Luna Productions – 9 documentaries – 21 years
1997-2018
the greatest hits
and primetime broadcast television documentaries
of Catherine Ryan and Gary Weimberg
My Love Affair with the Brain:
The Life and Science of Dr. Marian Diamond
Meet Dr Diamond … and prepare to be smitten. Learn more about your brain, about her brain, and about how her discoveries reshaped all our brains. Her research sparked 3 paradigm-shattering revolutions in science, all the more amazing since it came at a time when few women entered science at all. With charm and joy, she became a role model for anyone, male or female, getting rated as the 2nd most popular college professor in the world by the NYTimes. Emmy nominated, awarded Best Science documentary of the year in 3 nations and eleven film festivals. Free study guide for home schoolers and classrooms, grades 5-PhD
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Soldiers of Conscience
To kill or not to kill? What would you do when your nation puts a rifle in your hands and another person in the gunsight? Eight US soldiers from the Iraq war tell their truths, 4 who pulled the trigger and 4 who could not and became conscientious objectors. All are soldiers of conscience. Emmy nomination. 8 best doc awards at film festivals. West Point Military Academy and Quaker peace churches have curriculum using this film.
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The Story of Mothers and Daughters
Profoundly moving, profoundly truthful, profoundly painful, and profoundly inspiring. Culled from interviews with over 400 women and girls, collectively portraying the universal human journey from cradle to grave thru the lens of the most profound human connection – the mother-daughter bond.
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The Story of Fathers and Sons
This award winning primetime ABC and PBS documentary was called one of the most honest and emotional depictions of the male experience ever put to film. Culled from interviews with over 600 women and girls.
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The Double Life of Ernesto Gomez-Gomez
The hidden story of one boy, two families, three nationalities. The PBS broadcast resulted in a Presidental Clemency and freedom for Ernesto’s mother after 19 years in prison. “… an extra-ordinary film which captures the anguish of a family torn apart by the power of the state, and puts a powerful political story into human terms. It is heartrending, but also exhilarating as it portrays the courage of a mother and her son facing, in their own ways, an ordeal which every family dreads, while holding on to their dream of justice.” – Howard Zinn, author of The People’s History of the United States
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Maria’s Story
A story of love, courage, and survival in the midst of the civil war in El Salvador of the 1980’s. This politically ground-breaking film was cited as the single most important piece of media leading to the end of the war. Short listed for an Academy Award nomination.
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The Heiress and Her Chateau: Carolands of California
A 100 year history of a 100 room mansion: art and architecture, murders and millionaires, a story of the unexpected – California’s Chateau Carolands, built by the 2nd richest woman in the world yet the expense nearly ruined her. A home so grand it enchanted and destroyed successive generations of the ultra-rich who fell under it’s spell. And yet, surprise! A happy ending, with the Chateau recieving a magnificient restoration – a masterpiece preserved.
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Teens
Every bit as emotionally complex as adults, the journey from 13-19 is revealed in all its diversity and passion and confusion, culled from over 900 interviews and events with real life teens, just as they really are.
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Loyalty and Betrayal: The Story of the American Mob
The classic turn-of-the-century Jewish and Italian mob, Lansky, Bugsy, Luciano, Capone, revealed with panache … in all their raw bloody brutal drama – Emmy Award Winner. A Fox Television primetime 4 hour mini-series, Episode 1 directed, written, and edited by Gary.
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