Media Arts Leadership And Innovation
Luminescence Media Group NFP (LMG-NFP) provides leadership in media arts in documentary film, use of the web and in use of media in education, as detailed below.
1. LMG-NFP provides leadership in documentary film by creating Rumbula’s Echo (in post-production)
- First documentary to illustrate how genocide harms us all.
- First film about the second largest two day massacre of the Holocaust.
- Praised for its illustration of genocide’s costs, contribution to history and value in education by genocide and Holocaust experts such as:
- Dr. Gregory Stanton, founder of Genocide Watch, past president International Association of Genocide Scholars
- Kenneth Waltzer, Holocaust Historian, Professor of History, Michigan State University
- Dr. Jeffrey Ellison, educator and co-author, The State of Holocaust Education in Illinois
- Praised for its story, production values and unique ending by film and programming experts such as:
- David Davis, Vice President for Production, Oregon Public Broadcasting
- Raphaela Neihausen, Executive Director, DOC NYC Film Festival
- Jeff Kamen, Emmy Award winning TV broadcaster and documentary filmmaker
- David Simpson, Kartemquin Films, producer of Milking the Rhino (PBS) and others, editor of The New Americans series (PBS), an episode of Nova (PBS), and many others
2. LMG-NFP was an early leader in creating historical web portals, launching www.Rumbula.org in 2002
- 300+ web links organized by topic and sub-topic and 100+ photos in virtual tours
- Linked to by:
- U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
- U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America’s Cultural Heritage Abroad
- Foreign Ministry of Latvia Holocaust Program
- Many others link to it (or credit is as a source) including films, web sites and six Wikipedia pages
- More than 200,000 visitors
3. LMG-NFP is an innovator in using media arts in education
- Rumbula’s Echo and Beyond education project innovates
Luminescence Media Group NFP is a leader in the use of media arts in Holocaust education internationally. Many Latvians fought with Germany during WWII and some collaborated in the Holocaust. The Holocaust on Latvian soil is often ignored, dismissed or considered controversial in that country, where Holocaust education is still new. Rumbula’s Echo and Beyond provided an intensive three day educational experience combining filmmaking and the study of the Holocaust in Latvia for 45 Latvian high school students from throughout the nation. The students returned to their schools as Holocaust education ambassadors, and five will visit the U.S. and
experience how Holocaust education is conducted here. The project was a joint venture of the U.S. Embassy in Latvia, Latvia’s Education Resource Center and Luminescence Media Group NFP’s Rumbula’s Echo under a U.S. State Department innovation fund grant.
- College internships help prepare the next generation
College internships in filmmaking and marketing give college students film experience and credits
Luminescence Media Group NFP has provided internships for college students in filmmaking and marketing from Clark College (Worcester, MA,) Columbia College (Chicago), Indiana University at Bloomington, Loyola University (Chicago), Northwestern University, New York University, University of Illinois at Chicago Circle, University of Missouri at Columbia.
- Students’ views on genocide and interest in connections to history affected by LMG-NFP’s Rumbula’s Echo
High percentages of eighth graders who viewed excerpts from Rumbula’s Echo (1) were moved by the loss to society of the contributions of those murdered in the Holocaust (a cost of all genocide) and (2) said they were more likely to explore their own genealogical connections to WWII in their post-screening surveys.
Mitchell Lieber, Prior to LMG-NFP
Prior to founding LMG-NFP Mitchell Lieber produced innovative radio programs, served as a leader of non-profit organizations and was a consultant who helped radio stations reach larger audiences.
1. Mitchell Lieber created innovative radio programs, mostly aired on WNIB-FM (now WDRV)
- Creative documentaries such as:
- That Moon Rocket Busted That Cloud (Blizzard!), innovative vox populi documentary about snow recorded during Chicago’s 1979 snow storm excerpts at linked page - in upper right
- The Winning Season, vox populi mini-documentary series of fans speaking about the 1984 Chicago Cubs
- Carl Sandburg: the People Yes!
- Illinois, the Nuclear Waste State
- Compelling radio interviews, broadcast on his weekly program for three years such as:
- Japanese Americans interred in detention camps during WWII telling of their experiences and seeking an apology and reparations
- County Commissioner John Stroger and Dr. Quentin Young speaking about Cook County Hospital
- Art Ensemble of Chicago members Malachi Favors Magoustut and Famoudou Don Moye
- Banjo Dancing’s Stephen Wade clog dancing on the WNIB-FM interview table
- Privacy vs. public safety and the debut of public video surveillance in Chicago
- Cast members of the Organic Theater’s Bleacher Bums including Dennis Franz (later of NYPD Blue)
- Interweaving jazz, blues, classical, electronic music, world music, rock, comedy and poetry in a single weekly three hour program
- Broadcasting a piece by Word Jazz artist Ken Nordine on each program
- Frequently airing music by Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), then almost never heard on major Chicago stations (now internationally famous)
- Regularly presenting live in studio music performances and live satirical radio skits
This Is A Test, Mitchell Lieber’s 1972 program on WNIB-FM innovated by:
2. Leader of non-profit organizations
- Chair of the DMA International ECHO Awards Board of Governors where he founded its ECHO Academy and led the effort that generated the most award entries in history (1100+ from 20 countries)
- President of the Chicago Association of Direct Marketing (CADM), where he led an effort that stopped a three year trend of declining membership and reversed a three year decline in the annual conference by increasing attendance and exhibit sales by double digit percentages
- Incorporator, officer and director of Chicago Instructional Technology Foundation and its Chicago Classroom TV project (renamed Voqal and education-on-demand) for 25 years
- Initiated educational conflict resolution series for inner city school students
- Helped launch a youth film festival, subsequently spun off to the Chicago International Film Festival’s parent, Cine Chicago
- Developed an organization financial model and teacher utilization survey
- Incorporator, board member and treasurer of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters (NFCB) in the mid to late 1970’s
3. Consultant to radio stations
- As a consultant, led the effort to obtained a previously denied FCC power increase for Chicago’s WNIB, dramatically increasing its coverage area and increasing its value at sale by more than 10% (15 million dollars) when it changed hands and became WDRV
- Provided FCC licensing consulting services that led to licensing of Kansas City’s full power community-based public radio station, KKFI
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