Episode 10: Serendipity Films

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_Free For All - Vicente Franco and Ray Day .jpg

Interviewing Gray Brechin of the Living New Deal, talking about WPA libraries.jpg

Photo below courtesy of the Archives & Manuscripts Division NYPL The New York Public Library.jpg

1941 Odell, Oregon. The library tent at a Farm Security Administration's mobile camp for migratory farm workers.jpg

Photograph from Northampton County, North Carolina titled _African-American children line up outside of Albemarle Region bookmobile._ Courtesy of the North Carolina Digital Collections.jpg

Group portrait of an African American Carnegie Library Home Group Free For All.png

Dawn Logsdon, Ellie McCutcheon, Vicente Franco, NY Public Library.jpg

Dawn C. Logsdon stringing up the archival film reel.png

Serendipity Production crew shooting footage for Free For All, and historical photos of Public Libraries and Book Mobiles, Lucie and Dawn at work

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“We realized librarians are first responders”- Lucie Faulknor

In this episode we feature the voices of Lucie Faulknor and Dawn Logsdon the Co-Founders of Serendipity Films. I had the wonderful opportunity of working with Dawn and Lucie back in 2012 as an intern on their films Faubourg Treme: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans and Free For All: Inside the Public Library.

What immediately struck me in working with Lucie and Dawn is their passion for telling untold stories of people and places that our society has under explored or just plain ignored. They are always working to bring together all the elements of a wonderful story and sharing it to audiences in hopes of opening minds and dialogues that can inspire action to make the needed changes to our community such as supporting our Libraries and Librarians. The documentary on the importance of our Public Libraries Free For All will be coming soon to your community.

Lucie Faulknor

Lucie Faulknor produced and researched Faubourg Treme: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans and has worked with award-winning directors Dorothy Fadiman and Lynn Hershman-Leeson in the areas of fundraising, publicity, outreach and community engagement. Faulknor has also produced Dublin Ireland's first Women in Film & Television film festival and presented a lecture series that included Laurie Anderson, Bobby McFerrin, Wayne Shorter, Sydney Pollack and others. She has worked for a number of arts organizations including City Arts & Lectures, SFJAZZ, Palace of Fine Arts Theater, the Irish Arts Foundation, Stern Grove Festival, Yerba Buena Gardens, Dublin (IRL) Fringe Festival and for a number individual performing and visual artists including Jim Campilongo, Storm Large, Tracy Snelling and Kevin Woodson. She has a Master's degree in Nonprofit Administration from USF's School of Business & Professional Studies and a B.A. in Arts Management from SFSU. Lucie is a fourth generation San Francisco Public Library user.

Dawn Logsdon

Dawn Logsdon's career has been dedicated to making films about civic issues and city life, particularly at the neighborhood level. She directed and produced Faubourg Treme: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans (2008) which premiered nationally at the Tribeca International Film Festival. It went on to win the SFIFF Golden Gate Award for Best Documentary and was a PBS Black History Month feature presentation three years in a row. Dawn co-directed and edited Big Joy: The Adventures of James Broughton (2013) and Lindy Boggs: Steel and Velvet (2008). Dawn edited the Sundance Award-winning Paragraph 175 by Rob Epstein & Jeffrey Freidman, Academy Award-nominated Weather Underground by Sam Green, Emmy award-winning Have You Heard from Johannesburg? by Connie Field, and the Peabody award-winning The Castro by Peter Stein. Short films that she produced and directed include Tomboy, which was exhibited at the Whitney Museum and aired on PBS. Dawn received a BA in Philosophy from UC Berkeley. Her honors include a Soros OSI Media Fellowship, California Arts Council Artist Residency, BAVC Media Maker Award, Djerassi Artist Residency, Louisiana Division of the Arts Fellowship, New Orleans Contemporary Art Center Artist Fellowship, and the New Orleans Arts Council Award.

Serendipity Films

Serendipity Films, LLC was formed in 2004 by Dawn Logsdon and Lucie Faulknor while making the award-winning film, Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans. It is a documentary about a fascinating and historically significant neighborhood in New Orleans. Dawn Logsdon has edited other films through Serendipity, including Big Joy, Have You Heard From Johannesburg, and The Royal Road. Faulknor and Logsdon are currently in post-production stage on Free for All, a film about the history and significance of the American public library system.

Serendipity Films, LLC’s mission is to produce documentary films that are socially responsible, culturally engaging, historically accurate and critically acclaimed. We strive to reach as broad an audience as possible through thoughtful engagement, informative and imaginative filmmaking with high artistic standards.

Donation / Volunteer

As you heard in our interview, Lucie and Dawn are in the process of finishing up their wonderful documentary film “Free For All: Inside the Public Library” and are in urgent need to secure more funding to help them bring the film to communities in support of keeping American public libraries open, innovating and free for all. You can also send them a check to Video Veracity, Inc. 3020 Royal St., New Orleans, LA 70117

If you are interested in Volunteering to help Dawn, Lucie and the team to bring the film to communities please email them at: info@serendipityfilms.org

Videos

To find out more about Serendipity Films and their work please check out their videos:

FFA_Free-For-All_Trailer from Dawn Logsdon on Vimeo.

Stay updated on future episodes and issues that matter

“We’re already hearing about all these counties because they’re losing so much tax revenue with, you know, all the stores closed and nobody paying, property taxes. They’re just going to be completely and utterly strapped. And so already they’re cutting out public library funding around the country. ”

— Lucie A. Faulknor, Co-Founder, Serendipity Films, LLC

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