LUNAFEST Post-Film Discussion Leaders
Sr. Alice Gerdeman (Saturday)
Sister Alice Gerdeman is an activist and educator, focusing on important social issues for many years. She holds a B.A. from Thomas More College, M.S. in Education from the University of Dayton and an M.A. in Theology from Xavier University. Now in her fourteenth year with the Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center, she finds the time to lecture at Xavier University, The Union Institute and to participate in myriad speaking engagements in the Cincinnati area. Alice is also known by countless people via radio, as the host of the WVXU Faith and Justice Forum.
Sara Mahle (Sunday)
As Curator of local film and video exhibitions presented quarterly by Underneath Cincinnati, Sara works with many Tri-State area media artists. A filmmaker herself, she studied film and photography at Ithaca College where she received her BFA. Ms. Mahle's works have been screened at Cornell Cinema, the Olympia Film and Video Festival and the New England Experimental Film and Video Festival.
After spending a year developing educational programs in Thailand, Sara now works as the Education Coordinator for Media Bridges, a non-profit media arts organization. Through her work, Sara helps bring the tools of video making and media analysis to classrooms throughout the city of Cincinnati.
Anne Sisson Runyan (Sunday)
Anne Runyan is Director of The Center for Women's Studies at the University of Cincinnati, which is one of the oldest and most respected academic programs in Women's Studies in the country. Dr. Runyan is responsible for the coordination and development of the Center and oversees the innovative and unique MA/JD joint degree in Women's Studies and Law. Specializing in Gender and Globalization, she also teaches and serves as an advisor for committees and independent studies.
With a PhD in International Relations from American University in Washington, D.C., Anne is the co-author of Global Gender Issues, the co-editor of Gender and Global Restructuring, has published widely in the field of feminist world politics, and is working on a book on global feminist theory. Previously she founded and directed the Women's Studies programs at the State University of New York at Potsdam and Wright State University, has taught in Canada and Europe and lectured in many parts of the U.S. and abroad.
Timothy Swallow (Saturday)
In the realm of performing arts, over the last three decades Mr. Swallow produced numerous musical events, concerts, tours and festivals in the tri-state area, marketed the season offerings of the Cincinnati Playhouse and Cincinnati Symphony & Pops Orchestras, and was a co-founder and first board president of the Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati. He designed and the developed the membership tracking, season subscription and seat selection software used by the CSO, Columbus Opera and other arts organizations throughout the Midwest. With a B.S. in Management & Accounting and an M.B.A. in Marketing, he established marketing services and computer systems integration companies, serving clients in the Cincinnati area and then internationally via South America.
By way of family connections with RKO theatre chain management, Tim spent a portion of his childhood learning the workings of Cincinnati's classic single-screen movie palaces - the Albee, the Palace, the Grand, the Capitol and Keith's Theatre (R.I.P. 1974, 1978, 1975, 1967 and 1966, respectively). One of his prized possessions is the original velvet theatre curtain rescued from The Albee before its demolition. Roughly forty years after his introduction to the silver screen, Tim co-founded Cincinnati World Cinema with Dr. James Kesner in January, 2002 and currently serves as Executive Director, programming and producing film-and-discussion events including film festivals and collaborations with other area arts organizations.