ABOUT FATHER MICHAEL DOYLE
Michael Doyle came to the city of Camden, New Jersey, forty years ago and he has been there ever since. He was born in County Longford in Ireland and graduated from Moyne Latin School. He was ordained into the priesthood in St. Peter’s Seminary, Wexford, on May 31, 1959. Like many young priests from poor Irish families, Doyle was sent to America by the Church. He became an outspoken opponent to the Vietnam War and was arrested for breaking and entering a draft board office and destroying files. His antiwar protest was featured in the documentary film The Camden 28.
Since 1974, Doyle has been the pastor of Sacred Heart Church in South Camden. Sacred Heart also runs a school, renovates houses through the Heart of Camden housing program, runs a clinic, a thrift store, a community garden and green house, and provides numerous other services for the poor. Doyle works in community organizing through Camden Churches Organized for the People.
Michael Doyle has been the recipient of numerous awards. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humanities from Villanova University in 2007.
Doyle has been writing a monthly letter about his life and work since 1984. Some of the letters were collected in the book It’s A Terrible Day, Thanks Be To God.
ABOUT SEAN DOUGHERTY – DIRECTOR
Sean Dougherty spent the last fifteen years as a partner in a video production company in Philadelphia. Ross Productions was the leading producer of NHL Highlight films, including the film about Wayne Gretzky’s NHL career. As an independent producer, editor, and cinematographer, he has worked on projects ranging from a documentary about street children in Russia for Doctors of the World to a series of hip-hop basketball mix-tapes. His work has been shown at film festivals in New York, Philadelphia, Vancouver, Montreal, Atlanta and Milan, Italy.
Currently Dougherty is Director of Operations at Hopeworks ‘N Camden, an innovative youth development program in Camden, New Jersey. He trains inner-city youth in web design, video production, and geographic information systems. He is a member of Sacred Heart Church in Camden.
ABOUT TANA ROSS – DIRECTOR
Tana Ross is the co-founder of Green Room Productions. Apart from the films she made with Freke Vuijst, she directed and produced Call of the Jitterbug and was involved in the production of the acclaimed animated movie Silence, and has done production work for numerous European film companies. As a guide and photographer she has traveled the world and her photographs have appeared in newspapers and magazines, in two books on Mexican culture and culinary traditions as well as in an art book entitled OK, New York, New York.
She has also performed on stage and has done voice-overs and simultaneous translations for film and theater, most notably for many Ingmar Bergman’s plays at BAM, New York.
ABOUT FREKE VUIJST – DIRECTOR
Freke Vuijst has made numerous documentary films. Besides the films she made together with Tana Ross, she produced and directed documentaries for the Inter-Church Broadcasting Company of The Netherlands. They ranged from bio-films about theologian Harvey Cox and writer Chaim Potok to investigative films about the Christian Right. She is also the co-author of three non-fiction books: The Half-Jewish Book (Villard/Random House) and the Dutch language books XTC-Smokkel and Dood Spoor.
As a foreign correspondent working in America, she has covered everything from elections to foreign policy for Dutch radio, television, and print media. For eight years she was the on-camera correspondent for a daily news program. Currently, she is the American correspondent for Vrij Nederland, a leading news magazine in The Netherlands.
ABOUT GREEN ROOM PRODUCTIONS
Tana Ross and Freke Vuijst founded Green Room Productions in 1982. The company originally concentrated on making documentary films about American youth. Their first film, Electric Boogie, about street dancing in the South Bronx, has become a cult classic. Films about rap, a high school prom, and a high school for immigrants followed. These films were shown on PBS, public television stations in Europe and at film festivals around the world. Prior to Poet of Poverty their most recent film was Keep on Walking, a portrait of a young Jewish African-American gospel singer. It was shown at festivals in Israel, Europe, and the U.S. and won the Paul Robeson Award for best documentary film at the Newark Black Film Festival.