Allie Light, winner of the 1991 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and the 1994 National Emmy Award for best interview program, writes, directs and produced documentary films with her partner, Irving Saraf. Her credits include: Rachel’s Daughters: Searching for the Causes of Breast Cancer (HBO), Dialogues With Madwomen, (Emmy Award; Freedom of Expression Award, Sundance Film Festival); In The Shadow Of The Stars, (Academy Award); Mitsuye and Nellie, Asian American Poets; Visions of Paradise (five films about folk artists); Shakespeare’s Children (produced by Kate Kline May); Blind Spot: Murder by Women; Children and Asthma and Good Food, Bad Food, Obesity in American Children (programs about children’s health and the environment); An Iraqi Lullaby and The Sermons of Sister Jane, Believing the Unbelievable. Her most recent work is Empress Hotel, released in 2009. Allie has published a book of poems, The Glittering Cave and edited an anthology of women’s writings, Poetry From Violence. Her essays appear in publications about women. Ms. Light lectured in film at City College of San Francisco and, for ten years, in the Women Studies Program at San Francisco State University. Her life story appears in On Women Turning 50, Celebrating Mid-Life Discoveries, by Cathleen Rountree (Harper/Collins, 1993), and interviews with Allie are in Film Fatales: Independent Women Directors, by Judith M. Redding & Victoria A. Brownworth (Seal Press, 1997) and Documentary Filmmakers Speak by Liz Stubbs (Allworth Press, 2002). Allie has served on the Media Advisory Panel for the National Endowment for the Arts and is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
Allie Light
264 Arbor Street
San Francisco, CA 94131
415-584-3521
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Irving Saraf, winner of the 1991 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, In The Shadow Of The Stars and National Emmy Award for Dialogues With Madwomen, (both with Allie Light), was born in Poland, raised and educated in Israel and has a B.A. in Motion Pictures from UCLA. He worked in fiction and documentary film as producer, director and editor with over 150 films to his credit, mostly made for TV. He was the filmmaker of Poland, Changing World (Emmy nomination) and USA Poetry, (with Richard Moore & Philip Greene) 12 half-hour films about modern poets for NET. His directorial work includes Going International (six films about working abroad, producers: Copeland-Griggs) and We Are Driven (Frontline, PBS). Among his editing credits: Battle of Westlands (Columbia Dupont & Peabody Awards); Death and Dying, Bioethics Series, KTCA-TV, St. Paul (Columbia-Dupont Award); Las Madres (Oscar nomination) and Three Warriors (United Artists release). With his partner Allie Light, he has also produced and directed Mitsuye and Nellie; Visions of Paradise (five half hour films about contemporary American folk artists); Shakespeare’s Children (produced by Kate Kline May); Rachel’s Daughters (HBO); Blind Spot, Murder by Women; Children and Asthma and Good Food/ Bad Food, Obesity in American Children (programs about children’s health and the environment); An Iraqi Lullaby and The Sermons of Sister Jane, Believing the Unbelievable. His most recent work is Empress Hotel, released in 2009. Irving was founder and former head of the KQED-TV film unit and former manager of Saul Zaentz Production Company. During his tenure with Zaentz, Saraf produced a score of films and was post-production supervisor of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. For many years he taught film production at San Francisco State University. An interview with Irving appears in Documentary Filmmakers Speak by Liz Stubbs (Allworth Press, 2002). Irving was a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Irving passed away in December of 2012.
