Caroline Baron, Kokayi Ampah and Marino Pascal will receive honorary awards at the 2nd Annual Location Managers Guild of America Awards. FilmAid International founder Baron, will receive the Humanitarian Award. The Lifetime Achievement Award goes to veteran location manager Ampah. And Pascal, creator of the forum named Locolist, will take home the Trailblazer Award. The Location Managers Guild of America Awards take place on Saturday, March 7, at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills.
Academy Award-nominated producer Baron founded FilmAid in 1999, motivated by the surge of refugees from Kosovo migrating to camps in Macedonia. FilmAid provides human connection and hope, supplementing basic needs for food and shelter. All this is done with the magic of cinema—portable projectors, screens, and generators and reels of Hollywood classics as well as indigenous films. Crowds gather for amusement and stay for educational films promoting awareness of social issues like HIV/AIDS, women’s rights, pediatric malnutrition, land mine awareness and conflict resolution.
FilmAid also makes documentaries and educational films with local talent, using humor and storytelling reflecting social issues. FilmAid actively includes refugees in the creation and distribution of these films, thus empowering refugees to help change their own lives and restore their dignity.
Baron’s long list of credits include Capote, Monsoon Wedding, Being Flynn and The Wonder Years. There are similarities in the work she produces for Hollywood and her work with FilmAid. In addition to her independent streak, and her interest in cross cultural exploration, there is the same skill set, building a team, marshalling the necessary resources and working toward the common goal of affecting an audience.
The differences are a testament to Baron’s strength of character. Working with limited resources, FilmAid addresses critical issues while targeting a specific audience. It’s information, education, art and entertainment. It’s humanity, not commerce.
Location manager Ampah’s career spans more than three decades to date. The count of Oscar nods for films on Ampah’s resume is up to 43. His collaborations include work with top directors on such iconic films as The Shawshank Redemption, Million Dollar Baby (one of six projects he managed for Clint Eastwood) and Amistad, which was Ampah’s second film with Steven Spielberg. But as Ampah eyes semi-retirement, it’s not these industry accolades that he counts among his highest achievements. “What I’ve done has already faded out as new generations have reached far greater heights, but for a brief moment I was a rung for others,” he said. “I believe, through a series of circumstances, that I was able to break a color barrier in the television and motion picture industry, at least in Los Angeles.” Mentor to many and shining example to all, Ampah’s oeuvre includes Mystic River, The Color Purple, The Soloist and Flags of Our Fathers. The hallmark of his work is that the locations became characters in the film.
Pascal is a formidable location scout who has single-handedly revolutionized the world of locations in Los Angeles. His development of Locolist, an archival forum for location professionals, unites scouts and managers in a community of shared knowledge. Accustomed to working independently, Pascal was the first to intimate what could be accomplished by sharing information. In that sense, he was one of several driving forces that encouraged the growth of the Location Managers Guild of America. Pascal retains his belief that an individual with leverage from friends and peers can change the world–if not in a big way, at least enough to make a difference.
As the internet developed, long before location services existed, Pascal was helping location professionals present and archive their work in a user-friendly, professional website. He has set and reset the bar for the presentation of location photography. Not content to maintain Locolist and build professional websites, Marino also has mentored hundreds of scouts in digital photography and image management.
