Legacy: Being Black in America is the third film in The Millennium Dinners documentary series, produced by Richard Karz. “The Millennium Dinners” employs interdisciplinary, multicultural, and intergenerational VIP dinner gatherings to explore issues of global change through dialogue and background day-in-the-life profiles and vignettes. The series uses the dinner party as a metaphor to examine the role of compromise and consensus in democracy today, the changing nature of community, and the tension between the civilized and the uncivilized, the social and the selfish, the spiritual and the carnal, in the new millennium.
The second film in “The Millennium Dinners” series, “9/11/03: A Day in the Life of New York,” explores global trends as reflected in the lives of various New Yorkers on the second anniversary of 9/11. Featured participants in the film include the novelist Salman Rushdie, Yankees Manager Joe Torre, Reverend Al Sharpton, hip-hop media mogul Russell Simmons, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, the Council on Foreign Relations Chairman Peter Peterson, NYU President John Sexton, Iranian-born artist/filmmaker Shirin Neshat, TV reporter Ti-Hua Chang, and Newsweek columnist Fareed Zakaria.
“9/11/03” was called “Striking... Fascinating” by the New York Times, “Dynamic” by New York Magazine, “Ambitious” by Time Out New York, “A kaleidoscopic portrait of New Yorkers high and low” by TV Guide online, and “Well-crafted and thought-provoking” by School Library Journal. Please see www.91103adayinthelife.com.
The first film in “The Millennium Dinners” series, "If Women Ruled the World: A Washington Dinner Party," explores the repercussions of the women’s revolution through the lives of various women trailblazers. The film features Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Betty Friedan, General Claudia Kennedy, Ruth Simmons, Madeleine Albright, Janet Reno, Jane Goodall, Mary Matalin, Andrea Mitchell, Chitra Divakaruni, Sally Quinn, Alek Wek, and Eleanor Clift, among others. “If Women Ruled the World” premiered on Capitol Hill and was released nationally by PBS in March 2002, sponsored by BellSouth Corporation.
School Library Journal called “If Women Ruled the World,” “Powerful… thought-provoking… fascinating… historic.” According to Library Journal, “If Women Ruled the World” will readily spark discussion among students and general viewers alike… skillful use of short profiles and side commentaries that provide context.” Please see www.ifwomenruledtheworld.com.
In 2001, Karz was Chair and Executive Director of the Barnard Summit on Women, Leadership, and the Future, which was hosted by Barnard College in New York City. The Barnard Summit included Janet Reno, Marian Wright Edelman, Governor Jane Swift, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, and Gwen Ifill, among others, and was sponsored by J. P. Morgan Chase & Co., the Goldman Sachs Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the New York Times, iVillage, and Seventeen magazine. Karz produced a one-hour documentary on the summit, which was broadcast by Connecticut Public Television. Please see, www.barnard.edu/newnews/news080901.
