Behind the Velvet Curtain is conceived, produced and directed by Jonathan Joiner and Robert H. Martin.

Jonathan Joiner (Producer/Director)

jonathan@aquarius-media.com     (415) 710-6265

Jonathan Joiner is a San Francisco-based filmmaker and attorney with a longstanding interest in both film and LGBT rights. Born and raised in Florence, Alabama, he has a commitment to social justice that is informed not just by his experience as a gay man, but through direct exposure to the legacy of segregation in the American South.

Jonathan moved to California in the early 90s, living first in Los Angeles and for the last 15 years in San Francisco. He was deputy director of the H.I.V./AIDS Reentry and Empowerment Project at New College of California before and while pursuing his J.D. At New College he studied with Kate Kendell, Esq., who heads the National Center for Lesbian Rights and has been a prominent gay rights jurist during much of the period explored in Behind the Velvet Curtain.

A personal passion for film and film history has driven Jonathan’s interest in copyright and intellectual property law, including the theory and application of fair use doctrine in documentary filmmaking. A former student of the Bay Area Video Coalition’s video production program, he is a skilled still photographer whose practical experience with lighting, composition and color informs his filmmaking.

Robert H. Martin (Producer/Director)

robert@aquarius-media.com    (415) 255-2716

Robert H. Martin is a producer, writer and director based in San Francisco. He has worked as a communications and strategic planning consultant in both nonprofit and private sector environments. A former fundraiser and event producer, he is a native Californian with a passion for politics and longstanding dedication to community improvement.

Since 2001 Robert has been a consultant to Q Media Partners, a Bay Area television and film production company dedicated to developing “intelligent and entertaining” programming for national distribution. The company has had first-look deals at HBO and Touchstone, and has two projects currently in development at ABC and United Artists.

Concurrently, Robert continues his work as a facilitator and strategy consultant for nonprofit organizations, with an emphasis on foundations. Robert began his career as a fundraiser, eventually serving as director of development for San Francisco’s oldest community center, Telegraph Hill Neighborhood Center. He has produced many events, including concerts, conferences, a mayoral debate and a 5K race.

First exposed to filmmaking through his dad’s Super 8 home movies, Robert produced, wrote and directed his first film while in high school: a documentary exposé triggered by the drug-related arrests of 18 students by an undercover police officer who had posed as an enrolled student. Robert is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Reed College, in Portland, Oregon, where he ran his college’s film society and was responsible for programming, marketing, hiring and budgeting. A student of Russian language and literature, he lived in the former Soviet Union and wrote his undergraduate thesis on the development of storytelling and editing techniques by early 20th century Russian filmmakers. Robert has completed video production coursework at Portland’s Northwest Film Center and the Bay Area Video Coalition. He is on the board of directors of Project Open Hand, a San Francisco Bay Area agency that feeds seniors and people with HIV/AIDS, cancer and other serious illnesses.

Beth (Basa) Pielert (Co-Producer)

bpfilmer@goodfilmworks.com    (415) 310-6550

Beth Pielert is a producer, director, cinematographer and editor specializing in social justice documentary film. Beth was assistant director and camera operator for The Corporation miniseries, which garnered dozens of awards including the 2004 Sundance Audience Award. Recently she co-edited the PBS series Building Green and shot and edited the weekly Mosaic Intelligence Report for LinkTV.

Beth’s first film as director, Kiss My Cleats, is a documentary about the 1998 Gay Games. It toured dozens of festivals and is used to help teach tolerance in high schools throughout the U.S. In 2007 she completed her feature Out of the Poison Tree, an exploration of personal justice and reconciliation for survivors of the Cambodian genocide. The film has been licensed by the Center for Asian American Media and was broadcast on PBS in early 2008.

Beth has lent her cinematography skills to Girls Rock!, released theatrically in March, 2008, and to LucasFilm, helping to create The Making of Revenge of the Sith. In addition to her filmmaking, Beth teaches video production and editing at Bay Area Video Coalition and Digital Media Academy at Stanford University. She lives in San Francisco.

Key Contributors

A number of other experienced filmmakers are helping to develop Behind the Velvet Curtain.

Sinisa Kukic is a Los Angeles-based cinematographer who specializes in documentary and experimental films. An M.F.A. graduate of San Francisco State University, his work has screened internationally at festivals and aired on PBS.

Greg Sirota is a San Francisco-based editor, writer, producer and director with extensive experience in film and television. He has edited more than two dozen episodes of the Young Indiana Jones Documentary Series, for LucasFilm and Paramount Pictures, and has worked widely on documentary, reality/unscripted, narrative and short-format/ commercial projects. His work has appeared on PBS, Discovery Channel, History Channel, Sundance Channel and in numerous festivals. Greg is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and has an M.F.A. in directing and editing from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts. He has taught at New School University in New York and the Film Arts Foundation, San Francisco.

Producer Beth Pielert on set in Los Angeles shooting footage for the trailer.

Robert Martin interviews historian and author Craig Loftin about 1950s gay activism.

© 2008 Aquarius Media