JUDITH MONTELL
2600 10th Street  #423
Berkeley, CA 94710
Phone:(510) 548-6521
e-mail: jmontell@worldnet.att.net

Judith Montell started her directing career in theater, producing and directing professional summer theaters in Buffalo, New York and Bismarck, North Dakota. She has worked as production assistant for Broadway shows and as stage manager and general manager for off-Broadway productions. From theater she moved into the world of film as a production manager for Amram Nowak Associates, a New York producer of documentary and educational films.

After taking a 15-year break to raise two daughters, she began producing her own documentaries. Forever Activists: Stories from the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, which received an Academy Award Nomination for Best Achievement in Documentary Feature, was her first feature-length documentary. It also received Special Jury Awards at the San Francisco International Film Festival and the National Educational Film & Video Festival. It has been invited to film festivals in Valladolid and Bilbao, Spain; Nyon, Switzerland; Film Arts Film Festival, San Francisco,California; Havana, Cuba. It has also been shown at Jewish Film Festivals in San Francisco, Boston, San Diego and London. You are History, You Are Legend is a 25-minute sequel to Forever Activists, commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Spanish Civil War.

Pasporto al la Tuta Mondo, a series of 15 half-hour tapes teaching the universal second language of Esperanto was completed this June. Timbrels and Torahs: Celebrating Women’s Wisdom, a film showing how older Jewish women can claim a position as wise elders in their communities with the creation of a new ritual, had its premiere at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival 2000 and has been shown around the country and at festivals in Germany and Italy. With Bonnie Burt, another East-Bay independent producer, she produced and directed and edited the documentary A Home On the Range: The Jewish Chicken Ranchers of Petaluma. It is a story of immigration and acculturation and Americanization through three generations in Petaluma, California.

AWARDS & PRIZES
Academy Award Nomination for Outstanding Achievement, Documentary Feature
Special Jury Award: San Francisco International Film Festival
Special Jury Award: National Educational Film & Video Festival
Blue Ribbon: American Film & Video Festival
CINE Golden Eagle Award
International film festivals in Amsterdam, London, Ireland, Spain, Australia, Israel, United States