WRITER, DIRECTOR, AND PRODUCER
Celestea Gentry Sharp
Celestea Gentry Sharp is a native of Atlanta, Georgia, but a longtime resident of Manhattan. A graduate of Duke University and Cornell, where she earned her MBA, she has had a varied career. Her working life began with service in Boston and Africa with a United Nations population program, has taken her into the world of corporate banking and stock market research in New York, and has also included historical research into the homeland of her ancestors in the state of Georgia. This historical research resulted in her writing a book titled Bishop, Georgia: The Ancient Roots, Rich History, and Enduring Spirit of a Southern Crossroads Community, which was published in 1996 and received the Georgia Historical Society Award for Best County or Local History Book.
Almost ten years after completing this in-depth history of thetown of Bishop and Oconee County in Georgia, she returned to the area to investigate what the rapid onslaught of development was doing to the life of this traditionally agricultural county. A graduate student at New York University at the time, she began making this film as a project for film courses taught by George C. Stoney and Lora Hays. She feels that making the film has permanently impressed her with the power of individuals to band together to make a difference in their communities.
ASSOCIATE PRODUCER AND EDITOR – Colin Hill
Colin Hill graduated from Princeton University and Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, where he concentrated on 18th Century Irish History. After graduating from Trinity College, Colin joined the British Broadcasting Corporation in 1965 as a Trainee Assistant Film Editor. During his 11 years at the BBC, he edited 40 documentaries, largely on historical, arts, and music subjects. He also made two independent short films set in Ireland, Dark Moon Hollow and Duhallow Home.
In 1976 he moved to the United States with his family, and after teaching film production courses at Penn State University for a year, returned to television production as a producer/editor. In 1979 he started work as an editor for ABC News 20/20. He remained at ABC until 2006, editing segments for 20/20, Prime Time Live, and the long-form series Turning Point and Vanished. While at 20/20, he also produced two segments, one on the historical fiction author, Jean Auel, and another on the notorious expert witness, Dr. James Grigson. He has received EMMY achievement awards and a Cine Golden Eagle for his work at 20/20 and in long-form documentaries for ABC.
NARRATOR – Dr. Horace Newcomb
Dr. Horace Newcomb holds the Lambdin Kay Chair for the Peabody Awards in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Georgia, where he directs the Peabody Awards Programs. He has written frequently about entertainment television since the 1970s and lectured on the topic throughout the world. He is the author of TV: The Most Popular Art (Anchor Books, 1974), co-author of The Producer’s Medium: Conversations with Creators of American TV (Oxford University Press, 1983), editor of seven editions of Television: The Critical View (Oxford University Press, 1976-2007) and two editions of the Museum of Broadcast Communications Encyclopedia of Television (Routledge, 1997, 2004). He has written or co-written a number of unproduced screenplays despite having been paid well on occasion.
CREATOR OF GRAPHICS AND ANIMATION – Georg Pedersen
Georg Pedersen is a graphic artist living in Brooklyn. He has made websites, posters, and animations for clients as diverse as New York University, Bain & Company, SmartHoneymoon.com, and Harry and the Potters. He is currently doing design and animation for the upcoming documentary What’s Organic About ‘Organic?’
PHOTOGRAPHER – Chuck Moore
Chuck Moore is a graduate of the University of Georgia College of Journalism. He has an eclectic background that includes a decade with the University of Georgia College of Agriculture as well as extensive experience photographing community events, weddings and other family events, historical architecture, and wildlife. His work has appeared in dozens of UGA publications and films, Oconee Living Magazine, The Athens Banner-Herald, and independent films. He has collaborated with the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Foundation, the Jeanette Rankin Foundation, and other charitable organizations to support their work.
Though Chuck’s early years found him in Jacksonville, Florida, he spent most of his youth in Jefferson, Georgia, a small town in Jackson County that bears many similarities to the town of Bishop in Oconee County, less than an hour away. Residential and commercial development has dramatically altered Jefferson, transforming a once-small town-with its tidy town square, local personalities, and quiet neighborhoods-into a small city barely distinguishable from others. Having been personally affected by real estate development in his hometown, Chuck’s interest in land-use issues led naturally to a partnership with Celestea Sharp in the creation of Carving Up Oconee.
PHOTOGRAPHER –Andrew J. Permar (Deceased)
Andrew J. Permar was an accomplished film and television producer with more than 25 years of experience, producing more than 425 film and television shows. In addition to his experience as a television producer/director with the Georgia Center for Continuing Education and teaching video production and editing classes at the University of Georgia’s Grady College, he successfully operated his own production company, Production Arts Film and Video, LLC, in Watkinsville.
His storytelling experience included producing educational television programs for clients such as Georgia Public Television, the Southern Educational Communications Association, University of Georgia, Troutman-Sanders, Olan Mills, The Tennessee Aquarium, and the Georgia Department of Education. Andy’s favorite projects involved telling stories with a uniquely Georgian perspective. His broadcast portfolio includes biographical documentaries on such well-known individuals as U.S. Senator Zell Miller (Zell Miller: A Great Georgian) and Georgia Governor Carl Sanders. A recent production, Hills and Dales: A Living Legacy, produced for the Fuller E. Callaway, Jr. Foundation, won a Bronze Telly Award in the 2006 Telly Competition. One of his last projects was a documentary about legendary UGA head coach Vince Dooley.
PHOTOGRAPHER AND SOUND RECORDIST – James Biddle
James Biddle currently teaches post-production, audio production, and single-camera production for UGA’s Grady College. This Hoosier graduated from Syracuse University in 1991 (BA) and 2000 (MA). Biddle has worked as an editor, audio recordist/designer/editor, voice-over director, foley artist, and director of photography for numerous projects. For the past two years in teaching at Grady College, Biddle and his students have produced the Red Clay Chef competition for the Taste of Athens. Aside from teaching, Biddle and his students are currently working with the Georgia Board of Tourism to record many of Georgia’s festivals and happenings in HiDef.