ABOUT US

Director:  Kim Shelton

Producer:  Sally Hinds

Cinematographer:  Vicente Franco

Editor:  Bill Weber

Project Type: Documentary

Runtime: 57 min

Completion: Date April 10^th, 2024

Country of Origin: United States of America

Countries of Filming: Portugal, Mexico, France

Language: English

Shooting format: Digital

Aspect ratio: 16:9

Kim Shelton
Director

Kim has been making award-winning independent documentary films for over 35 years. Her tastes are eclectic and she has covered a wide range of subjects from Buckaroos in Nevada, to Sudanese refugees, to war veterans, to Buddhist nuns in Myanmar, and now, “higher states of consciousness” in two Qigong students from Portugal and New Zealand.

Her films, THE HIGHLY EXALTED, COWBOY POETS, TUSCARORA, LOST BORDERS: COMING OF AGE IN THE WILDERNESS, A GREAT WONDER: THE LOST CHILDREN OF SUDAN, THE WELCOME, A THOUSAND MOTHERS, and ALREADY FREE have won numerous film festival awards, and have been broadcast nationally and internationally, on POV, PBS, National Geographic, The Discovery Channel, and the BBC.

kimsheltonfilms.com

Sally Hinds
Producer

Sally Hinds has been having more fun, and working harder than ever, since her so-called “retirement” in 2012.  Previously, she enjoyed a wide-ranging career in the public, private, and non-profit sectors, as an administrator and project manager.  She put her master’s degree in psychology to good use while heading up a staff of 80, overseeing contracts up to $100 million, and directing international projects.
Currently, Sally is president of Ren Xue of the Americas, treasurer of Ren Xue International, treasurer of Friends of RXI, and president of Desert Dove, a non-profit organization that takes Argentine tango into retirement communities and senior centers. In Ren Xue training events and retreats, Sally has coordinated operations for live sound and streaming video, and done a bit of video editing. This is her fourth experience as producer of a documentary film.

Bill Weber
Editor

Bill is a San Francisco-based documentary editor and director. He directed and edited the documentary feature THE COCKETTES which premiered at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival and 2002 Berlinale. Bill co-directed and edited the documentary feature WE WERE HERE, which played at the 2011 Sundance and Berlinale festivals, and TO BE TAKEI, which premiered at Sundance in 2014. 

As an editor, Bill’s work includes A REVOLUTION IN FOUR SEASONS, 2016 HotDocs, Feelings Are Facts: The Life of Yvonne Rainer, 2015 Berlinale, THE GALAPAGOS AFFAIR, 2013 Telluride Film Festival and 2014 Berlinale, and the Oscar nominated documentary short film, THE FINAL INCH. He also edited the award-winning documentaries LAST LETTERS HOME and THE ALZHEIMER’S PROJECT. Bill was recently invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences..

Vicente Franco
Camera

Highly accomplished and much-loved director of photography and director, Vicente Franco brings to the project his Spanish optimism, plus his three decades of experience in directing, producing, editing and cinematography. Vicente was a 2003 Oscar nominee for Best Documentary and Emmy nominee for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography for DAUGHTER OF DANANG, and winner of the Sundance Film Festival 2002 Grand Jury Prize. Vicente was also the director of photography on three other Academy Award nominees: THE BARBER OF BIRMINGHAM (2012), THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers (2010), and FREEDOM IN MY MIND (1994).  Vicente won the Silver Apple/Latin American Studies Association for his film, CUBA VA: the Challenge of the Next Generation and to round off his excess of accolades, is also a Peabody winner. Vicente’s hundreds of cinematography credits include the PBS series Latino Americans, and Latin Music USA, The Storm that Swept Mexico, Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey, In Defense of Food, Orozco Man of Fire, Archeology of Memory: Villa Grimaldi, The Fight in the Fields, The Good War as well as Summer of Love, which he co-produced and co-directed for the PBS/American Experience.