{"id":8,"date":"2014-04-03T18:38:59","date_gmt":"2014-04-03T18:38:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/library.brown.edu\/firstreading2014\/?page_id=8"},"modified":"2014-04-03T18:38:59","modified_gmt":"2014-04-03T18:38:59","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/firstreading2014\/about\/","title":{"rendered":"About"},"content":{"rendered":"

A synopsis of the film:<\/h4>\n
\n

Oil & Water<\/i><\/a>\u00a0is the story of two boys coming of age as they confront one of the world’s worst toxic disasters. Hugo Lucitante and David Poritz ’12 were born on opposite ends of the oil pipeline. Hugo comes to America to fight for the survival of his Cofan tribe in the Ecuadorian Amazon, while David goes to Ecuador to launch the world’s first company to certify oil as \u201cfair trade.\u201d Together they explore what could be a more just future, not just for the Cofan, but for the marginalized people of oil-rich nations everywhere. Shot over the span of six years,\u00a0Oil & Water<\/i>\u00a0was produced and directed by Laurel Spellman Smith and Francine Strickwerda for PBS.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Francine Strickwerda (Director\/Producer\/Writer)<\/h4>\n

\"fancine\"Francine Strickwerda is an award-winning director, writer and producer of documentary films and Web sites. She co-directed the feature film\u00a0Oil & Water<\/em>\u00a0for PBS, and the women\u2019s health documentary\u00a0Busting Out<\/em>, which aired on Showtime. Her work has been funded by the MacArthur Foundation and the prestigious Independent Television Service (ITVS). She produced and executive edited national PBS Web sites including\u00a0Don’t Buy It<\/em>,\u00a0Videogame Revolution<\/em>,\u00a0and\u00a0Exploring Space<\/em>, and was a senior producer at HealthTalk.com. She currently runs\u00a0Hullabaloo,<\/em> a Seattle production company with her husband, and she has created videos for clients including the United Nations, Fortune 500 companies, and the Seattle Fire Department. Francine began her career as a reporter for newspapers in Washington and Idaho. She studied journalism at the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University.<\/p>\n

Laurel Spellman Smith (Director\/Producer\/Writer)<\/h4>\n

\"laurel\"Laurel Spellman Smith is a two-time regional Emmy Award-winning producer of national and local programs for PBS, including The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and the documentary\u00a0Faith & Fear: The Children of Krishna<\/i>. She became an independent producer in 2001. In addition to\u00a0Oil & Water<\/i>, she co-directed and produced the women’s health documentary\u00a0Busting Out<\/i><\/a>, which aired on Showtime, and the Iraq War documentary\u00a0The Corporal’s Diary<\/i><\/a>, seen on PBS stations, Al Jazeera English, and Link TV. She is also a juror for the News and Documentary Emmy Awards. Laurel grew up in Los Angeles and Kauai; she now lives in Seattle. She graduated from The Evergreen State College, where she studied film and cultural anthropology. She has traveled to over 100 countries.<\/p>\n

David Poritz (Featured in\u00a0Oil & Water<\/em>)<\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"david\"David Poritz\u00a0\u201912\u00a0was a sixth-grader when he learned of the oil disaster in Ecaudor and started Esperanza International, Inc.\u2014a humanitarian project that sent shoes, education materials, and medical supplies to impoverished areas of Ecuador. He\u00a0spent\u00a0a\u00a0portion\u00a0of his youth in the Amazon. In 2009, while still in college, David launched\u00a0Gaia Certification, Ltd. (later renamed\u00a0Equitable Origin)\u2014the world\u2019s first international,\u00a0environmental certification system for oil exploration and production.\u00a0In\u00a0addition to his work\u00a0as the\u00a0President of Equitable Origin, David\u00a0recently\u00a0attended Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. At Brown, David\u00a0concentrated\u00a0in anthropology and Latin American and Caribbean studies.<\/p>\n

Hugo Lucitante\u00a0(Featured in\u00a0Oil & Water<\/em>)<\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"hugo\"<\/span>When Hugo Lucitante was ten years old, his tribe sent him to America\u00a0for an\u00a0education in hopes that he would return to lead his tribe\u00a0towards a better future. After receiving his high school diploma,\u00a0he returned\u00a0to the Amazon, where he\u2019s learning to shoulder the\u00a0responsibilities\u00a0of a Cofan tribal leader.\u00a0Hugo\u00a0faces the challenge of\u00a0helping\u00a0his tribe\u00a0prevent\u00a0oil prospectors from pushing deeper into the rainforest and destroying the land where his village is located. While attending high school in America, Hugo\u00a0met Sadie, a young Lebanese-American woman. The two of them were married shortly after they graduated and worked multiple jobs while going to college in the U.S.\u00a0\u00a0Hugo and Sadie\u00a0have spent time in both the Ecuadorian jungle and\u00a0North\u00a0America.<\/p>\n

About First Readings<\/h4>\n

First Readings is Brown\u2019s summer educational project for all new students. Now in its eighth year, the program provides first-year and transfer students with a common intellectual experience that introduces them to the University and to the pleasures and rigors of undergraduate academic life. The program is sponsored by the Dean of the College and Brown Alumni Association. Students receive their assignment over the summer and write letters to their advisors on an aspect of it that they find particularly compelling, difficult, or curious. In this way, they begin a dialogue with their first-year advisors about their academic interests and their expectations for life at Brown. During Orientation, students meet in small groups for a First Readings Seminar, led by a member of the faculty or an upper-level administrator. These seminars afford students the chance to meet their peers and to begin conversations based upon their shared readings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A synopsis of the film: Oil & Water\u00a0is the story of two boys coming of age as they confront one of the world’s worst toxic disasters. Hugo Lucitante and David Poritz ’12 were born on opposite ends of the oil pipeline. Hugo comes to America to fight for the survival of his Cofan tribe in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-8","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/firstreading2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/firstreading2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/firstreading2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/firstreading2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/firstreading2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/firstreading2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/firstreading2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}