Voices of the Valley - Documentaries

Andres Favela

Beth & Walter Tuttle

Billy Owens

Bobby Glover

Although we have sold well over a thousand copies of our five volumes of Voices of the Valley books and accompanying compact disc sets, our circulation is limited. In an attempt to make some of the wonderful stories we’ve collected more accessible to the public, we embarked on the process of creating the brief documentaries that are housed on this web site. As is the case with most ambitious projects, this one was much more daunting than initially thought. Students were challenged with technological hurdles that we hadn’t encountered during the seven years of recording conversations and producing books and CDs. We are happy to report that these digital conundrums were solved albeit not as quickly as desired. Good things are worth waiting for.

We were able to complete this effort with a lot of hard work by our students, guidance from our teacher Mitch Mendosa, and the expertise of Mary Aigner of KZYX radio, and Russ Emal of Hungry Hollow Productions. We are also very appreciative for the help and guidance we received from our humanities experts:Donna Pierson-Pugh of AVUSD, Carla Fountain of Harvard University, Dr. Sally Botzler of Humboldt State University, Dr. Mary Halavais of Sonoma State University, Dr. Kevin Feldman of Sonoma County Office of Education, and Miriam Hutchins of the North Bay International Studies Project.

The documentary project is made possible in part by a grant from the CALIFORNIA COUNCIL FOR THE HUMANITIES as part of its statewide California Stories Initiative. The Council is an independent non-profit organization and a state affiliate of the NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES. For more information on the Council and the California Stories Initiative visit www.californiastories.org