THE FILMMAKERS
Joe Oliveri
Executive Producer
Joe and Rosalie were Peace Corps volunteers in Peru in the 1960’s. They returned to New York where Joe earned his Masters degree in Education and taught in Bedford Stuyvesant for a couple of years.
They moved to Central America where Joe accepted a job consulting with the Agrarian Reform Agency of Honduras. He was offered a staff position with Peace Corps in Honduras as Director of Education Programs.
Subsequently he became the Deputy Director of Peace Corps Operations in the Dominican Republic, where he met Chela Lightchild and Mark Feedman. In 1976 he and Rosalie and their family moved to Texas where Joe directed some programs at St. Edwards University, then worked for the City of Austin as Director of Training and Education for three years. He was hired by the Austin Independent School District and retired as Director of Alternative Education in 2006 after 24 years.
During these years he maintained his friendship with Mark and Chela, supporting their work with students in the field and in college settings.
Rosalie Oliveri
Executive Producer
Joe and Rosalie were Peace Corps volunteers in Peru in the 1960’s. Later, Joe’s work as a Peace Corps director took them to Honduras and the Dominican Republic where they met Mark Feedman and Chela Lightchild, who were Peace Corps volunteers.
Back in the USA Rosalie earned a Masters in Special Education at UT Austin and taught at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired for eleven years. She was appointed principal of Allison Elementary School in Montopolis and served there for nine years. During those years she and Joe often visited Mark and Chela in Las Vegas, New Mexico, where they continued their work teaching intensive agricultural methods.
Their friendship lasted for fifty years, and their conversations inspired Joe and Rosalie to hire Mike O’Krent to preserve their stories, resulting in this film. She and Joe currently live in Massachusetts. They are grateful to Mike O’Krent and David Finkel for including the premiere of the film in this year’s AJFF.
Mike O’Krent
Producer / Director
Mike O'Krent is the founder of LifeStories Alive, LLC, a business specializing in the making of personal history “legacy” videos for families, businesses, and non-profit organizations.
In a life-changing experience, from 1996 through 2000 Mike interviewed Holocaust survivors for Steven Spielberg’s Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, now the USC Shoah Foundation. It was through that experience he discovered the significance and technique of recording the life stories of loved ones, which forms the basis for his LifeStories business.
Since founding the business in 2006, Mike has expanded its expertise beyond capturing personal histories for families to now include recording the histories of businesses and non-profit organizations. The professionally produced videos can be used externally to promote the organization or internally as a training tool for new employees/volunteers.
In 2022 he founded ConvoMasters, an online membership that helps people build better relationships through better conversations.
Matthew Von Blackstone
Editor
Matthew Von Blackstone has been a Video Editor, Camera Operator, Studio Engineer, Sound Man, Writer & Director, and Video Archivist for 2 decades editing Films & Trailers, Television, Documentaries, Interviews, Training Videos, Family Films and more.
Beginning editing with two VHS Decks, and moving on to work in a TV studio, and then starting two media companies of his own, As a production Jack-Of-All-Trades, Matthew has been in nearly every position in video production (in-front-of and behind the camera), but specializing in Video & Audio Editing.
As an avid collector and archivist, he has a special interest in the preservation and post cleanup of older Analogue Video formats and sources, such as film, and production tape formats.