JOSH ARONSONDirector & Producer
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"I started my career as a still photographer cutting my teeth at Time Life while I was in college in NY. Finding stills work a little lonely I started making films and over the next 15 years directed hundreds of commercials, television pilots and music videos. But, busy as I was in this commercial arena, I felt a continual frustration that that work didn’t satisfy my early dreams of exploring deeper human stories. I found myself attracted to complex tales of people in diverse and extraordinary worlds and finally settled on one to pursue. That film became the documentary, Sound and Fury, about the 250-year-old battle in the world of the deaf world over the identity of Deaf children. The film opened at Sundance and was nominated for an Academy Award, launching me in the documentary world where I found my professional home.
In the years that followed I made films that took me into many fascinating worlds: The Opposite Sex and Beautiful Daughters, about the struggles of being transsexual, classical music films, Playing For Real and Talent Has Hunger for PBS, a Hudson River series celebrating the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s first trip up the Hudson and a feature about an American cowboy tradition, Bullrider. Orchestra of Exiles was my first historical documentary which I made because it was about a forgotten Jewish violinist who saved 1000 Jews from the Holocaust, started the culture of Israel and was himself one of the most famous musicians of the 20th century and his story had never been told. That film became a labor of love, as is the film I’m making now, To Be of Service." Josh Aronson is also a pianist and regularly plays chamber music in New York and at the Telluride Musicfest, the chamber music festival he founded in 2002 with his wife, violinist Maria Bachmann. |
JULIE SAYRES & FINNProducer
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"I’ve been writing about and working with veterans for the last few years. When the opportunity arose to produce a documentary, there was only one subject that compelled me above all others: veterans struggling with PTSD and the service dogs who help improve their lives. Dogs have always been one of my great passions. My German Shepherd, Finn, is always by my side. He makes me feel safe and protected.
I began to imagine how unsafe a veteran struggling with physical and emotional trauma must feel upon returning from war, to a world that doesn’t have a clue what he or she has endured. It’s isolating and terrifying, leading to never leaving the house, excessive drinking or drug use and in many cases, suicide. I began to explore what these amazing service dogs do to mitigate this kind of anguish. I’ve seen men and women come back to life after letting a dog into their life. I’ve seen families come together after the black cloud of despair is lifted from their father, mother, daughter or son. I had to tell these stories. It’s an honor and a privilege to have met the extraordinary veterans and trainers who have so generously shared their stories with us. In many cases, they were stories they never told to anyone before. 'To be of Service' is a life-changing gift to me, and everyone who has worked on it. I’m so proud to be a part of this extraordinary film. " Julie Sayres is an award-winning screenwriter, working in Los Angeles, whose credits include the film “Reaching for the Moon,” aka “Flores Raras,” for which she won the best adapted screenplay award by the Brazilian Academy of Letters and was also nominated for best adapted screenplay by the Brazilian Academy of Cinema. She worked on the writing staff of the television series “Midnight Caller,” and wrote episodes for “Gabriel’s Fire” and “Beggars and Choosers,” among others. She was also a co-creator and supervising producer of the CBS one-hour drama, “Four Corners.” She has also written many movies for television, including “A Walton Easter,” “Dallas Reunion” and the mini-series “Knot’s Landing: Back to the Cul-de-Sac.” She currently has two feature films in development, one in the U.S. and the other in Brazil. She is currently producing a documentary called “To Be of Service”, which deals with veterans with PTSD and their service dogs.
Aside from her work as a screenwriter, she’s also an adjunct professor of screenwriting at USC School of Cinematic Arts and the MFA program at Antioch University, Santa Barbara. She has a B.A. from New York University and an MFA from Goddard College. |
CAROLYN CLARK POWERSExecutive Producer
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Carolyn Clark Powers is a dedicated philanthropist and arts patron whose expansive charitable focus includes support for the visual and performing arts, music education and children.
A Los Angeles resident for more than 35 years, Carolyn was raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She traces her roots to her ancestral home, Dockery Farms in the Mississippi Delta, designated by the National Register of Historic Places as the official birthplace of Blues music in America. Carolyn is the current President of the Board of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles. Elected in 2018, after serving as a trustee since 2009, she recently made a substantial gift to MOCA of $10 million, expanding public access to art in Los Angeles. Her donation, which she announced at MOCA’s 40th anniversary benefit, will fund the museum’s first free general admissions program. Carolyn is a board member of the Grammy Museum Foundation and the Kennedy Center National Committee for the Performing Arts. She chairs the Americans for the Arts’ National Arts Awards, and is the namesake of its annual Carolyn Clark Powers Lifetime Achievement Award. Devoted to early arts and music education, Carolyn worked with PS Arts, serving low-income public schools. She is also a founder of The Painted Turtle, a free-of-charge camp for children with serious illness, which is part of Paul Newman’s Hole in the Wall Gang camps. As an executive producer of the documentary To Be of Service, Carolyn is committed to the film’s message of the critical role service dogs play in the lives of veterans suffering from PTSD. The stories of men and women who have bravely served our country, only to return home shattered from war, are deeply moving to her. “To Be of Service illustrates how trained service dogs alleviate their conditions, bringing them comfort, joy and a renewed sense of purpose,” she says. On a personal level, Carolyn challenges herself to new experiences and perspectives, such as those gleaned by her participation in the annual Aspen Ideas Festival. She regularly engages in feats of physical endurance, including completing marathons in New York, Boston, Washington DC, Chicago and Honolulu. Her love of hiking inspired her to summit Mt. Kilimanjaro in 2012. She balances her philanthropic work with family, including her three sons, mindful yoga and meditation. |
CHUCK ORTNERExecutive Producer
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Chuck Ortner, a partner at the international law firm Proskauer Rose, LLP, has devoted his career as a lawyer to protecting the rights of music creators. He has represented many of the world’s leading recording artists including Lady Gaga, Madonna, U2, Michael Jackson, Sting and John Legend, as well as major record companies and music publishers. Chuck also represents the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (the “Grammy” Awards organization).
Chuck was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve two successive six-year terms as a Trustee of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and serves as a member of the Boards of Carnegie Hall, the Grammy Museum and Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation. “To Be of Service” is about the unimaginable suffering of our war heroes who return with PTSD and the miraculous service dogs that take care of them. After learning what our military veterans and their families face, I felt that their stories deserved to be told in order to honor their service and sacrifice, and to inform the public and our nation’s leaders that much more needs to be done to help them. Chuck lives in Los Angeles, and is the proud father of two and the grateful grandfather of two. |