Developed, financed and executive produced by Participant Media, the company responsible for AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, FOOD, INC. and WAITING FOR “SUPERMAN”, LAST CALL AT THE OASIS presents a powerful argument for why the global water crisis will be the central issue facing our world this century.
Illuminating the vital role water plays in our lives, exposing the defects in the current system and depicting communities already struggling with its ill-effects, the film features activist Erin Brockovich and such distinguished experts as Peter Gleick, Alex Prud’homme, Jay Famiglietti and Robert Glennon.
Director
Jessica Yu is a director of both documentaries and scripted films. She won an Oscar for Best Documentary Short for Breathing Lessons, a film about Mark O’Brien, the poet who was confined to an iron lung. Her feature comedy debut, Ping Pong Playa premiered at the Toronto Film Festival and was released by IFC Films. Her documentaries include the theatrical features Protagonist, In The Realms of The Unreal, HBO’s The Living Museum, and the hybrid short The Kinda Sutra, all of which premiered at Sundance.
As the first director selected for the John Wells Director Diversity Program, she has directed episodes of the NBC dramas The West Wing, and ER, as well as various other shows including ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy. She also directs commercials for nonfiction spots in Santa Monica. Yu has been the artist-in-residence at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. She has been a board member of the International Documentary Association, and more recently, an artist trustee of the Sundance Institute.
Yu has also written articles and fiction for the Los Angeles Times Magazine, Buzz, Worth, and the Pacific News Service. She received the Murrow Award for Journalism from the Skeptics Society, the DREAM Media Award from the Western Law Center for Disability Rights and ACV’s Asian American Media Award. She has lectured at various universities and conferences. She is a MacDowell Colony Fellow and a Yaddo Fellow. Yu graduated from Yale University, Phi Beta Kappa, Summa Cum Laude, with a B.A. in English.
Currently Yu is in production on a film about the Gorongosa Restoration Project in Mozambique.
Producer
Elise Pearlstein was nominated for an Academy Award® in 2010 for Participant Media and River Road Entertainment’s Food, Inc., directed by Robert Kenner. Food, Inc. premiered at the 2008 Toronto International Festival and screened at the 2009 Berlin Festival before enjoying a successful theatrical release, distributed by Magnolia Pictures. Food, Inc. was also nominated for two Emmys for its television run as part of PBS’ P.O.V. series.
Prior to producing Food, Inc., Pearlstein produced Jessica Yu’s documentary Protagonist, which premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and was released theatrically by IFC Films and Red Envelope. Pearlstein and Yu also worked together on The Living Museum documentary for HBO, and they are currently partnered on a film about the Gorongosa National Park Restoration Project in Mozambique.
Other credits include the 2006 Million Dollar Recipe, a feature-length documentary that Pearlstein directed and produced which uses the lens of the Pillsbury Bake-Off contest to comment on changing roles of women and home cooks. From 2000 to 2005, Pearlstein produced and wrote prime-time documentaries for NBC’s Tom Brokaw and the late ABC news anchor Peter Jennings. And in 1999, Pearlstein co-produced and co-wrote Smoke and Mirrors: A History of Denial, a feature documentary about the tobacco industry’s sordid history that was short listed for the 2000 Academy Awards.
Pearlstein is also producing a theatrical documentary that explores a new wave of efforts to achieve peace in the Middle East through state building and cooperation, rather than conflict and violence.
Executive Producer
Jeff Skoll is a philanthropist and social entrepreneur. As founder and chairman of the Skoll Foundation, Participant Media and the Skoll Global Threats Fund, he is bringing life to his vision of a sustainable world of peace and prosperity.
Mr. Skoll founded the Skoll Foundation in 1999. It quickly became the world’s largest foundation for social entrepreneurship, driving large-scale change by investing in, connecting, and celebrating social entrepreneurs and other innovators dedicated to solving the world’s most pressing problems. Its flagship program, the Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship, currently supports 85 leading social entrepreneurs whose extraordinary work serves the neediest populations in over 100 countries.
The Skoll Foundation also co-produces the annual Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship with the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford. The Skoll World Forum unites acclaimed social entrepreneurs with essential partners from the social, finance, private and public sectors.
In 2009, Skoll founded the Skoll Global Threats Fund. Its initial focus is on five global issues that, if unchecked, could bring the world to its knees: climate change, water scarcity, pandemics, nuclear proliferation and Middle East conflict.
Jeff founded Participant Media in 2004 with the belief that a story well told has the power to inspire and compel social change. Participant’s films are accompanied by social action and advocacy campaigns to engage people on the issues addressed in the films. Jeff has served as Executive Producer on over 25 films to date, which have collectively received a total of 4 Academy Awards® and 18 nominations. Participant’s films include, among others, Good Night, and Good Luck, North Country, Syriana, An Inconvenient Truth, The Kite Runner, Charlie Wilson’s War, The Visitor, The Informant!, The Soloist, The Cove, Countdown to Zero, Waiting for “Superman” and Food, Inc.. In 2008, Participant launched TakePart.com, an on-line Social Action Network™ that enables people to learn, inspire, connect and get involved in major issues which shape our lives.
Jeff received a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Toronto and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He has been awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Toronto and an honorary Doctor of Public Service from Santa Clara University. Jeff’s other recent honors include Barron’s 25 Best Givers (2010, 2009), Huffington Post’s “Ultimate Game Changer in Entertainment” among the world’s top 100 game changers (2010), Environmental Media Awards Corporate Responsibility Award (2010), the Producers Guild of America’s Visionary Award (2009), Global Green USA’s Entertainment Industry Environmental Leadership Award (2009), Business Week’s 50 Most Generous Philanthropists (2003-2007), Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People (2006), and Wired Magazine’s Rave Award (2006).
Executive Producer
As Executive Vice President, Documentary Films, Diane Weyermann is responsible for Participant Media’s documentary films.
Participant's latest documentaries include Davis Guggenheim’s Waiting for “Superman" and Lucy Walker’s Countdown to Zero. Other projects include Casino Jack and the United States of Money, the Oscar®-nominated Food, Inc., the Emmy-nominated Pressure Cooker, Climate of Change, Standard Operating Procedure, Chicago 10, Angels in the Dust, Jimmy Carter Man From Plains, Darfur Now and the Oscar®-winning An Inconvenient Truth.
Prior to joining Participant in October 2005, Weyermann was the Director of the Sundance Institute's Documentary Film Program. During her tenure at Sundance, she was responsible for the Sundance Documentary Fund, a program supporting documentary films dealing with contemporary human rights, social justice, civil liberties, and freedom of expression from around the world. She launched two annual documentary film labs, focusing on the creative process--one dealing with editing and storytelling, and the other with music. Diane was also part of the Sundance Film Festival programming team, where she was instrumental in creating a platform for international documentary work and responsible for programming the documentary content of the Filmmaker Lodge activities.
Weyermann’s work in the documentary and international fields extends many years prior to Sundance. She was the Director of the Open Society Institute New York's Arts and Culture Program for seven years. In addition to her work with contemporary art centers and culture programs in the Soros Foundation network, which spans over 30 countries, she launched the Soros Documentary Fund (which later became the Sundance Documentary Fund) in 1996. Since the inception of the Fund, she has been involved with the production of over 300 documentary films from around the world.
Executive Producer
Carol Baum develops and produces motion picture and television projects. Her latest film, Five Dollars a Day, directed by Nigel Cole (Made in Dagenham), premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September and was released in the fall of 2010. This past summer, Carol signed a first-look deal with Fox Television Studios to produce hour-long series. Her next picture will be Challenger, the true story of the Space Shuttle disaster. Nathaniel Kahn, who was twice nominated for an Oscar® for his documentaries, will direct.
In June of 2007, Carol’s project You Kill Me, directed by John Dahl, was released by IFC. In 2005, Baum produced Sexual Life directed by Ken Kwapis (The Office). In 2003, she produced Carolina, which was directed by Marleen Gorris (Antonia’s Line) and written by Katherine Fugate (Valentine’s Day). The Good Girl was released in August 2002 by Fox Searchlight to outstanding reviews and four Independent Spirit Award nominations. Paramount Classics released My First Mister in November 2001. Written by Jill Franklyn, the movie opened the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. Christine Lahti, who won an Oscar® for her short film, Lieberman In Love, directed.
She executive produced Snow Falling On Cedars from the best-selling book by David Guterson. Scott Hicks (Shine) directed, and Robert Richardson, the film’s cinematographer, was nominated for an Academy Award® for his work.
Baum entered the world of television with Tourist Trap, written by Andy Breckman (Monk), which aired on the Wonderful World of Disney on ABC in the spring of 1999.
She teaches Script Development and Producing to graduate students at the American Film Institute Conservatory. Before that, she taught at Peter Stark Producing Program at U.S.C.’s School of Cinema.
Baum was the President of Sandollar Productions for 10 years, where she produced such hits as Father Of The Bride and its sequel, in addition to the Academy Award® winning HBO documentary Common Threads: Stories From The Quilt, and the quadruple Ace Award-winning HBO Showcase presentation Tidy Endings, starring Harvey Fierstein.
Prior to joining Sandollar, Baum was executive producer of David Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers. She was also a studio Vice-President at Twentieth Century Fox and Lorimar. Additionally, she developed Taylor Hackford’s An Officer And A Gentleman and David Cronenberg’s The Dead Zone.
Executive Producer
David Helpern was born in Boston, Massachusetts and began his career writing about film and politics for the two weekly newspapers in Boston.
In 1974 he directed and co-produced the feature length documentary about film director Nicholas Ray, I’m A Stranger Here Myself. In 1976 Helpern was nominated for an Academy Award® when he produced and directed the feature length documentary about the Hollywood blacklist, Hollywood On Trial. While continuing to write about film and politics, Helpern co-authored the story for the film Between The Lines. Helpern then produced and directed the film, Something Short of Paradise.
Moving to Los Angeles in 1982, Helpern produced or executive produced the films; Dead Heat, Something Special and Hidden II: The Spawning. He also was a creative consultant on the long running half-hour syndicated TV series, Kids Inc.
In 1992 Helpern was hired to head Film and Television development for a new family entertainment division of Sony, Sony Wonder. He left Sony in 1995 to return to producing; and served as executive producer on Leave It To Beaver for Universal in 1998.
In 1999 Helpern became interim CEO of New York based footwear and fashion company, Joan and David. He successfully executed a sale of the company to publicly traded Maxwell Shoes in November of 2000 and returned to full time producing.
Most recently, Helpern executive produced, Trophy Wife, for Lifetime Television and Wild Girl, for the Hallmark Channel. He is currently developing a number of projects for film and television including, Walter Reed, for HBO, written by Ron Nyswaner (Philadelphia) and to be directed by Jim Sheridan, Sinbad… The Lost Voyage, for Columbia as well as a number of television pilots.
Jon Else produced and directed the documentaries Sing Faster, The Day After Trinity: J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Atomic Bomb, Yosemite: The Fate of Heaven, A Job at Ford’s part of the PBS series The Great Depression, Cadillac Desert: Water and the Transformation of Nature, and Open Outcry. He was series producer and cinematographer for Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years. Else served as cinematographer on documentaries for PBS, BBC, ABC, MTV and HBO, including the BBC/PBS History of Rock and Roll, the Paramount/MTV feature documentary Tupac: Resurrection and Afghanistan: Hell of a Nation, Inside Guantanamo, and hundreds of commercials and music videos. His feature documentary, Wonders Are Many: The Making of Doctor Atomic premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. Most recently he served as Executive Producer on Jon Shenk's feature documentary The Island President.
Else was a MacArthur Fellow and has won four National Emmys, several Alfred I. DuPont and Peabody awards, the Prix Italia, the Sundance Special Jury Prize and Sundance Filmmaker's Trophy, as well as several Academy Award® nominations. Else received his bachelor's degree in English from the University of California at Berkeley and his master's degree in communication from Stanford University.
Editor
Kim Roberts is an Emmy winning editor of feature documentaries. Her recent work includes Waiting for “Superman”, Food, Inc. (nominated for a 2010 Oscar®) and Autism the Musical (HBO). Kim won an Emmy for Autism the Musical, her third nomination. She has received two Eddie Award nominations from the American Cinema Editors, and a WGA nomination.
Her other films include: Oscar® Nominees and Sundance Grand Jury Prize Winners Daughter from Danang and Long Night’s Journey into Day; Two Days in October (Peabody and Emmy winner ‘06); Made in L.A. (Emmy winner ’09); The Fall of Fujimori (Sundance ‘05); Lost Boys of Sudan (Independent Spirit Award ‘04); Daddy & Papa (Sundance), A Hard Straight (Grand Prize, SXSW) and Splinters (2011). She also co-wrote and directed the fiction film Wilderness Survival for Girls (ContentFilm/Image Entertainment). Kim received her Masters Degree in Documentary Film Production from Stanford University, where she won a Student Academy Award. She is a member of the American Cinema Editors and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
Composer
Jeff Beal is one of the most prolific and respected composers working in film and television today. He's won three prime-time Emmy awards, and has been nominated 10 times. His big break in film came when Ed Harris called on Jeff to score his directorial debut Pollock. Beal's unique blend of Americana, minimalism, and chamber orchestra caught the ear of many in Hollywood. This led to his relationship with HBO, where he has provided scores for two of their most adventurous series, Rome (2005) and Carnivàle (2003), resulting in 4 Emmy nominations. Jeff's first primetime Emmy award came in 2001 for his season one theme song to Monk.
Frequently called on to score assignments that require a unique and diverse musical approach, Beal won an Emmy for Battleground - a one hour no-dialog installment of NIghtmares and Dreamscapes, from the Short Stories of Steve King (2006) directed by Brian Henson, and starring William Hurt. Battleground was a present-day homage to the iconic no-dialog Twilight Zone episode, The Invaders (originally scored by Jerry Goldsmith). Beal’s sweeping and emotive orchestral score for the Ridley Scott CIA mini-series The Company (2007) also resulted in a prime time Emmy. Other notable scores include Wilde-Salome (2011), Appaloosa (2008), Little Red Wagon (2012), No Good Deed (2002), Georgia O'Keeffe (2009), eight Jesse Stone filmsand the Golden Globe winning series Ugly Betty and Monk.
LAST CALL AT THE OASIS is Beal’s fourth collaboration with Academy Award® winner Jessica Yu, having previously written scores for In the Realms of the Unreal, Protagonist and Ping Pong Playa.
Beal is currently scoring the new HBO series, Luck for director Michael Mann, which stars Nick Nolte and Dustin Hoffman.
In Theaters
| Date | City | Theater | Address |
|---|---|---|---|
| February 5 | Colorado Springs, CO | Carefree Circle 17 | 3305 Cinema Point Colorado Springs, CO 80922 |
We have partnered with an innovative company called Tugg to help you bring LAST CALL AT THE OASIS to your town as a one-night event, possible by taking a few easy steps. Simply click on the icon below and sign up to become a "host." Next, a Tugg representative will contact you to select a theater in your area, including all the major chains where you see some of your favorite films. From there, you spread the word about the screening and once you have successfully recruited a set number of pre-sales (via the Tugg website) by a designated date (usually 30-40 of your friends), the screening is confirmed.
After the film we encourage you to host a town hall discussion in the theater to dig even deeper into the issues and facts raised in the film. We will do our part to help you promote the screening by sending you (at no cost) posters and post-cards. Click below below to get started:
For any other screening requests, including group sales, please contact general@atopictures.com
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