BIOGRAPHIES
BESTOR CRAM aka PAPA aka PRODUCER aka DIRECTOR
Bestor Cram, the founder of Northern Light Productions 35 years ago, has a distinguished career as a producer, director and cinematographer on more than 30 feature documentaries that have been exhibited worldwide and on national public television, HBO, Discovery, History among others. His recent work includes JFK The Last Speech which was delivered at Amherst College a few weeks before his assassination and Camouflage: Vietnamese Brushstrokes with History a feature presentation about combat artists in the north of Vietnam documenting the aftermath of war. His produced and directed Birth of a Movement with Susan Gray: In 1915, Boston-based African American newspaper editor and activist William M. Trotter waged a battle against D.W. Griffith’s technically groundbreaking but notoriously Ku Klux Klan-friendly The Birth of a Nation, unleashing a fight that still rages today about race relations, media representation, and the power and influence of Hollywood. Birth of a Movement, based on Dick Lehr's book The Birth of a Movement: How Birth of a Nation Ignited the Battle for Civil Rights, captures the backdrop to this prescient clash between human rights, freedom of speech, and a changing media landscape.
Cram has taught documentary camera for 30 years at the Maine Media Workshops and lectured at numerous universities while presenting his films. He is the President of the International Quorum of Motion Picture Producers, a worldwide network of distinguished filmmaker/business owners and serves on the board of the Massachusetts Production Coalition and FILMA.
MIKE MAJOROS aka MOJO aka DIRECTOR aka EDITOR
Mike Majoros has directed nearly a dozen award-winning documentaries that have screened internationally on television and in festivals including Sundance, Berlin, Prague, Palm Springs, and the Human Rights Watch Festival. He has shot films on location in China, Russia, Estonia, Germany, Haiti, Mongolia, and Kenya, with work exploring a range of subjects including Massai warriors, cyber warfare, Mongolian horse racing, global warming, veterans’ protests, and Estonia’s singing revolution.
Over the past 20 years he has also helped create major exhibits for the American Museum of Natural History, the Smithsonian Institution, the National WWII Museum and the International Spy Museum. After studying visual anthropology and film as an undergraduate, he received his graduate degree from the MIT Media Lab. From 1990-2011, he taught thesis-level film and video at the Rhode Island School of Design.
JOSE RAMON GARCIA aka CHEO aka CO-PRODUCER aka INTERVIEWER
Jose Ramon Garcia, a photojournalist and native of Puerto Rico, has been associated with the project since 2011. He has an intimate knowledge of the independence movement in Puerto Rico and spends five months every year on the island of Vieques. José is owner/operator of Grass Hill Productions, which services commercial and corporate clients throughout New England and across the country. Jose has worked in promotional film production, television news and commercial photography for more than 40 years. He is a scriptwriter for a feature film project on this same subject and has served as a board member of the Northampton Film Festival.
JUAN SEGARRA aka PAPO aka EL INDEPENDENTISTA
Juan Segarra grew up in a priviliged household in San Juan before heading to the mainland to attend Andover Academy. While a Harvard student in the late 1960s, Segarra was recruited to Los Macheteros and soon became a close associate of Filiberto Ojeda Rios, leader of the clandestine organization devoted to Puerto Rican independence. After more than a decade of living underground he was apprehended and convicted of bank robbery, ultimately spending 18 years behind bars. He is both eyewitness and participant, who speaks with great honesty and unusual clarity, even in the midst of self-reflection.
The course of Segarra’s life and the way he arrived at his personal convictions are revealing of both his citizenship and nationalist beliefs, reflecting similar awkward contradictions experienced by many Puerto Ricans. Since his clemency enacted by President Clinton, he has worked in the Puerto Rican court systems providing translation services to lawyers and their clients.