John Haptas and Kristine Samuelson’s award-winning documentary essays have been screened at festivals throughout the world, from Sundance and San Francisco to London, Rio, Belgrade, India, Germany, and South Korea.  They have appeared on PBS and cable television and at museums such as MOMA in New York.  John and Kristine received a 2010 Creative Artists Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Japan-US Friendship Commission, and the Japanese government's Agency for Cultural Affairs.  They have just completed a documentary essay that begins with an examination of the uneasy relationship between the people of Tokyo and its huge population of crows, and expands to touch on nature, art, and culture in the most modern city in the world. 

KRISTINE SAMUELSON
has been an independent filmmaker since 1974.  She was nominated for an Academy Award for Arthur and Lillie and has received Artist's Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the California Arts Council.  She is the Edward Clark Crossett Professor of Humanistic Studies in the Department of Art and Art History at Stanford University.  From 1999-2006, Samuelson served on the Board of the Independent Television Service.  She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

JOHN HAPTAS
practiced law in Berkeley and Oakland before teaming up with Samuelson.  He spent some years as a location sound mixer on scores of productions, including narrative features and documentaries.  He currently works as a documentary film editor.  His credits include Soundtrack to a Riot for Frontline World (Emmy Nomination), Hunting the Hidden Dimension, a program on fractal geometry for PBS Nova, and Inside Guantanamo Bay, a two-hour National Geographic Explorer special (editor/co-writer; Emmy nominations for Best Documentary and for Writing). 

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