MARK LIPMAN & HELEN S. COHEN (DIRECTORS/PRODUCERS)

Since 2004, award-winning directors/producers Mark Lipman and Helen S. Cohen have been creating documentary projects together under their Open Studio Productions banner. Lipman’s films have been broadcast nationally on public television and won numerous awards. His producing credits include To Have and To Hold (1981), the first documentary to look at domestic violence through the experiences of men; Holding Ground: The Rebirth of Dudley Street (1996), a film about the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative’s successful efforts to revitalize a Boston neighborhood devastated by redlining, arson, and illegal dumping; Father’s Day (2003), an experimental documentary about the death of his father; Gaining Ground (2012), a sequel to Holding Ground that explores Dudley Street’s success in preventing foreclosures and fostering youth leadership; and Street of Dreams: Development Without Displacement in Communities of Color (2013). He also edited Alaska Far Away (2008), a feature documentary about a controversial New Deal program that relocated two hundred destitute farm families into the wilds of Alaska.

Cohen’s producing credits include It’s Elementary: Talking About Gay Issues in School (1996), the groundbreaking documentary that addresses anti-gay prejudice and explores how teachers can include discussions about LGBT people in their classrooms; That’s a Family! (2000), where elementary school–age kids describe in their own words the many shapes that families take in today’s diverse world; and Let’s Get Real (2003), an in-depth look at name-calling and bullying in middle schools, told entirely from a youth perspective. She has also directed, produced, and/or executive produced documentaries for public interest organizations, including Homes & Hands: Community Land Trusts in Action (1998) and Street of Dreams: Development Without Displacement in Communities of Color (2013).
 

Kenji Yamamoto (Editor)

Kenji Yamamoto is an award-winning producer and editor. His editing credits include the dramatic feature Thousand Pieces of Gold (1991), starring Chris Cooper and Rosalind Chao, as well as the documentaries Downside Up (2002), which aired on the PBS series Independent Lens; Smitten (2005), which aired as a PBS primetime special; New Muslim Cool (2009), from the PBS series P.O.V.; Between Two Worlds (2011); and Rebels With a Cause (2013). Yamamoto has also edited documentaries for National Geographic Channel, HBO, and the Discovery Channel, and has been an editor for KQED’s weekly science series, Quest, and weekly art series, Spark*. He has twice been invited to participate in the Sundance Institute’s Creative Labs.
 

LAURA KARPMAN (COMPOSER)

Four-time Emmy award–winner Laura Karpman has been named one of the most important women in Hollywood by Variety. Karpman’s credits include the documentaries The Galapagos Affair: Satan Comes to Eden (2013) and Something Ventured (2011); the miniseries Taken (2002), executive produced by Steven Spielberg; the Showtime series Odyssey 5 (2002–03); the ABC miniseries Masters of Science Fiction (2007); the PBS series Craft in America (2007–12); and the dramatic features Man in the Chair (2007), starring Christopher Plummer; The Annihilation of Fish (1999), starring Lynn Redgrave and James Earl Jones; and The Tournament (2009), starring Ving Rhames and Robert Carlyle. Equally at home in the concert hall, Karpman has received commissions from the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, the Juliard School, and the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, among others. Her multimedia opera Ask Your Mama (2009), commissioned by Carnegie Hall and written for Jessye Norman, the Roots, Nnenna Freelon, and d’Adre Aziza, from a text by Langston Hughes, premiered to critical acclaim.

Buy the States of Grace soundtrack on iTunes

Cinematographer & Sound Recordist
Mark Lipman

Co-Producer
Eva Moss

Associate Producer
Joanna Sokolowski

Post-Production Sound Services Provided by
Skywalker Sound,
a Lucasfilm Ltd. Company
Marin County, California

Supervising Sound Editor
Bob Edwards