FILMMAKERS

Alan Govenar
Director, Co-Writer

Alan Govenar is a writer, photographer, and filmmaker. He is president of Documentary Arts, a non-profit organization he founded in 1985 to present new perspectives on historical issues and diverse cultures. Govenar has a B.A. with distinction in American Folklore from Ohio State University, an M.A. in Folklore and Anthropology from the University of Texas at Austin, and a Ph.D. in Arts and Humanities from the University of Texas at Dallas. He is a Guggenheim Fellow and the author of thirty books, including Texas Blues: The Rise of a Contemporary Sound, Stompin’ at the Savoy: The Story of Norma Miller, Extraordinary Ordinary People, Everyday Music, Untold Glory, Stoney Knows How: Life as a Sideshow Tattoo Artist, Deep Ellum: The Other Side of Dallas, Portraits of Community, The Early Years of Rhythm and Blues: The Photography of Benny Joseph, and The Blues Come to Texas: Paul Oliver and Mack McCormick’s Unfinished Book. His book Osceola: Memories of a Sharecropper’s Daughter won First Place in the New York Book Festival (Children’s Non-Fiction), a Boston Globe-Hornbook Honor; and an Orbis Pictus Honor from the National Council of Teachers of English.

Govenar’s film, Stoney Knows How, based on his book by the same title about Old School tattoo artist Leonard St. Clair, was shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, and was selected as an Outstanding Film of the Year by the London Film Festival. Govenar has also produced and directed numerous films in association with NOVA, La Sept/ARTE, and PBS for broadcast and educational distribution. His documentaries The Beat Hotel, Master Qi and the Monkey King, You Don’t Need Feet to Dance, Extraordinary Ordinary People, and Tattoo Uprising are distributed by First Run Features.
 
Govenar is also a playwright, whose musicals include Blind Lemon Blues and Lonesome Blues (with Akin Babatunde) and Texas in Paris. His musicals have been performed at the York Theatre (New York), Forum Meyrin (Geneva), Maison des Cultures du Monde (Paris), Zuiderpershuis (Antwerp), Leidse Schouwburg (Leiden), Regentes (Den Haag), and Oude Luxor (Rotterdam).
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His artist books and photographs are in collections in the United States and abroad, including The Museum of Modern Art (New York), Victoria and Albert Museum (London, Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris), Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), National Portrait Gallery (Washington, DC), and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Jason Johnson-Spinos
Editor, Co-Writer

​Jason Johnson-Spinos is a theatre and film artist and educator. He has worked as an editor at Documentary Arts since 2011. He edited the feature films You Don't Need Feet to Dance, Serving Second Chances, Extraordinary Ordinary People, and Tattoo Uprising. He was an additional editor on The Beat Hotel, and edited the short films Bridging Utopia, The Silent Witness Speaks, World's Fair Waffle, and One Man Band: Al Howard, in addition to working on numerous other Documentary Arts projects. With The Documentary Group in NYC, he assistant edited the documentaries Angle of Attack and Dreamland. He is also the co-founder and marketing director of Outcry Theatre.

Didier Dahan
​Cinematographer

Didier Dahan is a French cinematographer who has worked with Documentary Arts on numerous projects. He was the cinematographer for the feature films Tattoo Uprising, Extraordinary Ordinary People, Serving Second Chances, You Don't Need Feet to Dance, The Beat Hotel, and Master Qi and the Monkey King, for the short films Bridging Utopia, The Silent Witness Speaks, World's Fair Waffle, and The Poetry of Exactitude, and for video segments for The Franco-American Museum at the Chateau de Blérancourt. Dahan is a graduate of l'ESEC, Ecole Supèrieure d'Etudes Cinématographiques à Paris. For over 30 years, he was a Journalistes Reporter Caméraman and Grand Reporter Caméraman on documentaries, news magazines and news reports. In addition, he taught at the CFPJ School of Journalism in Paris, France.

Robert Tullier
​​Cinematographer

As Director/DP, Robert Tullier has shot on oil platforms in the Arabian Gulf, documented missionaries in Samoa and directed major Fortune 500 executives along with prominent individuals in the arts and business community. His work has aired both nationally and internationally. A graduate of Southern Methodist University with a BFA in Broadcast Film Arts, he has won numerous national awards. Work with Documentary Arts includes Tattoo Uprising, Extraordinary Ordinary People, Serving Second Chances, The Beat Hotel, Voyage of Doom, Dreams of Conquest, The Devil’s Swing, Jaber, Sacred Steel, and The Hard Ride.