Sue Perlgut, Producer/Director
Sue Perlgut formed CloseToHome Productions to reach a wide-ranging audience with videos that feature topical and socially relevant issues. In 2012 she added production of theatre and other events to her mission.
In 2007 she produced, directed and co-wrote with Christopher Julian, the documentary 101 Ways to Retire—or Not!, seen on WSKG PBS, an official selection of the Buffalo Niagara Film Festival in 2008 and a recipient of a 2008 Mature Media Awards. In 2007 they also completed, with trainer Debbie Bosanko, Stay Strong: Lift for Life a strength training video for people 65 or older. In November of 2010 CloseToHome Productions completed Beets and Beans: Living and Dying with Hospice and in 2007 began work on It’s All Right To Be Woman Theatre a feminist theatre troupe that lived and worked in NYC in the 1970s.
In 2015 she produced and co-directed with Nils Hoover Connie Cook: A Documentary, which was an official selection of the Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival (FLEFF), the High Falls Women’s Film Festival and the Reproductive Justice Film Festival.
More recently, she has produced multi-media films with readings that focus on the issues women face in our society today. The Women’s Wisdom Project, Other Powers: Trauma Survivors Reclaim Joy, Women Artists Have Their Say and Stand Up Women: Social Activists in Tompkins County.
She produces web videos for small businesses, artists and non-profits. She has been creating and producing virtual house tours for Carol Bushberg Real Estate for more than 10 years. Her web videos are featured on this web site and on Vimeo.
A graduate of NYU with a MA in Educational Theatre, she has worked, for more than 40 years, as a director, performer, playwright, storyteller, puppet maker, teacher, arts administrator and producer of theatre in colleges, public schools, community centers and alternative performing spaces in New York City and Ithaca NY. She is one of the founding members of It’s All Right To Be Woman Theatre, created and directed the Senior Citizen Theatre Troupe of Lifelong in Ithaca, NY for 23 years. In 2019 she wrote plays and directed for the One Minute Play Festival held at the Kitchen Theatre.
In the 1970’s and 80’s she owned and managed two retail businesses: Djuna Books, a feminist bookstore in New York City and Lucia a women’s clothing store in Ithaca, NY.
In 2017 she was one of the organizers of the Women’s March in Ithaca, NY. She is a recipient of many local and national grants for her writing, directing and film work.
To learn more about Sue Perlgut go to http://closetohomeproductions.com/about/
Nils Hoover, Director, Editor, Cinematographer
Working in production, post-production as well as distribution, Nils has 10 years of experience in the film industry. Nils has always had an affinity for the shape of light and sound as a means of connecting deeply with the human psyche. With professional work as editor for documentary films Living and Dying with Hospice (2010), director and editor and a biography Connie Cook (2015), and a feature film Fix it Alexis(2020), Nils also works in production doing lighting for comedy films like Call me Brother(2019) and a range of video services on commercial work for publishers such as “Pearson” and “Hay House.” Nils’s personal video art has often taken the form of found footage collage like in The Man Who Saves the World (2010) exploring themes of time, space and consciousness on one hand, corporate control, copyright law and celebrity persona on the other.
Growing up in the Ithaca underground drone/noise rock scene Nils brought his video art into 3d space on fabric sculpture as a part of large yearly group performances called “Naked Noise.” Since moving to Austin in 2013, Nils has produced dozens of audio/visual and interactive installations. Rarely missing an East Austin Studio Tour his work has been appreciated live in person by thousands of people, seen at the Museum of Human Achievement, The Austin Tinkering School, and private pop up galleries in residences around the east side.
Nils’s installation work has often taken an abstract form, but in his most recent work has begun to combine his 2d and 3d aesthetics.
AC Warden: Associate Producer
A.C. Warden has been an award-winning film and video editor and producer since 1981. She has made documentaries for television, governmental and non-governmental agencies, and arts and educational organizations as well as producing and distributing independent productions. She has also produced and edited materials for training and promotion; video conferences; and webcasts.
Her Independent Productions include the Stand Up for Choice Project and We All Live Downstream.
Her broadcast clients have included: National Geographic Television, Discovery Networks, and PBS. The arts, educational, and non-governmental organizations she has worked with include: The Smithsonian Institution; the US Holocaust Museum; the American Red Cross; Service Employees Int’l Union; the Advocacy Institute; Conservation International; and Greenpeace USA. The government agencies she has worked with include: The EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunities Commission); the Dept. of Justice; the Federal Trade Commission; Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault and NASA.
In addition, she has directed several film festivals in the Washington, DC area and was one of the founding members of Women in Film and Video. She has led workshops for young filmmakers through that organization and AIVF (American Independent Video and Filmmakers). She supports the furtherance of independent filmmaking in the US through membership in the San Francisco Film Society, and American University’s Center for Social Media.
Christopher Julian: Camera Operator / Cinematographer
Chris Julian works as a freelance video editor, visual effects artist, and Camera Operator in Seattle, WA, although he has also been Director on numerous other projects, both in the Pacific Northwest as well as in Central New York State. Previous works include the feature film, Invisible Ink (produced in Ithaca, NY), the documentary101 Ways to Retire or Not (also with Sue Perlgut), as well as promotional videos for Amazon, Adobe, Microsoft, Planned Parenthood, and other Seattle businesses. His upcoming project is titled Diabolos, about a troubled teen planning on shooting up his high school.