In Smog and Thunder

Biographies

SEAN MEREDITH -- DIRECTOR, PRODUCER, EDITOR

Mr. Meredith juggles filmmaking, video editing, and being a vintage dishware expert. He has been making movies for eleven years. His films have won numerous awards and have been shown across the country and in Europe. He has edited broadcast documentaries, many short films, and an independent feature. He's currently developing a feature project called The Hollywood Landlady and completing his Guggenheim Fellowship application.

SANDOW BIRK -- CO-WRITER, PAINTER

Raised on the beaches of Southern California and currently living and working in Los Angeles, Sandow Birk is a product of California culture. Birk, who is well traveled and a graduate of the Otis-Parson's Art Institute, has dealt with Los Angeles in its entirety. His work has been shown extensively throughout the U.S. He was a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts International Travel Grant to Mexico City in 1995, a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1996, and he was a Fulbright Fellow to Rio de Janeiro in 1997. In 1999 he was awarded a Getty Fellowship for painting. Sandow's epic, pseudo-historical series, "The Great War of the Californias," in which Los Angeles and San Francisco wage all-out war for control of the Golden State, was featured at the Laguna Art Museum in 2000 and traveled to the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art in the San Francisco Area in the summer of 2002.

PAUL ZALOOM -- CO-WRITER, NARRATOR

Called "one of the most original and talented political satirists working in the theater" by the New York Times, Paul Zaloom is a puppeteer and performance artist who has written, designed, and performed ten highly idiosyncratic solo spectacles, including Fruit of Zaloom, Sick But True, and his latest, Velvetville. Since 1992, Zaloom also has appeared on the Emmy-winning educational TV show Beakman's World as Beakman, the amusing and inquisitive scientist who answers viewers' questions about science, nature, and the world around us. Zaloom has performed his work at many venues in forty states, from the Kennedy Center to King Tut's Wah Wah Hut, as well as touring Europe on nine occasions. He has been awarded four National Endowment for the Arts grants as well as an OBIE, an American Theater Wing design award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Major General Juan Gomez de los Angeles

Growing up near Elysian Park, Juan Gomez de los Angeles dreamed of playing baseball for the Dodgers, but his pitching arm got him no further than varsity baseball at Marshall High School. Gomez had become a site manager for a small construction company before he was summoned by a higher calling. Major General Juan Gomez de los Angeles had only been the Supreme Commander of the Southern Army for six months before he led his troops into its offensive against the North, which he held no love for. In his teens Gomez lost his virginity in an unsatisfying manner in San Francisco at a Grateful Dead concert and had despised the city ever since.

Commander Rebecca Jordan

Rebecca Jordan left her childhood home in Fresno to fulfill her dreams in Hollywood. By the time the game show on which she worked as a scantily clad letter turner was canceled, she was through with dreams, so she hopped on her Aprilia motorcycle and headed north. The experience she gained driving all over L.A. to auditions proved to be a helpful tool when she led her Northern troops on the largest mobile assault in California's history. Although she was feared for her ruthlessness, she always maintained her professionalism and kept her cool.

General Felix Hernandez

Known forever more as the hero of the Sepulveda Pass, General Felix Hernandez cut off the berserking Fog Town troops' attempt to descend the 405 Freeway and overtake LAX. Hernandez, a fierce defender of a unified Los Angeles and an amateur equestrian, met his fate from a sniper's bullet, but not before giving the orders that would turn the tide of the war.

Northern Brigadier General Susan Hwang

Despite enormous casualties under heavy bombardment, Northern Brigadier General Hwang's regiment thwarted Southern attempts to the left flank of the forces defending Union Square in San Francisco. Hwang cut her chops during the war in Afghanistan, but she modestly states: "My objective was to defend the Bay from any possible cancellations [of San Francisco Giant's baseball games]."