Co-Founders & Directors
Angela Alston & Eric Zechman

For two years, Angela and Eric led Talking Pictures, a monthly screening series at the Shambhala Meditation Center of New York. In November 2002, they organized a two-day contemplative media festival in New York City featuring the work of Nathaniel Dorsky and Mickey Lemle.

Angela is an award-winning filmmaker whose work has screened in Europe and North America and various websites, including drunkenboat and her blip.tv site. She is former technical director for the daily radio and TV show Democracy Now!. In 2003, she produced Water Water in New York City, a week-long festival celebrating and educating about water. Angela has an MFA from the University of Texas at Austin, and studied photography at the Factory School of Visual Art in Seattle. She is currently training as a Feldenkrais practitioner. She has also studied dance and acting, and her teachers include Deborah Hay, Sheila Marie Gordon, and Kathy Dunn Hamrick.

Eric is a writer and film and video maker whose work has been shown at a variety of festivals, including the Resonant Wave Festival in Berlin. His short video Jumbotron.1 was selected as a finalist in the SlamDance Anarchy online video competition (October 2003). Eric has a Masters in Media Studies from The New School. He is currently editing a video documenting the Central-Mid-Levels Escalator (the world's longest outdoor escalator) in Hong Kong.

Special Guests for "Our Daily Bread"

Guest Speaker Andrei Zagdansky

Mr. Zagdansky's feature documentary "Interpretation of Dreams" was awarded the Grand Prix at the Second Russian Documentary Film Festival (1990) and screened in over ten international film festivals including the 1991 New Directors/New Films series at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 1994 Andrei was awarded a Rockefeller Intercultural Media Fellowship. In 1996 he founded an independent production company AZ Films LLC. His film "Vasya" (2002), a hybrid feature documentary about an officially "insane" Russian artist Vasiliy Sitnikov, was featured at a number of festivals including the 36th NYEXPO of Short Films and Video in 2002 (Jury Award); the Human Rights Film Festival, Moscow, 2002; and the Moscow International Film Festival, 2003. Mr. Zagdansky teaches film history at The New School in New York City.

David Perrin, Guest Teacher

David is co-founder and co-Artistic Facilitator of the GESTURE Theatre Project. He has been a student of Shambhala Buddhism since 1999, when he attended the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics Summer Writing Program at Naropa University. David loves all aspects of the creative process from: the blank page to opening night, and back to the blank page. He received his BA from Columbia University in Anthropology, and is also a graduate of the Actors Center Conservatory. David recently adapted and directed Enter Ophelia as GESTURE's first play.

Phoenix Action Network

Phoenix Action Network (PAN) is our fiscal sponsor and outreach consultant. Based in Rosendale, PAN is a non-profit organization dedicated to encouraging individuals to realize greater potential through publishing, performances, and community development. PAN publishes Kids' Beat, a creative, fun, and educational magazine produced by children for children. The magazine invites children to actively participate in the world, giving them a forum to express themselves and the tools to make a difference.

Heartfelt thanks for support from:

Elizabeth Jordan Alston
John Ankele & Old Dog Documentaries
Rebecca Campbell & the Austin Film Society
Liz Canner & Astrea Media
The Jakery
Laura Rock Kopczak
Moca En Boca
Anna Niedzielski
Andi Novick
Elizabeth Peters
Dr. Sardonic
Jesse Scherer, LMT - Specializing in deep tissue massage therapy, neuromuscular therapy, and sports massage
Deirdre Sulka/Meister of Open Circle Midwifery
Bart Weiss & the Dallas Video Festival


This project is made possible, in part, through a grant from the Dutchess County Arts Council, administrator of public funds through NYSCA's Decentralization Program.