as Director for the Chicago Commission on Human Relations. She has also developed films around policy initiatives and women's rights for several clients including Pillars, Chicago Foundation for Women, and the Illinois Department of Employment Security.

She has received numerous honors for her work with women and girls and in the philanthropic community. Recent acknowledgements include: a Leppen Leadership Award from About Face Theatre (2013); a Black Excellence Award for Documentary Film from the African American Arts Alliance of Chicago (2012); the Freedom Award from Equality Illinois; the Visionary Award from Rape Victim Advocates; the Women’s Bar Association Community Service Award; and the Changing the Face of Philanthropy Award from the Women’s Funding Network. Mary holds a B.A. in Communications from Loyola University Chicago with a concentration in radio and television.

	INES SOMMER, DIRECTOR OF CINEMATOGRAPHY Sommer is an independent filmmaker with extensive experience working both as a cinematographer and as a video producer for documentaries and tapes for non-profit organizations. She has worked on numerous documentary, advocacy, educational and dramatic projects, ranging in subject matter from health to women's issues, the environment, youth, and arts and culture. Her award-winning shorts have played widely at festivals and alternative exhibition venues for over 15 years.		APARNA SHARMA, PH.D., ASSOCIATE PRODUCER Aparna Sharma was a Program Officer at a local family foundation. She received her Ph.D. in applied social psychology at Loyola University Chicago, and worked as the Senior Researcher at Loyola University Chicago's Center for Urban Research and Learning (CURL), which is a non-traditional research unit that builds and supports collaborative research and education efforts. 1975 - 2013.
	KEISHA FARMER-SMITH, PH.D., LSW, ASSOCIATE PRODUCER Farmer-Smith currently serves as Director of Programs and Quality Assurance for a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting children’s well-being. Prior to this position, she served as manager of an asset-based, female-specific youth development program. Farmer-Smith’s qualitative research involves use of a feminist standpoint and asset-based theories in community work and program evaluation with girls and women. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and is a is a founding board member of Women and Girls Collective Action Network and the Chicago Freedom School.		MARISOL YBARRA, MA, ASSOCIATE PRODUCER Ybarra provided technical assistance to the documentary production and subjects during the filming of Woke Up Black. Her background includes a concentration in women's studies and community organizing along with advocacy on a variety of issues. She currently serves as Director of Donor Programs at a New York City community foundation and previously served as Director of Leadership Development at Chicago Foundation for Women. Currently based in New York City, she is a former member of the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation board of directors. She holds an MA from DePaul University.
	CATHY COHEN, PH.D., PRODUCING CONSULTANT Cohen is deputy provost of Graduate Education at the University of Chicago, where she also serves as the David and Mary Winton Green Professor of Political Science, and principal investigator for the Black Youth Project. Cohen is the author of the book The Boundaries of Blackness: AIDS and the Breakdown of Black Politics (University of Chicago Press, 1999) and the co-editor with Kathleen Jones and Joan Tronto of Women Transforming Politics: An Alternative Reader (NYU, 1997).		HOLLY DE RUYTER, FILM EDITOR Holly is an independent filmmaker living in Chicago. She works in the city editing and consulting on post production management. She is currently working on her first feature film about Wisconsin supper clubs called, Old Fashioned: The Story of the Wisconsin Supper Club.
	LUCY SMITH, ORIGINAL MUSIC Lucy is a Chicago-based singer, composer and bandleader. Her quartet frequents the Chicago jazz scene and her musical collaborations include works for theatre, film and spoken word productions. Lucy performs often for organizations working on social and economic justice issues and she is currently tackling her 2nd solo release: a fusion of sacred, spiritual and jazz music.		CHRISTYLEZ BACON, MUSIC Christylez Bacon (pronounced: chris-styles) is a GRAMMY Nominated Progressive Hip-Hop artist and multi-instrumentalist from Southeast, Washington, DC. As a performer, Christylez multi-tasks between various instruments such as the West African djembe drum, acoustic guitar, and the human beat-box (oral percussion), all while continuing the oral tradition of storytelling through his lyrics.
	DEBORAH MINOR HARVEY, DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMMING and PARTNERSHIPS Deborah is an organization development expert who founded The Right Source, Inc. in 1989. The firm’s core service areas include capacity building and sustainability planning; management and leadership development; and change management. Prior to forming her consulting firm she held leadership positions in higher education administration and nonprofit management.