| Biographies The artistic talents behind “Apalachicola River: An American Treasure” |
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| Elam S. Stoltzfus Producer/Cinematographer/Director, Blountstown, Florida |
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| Elam Stoltzfus is the creative force behind the tiny, quietly dynamic company known as Live Oak Production Group. Elam brings a broad array of skills and experience as a writer, cinematographer, editor, producer, and director of this film studio which showcases the great outdoors. He is a graduate of Florida State University with a degree in communications and he is married to a native Floridian. As the oldest boy in a family of nine children, Elam was born and raised in an Amish home near Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The austerity of his surroundings nurtured a passionate love and respect for nature, in all of its wild, unfettered, and continually changing beauty. Even as he tended his farm chores, he dreamed of art instead of cattle and crops. The absence of outside media allowed him to develop fresh and creative perspectives as an artist; today he uses his lens as his paintbrush, capturing rich images of nature that are full of light, color, and texture. For the past fifteen years Elam has documented diverse aspects of Florida's natural resources which include estuaries, rivers, swamps, and aquatic preserves. He has spent countless hours filming Florida wildlife, such as: fledgling sea turtles, endangered panthers, delicate roseate spoonbills, fierce alligators, and graceful dolphins. Not only is Elam a gifted cinematographer; as executive producer of several documentaries, he combined his love of nature with his love of art. That was the impetus for collaborative productions with other Florida artists such as fine art landscape photographer, Clyde Butcher, musician Sammy Tedder, photojournalist, Richard Bickel, and others. Elam Stoltzfus has been the recipient of multiple awards. He has received several Louis Wolfson II awards for nature documentaries including the PBS special, Visions of Florida, Jewel of the Everglades, Moments with Clyde Butcher, Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, and Living Waters: Aquatic Preserves of Florida. The latest release by Stoltzfus, Living Waters: Aquatic Preserves of Florida, was a Telly finalist, winner of the “Best of the Fest” award at the 2004 Tampa Film Festival, recipient of the prestigious 2005 Crystal Reel Award, “Best Cinematography” given by the Florida Motion Picture & Television Association and 2005 Henry Flager Award in recognition for “Outstanding Tourism Resource/Promotional Material”. Living Waters: Aquatic Preserves of Florida is an ongoing traveling exhibit in conjunction with the art of Clyde Butcher at various Florida museums. “Our Signature: Wild and Scenic Loxahatchee River” was awarded two Telly statues in 2005, the highest honor for cinematography in the Silver category and a Bronze for Nature Education programming. Elam’s documentaries have received critical acclaim at national film festivals, and his media images are being used as teaching tools by state agencies and national environmental education groups. . For more information: www.liveoakproductiongroup.com |
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| Clyde Butcher World-renowned fine art photographer, Ochopee, Florida |
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| Clyde Butcher’s black and white photographs explore his personal relationship with the environment. The exquisite beauty and depth of his work draw the viewer into a relationship with nature. For more than thirty-five years, he has been preserving on film the untouched areas of the landscape. His images are captured with an 8”x 10” and 11”x 14”view camera. The large format camera allows him to express the elaborate detail and textures that distinguish the intricacy of the landscape. The photographs range in sizes from 8”x 10” inches to 5’x 8’ feet. Recent projects include work for the Florida state’s “Save Our Rivers” program, the South Florida Water Management District, the FL D.E.P.; Divisions of State Lands, the Bureau of Submerged Lands and Preserves, Everglades National Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, Audubon Society, The Nature Conservancy, and the Wilderness Society. Clyde’s photography has been exhibited in many museums across the United States and Europe. Traveling exhibits of Clyde’s work are available at the Brevard Museum of Art and Science, in Melbourne Florida, the Museum of Florida History in Tallahassee Florida, Mary Brogan Museum in Tallahassee, and through his gallery. Clyde has been honored by the state of Florida with the highest award that can be given a private citizen: the Artist Hall of Fame Award. He was also privileged to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award from the North American Nature Photography Association and given the honor of being the Humanitarian of the Year for 2005 from International University. He has also received the Heartland Community Service Award from the state of Florida for educating the people of Florida about the beauty of their state. The Sierra Club has given him the Ansel Adams Conservation Award, which is given to a photographer who shows excellence in photography and has contributed to the public awareness of the environment. A collection of his work can be seen in his books: Clyde Butcher: Portfolio I, Florida Landscapes; Clyde Butcher – 1995 Limited Edition Collection; Visions for the Next Millennium; Clyde Butcher – Nature’s Places of Spiritual Sanctuary; Clyde Butcher – Florida Landscapes, Living Waters ~ Florida’s Aquatic Preserves and in his biography, Seeing the Light: Wilderness and Salvation, a Photographer’s Tale. Public Broadcasting has completed an award-winning ½ hour documentary on Clyde, Visions of Florida. A second video, Big Cypress Preserve: Jewel of the Everglades, featuring Clyde, is also an award-winning program. Clyde also joined in the making of the award winning PBS documentary, Living Waters ~ Aquatic Preserves of Florida. For more information: www.clydebutcher.com |
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| Richard Bickel Photojournalist, Apalachicola, Florida |
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| A career photojournalist who came to Apalachicola on assignment and made it his home, Richard Bickel has photographed in over 70 countries, and has been published throughout the world. He has worked for The New York Times Magazine, Civilization Magazine, Islands, Stern (Germany), and Geo (France), and has contributed to numerous books including those by Travel and Leisure and National Geographic. His work has garnered numerous awards including the Golden Quill for Photography and the New York Art Directors Club Award. Bickel was one of the first Western photojournalists to photograph Castro's Cuba, with photos from over a dozen visits there having been published and exhibited throughout the United States. His experiences on that island also inspired the lead character - and American photojournalist - in novelist and Time Magazine essayist Pico lyer's book, Cuba and the Night. For more information: www.richardbickelphotography.com |
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| Sammy Tedder Musician and Composer, Sopchoppy, Florida |
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| Sammy Tedder’s musical talents stretch over 30 years of performing, composing and recording sounds close to his heart. Tedder has performed a concert tour in the Soviet Union and was featured on TNN’s Prime Time Country, but his love for the beauty and solitude of North Florida always beckoned him home. From his remote cabin on the Sopchoppy River, he became intrigued by the natural sounds from the woods around him—frogs, insects, birds, thunder and rain—and so began to weave these sounds into his musical compositions. Also deeply interested in how the first primitive instruments such as drums and flutes were created, Tedder learned to make drums from hollow cypress or black gum logs and flutes from the native river cane that grows along Florida’s creeks and rivers. Tedder’s numerous CD projects reflect his deep respect for the original inhabitants of this land and features these hand made flutes and drums accompanied by contemporary instruments such as saxophone, trumpet, flute and keyboards surrounded by the organic sounds of the woods, swamps and shores. His original compositions for Living Waters: Aquatic Preserves of Florida blend nature’s sounds with haunting instrumental themes and are featured on his Living Waters CD.
“Creating the music for the Apalachicola River: an American Treasure documentary has given me the opportunity to experience this vast river basin area in a way that I never have before—exploring by boat the most remote waterways and meeting the people that rely on the river and those that enjoy its beauty and solitude—all this has given me insight into how very important it is to preserve this wild and natural place.” |
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| Jane Atkins Screenwriter and Research, Blountstown, Florida |
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| Jane Atkins is a native of northwest Florida and grew up roaming the sandbars of the Apalachicola River. Her adult life has been spent in theatre and film. As an actress, she has performed with the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, the Actors’ Theatre of Louisville and the London Young Vic as well as in films and on TV. As a writer, she has scripted over 300 hours of television which have been produced and aired around the world. She was awarded an Emmy as a member of the writing staff of the NBC series ‘Santa Barbara’ and recently completed work on a project for Sony International which was filmed in Moscow. She is a member of the Writers’ Guild of American and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. In her spare time, she has served as Director of Playmaking for the Virginia Avenue Project in Los Angeles, teaching creative writing to at-risk kids.
For more information contact: www.swampsongs.org |
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