Mustang-Journey of Transformation
Narrated by Richard Gere, Mustang - Journey of Transformation tells the remarkable story of a 15th century Tibetan culture pulled back from the brink of extinction through the restoration of its most sacred sites. Featuring His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the film is a tale of hope and rebirth told by the people who helped save this Forbidden Kingdom.
Mustang screened at film festivals worldwide and on PBS nationally.
- Best Film On Mountain Culture, Taos Mountain Film Festival
- Best Documentary, Sundial Film Festival
- Special Jury Award, Documentary EcoVision Palermo, Sicily
- Audience Award, World Cinema Short Maui Film Festival
Writer: Sarah Kass Producer/Director: Will Parrinello, Mill Valley Film Group
North America
The seven-part series takes viewers on sweeping journey across the continent, from snow battered mountain peaks to windswept coastal landscapes, from parched deserts to tropical rainforests. In these habitats, North America’s unique geography creates some of the most extreme weather on the planet, and wild animals living in these astonishing and sometimes brutal habitats must be fiercely resilient, sharing that human spirit the continent is known for.
Writer: Sarah Kass Produced by: Silverback Films/Discovery Channel
Where Ice and Ocean Meet
This short film for Kenai Fjords National Park tells the story of a bold and stunning landscape that is in a continuous state of dynamic change. Told through a blend of narration and interview the film explores Kenai’s interconnected ecosystems, it’s diverse and abundant wildlife, its formidable yet fragile glaciers, and the cultural heritage of the indigenous people whose ancestral roots are in Kenai Fjords.
- 1st Place Documentary Film, National Association for Interpretation Media Awards
Writer: Sarah Kass Producer/Director: Rory Banyard, North Shore Productions.
Climate Watch: Unlocking the Grid
With the race on to reduce global warming and fossil fuel dependency, experts in alternative energy see a bright future for renewable resources like wind, solar, hydro-power and geothermal energy. But getting that clean, green energy onto the power grid is a daunting and expensive task. In this half-hour special QUEST, KQED's award winning science series, teams up with public radio's Climate Watch to look at the challenges facing California's electrical future.
- Winner of Excellence in Journalism Award for Explanatory Journalism, Northern California Society of Professional Journalists
Writer, Producer, Director: Sarah Kass Produced by: QUEST/KQED
USS Constellation: Battling for Freedom
The brutal transatlantic slave trade was long condemned for its inhumanity, but powerful economic forces supported the African slave trade long after it was made illegal in 1808. More than fifty years later, as the nation was on the verge of civil war, the US Navy's African Squadron finally received a mandate to step up their efforts to capture slave smugglers. USS Constellation: Battling for Freedom, a two-hour History Channel special, tells the powerful story of the slave trade and the horrific "Middle Passage" as the Constellation goes in pursuit of the Cora, an illegal ship attempting to transport over 700 Africans to the United States.
USS Constellation: Battling for Freedom was a Black History Month Special Presentation and is part of the History Channel Classroom curriculum.
Writer: Sarah Kass Produced by: Kim Hawkins, Indigo Films for The History Channel
The Battle of Tripoli
In 1804, William Eaton, an American diplomat turned self-appointed general, assembled a ragtag army of just eight U.S. Marines and almost 400 Greek, Arab, and European mercenaries and marched them 500 miles across the Sahara Desert to attack the Tripolitan city of Derne. For the U.S. it was a battle for freedom of the high seas and for the lives of 300 American hostages. For Tripoli, it was about an upstart nation’s blatant violation of centuries-old customs of trade. The story of America’s first overseas war forecasts the contemporary conflicts that have roiled American and Middle East relations ever since.
- Winner CINE Golden Eagle Award
- Nominated for a National Emmy
Writer: Sarah Kass Produced by: Kim Hawkins, Indigo Films for The History Channel
I Solved A Murder
Adam Bruckner was a professional soccer player whose true avocation is working with the homeless community in Philadelphia. When a member of the community is murdered, Adam is driven to solve the crime and prove his friend's innocence. The story for this pilot episode is told by Adam Bruckner, by the Philadelphia PD lead detective, and by an unwitting witness to the crime.
Writer, Producer, Director: Sarah Kass Produced by: Indigo Films for A&E Biography
Childhood Denied
For over 100 years the Canadian Government waged an aggressive campaign to assimilate aboriginal children into white society. Children were forcibly taken from their families and placed in boarding schools, where the education was poor, the oversight minimal, and abuse and neglect rampant. Childhood Denied tells the tragic story and explores the legacy of Canada’s residential schools in this short documentary for the Canadian Museum of Human Rights.
-1st Place, Short Documentary, National Association for Interpretation Media Awards
-Silver Telly
Writer: Sarah Kass Producer/Director: Rory Banyard, North Shore Productions