Yvonne Michele Anderson

Former competitive gymnast, cheerleading captain, track and field MVP in high school at Norfolk Academy, where she was also a friend and prom date of fellow filmmaker Perry Moore IV (The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian; The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader; Tell Them Anything You Want: A Portrait of Maurice Sendak), now sadly deceased. Ms. Anderson (Ms. Anderson-Avraham) and Mr. Moore IV also served together as student volunteers on an Operation Smile Medical Mission to the Philippines during the Winter of 1988.

From December 1998 to January 2000, Ms. Anderson (Ms. Anderson-Avraham) was Production Manager and an Associate Producer at Moxie Firecracker, Inc., a documentary film production company founded by Academy Award nominated and Emmy Award winning filmmakers Liz Garbus (The Farm: Angola, USA; What Happened, Miss Simone?) and Rory Kennedy (Last Days in Vietnam; Ghosts of Abu Ghraib), New York. During the year 2000, she was an Intern for Emmy Award and Peabody Award winning filmmaker Stanley Nelson (The Black Press: Soldiers without Swords; The Murder of Emmett Till; Freedom Riders), a MacArthur Fellow and Co-Founder of Firelight Media, Inc., along with his wife, Writers Guild of America Award winning and Emmy Award nominated filmmaker Marcia Smith (The Murder of Emmett Till; Wounded Knee).

2007, Berlinale Talent Campus (now "Berlinale Talents"), Berlin, Germany.

1999-2000, Committee Member, Brooklyn Bridge Park Coalition Summer Film Series (now Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy "Movies with a View"), Brooklyn, New York. In addition to advisory contribution, collaborated on the production of "A Park Grows In Brooklyn", a Public Service Announcement for the then Coalition and Film Series, with fellow Committee Member and Producer, Lisa Cortes (Precious; Kwaku Ananse).

2001, Intern, Le Festival international du film contre lexclusion et pour la tolrance (FIFET!), founded by Claudine Drame, and then sponsored by UNESCO, UNESCO Headquarters, Paris, France and Durban, South Africa. Helped plan and manage FIFET! participation in the Film Festival Against Racism at the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (WCAR) on site in Durban, South Africa. 2006-2008, Ms. Anderson (Ms. Anderson-Avraham) worked with Ms. Drame, an expert on the representation of the Shoah in cinema, on various projects related to FIFET! and the publication of her non-fiction work, "Des films pour le dire, reflets de la Shoah au cinma, 1945-1985", along with accompanying Holocaust survivor interviews and visual aids, Paris, France.

1997-1998, Intern, Human Rights Watch Childrens Rights Division, and, subsequently, Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, New York. While interning for the HRWIFF, Ms. Anderson (Ms. Anderson-Avraham) worked on the FilmWatch initiative, a program advocating for the rights of filmmakers around the world who suffer abuse due to the political nature of their work.

1999-2000, Member and Content Co-ordinator, inaugural FilmAid International Advisory Committee, New York. Helped organize FilmAids very first mission, to Macedonia. Responsible for proposing, securing, and arranging for the viewing of film content for refugee audience screenings. Worked with, and learned from, FilmAid Founder and Producer, Caroline Baron, FilmAid Global Artist Council Member and Filmmaker, Mira Nair, and FilmAid Advisory Committee Member, Mahen Bonetti, Founder and Executive Director of the African Film Festival.

1997, Film Researcher, Archive Films (now Getty Images), New York.

1998, Intern, Department of Public Information, Media Division, United Nations Headquarters, New York. Researched, logged and compiled footage of the Rwandan War Crimes Tribunal in Arusha, Tanzania, including footage of the historic trial of Jean-Paul Akayesu, one of the first international figures to be indicted and sentenced for the commission of rape as a War Crime.

2000, Panelist, Documentary Film Panel, Urbanworld Film Festival, New York.

Sorority sister (and pledge class sister) of Tavin Marin Titus (Who Killed the Electric Car?).

Member, The Jefferson Literary and Debating Society, The University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia. Notable members include Edgar Allan Poe, President Woodrow Wilson, President James Madison (Honorary), The Marquis de Lafayette (Honorary), William Faulkner (Honorary) and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (Honorary).

1991, Summer Sales Associate, Rock Shop, Hard Rock Cafe (Mayfair), London, England. Danced with co-workers at The Wag Club. Chilled at MTV parties when MTV was still "the first man on the moon". Got surprised at work by Peter Morton, the Founder and Chairman of the company, and his family "undercover" and didnt have a clue; Ms. Anderson-Avraham (then, Ms. Anderson) sold them a great mound of Hard Rock 20th anniversary pins, T-shirts, leather jackets and other mementos with a smile, and made them and her Manager very happy (to her sincere joy and relief "after the fact"). Saw Luciano Pavarotti live in Hyde Park in the rain, and then dried herself off to "Rhythm-a-Ning" at Palookaville in Covent Garden, where she was "taken under the wing" of the charming Matre D who spoke 10 languages, but never revealed where he was from...Stepped it up at Carnival in Notting Hill. Watched Shakespeare in the "open air" in Regents Park. Sipped shandy and cider at the White Horse Pub in Parsons Green.

The love of G-d is like the ocean, you can see its beginnings but not,its end. . . .