Barbara Margolis
Principal

From San Francisco to South America, award-winning documentary filmmaker Barbara Margolis explored social issues and public policies for 20 years before she began her association with Fred Friendly Seminars. She served as program producer of specials and supervising producer on several major series in the 1990's and then joined the Fred Friendly Seminars organization full time as executive director in 1997. In addition to producing, her responsibilities included fund raising, project management, and development and oversight of the civic engagement initiatives that became a key component of the Seminars projects.

For Margolis, it has never been just about the broadcast. "In Chile back in the 70's, we would hang up a sheet between two trees, hook into the electricity in the street to run the projector, and show films outdoors at night," said Margolis. "There was nothing more powerful than film to help people understand social issues and start a dialogue about how they might make their lives better."

She continues to value the power of media as an educational tool, and under her direction the Seminars developed extraordinary social media initiatives, learning tools, viewer guides, and project web sites. Margolis also established relationships with dozens of national and regional trade associations, government agencies, professional organizations and citizen groups.

Ms. Margolis, who was previously development director of the Independent Feature Project, is the author of In Focus: A Guide to Using Films, a primer on using video in the community. She has also produced and directed many distinguished films, among them the feature documentary Are We Winning, Mommy? America and the Cold War, the Oscar-nominated Adam Clayton Powell, and the three-part series for PBS, Declarations: Essays on American Ideals.