PHILOSOPHY
A MOMENT IN TIME PRODUCTIONS is about telling stories with substance and heart. We are a team of journalists, artists and dreamers passionate about non-fiction storytelling. Our work spans the globe and genre – from feature to short-form documentaries; from hard core investigative stories and social justice docs to music and art films about some of the most esoteric subjects of humanity. The common thread in all the work is beauty.
Six reasons why you should hire us:
We meet deadlines. The strict journalism training runs in our blood. Our insomnia works to your advantage.
We keep our word. We are old school. Sure, we can draft contracts but we still believe in a handshake and the power of "I'll get the job done. On time."
We have substance. And we care. The people we interview quickly learn that we are respectful of their time and the stories they share.
We love Studs Terkel.
We are excellent writers and listeners, which makes us very good at what we do – making films.
We have integrity. Our values aren't jeopardized by numbers.
Need more? Take a look at our feature films and gallery of images.
ABOUT US
MIMI CHAKAROVA - FOUNDER, FILM Director and DP
Mimi Chakarova grew up in a village in southwest Bulgaria. When Communism collapsed, she and her mother immigrated to the United States. Chakarova picked up her first camera in Baltimore – no one back home believed the harsh reality of poverty in America. By 8th grade, Chakarova was working three jobs that didn’t require English. Four years later, she graduated early from high school and, at 17, moved to San Francisco. She rented a tiny studio in the Tenderloin for $525 a month and enrolled at City College of San Francisco. Without the resources to study filmmaking, she chose documentary photography instead. Chakarova eventually found her way to making films and hasn’t stopped since.
As an independent filmmaker, Mimi Chakarova covered global issues examining conflict, corruption and the sex trade. Her film “The Price of Sex,” a feature-length documentary on the trafficking of women was awarded the Nestor Almendros Award for courage in filmmaking at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival in New York. She was also the winner of the prestigious Daniel Pearl Award for Outstanding International Investigative Reporting and a Dart Awards Finalist for Excellence in Coverage of Trauma.
Chakarova went on to direct, shoot and produce five other feature documentaries, completed by her own production company, A Moment in Time Productions. "Men: A Love Story" premiered at the Telluride Film Festival; “Letters,” a collaboration with Grammy Award winning artist Kris Davis, premiered at the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin. Chakarova is the founder and creative director of "Still I Rise Films," a documentary series about resilience and rising above the odds. In 2021, she set up a fellowship program for women filmmakers and visual artists in need of support and mentorship.
Mimi Chakarova is the recipient of the Dorothea Lange Fellowship for outstanding work in documentary photography and the Magnum Photos Inge Morath Award for her work on sex trafficking. Other awards include a People's Voice Webby and a nomination for a News and Documentary Emmy Award.
Chakarova's work has appeared in National Geographic, The New York Times Sunday Magazine, The Sunday Times Magazine, London, CBS News' "60 Minutes," CNN World, BBC World, Al Jazeera English, The Atlantic Monthly, Ms., PBS' FRONTLINE/World and the Center for Investigative Reporting among others.
Capitalism, God, And A Good Cigar: Cuba Enters The Twenty-first Century, published by Duke University Press, features over 75 of Chakarova's documentary photographs of Cuba.
Mimi Chakarova taught visual storytelling at UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism for 14 years. She also taught reporting classes at Stanford University's African and African American Studies and Comparative Studies for Race and Ethnicity and has lectured extensively in universities throughout the world.
Mimi Chakarova received her BFA in Photography from the San Francisco Art Institute and her MA in Visual Studies from the University of California, Berkeley.
KRISTEN FITZPATRICK – Production and Impact Director
Kristen Fitzpatrick has worked in the film industry for over 16 years. Originally a programmer from South Florida, she is currently the Director of Acquisition & Exhibition at Women Make Movies, the world's leading distributor of films by and about women. There, Kristen programs the global exhibition of WMM's core collection, booking them into exhibition spaces around the world. In an acquisition capacity, she is responsible for curating the organization's overall content. Kristen's involvement in the industry has been global – from participating on film festival juries and forums around the world to speaking on panels focused on distribution, promotional strategies and impact campaigns for social justice documentary. She is passionate about short-form documentary in the digital space and telling extraordinary stories through the everyday ordinary with universal themes and aesthetic genius in the hope of connecting people. She plans to one day produce her own doc series that does that notion justice. Kristen currently lives in Brooklyn with her chihuahua, Kingston, and spends a considerable amount of time deliberating about how film and the stories we choose to tell really can change the world.
RON SAINT GERMAIN – PRODUCER, ENGINEER, MIXER
Ron Saint Germain received a BFA from VCU in Performing Arts, played ‘Woof’ in ‘Hair’ on Broadway and parts in several films, TV shows and commercials before learning the art of recording at Record Plant and Media Sound Studios, NYC.
Four and a half decades later he still works as an independent Producer, Engineer, Mixer amassing over 100 gold and platinum awards, selling well over a quarter billion units, garnering 19 Grammy nominations with 14 wins for the Artists.
Ron Saint Germain has mixed live venues from CBGB’s, the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the 1980 Winter Olympics and Regan’s Inauguration. An eclectic discography, he has worked with such Artists as Jimi, Aretha, Whitney, Diana, Michael, Smokey, Ashford & Simpson, Mick Jagger, U2, Muse, Bad Brains, 311, Living Colour, Soundgarden, Tool, Sonic Youth, Creed, The Cure, Ziggy, Chili Peppers, Foreigner, Kraftwerk, Duran Duran, Nels Cline, Ben Goldberg, Kris Davis, Ornette Coleman, McCoy Tyner, The Last Poets, and numerous others.
STEPHEN TALBOT – Senior Producer
Stephen Talbot has written and produced over 40 documentaries for public television. Beginning his career at KQED in San Francisco, Talbot went on to become a producer for the acclaimed PBS series, FRONTLINE, where he made 10 films, including “The Best Campaign Money Can Buy,” “Justice for Sale.” and two investigative biographies of Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich. From 2002-2008, he served as Series Editor and senior producer of the PBS international news magazine series, FRONTLINE World, commissioning and supervising 30 episodes and more than 100 broadcast stories. He then created and was the executive producer of the PBS show, “SOUND TRACKS: Music Without Borders.”
Talbot’s work has won nearly every major award in broadcast journalism, including Emmys, Peabodys and duPonts. Talbot has also produced six hour-long biographies of writers for PBS. Talbot has served as senior producer at the Center for Investigative Reporting and was the executive producer for Mimi Chakarova’s first documentary “The Price of Sex.” He currently is a producer at ITVS, the San Francisco-based non-profit that runs the PBS series, "Independent Lens."
LYDIA CHÁvez – SENIOR PRODUCER
Lydia Chávez is an emerita professor who taught at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism for 29 years. She started as a reporter for the Albuquerque Tribune, later moving on to Time magazine, Los Angeles Times and The New York Times, where she served as El Salvador and South American bureau chief. In 2005, Chávez and her students collaborated to publish Capitalism, God and A Good Cigar: Cuba Enters the Twenty-First Century (Duke University Press). And in 1998, Chávez published The Color Bind: California’s Battle Against Affirmative Action, which won the Leonard Silk Award (UC Press).
Lydia Chávez holds a bachelor’s degree in comparative literature from the University of California, Berkeley, a master’s degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, a Graduate Diploma in Art History and a master’s degree in Art History from the Courtauld Institute of Art in London. She is the founder and executive editor of Mission Local, an award-winning news site that covers the Mission District in San Francisco. Mission Local and A Moment in Time Productions have partnered on documentary projects since 2016.