I was born in Russia, spent ten years of my life in Israel before coming to
Canada. I have spent the last nine years as a film editor, producer and director
and have been involved in over 50 productions, principally documentaries. During
my career I had the unique privilege of working through the entire film making
process on many diverse projects including documentaries, docudramas,
infomercials, historical narratives, and motion pictures for such varied clients
as governmental and nongovernmental organizations, charitable foundations,
television stations, film production companies and for the private sector. I had
the good fortune of learning my craft by working with and being mentored by a
number of talented producers, directors, and writers. I believe that the
combination of my unique life experiences and diverse professional experiences
enables me to offer a unique perspective to all of my projects.
My husband Wayne Conrad is a scientist and inventor who was inspired, guided,
and encouraged by Stafford Beer who mentored him as a young man. I sadly never
had the chance to meet Stafford. I have however become intrigued and fascinated
by the composite of a man who was apparently "more than the sum of his parts".
It is my goal to preserve the essence of who Stafford was in a documentary
which can hopefully be shown on the history channel, the biography channel, and
perhaps on public broadcasting. I want to make it available to universities as
well as I believe Stafford is a unique and dynamic individual whose story should
be told from the perspective of his humanity, his intellect, and his indomitable
spirit and not simply recalled as a list of "academic" accomplishments which are
amazing in and of themselves but do not fairly represent Stafford who was an
artist, a philosopher, a poet, a scientist, and above all a man with great hopes
for humanity. This documentary will capture the true essence of the brilliant,
artistic, sensitive, funny, thoughtful, spiritual and inspirational man that
Stafford was. Stafford's many works stand as a testament to his creativity and
genius but his dramatic impact on the lives of those who knew him is the true
measure of the man.
We have had several enquiries as to why the film is being made and how it
will be used and distributed. We are planning to establish an Educational Trust
in Stafford's name which we believe Allenna Leonard will initially head. It is
our wish that once we have recovered the costs of producing the documentary/
documentaries, the rights to the documentary/documentaries will be held by this
Trust. It is our hope that the profits from the documentary/documentaries can be
used to establish scholarships for students of cybernetics, to fund further
cybernetics research, and to make the documentary/ documentaries available to
universities and schools at little or no cost to ensure that future generations
know who Stafford was and the legacy that he has left. I believe that this
information may be important to many who may seek to assist us in preserving
Stafford's memory for future generations.
