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A Documentary from Magic Lantern Films Produced and Directed by John Summa & John Travers |
Next Film Release: The Resurrection of Victor
Jara Evidence of Subversion Exhibit C - The
Quena
Meet the Filmmakers
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John
Travers -- Director,
Cinematographer/Editor
Born in New Orleans, raised in Westport, CT,
and now residing in Los Angeles, John Travers has devoted his life to the
art and craft of filmmaking. Inspired by his father's (novelist Robert
Travers) passion for writing and his half-sister's (Mary
Travers of Peter, Paul & Mary) love of music, John began
making movies at the age of eleven, many of them music-related.
At
15 John studied documentary filmmaking with Westport filmmaker William
Jersey; at 16 he was directing, photographing and editing his own Super 8
sound documentary and experimental films.
While earning his BFA in
Cinema at the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut, John was selected
as one of three national finalists by
A.C.E. (American Cinema Editors) in the student
editing competition. Flown to Beverly Hills, California, he was awarded
the first-place trophy, beating out such highly regarded film schools as
the University of Southern California.
For his 16mm, 45-minute
thesis film, Jenny, John was awarded the coveted national
Student Academy Award -- the highest honor attainable for a student
film produced in the United States.
After graduation he was hired
by documentary filmmakers Bill Buckley and Tracy Sugarman,
editing such PBS-aired films as Never Turn Back: The Fannie Lou Hamer
Story and the documentary, The Time Has
Come, about dangers posed by nuclear weapons.
In the early 1990s
John relocated to Los Angeles, where he began working as editor and
cameraman for independent filmmaking legend Roger Corman, assisting
future Academy Award-winning editor Zach Staenberg (The
Matrix).
In 1995 he edited prize-winning short films for Sasha
Stallone and The Usual Suspects storyboard artist John
Coven; in 2001 he photographed the well-received documentary,
Creature, broadcast nationally on HBO.
Recently
John has photographed and edited numerous documentaries and concert films,
working with such musicians as Peter, Paul & Mary,
Madonna, Iron Butterfly, Donovan, Bill Haley's
Comets, The Spencer Davis Group, Grace Slick, Eric
Burdon, Charlie Terrell, Sweetwater, Strawberry Alarm
Clock, Jennifer Stills and Happy
Chichester, among others.
He looks forward to
combining state-of-the-art digital technology with his three decades worth
of photographic and editorial skills to bring The Power of Their
Song and The Resurrection of Victor Jara
(expected release June 2011) to cinematic life.
Read what
others say about
John's work

John
Summa -- Writer &
Producer
Born in Bronxville, NY and raised in
Connecticut, John Summa attended the Graduate Faculty at the New
School for Social Research in New York City, where he earned a Ph.D. in
political economy. Residing in Burlington, VT since 2004, he is a
documentary film producer, author, educator and journalist.
Throughout the past 30 years, John has been devoted to
educating North Americans about social, political and cultural issues in
Latin America, where he frequently travels.
John first
visited Latin American as a journalist to report on the Sandinista
Revolution in 1981. In 1986, following several more trips to
Nicaragua, John produced his first documentary, The Contra
War, a film critical of a U.S.-sponsored insurgency against the
popular Sandinista government.
In 1987, Herbert
Mitgang of The New York Times wrote that the documentary,
well before the Iran-Contra scandal, references the "same names that
[eventually] turned up during the [Congressional] hearings as supporters
of the Contras against the Sandinista Government."
Following the
1995 Zapatista uprising in Chiapas, Mexico, meanwhile, John traveled
inside the rebel zones to cover Mexico's national elections, where voting
was allowed to take place.
John has also reported from Asia and
Europe, and is a former contributor to the Washington, DC-based
publication Multinational Monitor. His articles on media,
culture, politics, economics, the environment and Third World
underdevelopment have appeared in the New Haven Advocate and
Fairfield County Advocate, as well as in the publications
Extra!, Toward Freedom, The Guardian (no longer
publishing), Dollars & Sense, Business Digest, and
E/The Environmental Magazine.
Listening to New
Song artists for over 30 years, John became inspired to make The
Power of Their Song 6 years ago following
several visits to Uruguay, South America. He discovered during his trips
how extremely popular New Song music remains for a new generation, not
just in Uruguay but across Latin America.
He hopes The Power of
Their Song and The Resurrection of Victor Jara (expected
release June 2011) will offer the rest of the world an opportunity to
experience New Song music and its universal message.

Copyright 2006-2010 Magic Lantern, Inc.