COMING OUR UNDER FIRE

Filmmaker Biographies

Arthur Dong
(Producer, Director, Co-Writer)

Since his first high school film in 1970, which depicted a child's view of war, Arthur Dong has produced films reflecting the resilience of the human spirit in the face of social injustices. His films include stories of immigrants making a new life in America (the Oscar nominated Sewing Woman), Asian-American performers seeking equal participation in the entertainment industry (Forbidden City, U.S.A.), the footbinding of women in China (Lotus); and in his most recent film, COMING OUR UNDER FIRE, Dong explores the U.S. government's systematic persecution of gay and lesbian soldiers.

At the Los Angeles PBS station KCET, he produced ten documentaries for the Life & Times public television series. For his work there, Dong received three Los Angeles Emmy nominations for stories dealing with the Los Angeles riots, the role of the theatre in promoting social change, the plight of the Amerasians, and the fight against homophobia.

In addition to the Emmy and Oscar nominations, Dong is the recipient of over 60 American and International film awards and has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Rockefeller Foundation.

Arthur Dong is a graduate of the Film School at San Francisco State University (1982 Summa Cum Laude) and the American Film Institute's Center for Advanced Film and Television Studies (1984, Director's Program) . He is currently in post-production on Tap! The Tempo of America, a documentary on the social and cultural history of tap dancing.


Alan Bérubé
(Co-Writer)

Alan Bérubé is the author of the Lambda Literary Award-winning book Coming Out Under Fire: The History Of Gay Men And Women In World War II. Bérubé is nationally recognized by universities, the media, and the government as a leading historian on gays in the military. He has taught and lectured on gay and lesbian history at the University of California, Santa Cruz and at Stanford University. He has written for numerous publications including Out/Look, The Advocate, Mother Jones, Gay Community News, Washington Blade and The Body Politic. Allan Bérubé was recently awarded a 1994 Rockefeller Residency Fellowship in the Humanities to develop his newest book, Queer and Gay Identities in the Marine Cooks and Stewards Union, 1930's to 1950s.


Veronica Selver
(Editor)

Veronica Selver edited the landmark gay-themed documentaries Word Is Out and Absolutely Positive. She also edited the Academy Award-nominated Berkeley In The 60's, Harry Bridges: A Man And His Union, You Got To Move, and On Company Business. Selver is currently producing a documentary on the Berkeley-based alternative radio station KPFA.


Mark Adler
(Music)

Mark Adler's award winning scores include a host of National Geographic specials and documentaries including the Oscar-nominated For Better or Worse, Ishi: The Last Yahi, Harry Bridges: A Man and His Union and the feature Eat a Bowl of Tea.


Stephen Lighthill
(Director of Photography)

Stephen Lighthill's credits include the documentaries Berkeley in the 60's, Gimme Shelter, Seeing Red and The Day After Trinity. He also shot the "America Playhouse" productions Hot Summer Winds and Shimmer.


Salome Jens
(Narrator)

Salome Jens has had a distinguished career in the theater, films, and television, and was honored with a Dramalogue Award for her portrayal of Anne Sexton in her acclaimed one woman show About Anne. She was an original member of the Lincoln Center Repertory Company where she appeared in After the Fall and Tartuffe and has appeared on Broadway and off in such plays as Moon for the Misbegotten and Desire Under the Elms, and in Los Angeles at the Mark Taper Forum in Hamlet. She regularly appears in films and on television, most recently on L.A. Law and Star Trek: The Next Generation.

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