4:00 min | 2006 | USA
Co-Directors: Sachi Cunningham & Chandler Evans | Choreographer & Performer: Bill Shannon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zjfpdRlbbA
For eight years, filmmakers Sachi Cunningham and Chandler Evans have followed Bill Shannon (aka Crutch Master) across the US and around the globe to record the story of his rise from an obscure street artist to an internationally acclaimed performer, choreographer and provocateur. Now with over 300 hours of original footage, the Filmmakers are unraveling a complex narrative about an ambiguously disabled, multi-displinary artist who defies both definition and gravity. This four minute film represents but a brief and inspiring glimpse into the mind altering world of CRUTCH.
Co-Director Sachi Cunningham is a staff video journalist at the Los Angeles Times. Prior to working at the Times she worked for four years as a producer, videographer and senior associate producer for the Emmy Award winning PBS broadcast and online news series FRONTLINE/World, where she started the “Rough Cut” series and filed numerous video reports from Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. Her documentary from Dubai was recently nominated for a 2008 Webby Award. In 2007 she field produced and shot for the FRONTLINE special series, “News Wars” which was selected for the 2008 International Public Television Screening Conference and has received a Writers Guild Award and the Bart Richards Award for Media Criticism. Cunningham received her Masters in Journalism from the University of California at Berkeley, where she studied with Oscar nominated documentary director/producer/cinematographer Jon Else and Oscar winning producer/editor Deborah Hoffmann. Her student work has received a Student Emmy, Student Academy Award, Cine Golden Eagle Award, two "Good News Awards" from the Sacramento Chapter of Women in TV and Radio and a 1st Place Award in New Media from the South Asian Journalists Association. Prior to journalism school Cunningham worked for Academy Award Winning director/producer/writer Barry Levinson and actress Demi Moore. Cunningham received her B.A. from Brown University.
Co-Director Chandler Evans has written and produced shows for CBS, MTV, VH1, and The WB. His love for documentary brought him to write and produce "Visions of Everest" an award-winning film about Erik Weinhenmayer, the first blind man to summit Mount Everest. Currently he writes and directs a new media series for Disney Studios.
