PRODUCER'S BIOGRAPHY

J. Gary Mitchell has built an illustrious career in educational films by focusing on some of the most difficult social issues, creating ground breaking works in the areas of child abuse, domestic violence, rape and AIDS. It all began in Hollywood where he produced his first film Chicano, a documentary on the Mexican American civil rights movement.

In 1973, after moving to San Francisco where his daughter was born, he began producing and distributing “Contemporary Social Issues” films that touched on oft taboo subjects such as:

Rape: A Preventive Inquiry

Child Abuse: Cradle of Violence

Incest: The Victim Nobody Believes

Battered Women: Violence Behind Closed Doors and Squires of San Quentin, for which he received an Academy Award Nomination.

During this time Mitchell met Eliana Gil, PhD, at the San Francisco Child Abuse Council. A therapist and author specializing in the sexual molestation of children, Dr. Gil has been an invaluable ally and consultant for many years.

His experience as a single parent sharpened his focus towards films that would help children understand and cope with difficult situations, starting with Who Do You Tell?, a film that taught children the nature and importance of their “support systems”.

Mitchell’s films soon caught the attention of MTI Teleprograms, forming a powerful allegiance that funded many more productions for children. His work with the NBC affiliate in San Francisco led to working relationships with renowned cinematographers and editors such as Oscar-nominated Jon Else, Michael Elwell and John Nutt, which further expanded the potential of his productions.

By the early eighties former Sesame Street writer Brian Narelle came on board, launching several highly successful children’s series including four What Tadoo, three Wizard of No and eleven Sooper Puppy films. While these films dealt with a wide range of issues, from sexual abuse to alcohol and prejudice, it represented yet another leap to tackle the newly emerging scourge of AIDS.

What Is AIDS? and AIDS A Different Kind of Germ shed light on the disease for the benefit of young children.

By the late 80s Mitchell’s work caught the attention of the California state government. Several films were created to educate mandated reporters such as therapist and clergy populations and distributed by the Office of Child Abuse Prevention. Research for these films showed Mitchell the need for even more films to help children already ensnared in the web of abuse resulting in films such as What Tadoo With Secrets and Believe Me.

In 1999 Mitchell was honored by the Best Friends Organization in Washington DC where General Colin Powell awarded him the “Friendship Award” in tribute to all the films produced for the benefit of children.

The most recent production, Time To Tell, produced in 2007, is aimed at a slightly older audience than the traditional K-3 What Tadoo range. It demonstrates the ability of children to support each other through the power of knowledge, something to which Mitchell has long been committed.

After a long series of acquisitions, MTI by Esquire, Esquire by Simon & Schuster, Simon & Schuster by Paramount, etc., Mitchell eventually established his own distribution, Empowerkids.com, in 1994.

While Mitchell’s films have accrued piles of awards and proved an invaluable resource to social service agencies, schools, therapists and police departments (The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department modeled their countywide school training programs after What Tadoo and the Wizard of No was an integral part of the national Here’s To You 2000 Program) these films have never before been distributed to the home market.

Realizing the pressing need to both educate parents to the nature of predatory child abusers and help open up discussion between parents and children, Mitchell is going public for the first time in 2008, opening up his vast catalog of films to the home market so they can have the maximum effect in protecting our most precious natural resource, our kids.

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STREAMING VIDEO PREVIEWS

Time To Tell

What Tadoo

What Tadoo w/ Secrets

Believe Me

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