SPIRIT OF WINDRIDER AWARD WINNERS

2009 SPIRIT OF WINDRIDER AWARD WINNER: FILMMAKER, RICK STEVENSON

Rick Stevenson is a seattle native known for his work in film and television in the United States, Canada and Great Britain. Stevenson’s production credits include Privileged (1983) starring Hugh Grant; Restless Natives (1985) starring Ned Beatty, Promised Land (1987) starring Meg Ryan and Kiefer Sutherland; Some Girls (1989) starring Patrick Dempsey, Jennifer Connelly and Andre Gregory: and Crooked Hearts starring Jennifer Jason-Leigh, Noah Wylie, Juliette Lewis and Peter Coyote. 

Stevenson made his feature film directorial debut in 1995 with Magic in the Water, starring Mark Harmon and Joshua Jackson. His next, widely lauded, feature film was The Dinosaur Hunter with Christopher Plummer (1999). This was followed by Anthrax (2001) starring Cameron Daddo, David Keith, William B. Davis, Ed Begley Jr. Most recently, Stevenson directed, co-wrote and produced Expiration Date(2006) starring Robert Guthrie, Dee Wallace Stone and David Keith. Stevenson has directed many programs for television including Ed for NBC and his work as a director of television commercials has garnered a myriad of awards.

In 2004, Stevenson founded The Film School with Tom Skerritt and Stewart Stern. He is currently piloting "Official Best of Fest," an initiative to help bring the world’s best indie films to the public. He is also completing his first feature in "The 5000 Days Project" series. Rick holds a PhD from Oxford University, a master’s degree from the London School of Economics and a bachelor’s degree in history from Whitman College in Washington State.

Rick is married with four children.

 

2008 SPIRIT OF WINDRIDER AWARD WINNER: FILMMAKER & PRODUCER, HEATHER RAE

Heather Rae has worked in a producing capacity on more than a dozen documentaries and half dozen features throughout her twenty years in the film industry. She produced Frozen River, which stars Melissa Leo, Michael O’keefe and Marc Boone Jr. Frozen River premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, won the Grand Jury Prize and was acquired by Sony Pictures Classics. Additionally she produced Ibid, starring Christian Campbell which will premiered the 2008 South By Southwest film festival and internationally at the Munich Film Festival.

Previously Rae produced and directed Trudell which premeired at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival and played Tribeca, SilverDocs, Full Frame, Seattle and over 100 other festivals. Trudell was released theatrically by Balcony Releasing and played over 60 markets before airing on PBS’ Independent Lens and the Sundance Channel. Trudell won numerous awards including a Special Jury Prize from the Seattle Film festival and Best Documentary from the American Indian Film Festival.

Rae is producing and directing Family: The First Circle, a documentary about the foster care system; the project received the Sundance Documentary Grant and was selected fro Tribeca All Acess, both in 2008. Rae produced Out of the Blue: A Film about Life and Football for ESPN and Hart Sharp about the Boise State University Football team and their 2006 undefeated season leading up to the Fiesta Bowl victory.

For Six years Rae ran the Native Program at the Sundance Institute and was a programmer for the Sundance Film Festival. After leaving Sundance in 2001 she went on to work for Winter Films as Senior Vice President of Production. For the past seven years she has worked independently as a director and producer working on projects such as Sawtooth, starring Adam Beach, Gary Farmer and Udo Kier and Water Flowing Together about master ballet dancer Jock Soto, and ShiMasani. With director Blackhorse Lowe. She co-produced Backroads, directed by Shirley Cheechoo, which premiered at Sundance in 2000.

Prior to her years at Sundance, Rae produced on such documentary films as CBS's 500 Nations, Turner Broadcasting's The Native Americans, and PBS' Storytellers of the Pacific. She produced the behind-the-scenes making of Smoke Signals for the Sundance Channel and was an Associate Producer on Silent Tears, directed by Cheechoo. Rae is an Adjunct Professor at Boise State University, sits on the board of Boise’s creative incubator, The Water Cooler and owns downtown arts collective The Muse Building. Rae is Cherokee and a mother of three. She and her family reside in Boise, Idaho.

Gentlemen,

Just another thanks for the opportunity to represent The Spirit of
Windrider. It was an amazing and beautiful experience to be a part of
and I will forever cherish that memory. I hope I can uphold the
responsibility in that powerful mission statement!

Please do extend my thanks to Dick Staub for the fabulous crown. I will
wear it every day with pride!!

Fondly,
Heather

Academy Award Nominee, Melissa Leo and Frozen River Producer Heather Rae. Academy Award Ceremony-Kodak Theatre February 2009. Heather was the 2008 Spirit of Windrider Award Recipient.

 

2007 SPIRIT OF WINDRIDER AWARD WINNER: AUTHOR & BROADCASTER, DICK STAUB

Dick Staub is one of today's most experienced and thoughtful observers of belief in contemporary culture. He is an engaging, broadly informed listener who consumes a vast amount of information each day and then communicates his observations and insights as a broadcaster, writer and public speaker. He enjoys learning about people's ideas and the personal journey that shaped their views.

While he is a man of far reaching interests and curiosities, Staub is particularly fascinated with America's spiritual quest, which today is often unlinked from organized religion. He believes there is a vibrant ongoing conversation about "ideas that matter" and belief going on in today's popular culture through movies, books, theatre and music. Part of his mission is to listen to and facilitate that cultural conversation.

After years of hosting live daily drive time radio, in 2006 Dick launched "The Kindlings Muse, a podcast (heard at www.thekindlings.com) of "intelligent, imaginative, hospitable explorations of ideas that matter in contemporary life," and originating from Hales Ales Brewery and Pub, the CS Lewis Centre (University of Washington Burke Museum Cafe), Sundance Film Festival, IAM in NYC and more.

 

 

 

 

2006 SPIRIT OF WINDRIDER AWARD WINNER: FOUNDER & DIRECTOR OF ACT ONE, BARBARA NICOLOSI

Originally from Rhode Island, Barbara Nicolosi is the Founder and Chair of the Board of Act One, Inc., a nonprofit program to train and mentor Christians for careers as Hollywood writers and executives. She is a member of the WGA of America-West and has written several screenplays for various Hollywood production companies. Her most recent credit is as a co-writer with Benedict Fitzgerald (writer, The Passion of the Christ) on the upcoming Aloe Entertainment/MGM release, Mary: Mother of the Christ.

Barbara has a Masters in Film and Television from Northwestern University, and a B.A. from the Great Books program at Magdalen College in Warner, NH. She has been a script analyst, production company executive, and has consulted on scores of entertainment projects. Barbara has been a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts, a reader for the Humanitas Prize, a judge for the Angelus Awards Student Film Festival and has appeared as a cultural commentator on ABC, NBC, CBS, NPR and in the pages of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Premiere magazine. She has produced several award-winning plays at the Actors Co-op Theater in Hollywood, and is currently completing her first play based on the life of the poet Emily Dickinson.

Barbara is an adjunct professor of film at Pepperdine University and is a guest lecturer at the Los Angeles Film Study Center. She won Catholic Press Awards in 2001, and 2002 for her contributions to various Catholic magazines, and is the co-editor with Spencer Lewerenz of the Baker Books 2006 release, Behind the Screen: Hollywood Insiders on Faith and Culture.

 

2005 SPIRIT OF WINDRIDER AWARD WINNER: PASTORS LENNY & LINDA PERATA

Lenny & Linda Perata have ministered for 31 years planting 4 churches. This is Lenny and Linda's second tenure in Park City, having served here in the late 70's and early 80's before planting the Burbank Vineyard. They returned to Park City in 1995 and have continued as Senior Pastors till the present.

Lenny and Linda have a vision for training and the arts and have been passionate supporters of the Windrider Forum, serving as the catalyst for hosing the forum along with the Mountain Vineyard community for over five years

Both have a BA from Harvest Bible College. They have a daughter, Alex, 3 dogs and 1 cat. They are blessed to serve His People.

Windrider is a Vision that has been the answer to many prayers and specifically our dream to see Park City touched by God through the Arts. And to think he is using Mountain Vineyard to serve this vision is such a gift to us and an incredible privilege. - Lenny Perata