RUSSIA’S OPEN BOOK co-director Sarah Wallis is a Russian speaker and a published
author with over 20 years of documentary film experience, including eight years with the
BBC. Credits include Letters from St Petersburg, The People’s Century (which won both
the DuPont Peabody and Emmy awards for her episode, “Master Race”); and
Homecoming, about Alexander Solzhenitsyn (Royal Television Society Award). Wallis’s
books (with Svetlana Palmer) include A War in Words (Simon & Schuster) and We Were
Young and at War (Harper Collins).
RUSSIA’S OPEN BOOK is co-directed by Paul Mitchell, who won a 2012 Peabody
Award for the BBC/NatGeo television series, Putin, Russia and the West. Since 1990
Mitchell has lived in the UK, producing award-winning films for the BBC, Channel 4,
France Télévision, and PBS, among others. His films have covered subjects as diverse as the history of perestroika and rock and roll in the USSR to the fate of the orphans of
Argentina’s dirty war. His multipart series The Death of Yugoslavia (1995) is ranked no.
87 on the British Film Institute’s list of the 100 greatest British television programs ever
to have been screened. Mitchell’s films also have won the du Pont-Columbia Award, the
Peabody Award, and the Emmy, BAFTA, Royal Television Society, New York Festival,
and the Greirson awards.
Intelligent Television, based in New York,
produces innovative films, television, and online video in close association
with leading cultural and educational institutions and renowned directors and
cinematographers worldwide. INT also
produces the Intelligent Channel with Google’s
investment and support on YouTube.
In 2013, WNET
is celebrating the 50th Anniversary of THIRTEEN,
New York’s flagship public media provider. As the parent company of THIRTEEN and WLIW21 and
operator of NJTV,
WNET brings quality arts, education and public affairs programming to over 5
million viewers each week. WNET produces and presents such acclaimed PBS series
as Nature, Great Performances, American
Masters, PBS NewsHour Weekend, Charlie Rose and
a range of documentaries, children’s programs, and local news and cultural
offerings available on air and online. Pioneers in educational programming,
WNET has created such groundbreaking series as Get
the Math, Oh Noah! and Cyberchase and
provides tools for educators that bring compelling content to life in the
classroom and at home. WNET highlights the tri-state’s unique culture and
diverse communities through NYC-ARTS, Reel
13, NJ Today and MetroFocus,
the multi-platform news magazine focusing on the New York region. WNET is also
a leader in connecting with viewers on emerging platforms, including the THIRTEEN Explore iPad App where
users can stream PBS content for free.
Executive in charge for THIRTEEN is
Stephen Segaller. Executive producer for THIRTEEN is Julie Anderson.