STAGE ON SCREEN: Twilight: Los Angeles Anna Deavere Smith Writer/Performer/Producer Actor, playwright, and teacher, Anna Deavere Smith has built a remarkably wide-ranging and respected career. Hailed as "the most exciting individual in American theater" by NEWSWEEK in 1993, and profiled on 60 MINUTES, Ms. Smith -- whose work explores the American character and our multi-faceted national identity -- has been acclaimed by the media, critics, and audiences around the country. The MacArthur Foundation awarded Ms. Smith a prestigious "genius" fellowship in 1996, saying she "has created a new form of theater -- a blend of theatrical art, social commentary, journalism and intimate reverie." "Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992" is the second of Ms. Smith's award winning plays to be adapted on film, preceded by "Fires in the Mirror: Crown Heights, Brooklyn and Other Identities." As stage works, both of these plays collected many awards, among them Obies, a Drama Desk, and the New York Critics Circle Award. "Twilight: Los Angeles" was produced on Broadway and received two Tony nominations. "Fires in the Mirror" was a runner up for the Pulitzer Prize. Ms. Smith's most recent play, "House Arrest," examines the American presidency past and present. She is a tenured professor at New York University, where she is appointed in the Tisch School of the Arts and affiliated with the NYU School of Law. She is founder and director of The Institute on the Arts and Civic Dialogue, a multidisciplinary experiment in which artists create new works of art about social issues in an environment with scholars, activists and other artists. She is author of TALK TO ME (Random House), a chronicle of her journey to Washington, D.C. to understand the presidency, the press, and how we as Americans hear from -- and speak to -- our leaders. Ms. Smith's feature film work includes roles in THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT, DAVE and PHILADELPHIA, and her television work includes a recurring role in THE PRACTICE and a guest star role in the premiere episode of THE WEST WING. Marc Levin Director Award-winning filmmaker Marc Levin has written, directed, and produced many highly acclaimed documentary and feature films. He won international recognition for his dramatic feature film, SLAM, which received the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and the Camera D'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. His most recent non-fiction film, SOLDIERS IN THE ARMY OF GOD, premiered at the Toronto 2000 Film Festival. TWILIGHT LOS ANGELES, his adaptation of Anna Deavere Smith's critically acclaimed one-woman show, was selected as the opening film of the International Human Rights Film Festival at Lincoln Center. Mr. Levin's hip-hop fable, BROOKLYN BABYLON, stars Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter with an original score and performances by the legendary Grammy winners The Roots. The feature musical will be released in the spring of 2001. THUG LIFE IN D.C., a film he made for HBO, won the 1999 National Emmy for Outstanding Non-Fiction Special. WHITEBOYS, a comedy starring the hip-hop artist Danny Hoch, was released by Fox Searchlight in 1999. In 1997, Mr. Levin was awarded the prestigious duPont-Columbia award for CIA: AMERICA'S SECRET WARRIORS, a three-part series that aired on the Discovery Channel. During the 1990s, he directed and produced a series of highly praised documentaries for HBO, including THE EXECUTION MACHINE: TEXAS DEATH ROW. In 1996, PRISONERS OF THE WAR ON DRUGS was nominated for both an Emmy for Outstanding Informational Special and for a CableACE for Outstanding Educational Special. GANG WAR: BANGIN' IN LITTLE ROCK won the CableACE Award for Best Documentary Special of 1994. In 1992 Mr. Levin directed Oscar nominee Robert Downey Jr. in THE LAST PARTY, a gonzo look at that year's presidential campaign. In 1990, he produced and directed MOB STORIES, an HBO special on the decline of the Mafia. From the mid-'70s through the '80s Mr. Levin teamed up with one of America's most respected journalists, Bill Moyers. He directed THE HOME FRONT WITH BILL MOYERS, which was honored with the duPont-Columbia Gold Baton Award. He won a national Emmy award as the producer/editor of THE SECRET GOVERNMENT -- THE CONSTITUTION IN CRISIS. His PORTRAIT OF AN AMERICAN ZEALOT was made part of the Museum of Modern Art's permanent film collection. Ezra Swerdlow Producer In his distinguished film career as executive producer, producer, and co-producer, Mr. Swerdlow has worked on renowned and strong box-office grossing films including WAG THE DOG (New Line); COPLAND (Miramax); THE FIRST WIVES CLUB (Paramount); WAITING TO EXHALE (Fox); THE GOOD SON (Fox); ALIEN 3 (Fox); LIFE STINKS (MGM); EVERYBODY WINS (Orion); JANUARY MAN (MGM); SPACEBALLS (MGM); RADIO DAYS (Orion); HEARTBURN (Paramount); HANNAH AND HER SISTERS (Orion); MUPPETS TAKE MANHATTAN (Tristar); BROADWAY DANNY ROSE (Orion); ZELIG (Orion); TOOTSIE (Columbia); THE KING OF COMEDY (Fox); ARTHUR (Orion); and STARDUST MEMORIES (Orion). He is producer of WHITEBOYS and BROOKLYN BABYLON, and is overseeing worldwide production for Offline Entertainment Group's feature film division. Daphne Pinkerson Co-Producer As a producer/director/videographer, Ms. Pinkerson has worked on a range of award-winning social and political documentaries for HBO, PBS, Bill Moyers, and NBC, among others. Last year, she won the National Emmy for best documentary of the year for producing THUG LIFE IN D.C., which premiered on HBO. She has just finished producing and co-directing her next film, SOLDIERS IN THE ARMY OF GOD, on the anti-abortion underground, which will air on HBO this spring. Last year, in addition to TWILIGHT: LOS ANGELES, she also produced SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER, a PBS special on human rights activists. For THE EXECUTION MACHINE, which also aired on HBO, she was able to secure unprecedented access to death row in Texas. She was the supervising producer for the critically acclaimed Discovery Channel Series, CIA: AMERICA'S SECRET WARRIORS. In addition to producing, she also shoots stylized film and video with small format cameras. She has captured some cinematic firsts, filming a gang drive-by shooting in Little Rock, Arkansas (HBO's GANG WAR: BANGIN' IN LITTLE ROCK) and inmates injecting drugs in prison (HBO's PRISONERS OF THE WAR ON DRUGS). She was the associate producer on SLAM and shot all of its montage footage. In 1988, during the press restrictions in South Africa, she launched SOUTH AFRICA NOW, a weekly half-hour news program that commissioned pieces from inside South Africa for broadcast on public television, CNN World Report, and ITN. Cherie Fortis Executive Producer With 20 years of experience producing drama, music and performance specials for television, Ms. Fortis' credits include projects for PBS, HBO, Showtime, CBS and NBC. Prior to helping develop the film adaptation of TWILIGHT: LOS ANGELES, she produced the award-winning adaptation of Ms. Smith's earlier play, FIRES IN THE MIRROR, directed by George C. Wolfe, for American Playhouse. Other theater adaptations for PBS include GREAT PERFORMANCES presentations of George C. Wolfe's THE COLORED MUSEUM and SPIKE & CO: DO IT A CAPELLA, hosted by Spike Lee and Debbie Allen. She adapted Spalding Gray's THE TERRORS OF PLEASURE for HBO, and her music performance/documentaries include Paul Simon's GRACELAND: THE AFRICAN CONCERT (Showtime), for which she won a CableACE Award for Best Musical. In 1988, Ms. Fortis formed a production company, Hipster Entertainment, to develop and produce cultural, performance, and documentary programming with a strong focus on American culture. Jac Venza Executive Producer, STAGE ON SCREEN Director of Cultural and Arts Programming, Thirteen/WNET New York As one of the pioneers of non-commercial television in America for over three decades, Jac Venza has been a major figure in harnessing the power of television to achieve international recognition for America's finest performing artists. In 1964, Mr. Venza was one of the original group of producers assembled for National Educational Television (NET), the Ford Foundation project that served as the origin of public television. NET created an educational alternative to commercial television, and Mr. Venza became one of its executive producers of cultural programs, and the first head of drama. After NET evolved into Thirteen/WNET New York, Mr. Venza created a new framework for the performing arts on PBS, titled GREAT PERFORMANCES, in 1972. Within the GREAT PERFORMANCES umbrella title, Mr. Venza created the concepts for THEATER IN AMERICA and DANCE IN AMERICA, both of which initiated television collaboration with performers and artistic companies throughout the country. GREAT PERFORMANCES has received every major television honor, including nearly 50 Emmy Awards. In honor of the series' 25th anniversary season and approximately 600 programs showcasing the best in the performing arts, Mr. Venza was awarded the primetime Emmy's Governor's Award for Lifetime Achievement, the International Emmy Founders Award, the New York Emmy chapter's Silver Circle Awards, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's Ralph Lowell Award. In addition, Mr. Venza was recently honored with a personal Peabody Award.

Thirteen/WNET New York is one of the key program providers for public television, bringing such acclaimed series as NATURE, GREAT PERFORMANCES, AMERICAN MASTERS, CHARLIE ROSE, RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY, and EGG THE ARTS SHOW -- as well as the work of Bill Moyers -- to audiences nationwide. As the flagship public broadcaster in the New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut metro area, Thirteen reaches millions of viewers each week, airing the best of American public television along with its own local productions such as CITY ARTS, CITY LIFE, THE NEW YORK WALKING TOURS, and REEL NEW YORK -- and reaching vast new audiences through its MetroArts/Thirteen cable arts programming. With educational and community outreach projects that enhance the value of its productions, Thirteen takes television "out of the box." And as broadcast and digital media converge, Thirteen is blazing trails in the creation of Web sites, CD-ROMs, educational software, and other cutting-edge media products. More information about Thirteen can be found at: www.thirteen.org.