GroundSpark created films and campaigns that changed the world for more than 3 decades.
Under the leadership of Debra Chasnoff, GroundSpark specialized in crafting strategic documentary films and distribution campaigns with ambitious social, economic, and environmental justice goals. GroundSpark helped stop a multinational corporation from producing the trigger to neutron bombs, catalyzed a national movement to create community land trusts, and uplifted the voices of lesbian and gay individuals who redefine the definition of “family.”
Debra Chasnoff passed in 2017, after documenting her own journey with advanced breast cancer and end-of-life care in her final and most personal film PROGNOSIS - notes on living. After her passing, Debra’s co-director of PROGNOSIS and longtime creative collaborator, Kate Stilley Steiner, led a close-knit team of Debra’s long-time filmmaking collaborators to finish the film and bring it to film festivals around the world from 2021-2023.
GroundSpark’s Board of Directors decided to close the non-profit and transfer the GroundSpark Film Catalog to Kate Stilley Steiner and her documentary media non-profit Citizen Film in the summer of 2023. Citizen Film will lead the campaign that brings PROGNOSIS to audiences across the country and beyond and continue to support the profound impact of GroundSpark’s past documentaries, such as the acclaimed Respect For All Project films.
Citizen Film is a not-for-profit production company dedicated to crafting documentaries with care and dignity. With a 20+ year award-winning track record, Citizen Film continues to create documentary media that fosters active engagement in cultural and civic life through collaboration with cultural institutions, communities and civic organizations.
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Kate Stilley Steiner
Kate Stilley Steiner is a co-founder of Citizen Film and heads the editorial arm of the organization. An editor for 17 years, her credits include the feature-length documentaries Wired for What for PBS, End of a Legend for The Learning Channel; Throwing Curves, about industrial designer Eva Zeisel, the first artist honored with a one-woman show at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; That’s a Family! and Let’s Get Real for Groundspark – a pair of acclaimed documentaries shown to hundreds of thousands of teens across the country to spark straight-talking classroom discussions about bullying. Kate’s editing work on other award-winning documentaries includes The Story of Mother’s and Daughters for ABC Television; Fox Television’s Emmy-winning Loyalty and Betrayal: The Story Of The American Mob; and the Academy Award nominated Freedom on my Mind. Kate has co-produced and edited many documentaries designed to engage communities and mobilize change, including One Wedding and a Revolution, about the first gay wedding at San Francisco’s City Hall.
In 2015, Kate joined forces with her longtime collaborator Debra Chasnoff to co-direct what would become Debra Chasnoff’s final film, PROGNOSIS - notes on living. A deeply moving personal memoir, PROGNOSIS shares the story of Debra’s experience living with advanced cancer and pursuing end-of-life care. In accordance with Debra’s wishes, after her death, Kate completed the film with her co-producers. Kate went on the lead successful festival tour for PROGNOSIS with festival screenings across the US and around the world. PROGNOSIS has been awarded multiple Best Feature Documentary and Audience Awards from film festivals.
In 2023, the GroundSpark’s Board of Directors decided to make Kate’s non-profit documentary media organization, Citizen Film, the new home for the GroundSpark Film Catalog. While she continues to direct and produce powerful Citizen Film projects, Kate will also drive the continued impact of GroundSpark’s past documentaries, such as the acclaimed Respect for All Project films.
Andra Winter
Andra Winter is the Impact Producer for PROGNOSIS - notes on living. Andra began working with GroundSpark eight years ago as a Communications Manager; they had the privilege of working under Debra Chasnoff’s leadership during her final years of life. Andra has worked with documentary filmmakers to amplify their stories and increase their films’ impact. A longtime creative writer and artist, Andra is passionate about using stories and art to empower people to make change and disrupt oppressive systems.
A queer and non-binary person, Andra has worked with LGBTQ organizations to build and deepen community, promote critical dialogue, and advocate for justice and liberation, including Family Equality, the the Massachusetts Commission on LGBTQ Youth's Safe Schools Program, and GLSEN Massachusetts. Andra also served as the LGBTQ Community Liaison for the City of Somerville, MA. Andra has spent years running digital campaigns for non-profits and, during their tenure at a software company specializing in cross-channel digital engagement, for large brands.
Since GroundSpark’s move under the Citizen Film banner in 2023, Andra is delighted to be part of the team that is continuing to drive the impact campaign for PROGNOSIS and bring GroundSpark’s catalog of films to even a new generation of people seeking powerful stories about queer issues and much more.
Debra Chasnoff (1957-2017)
Academy Award–winning documentary filmmaker Debra Chasnoff was a nationally recognized champion of using film as an organizing tool for social justice campaigns, and a pioneering leader in the international movement working to create safe and welcoming schools and communities. Debra’s highly acclaimed documentaries addressing youth and bias issues are widely hailed by educators and advocates as among the best tools available today to help open up dialogue and activism around many of the most challenging issues affecting young people’s lives and school environments. Her award-winning films include Straightlaced—How Gender’s Got Us All Tied Up, about the gender and sexuality pressures that teens and young adults face today, It’s Elementary—Talking About Gay Issues in School, Let’s Get Real (about bias and bullying) That’s a Family! (supporting youth growing up in diverse family structures) and the Academy Award-winning Deadly Deception—General Electric, Nuclear Weapons and Our Environment. Her first film, Choosing Children, explored the once unheard of idea that lesbians and gay men could become parents after coming out.
In addition to dozens of film festival awards, Debra was the recipient of the Wallace A. Gerbode Foundation Fellowship for outstanding non-profit leadership, the Pathfinder Award from the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, and the first-ever alumnae achievement award in documentary filmmaking from Wellesley College. Debra has been a featured speaker at dozens of colleges and conferences, and was a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow for the Council of Independent Colleges as well as a Visiting Scholar in Public Policy at Mills College. She was the founder of GroundSpark and co-creator of our renowned Respect For All Project. Debra served GroundSpark in a directing capacity from 1982 - 2017.
When Debra was diagnosed with stage-4 cancer, she and her wife Nancy Otto decided to turn the camera on themselves and their LGBTQ family to document their experiences with serious illness and questions about end of life. What emerges is PROGNOSIS - notes on living, an emotionally raw, funny and profoundly intimate memoir about embracing the unknown, end of life issues and what it means to live with intentionality up to the last breath. After her death, many obituaries were published to honor Debra’s life.