On behalf of the Oak Park International Film Festival co-coordinators?#34;Donna Watts, Karen Osborne, Yves Hughes Jr., and myself?#34;I’d like to thank all of the individuals and organizations that played a part in our great reception Friday, Sept. 16 at the Oak Park Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, and our all-day film festival, “Diversity in Cinema,” Sept. 17 at the Oak Park Public Library, where we featured a sneak preview of “The World of Nat King Cole,” a 90-minute BBC-produced documentary by Ian Hunt and local film legend, Floyd Webb, who says the work, shot in England, Cuba and the United States, will be on U.S. cable TV in 2006.
The diverse list includes: Rich Carollo, president and CEO, Oak Park Area Convention and Visitors Bureau; his board chairman, Cissy Binkley; Jim Madigan; Doretha Grace; Christopher Greer; Gender and Sexual Orientation in Cinema moderator Rosalind Cummings-Yeates; N’Digo’s Kevin McNeir; Chicago Tribune; Metromix; WNUA FM; WGCI FM; WDRV FM; WSSD AM; Wednesday Journal; Oak Leaves; Maywood Herald; Comcast; WGN-TV; Bronzecomm.com; CBS-TV’s Sylvia Gomez; Dorothy Tucker & Suzanne LeMignot and New City’s Brian Hieggelke who wished us well; Patricia Lee; Miguel Gonzalez; Debby Preiser; poet Geoffrey “Dr. Groove” Watts; singer Donna “Lady” Sanje; OPALGA; Village of Oak Park housing expert Cynthia Breunlin; former village trustee John Troelstrup; PADS; Village Clerk Sandra Sokol; UIC Prof. David Sokol; Columbia College professors Renee Hansen, John Salavaara, Tanya Harasym, and Pam Jackson; APPLE leader Wyanetta Johnson; Police Chief Rick Tanksley; Shorefront; Robin Green; Jonathan Marshall; Joy Yamasaki; Ana Chavarria; Ariella Chavarria; Edith Rodriguez; Bronzeville Historical Society; Project Unity; Sarita Smith Childs; Downtown Oak Park; Chris Jamrozy; Dino Robinson; Donna Ogden Chen; Kimi Hayes; Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Nonprofit Management; Soweto West Press; Columbia College; Oak Park Public Library; Dominick’s; Papaspiros Restaurant; filmmakers Floyd Webb, Ian Hunt, Jon Poindexter, Sophia Kaushal, Doreen Bartoni, Elson “Tre” Williams, Corey M. Trotter; an actor called “The Cracker;” Cannes Film Festival workshops; Sundance Native Forum workshops; and especially Village Trustee Martha “Wonder Woman” Brock who read a proclamation making Sept. 17 “Oak Park International Film Festival Day,” brought lots of finger food and photographed the historic event. Bravo!
Stan West
Oak Park
