- Notes provided by Paramount Pictures -

``Between the idea And the realityBetween the motion And the act Falls the Shadow
- T.S. Eliot, ``The Hollow Men
From Oscar(R)-winning director Martin Scorsese, and based on the best-selling thriller by Dennis Lehane, comes Shutter Island, a tale of haunting mystery and psychological suspense that unfolds entirely on a fortress-like island housing a hospital for the criminally insane.
The year is 1954, at the height of the Cold War, when U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels (three-time Academy Award(R) nominee Leonardo DiCaprio) and his new partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) are summoned to Shutter Island to investigate the implausible disappearance of a brilliant multiple murderess from a locked room within the impenetrable Ashecliffe Hospital. Surrounded by probing psychiatrists and dangerously psychopathic patients on the remote, windswept isle, they arrive into an eerie, volatile atmosphere that suggests nothing is quite what it seems.
With a hurricane bearing down on them, the investigation moves rapidly. Yet, as the storm escalates, the suspicions and mysteries multiply each more thrilling and terrifying than the next. There are hints and rumors of dark conspiracies, sordid medical experiments, repressive mind control, secret wards, perhaps even a hint of the supernatural, but elusive proof. Moving in the shadows of a hospital haunted by the terrible deeds of its slippery inhabitants and the unknown agendas of its equally ingenious doctors, Teddy begins to sense that the deeper he pursues the investigation the more he will be forced to confront some of
his most profound and devastating fears. And he realizes that he may never leave
the island alive.
Paramount Pictures Presents A Phoenix Pictures Production in Association with Sikelia Productions and Appian Way, A Martin Scorsese Picture, Shutter Island, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams, Emily Mortimer, Patricia Clarkson and Max von Sydow. The film is directed by Martin Scorsese from a screenplay by Laeta Kalogridis based on the novel by Dennis Lehane. The producers are Mike Medavoy, Arnold W. Messer, Bradley J. Fischer and Martin Scorsese. The executive producers are Chris Brigham, Laeta Kalogridis, Dennis Lehane, Gianni Nunnari and Louis Phillips. The director of photography is Robert Richardson, ASC. The production designer is Dante Ferretti. The film is edited by Thelma Schoonmaker, A.C.E. The costume designer is Sandy Powell. The visual effects supervisor is Rob Legato. The co-producers are Joseph Reidy, Emma Tillinger and Amy Herman. The music supervisor is Robbie Robertson. This film has been rated R for disturbing violent content, language and some nudity.
Journey to Shutter Island: From Lehane to Scorsese
Shortly after completing his novel Mystic River, which would go on to
become an Academy Award(R)-winning film directed by Clint Eastwood, writer
Dennis Lehane radically shifted gears. Moving away from the gritty, blue-collar,
Boston settings for which he was best known, Lehane fashioned an intensely
atmospheric, terror-filled psychological shocker set at the height of 1950s Cold War
paranoia, and at the crossroads where the lines between sanity and madness, truth
and delusion begin to blur beyond recognition.
This was Shutter Island, which merged elements of Gothic mystery, pulp
fiction, conspiracy thrillers and turn-of the-screws, Edgar Allan Poe-style horror to
create a riveting and unsettling effect that took his readers by surprise. Unfolding
over just four searing days at the island-based Ashecliffe Hospital for the
Criminally Insane, in the midst of a raging Category 5 hurricane, the book
presented a most unusual criminal investigation, one that was completely cut off
from the outside world and in which the vise keeps tightening on the two lone
investigators, ultimately forcing U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels to come face-to-face
with a realm in which the human psyche has run dangerously amok, as well as
harrowing secrets, frightening memories and deeply buried truths.
The book hinged on the riddle of a murderess' inconceivable, mystifying
disappearance from the high-security facility, but within its labyrinth of eerie twists
and turns it touched on such topics as the lingering trauma of World War II, the 20th
century's potential for vast conspiracies, the debate over invasive psychiatric
treatments and, most of all, on the extraordinary power of the human psyche, in
spite of all scientific and legal efforts, to elude even the best efforts to bring it under
control.
Writing in The New York Times, Janet Maslin called the book ``startlingly original and ``instantly cinematic and it went on to become one of the best-sellers of 2003. Producer Bradley J. Fischer, a partner at Phoenix Pictures who was then producing David Fincher's thriller about a real-life serial murderer, Zodiac, picked the book off an airport kiosk and found himself so transported by its anxiety-soaked atmosphere and web of contemporary themes, he immediately wanted to bring it to the screen.
``I'd been a big fan of Dennis Lehane, yet I wasn't prepared for this novel, recalls Fischer. ``It's a thriller and a Gothic mystery, but there is also much more to it because it has so much depth and deals with serious moral issues. The dense, atmospheric plot features a series of twists and turns that leaves you reeling and is quite mind-blowing.
As soon as he could acquire the rights, Fischer jumped into action, along with company head Mike Medavoy. Also coming on board as a producer was Phoenix Pictures executive Arnold W. Messer.
Fischer approached Laeta Kalogridis, a screenwriter known for her strong affinity to suspense, adventure and depth of character. Having previously worked with Kalogridis on the Viking-era action thriller Pathfinder, the producers at Phoenix knew she had the creative potential to realize this challenging material. ``We felt Laeta would be able to take Dennis Lehane's brilliant words and make them come to life in a truly cinematic way, says Fischer.
Kalogridis, who is also one of the executive producers on Shutter Island (along with Chris Brigham, Lehane, Gianni Nunnari and Louis Phillips), was thrilled by the challenge of working with the richly woven fabric of Lehane's story, which sinuously weaves its way through flashbacks, hallucinations and fantasies, playing with chronological time and the elusive nature of moment-to-moment reality. She immersed herself in the project, exploring the broad range of unsettling topics that Lehane raises, from the horror-filled past of insane asylums, to the dark science behind prefrontal-lobe lobotomies, to such historical terrors as Nazi concentration camps and Cold War-era mind control experiments.
``Laeta was as stunned as I was by the story, comments Fischer. ``She saw that the narrative has all these different threads and layers that needed to be balanced - not an easy adaptation - but she carefully explored different directions for the characters and ways to bring in the flashbacks. We soon had a screenplay that Mike Medavoy and I were very happy with.
Even more so than Lehane's novel, which the author has said was inspired in part by his love of B movies, the screenplay brought to mind a pantheon of classic Hollywood movies, including Otto Preminger's identity-shifting mystery Laura and Sam Fuller's mental asylum exposé Shock Corridor. It was clear that doing it justice would require a director of particularly deep cinematic knowledge and an abiding love of psychological interplay.
The first name that came to Fischer's mind was Academy Award(R)-winning director Martin Scorsese. It was on a wing and a prayer that the Phoenix executives approached the prolific, almost-always engaged director because they assumed that, fresh off his Best Director Oscar(R) win for the electrifying crime thriller The Departed, he would be a long shot.
But their timing couldn't have been better. Scorsese was not only available but passionate about the style and themes of Shutter Island. When Phoenix sent him the script, he was in the thick of narrating the documentary Val Lewton: The Man in the Shadows, a documentary about the distinctive creative force behind such hugely influential and wondrously ominous 1940s RKO horror films as Cat People and I Walked with a Zombie. Scorsese was in the mood for a modern take on existentially-complicated terror. ``Marty was attracted to the idea of taking on a Gothic horror tale that's shrouded in shadow and mystery, Fischer explains. ``He jumped on the idea and his excitement was enormous from the get-go. When I got the call from Marty's agent saying he wanted to direct Shutter Island, he told me, 'Marty says it reminds him of this old German movie called....called...' While he tried to recall the title, I happened to be staring across my office at a framed poster of the very film, one of my favorites, a classic silent from the Expressionist era of German cinema. 'He said it reminded him of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,' I suggested. 'Yes,' the agent shouted. 'That's it!'
Fischer continues: ``Learning that the script evoked for Marty thoughts of the same old Weimar-period horror film that it did for me was overwhelming. Yet, I wasn't surprised. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a film that always bore some similarities in my mind to Shutter Island. It's a film that Marty admires and one of many he would reference throughout shooting. From this point, things started moving very quickly. The things Marty saw in the story and all the levels he found in the material made the project so much richer than any of us had ever imagined.
Scorsese says it was his first read of the Shutter Island script that hooked him. ``I didn't know anything about the story and I started reading it at about 10:30 at night and I needed to go to bed because I had to get up early the next day, but I found I could not put the script down and was constantly surprised by the different levels of the story, he recalls.
He felt an instant link to the story's mix of classic thriller genres, from shadowy noir to boldface horror. ``This is the type of picture I like to watch, the kind of story I like to read, Scorsese explains. ``Over the years, I think I've stayed away from certain kinds of pictures that emulate the style that I find nurturing in a way, but these are the kinds of films I go back to and view repeatedly. I've always been drawn to this sort of story. What's interesting to me is how the story keeps changing, and the reality of what's happening keeps changing, and how up until the very final scene, it's all about how the truth is perceived.
He continues: ``But more than the way the story is told or the setting, for me, it's really about what happens to the character of Teddy, which I found to be very moving. That was the emotional connection.
Scorsese's approach utilized the noir-like surfaces of Kalogridis' adaptation to get at the deeper micro-dynamics and psychological machinations of the characters, fusing richly cinematic visuals with underlying emotions to lure the audience out on a thrillingly fragile edge along with Teddy Daniels. Right from the start of production, the director inspired cast and crew with a series of nighttime screenings of films, both legendary and obscure, that touched upon the themes and styles woven through Shutter Island.
Among Scorsese's choices were Preminger's Laura; Jacques Tourneur's 1947 dark noir tale of double-crosses, Out of the Past; Edward Dmytryk's 1947 thriller Crossfire, about the murder of a Jewish soldier after WWII; Nicholas Ray's 1952 police drama On Dangerous Ground; Karl Malden's 1957 directorial debut, Time Limit, an intensely psychological courtroom drama about an American soldier facing a court martial; Orson Welles' 1963 The Trial, the screen adaptation of Franz Kafka's surreal tale of a man inexplicably detained for an unknown crime; John Huston's wartime documentaries San Pietro and Let There Be Light, the latter about returning soldiers suffering from what was then dubbed ``shell shock; influential horror films including Robert Wise's The Haunting and Jack Clayton's The Innocents; and several of the Val Lewton films so essential to Scorsese's appreciation of the horror thriller genre, including the shadowy The Seventh Victim, about a woman searching for her missing sister amidst a Satanic cult.
An essential documentary was also included in the lineup: Frederick Wiseman's controversial and, at one time, banned 1967 movie exploring the treatment of inmates at a hospital for the criminally insane called Titicut Follies, which gave the cast and crew a harrowing insight into what asylums were really like in the '50s and '60s, before modern reforms improved conditions and made patients' rights a priority. Set inside the Massachusetts Correctional Institute for the Criminally Insane at Bridgewater, the film unflinchingly depicted a treatment facility in which patients were stripped naked, chained to their cell walls, force-fed and deprived of basic human dignity. The film would have a major impact. Soon after its release, public outrage was so widespread that a class-action suit was brought against Bridgewater, which in turn led to permanent changes in the way state institutions were run across the country.
``Watching Titicut Follies allowed the cast and crew to see firsthand the kind of world the film would be portraying, notes Fischer. ``It was a very powerful experience for all of us.
Exposing Shutter Island: The Characters
At the heart of Shutter Island's suspense and mounting fear is the shattering experience of Teddy Daniels, the hard-bitten war veteran and savvy U.S. Marshal who arrives at the island hospital to investigate the disappearance of a killer, only to slide deeper and deeper into an abyss of dizzying riddles, haunted memories and unrelenting fear. As his investigation runs into one obstacle after another, Teddy has reason to believe he is being manipulated, watched, perhaps drugged, and pushed to the dark, indistinct edges of his own sanity. Perhaps he is being warned away from getting at the larger truth of Shutter Island, or drawn into a horrific experiment, but there is clearly a hidden agenda tying Teddy to this impenetrable place.
To play a character so tightly wound, yet about to unravel in just a few days' time, the filmmakers had one actor in mind from the start: three-time Academy Award(R) nominee Leonardo DiCaprio, who has grown up on the screen to become one of today's most distinctive leading men. ``When we approached Marty we instantly began thinking about Leo as well, first because he was so right for the part, but also because of his incredibly successful collaboration with Scorsese, Fischer says.
Scorsese wholeheartedly backed the choice. ``Having worked with Leo on Gangs of New York, The Aviator and The Departed, I thought immediately that he should do this, he says. ``We have a way of working together now and I had faith and trust in him as an artist to achieve the many psychological and emotional states that Teddy has to reach, and to transform throughout. Have I seen him do this before? Not to this level, I think. As he gets older, he goes deeper and deeper.
DiCaprio was convinced as soon as he read the script. ``A lot of things about this character appealed to me, he explains. ``Teddy comes to Shutter Island devoted to solving a mystery and to uncover what is really going on, but he has his own innermost agenda and secrets. He's in a situation where there's a lot more to his journey than there at first appears to be. One of the great things about the story is that it's constantly jarring you. It works on so many different levels; it's like a giant layer cake.
He continues: ``I fell in love with the complexity of Teddy, with his search for the truth, which triggers something in him, and also triggered something in me. I was profoundly moved at the end.
He was also drawn to reuniting with Scorsese. ``The one thing I don't think people understand about Scorsese is how much he believes in the actors he hires and how much he depends on them doing their homework before they show up on the set, DiCaprio comments. ``He's a master filmmaker and he knows how to navigate the human mind and portray things about the human condition, but he lets the actors really dictate what he puts up on the screen.
Once he took on the role, DiCaprio was inspired to undertake his own personal research. He delved into the specialized training of a real 1950s U.S. Marshal, explored the experiences of World War II vets and learned about the psychiatric techniques used in mental institutions during the period. He also read and re-read Lehane's novel. ``When you have someone like Dennis Lehane, who creates such rich characters, it gives you a lot of ammunition and reference points, he says.
The core of his preparation, though, was a series of long, explorative talks with Scorsese. ``Marty loves to discuss everything at great length, notes DiCaprio, ``which helps you become even more specific about who your character is and more believable on the screen. We would discuss the scenes almost like forensic detectives, going through the details with a fine-tooth comb, and that's one of the most interesting, challenging, scary and fun parts of making his movies because, by the time you're on set, you're really committed to something.
In the case of this particular character, those conversations were particularly important. ``With Teddy, there were certain fine lines we couldn't cross and that was very challenging, DiCaprio explains. ``I really needed Scorsese's guidance on how far things could be pushed. There are a lot of extra subtleties you might notice on a second viewing.
Further inspiring DiCaprio was the cast that surrounded him. ``There are some remarkable performances, so rich in character detail that they just come alive, he says. ``The casting was tremendous and you believe these people you meet on Shutter Island are all real and tangible.
DiCaprio was especially excited to work with Mark Ruffalo, who plays Chuck Aule, Teddy's new partner who will also be swept up in the mysteries and conspiracies on the rocky isle. ``Mark is an actor I've wanted to work with for a long time. He's given so many fantastic, ultra-realistic performances, he says. ``His character, Chuck, has an interesting relationship with Teddy. They are starting to build trust, but are suspicious about each other's intentions. Mark really brought something to this film that needed to be there and grounded my character in a profound way.
Ruffalo has emerged as one of today's most diverse and intriguing leading men, with roles in such films as Kenneth Lonergan's You Can Count on Me, Michel Gondry's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Michael Mann's Collateral. Says Scorsese: ``I have wanted to work with Mark since I saw him in You Can Count on Me, which I executive-produced. What you have with Mark is a strong emotional connection. He is believable on every level while playing a multi-faceted character.
Ruffalo was drawn by the lure of working with Scorsese and DiCaprio, but it was the screenplay's unforeseen wallop that really got to him. ``At first, you think it's just an interesting noir detective story but, as you go along, all these surprise events and layers emerge, along with rollercoaster twists and the script turns out to be so many other things you weren't expecting, he says. ``Things keep getting stranger and stranger and it slams you into another world. The more I read, the more I felt that playing Chuck, who has much more going on than we initially see, would be an extraordinary challenge.
That challenge weighed on Ruffalo as he began preparing for the shoot. ``There was a problem I had to solve with the part, which was how to walk the fine line of this character, he explains. ``It appears that Chuck is there to protect Teddy but, deep inside, he's also pushing him towards a reckoning. There was an interesting tightrope act involved. One of the keys, says Ruffalo, was making sure that his performance would stand up on a second viewing of the film, even after all the story's carefully built skeleton of secrets has been exposed. ``I think on second viewing, there are little clues to what's really going on, without raising any red flags, says Ruffalo. ``It's all in how I'm listening and responding to certain things, how I'm looking at Leo.
Working with a DiCaprio was a wish fulfilled for Ruffalo. ``I've been a fan of his for such a long time, he notes, ``and have watched him grow into this great leading man. I didn't know what to expect, but what I found is that he is one of the hardest working, most dedicated of actors. He works non-stop, constantly running lines and talking about the characters. It's never enough for him and, at the same time, he's very generous and giving to the other actors. I found him really impressive.
Ruffalo was further inspired by Scorsese's enthusiasm. ``This film was like a playground for Scorsese's virtuoso filmmaking, muses Ruffalo. ``It's full of fantasy sequences, flashbacks, period elegance, altered states, film noir and the supernatural, as well as a great character drama. He gets to do everything he's always loved about film. He continues: ``One of the wonderful things about working with Marty is that he truly does love actors, and he loves to create a work environment with a big playing space where you can take things in many different directions. It was a very collaborative process. We all sat down and talked about the characters. We also talked about mythology, history and, most of all, about films, using the classics for character insight and a sense of the noir style. There's a lot going on in every frame on every level, and I think that makes for a very satisfying movie experience.
Also joining in the experience was Academy Award(R) winner Ben Kingsley, who takes on the role of the brilliant Dr. Cawley, who psychoanalyzes Teddy and Chuck's every move even as he engages them to find his dangerous, missing patient. Scorsese had long hoped to work with Kingsley and was thrilled the role suited him so well. ``Ben was a natural for me because of his focus, concentration and compassion. That is what's so important about the character of Dr. Cawley - his level of dedication and his ability to find something human in his violent patients, says the director.
Kingsley was pulled in by the story and especially to his character's underlying, secret mission. ``This story is like an archeological dig where you keep finding layers under layers, he says. ``I like that and I like Dr. Cawley because there is some extraordinary stuff buried inside this character that comes to the fore. He has an interesting perspective on his profession at a period when there was a battle raging between the old therapies and the new drugs and surgical approaches like lobotomies.
In taking on the role, Kingsley brought his own vision of what Dr. Cawley would look like to the set. ``It comes from my Shakespeare days that I love to grasp the whole picture, he says. ``So I chose his green suit and his pipe, as well as his shoes, which are wonderful Oxford brogues that link him to the earth. I think of him as a man with his feet on the ground, but his head in the heights of science.
He especially enjoyed the interplay with the rest of the extraordinary cast. ``Leo is at the Hamlet stage of his life and this role gives him a tremendous opportunity to show his depth. Mark Ruffalo just radiates affection and loyalty; Michelle Williams has a stirring, beautiful vulnerability; Emily Mortimer is exquisite, like a bird beating its wings against a window; Patricia Clarkson has such stillness and intelligence and Max von Sydow, with his towering authority, is magnificent, he summarizes. ``Marty has placed them all like a painter, putting one color next to another for great effect. What a thrilling project to be involved with.
Taking on the key role of Teddy's wife Dolores is Academy Award(R) nominee Michelle Williams (Brokeback Mountain). Williams did not hesitate to jump into the unusual character. ``It's a really challenging role, which always appeals to me, she says. She admits the part got under her skin more than she anticipated. ``Playing Dolores was a lot to go through, she continues. ``It's like being in a nightmare you can't wake up from and it keeps changing and getting darker and darker as you go with the current.
To get deeper into the psychology and truth behind Dolores, Williams did a lot of reading on abnormal psychiatry, watched documentaries and talked to several doctors. ``I also talked a lot to Marty, she explains, ``because one of the most important things is to build that trust in order to go to these places together.
The period also intrigued Williams. ``It was a time in the 1950s when people felt they didn't know what was going to come next. Dolores was caught up in paranoia about war, about being spied on, about not being safe, she notes. ``I had to find compassion for what she was going through.
On camera, what Williams went through was often a drenching affair, flooded with dream-induced deluges. ``I spent the two months making this move soaking wet, she laughs. ``There were even water rigs in my hair and dress! But it's all part of Marty's storytelling, and it was so exciting to be part of that.
Says DiCaprio of Williams: ``Michelle rooted the entire film emotionally with a really engaging, intense performance that goes to the heart of who this couple is.
Dolores isn't the only woman who haunts Teddy Daniels during his journey to Ashecliffe hospital. There is also Rachel Solando, the perilously disturbed murderess whose inexplicable escape brings him to the island in the first place. Rachel appears in two incarnations, played both by Academy Award(R) nominee Patricia Clarkson (Pieces of April) and rising star Emily Mortimer (Match Point.)
Says Scorsese of Clarkson: ``Her scene with Leo in the cave is one of my favorites in the picture. She is like the Oracle of Delphi. It's this ritualistic encounter almost like an old myth. Yet, Patricia plays this character straightforwardly. There are no tricks in there. She just has got such range as an actor.
Clarkson was deeply intrigued by her character's role in the grand structure of the story. ``She's another twist and turn within the film who operates on several levels, she notes. ``When you hit my character, you think she might be the one who will provide the truth, some solace, the endpoint of the journey, but then you find out that there are many more twists to come. That's what's so beautiful about the writing in both the novel and the screenplay.
Another high point for Clarkson was working with DiCaprio. ``He makes a total transformation in this character, yet it's very subtle, fine and beautiful. I loved working with him because he gives 2,000 on every take, she says.
For Emily Mortimer, her role too was irresistible. ``Rachel is a fantastic, daunting role because you never see her sane in the movie, she comments. ``It was also exciting to enter this daring, Gothic, 1950s world Marty conjured up, to journey back into the style of the movies made back then. What I love most about the movie is that it poses a question we all ask ourselves sometimes: Am I mad or is the world around me mad? It jars your sense of what's real and what isn't, and Marty worked that perfectly.
Scorsese was equally enamored of Mortimer's performance. ``The way she plays Rachel is very moving. I found myself believing her and her reversal in the role makes it really chilling.
Perhaps the greatest challenge for Mortimer was simply acknowledging that she was part of such an illustrious ensemble. ``I was so proud to be a part of this cast, but it was also difficult because here I was having to go mad in front of people like Leonardo DiCaprio, Sir Ben Kingsley and Mark Ruffalo, but they were all extremely encouraging and supportive. Leo is an especially generous actor. He made me feel so at ease, she says. ``Our characters have an interesting dynamic because there is this constant contrast between what you see on the screen and what's really going on in the crevices of their minds.
DiCaprio also enjoyed that dynamic. ``Emily delivered unbelievably and her character really pushes Teddy's buttons, he says.
Another high-impact supporting role is that of Shutter Island inmate George Noyce. A mysterious face from Teddy's past, Noyce is played by Jackie Earle Haley (Little Children), another actor Scorsese had wanted to seek out. ``I thought he was remarkable in Little Children and he was quite interesting to work with, comments the director. ``He handled the dialogue with Teddy in fascinating ways. He shakes Teddy up and it's one of the highlights of the picture.
Says Haley, who endured intensive makeup to portray the battered Noyce: ``It's such a cool, pivotal scene that George has with Teddy and I can't tell you what a thrill it was to work so close to Leo while Marty was giving directions. It was a dream come true. In between takes, Marty would come up and tweak and shift and change us and continually make it better.
Rounding out the highly accomplished group of actors in the film's ensemble is the legendary Max von Sydow (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly), who plays Dr. Naehring, one of Ashecliffe's more ominous and threatening figures. Notes Scorsese: ``Max von Sydow is a giant of cinema. I think I first saw him in Bergman's The Seventh Seal and his range and experience over the last 50 years has been a part of film history itself. The depth of his control is fascinating to watch. He had the intelligence and confidence to handle the nature of this man who is an ex-Nazi. He also represents the other side of the psychiatric profession. Dr. Naehring is not a villain, but someone who really believes in what he's doing.

Behind Shutter Island: The Strange, True History of Mental Institutions
Shutter Island takes place in a shocking, macabre world that has been largely unseen on the movie screen: that of the 1950s psychiatric institution, in an era when treatment for those at the farthest and most violent reaches of madness was about to undergo a major revolution. As the dark days of ``warehouse-style asylums gave way to a new era of powerful brain surgeries and neurological drugs, it was a time when some patients were lost in a Kafkaesque system while others were part of cutting-edge experiments that forged many of our contemporary theories about criminal insanity. In the midst of Shutter Island's tangled mystery, Martin Scorsese provides a transporting glimpse into this darkly compelling world that was long hidden from view.
Asylums for the insane date all the way back to the Middle Ages but, even before then, societies agonized over what to do with those too mad to function safely in the outside world. Some have even posited that the term ``ship of fools referred to roaming vessels that carried the insane offshore as an early form of institution.
European asylums of the 16th and 17th Centuries were the progenitors of asylums in the U.S. They were essentially prisons, not treatment centers, bleak hellholes in which the patients were chained and abused like animals, beaten into submission and ``stored away in gruesome conditions, often until death. Perhaps the most infamous example was the large, intensely grim asylum at London's Bethlehem Hospital, a name which was soon shortened to Bedlam Hospital, and in turn gave rise to the word bedlam, meaning ``house of confusion. The hospital opened its doors to visitors, allowing them, for the price of a penny, to watch, poke and instigate the chained prisoners into bizarre reactions. With the inhabitants viewed by society as willing tools of the Devil, there was little compassion for their plight. (Intriguingly, by contrast, medieval asylums in Persia were relatively enlightened, initiating the use of soothing baths, music therapy and early forms of talk therapy to try to return patients to everyday life.) Bedlam would also come to be a 1946 Val Lewton film, with its poster proclaiming: ``Sensational secrets of infamous mad-house EXPOSED!
It was in 1792 that an asylum in Paris first experimented with cutting patients' chains and turning the facility from a windowless dungeon into a sun-lit retreat. They were encouraged when a few patients actually recovered, which was previously thought impossible. Thus began the slow-dawning era of ``New Treatment, with a greater emphasis on seeking cures, although sometimes by extreme and brutal means. Unfortunately, what emerged initially was a ghastly legacy of experimental treatments ranging from spinning patients at high speed in special chairs to ``calm their nerves to literally torturing them to ``bring them to their senses, a process that only further sealed the reputation of asylums as horror-filled realms from which few returned to normal society.
Over the next century and a half, Western asylums remained places surrounded by fear and revulsion. The first asylum in the fledgling United States was started by Benjamin Rush in 1769 at Williamsburg, Virginia and remained the only such facility in America for the next 50 years. In those years, most of the mentally ill in America wound up in poorhouses or prisons, but in 1827 an ``Act Concerning Lunatics forbid the confinement of insane persons in jail and a number of institutions were built around the country. Though there were some progressive exceptions, most notably the Quaker asylums in Philadelphia, Boston and New York, these were still largely unwelcoming places by today's standards, where common treatments included placing the patients in straitjackets in order to teach them restraint over their behavior, and even bloodletting and purging.
There also emerged a new category of the mentally ill, those whose madness inspired terrible crimes. In 1859, New York opened the first State Lunatic Asylum for Criminal Convicts.
By the end of World War I, in the wake of Freud's revolutionary theories and with thousands of war veterans suffering from post-battle psychological trauma, treatment facilities began to improve. Treatments themselves, however, often remained shockingly harsh. For example, Dr. Henry A. Cotton, who headed the New Jersey State Lunatic Asylum, pioneered a series of surgeries in the 1920s that involved the removal of teeth, tonsils, intestines and sexual organs believed to be the sites of madness-inducting infections. In the 1930s, Dr. Egas Moniz, a Portuguese neurologist, began experimenting with a new form of what became known as the prefrontal lobotomy, a radical surgery that severed nerve fibers in the part of the brain associated with emotions. The treatment did indeed calm those suffering from schizophrenia and intractable psychosis, albeit at tremendous cost to the patient's personality. Moniz was eventually awarded the Nobel Prize for his discovery of the technique.
By the 1940s, the lobotomy had ushered in a new age of psychiatry, one which was honing in on the physiology of the brain, and methods to alter it. An astonishing 40,000 Americans, some of whom were suffering from short-term depression, mental retardation or even a mere rebellious streak, underwent the life-altering procedure. Other extreme methodologies also came into favor, including insulin-induced comas and electro-convulsive therapy, aka ``shock therapy. Thankfully, by the end of the decade, the advent of powerful new neuroleptic drugs, including anti-depressants and anti-psychotics, promised a more humane, if still controversial, path to controlling runaway minds.
After World War II, for the first time, special facilities arose to address those suffering from combat-related mental trauma, and this, too, precipitated more sophisticated and subtle treatments. Meanwhile, under the newly descended Iron Curtain, Eastern European mental institutions established an even more sinister reputation as places of brutal punishment for dissenters and political prisoners, where mind-control experiments pushed many who started out quite sane, if politically defiant, beyond the brink.
It is in this era, at the height of 1950s psychiatric experimentalism and just before the reforms of the 1960s that would close many state mental hospitals, that Shutter Island is set.
To assure that the film would authentically depict psychiatric ideas and treatments of the period, Scorsese recruited a special consultant: Dr. James Gilligan, who had directed Massachusetts' prison mental hospital for the criminally insane (the Bridgewater State Hospital) in the 1970s. The federal courts had ordered the state to allow members of the Harvard Medical School faculty, led by Dr. Gilligan, to provide the treatment programs at Bridgewater in an effort to improve the quality of mental health care there, and he has been a leader in the struggle to reform mental and penal institutions ever since, throughout America and around the world.
``We were very fortunate to have Dr. Gilligan as our technical advisor, says Scorsese. ``His book on violence is a classic and he was there in the psychiatric hospitals of the '60s when things were changing. Not only is he an authority on the subject, but he also understands how to tell a story and how works of art over time have reflected man's nature.
Gilligan accepted his assignment at Bridgewater in the days following the outcry over Fred Wiseman's documentary film Titicut Follies, a politically explosive exposé of how despicable conditions there were, and took charge of the place during the period that marked its transformation into a more humane institution providing real hope for patients. He recalls the atrocities he witnessed firsthand: ``Cells resembled medieval dungeons. Patients were literally chained to the walls, left in their own excrement. Animals in zoos were cared for more humanely, he says. ``Bridgewater went through many of the same changes, experiments and conflicts that are part of this movie.
Having played a significant role in changing the practice of mental health care in the state of Massachusetts, Gilligan was especially excited by the themes of Shutter Island, and by Scorsese's determination to bring authenticity to the film's fictional hospital for the insane. ``Marty made it clear that, within the fictional world of the story, he wanted the hospital to be depicted realistically, he says. ``We worked together to make sure the story reflected a true war that was going on in the mid-20th century within the psychiatric community: a war between those clinicians who wanted to treat these patients with new forms of psychotherapy, education and medicine, and those who regarded the violent mentally ill as incurable and advocated controlling their behavior by inflicting irreversible brain damage, including indiscriminate use of shock treatment and crude forms of brain surgery, such as lobotomies.
Gilligan notes that it is the film's convoluted structure as much as its setting that takes the audience on an irresistible psychological journey. ``Films are a powerful artistic medium for depicting unconscious mental states, dreams and hallucinations, he says. ``The story of Shutter Island may not literally reflect how psychiatrists would today go about treating those who are psychotic, violent, suicidal and deeply traumatized, but what it does do is brilliantly express metaphorically what is going on in the minds and psyches of the characters.
The doctor, who currently teaches at New York University, was on hand for rehearsals, working with DiCaprio, Ruffalo, Kingsley and all the main cast, as well as with the extras who portray mental patients. ``My job was to explain to the actors how mental patients feel, how they interact with others, what they look like, how they hold themselves, their emotional affect and facial expressions, and also the extent of their physical and mental deterioration. Everyone was terribly interested, and each actor did research on his or her own, Dr. Gilligan says.
He adds: ``I was especially impressed with the extent to which Leonardo DiCaprio pursued his research. He really dug into the archives and found some 1940s teaching films for psychiatric professionals, remarkable artifacts that influenced his performance.
The entire cast was keen to glean from Gilligan's insights. ``He was really cool and I remember right away asking him a lot of questions about his experience in working at places like Shutter Island, says Jackie Earle Haley. ``I didn't want to take things too far with my character, but he said, 'Dude, you wouldn't believe the things I've seen and I'm seeing very accurate stuff here.' It gets back to that saying that truth is often stranger than fiction.
Brad Fischer says that having Gilligan as part of the team also helped to ratchet up the film's suspense. ``It's all part of setting the mood, the atmosphere, the tension of wanting to know what's really going on at this place that houses the worst of the criminally insane. The audience feels that compulsion to understand what is happening, just as Teddy does, and to figure out who is telling the truth.

Inside Shutter Island: The Design
As soon as U.S. Marshals Teddy Daniels and Chuck Aule arrive on Shutter Island, they are thrust into a strikingly Gothic atmosphere that mirrors the terror and anxiety they feel within. With calamitous weather, howling winds and driving rain ratcheting up the urgency of their investigation, they are confronted with a disorienting realm of imposing brick buildings, elongated corridors, claustrophobic cells and craggy, water-logged surroundings.
To fuse this starkly impressionistic world out of chillingly real locations, Martin Scorsese needed extraordinarily detailed design work from his artistic crew. The director turned to many of his loyal, longtime collaborators to tackle this creative task, among them the award-winning quartet of director of photography Robert Richardson, production designer Dante Ferretti, costume designer Sandy Powell and editor Thelma Schoonmaker.
The task of evoking the film's panoply of visual moods, from mystery and confusion to fury and panic, both physical and psychological, fell to director of photography Richardson, a regular Scorsese collaborator who has won Oscars(R) for his work on The Aviator and for Oliver Stone's JFK. Richardson used the camera creatively, sinuously, expressionistically to forge the sensation of moving through a spiraling fog of unanswered questions and lingering uncertainty. He and Scorsese garnered inspiration from a whole library's worth of classic films, not only from the previously mentioned features, but also from the camera movement and lighting of Roman Polanski's groundbreaking studies in abject horror, Repulsion, Cul-de-sac and Rosemary's Baby.
Scorsese explains: ``The idea was to come up with a way of reflecting a state of mind in the lighting, the tone of the picture and the island itself. The look of any film is important but if you're doing something that deals with street life, say in the case of The Departed, there is a simpler approach to visuals, whereas with Shutter Island, a state of mind had to be conveyed in every frame. We had to create a place that was more than just a setting, and there was a constant discussion about that between myself, Bob Richardson and also Dante Ferretti, he says. ``There is a visual sense of not understanding what's going on around you, who's really in charge, who's in control.
``Bob Richardson is one of a kind, adds Bradley Fischer. ``From the first shots I saw, the variations in the lighting and the mood were so transporting that I immediately thought, 'Wow, you can tell Bob Richardson is shooting this movie.' He's one of many brilliant people who showed up for Marty.
Richardson's work provided an additional thread of inspiration to the cast. Says DiCaprio: ``The look is almost like an M.C. Escher painting, where things are just a little off and you're never quite sure what you're really seeing. There's an omnipresent feeling of being locked into an inescapable environment.
After long conversations about film references and the structure of the film and characters, Scorsese set out on a scout with Ferretti and Richardson to find a stand-in for Shutter Island itself. They were looking not just for the right logistics, but the right feel. Several East Coast locations were considered but, ultimately, the filmmakers were drawn to the rustic, rocky shores of Peddocks Island, less than 100 miles off of Boston and which was settled by American Indians prior to the arrival of European settlers and has been used by farmers since the mid-1600s.
Equally key was the search to find a real hospital that could stand in for the imposing, unsettling complex of buildings that is Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane, a quest that would take the filmmakers on an intriguing ride into the history of mental asylums. It turns out that our preconceived picture of what a psychiatric hospital looks like, complete with Gothic brick architecture, wing-like spires and sprawling lawns, come largely from the ambitious designs of a 19th Century East Coast doctor named Thomas Story Kirkbride, who helped to forge a series of American mental hospitals according to what became known as ``The Kirkbride Plan.
Kirkbride's idea was to design Cathedral-like sanctuaries for the mentally ill that would give them a peaceful, elegant, morally ordered world to live up to. Unfortunately, in the end, many of these facilities would be under-funded and overpopulated, their vast halls turned eerie with deterioration and neglect.
Several Kirkbride Plan hospitals were built in Massachusetts but, by now, all have been converted into condos or fallen into total disrepair. However, the filmmakers found one abandoned asylum that could fit the bill: Medfield State Hospital in Medfield, Massachusetts, which had been closed since the 1960s, but never refurbished. Although the hospital is not one of Kirkbride's personal designs, it features a similar collection of two-story, red brick buildings on sprawling grounds, a classic asylum look that could be used as a raw shell for Ferretti's creations.
Occupying the buildings, however, would take an intensive process. Using Kirkbride's blueprints as his guide, Ferretti recreated a chilling embodiment of a 1950s psychiatric institute. Long before the start of filming at Medfield, Ferretti presented Scorsese and Richardson with an entire miniature, three-dimensional model of the Ashecliffe compound, enabling them to map out precise blocking of scenes, positioning actors for every camera move. The real thing, however, was even more evocative.
``My job was very clear, says the two-time Academy Award(R)-winning production designer, who garnered Oscars(R) for Scorsese's The Aviator and, more recently, for Sweeney Todd. ``Marty wanted American Gothic and so American Gothic is what we created on the grounds of Medfield.
He continues: ``I designed several Gothic-looking entrances and additions to the buildings that were already standing. Then, we built a long, rectangular wall around the buildings and the grounds not only to create a compound, but also to give a sense that we were in a confined, almost prison-like space, even to suggest that we were on an island within an island. We also created a lush-looking lawn within the compound, with flowerbeds and rock gardens that the patients carefully tend. We also reworked and redesigned all the interiors, including the orderlies' quarters and rest areas, the hospital corridors, the cafeteria, Dr. Cawley's office and the patients' quarters. I'd say we built 60 of what you see at Medfield from scratch. We even built Ashecliffe's graveyard, which is key to the plot.
To stand in for Ashecliffe's imposing executive mansion, off-limits to most staff and patients, the production moved to the intensely Gothic grounds of the Turner Hill Golf Club in Ipswich, Mass. Here, inside the mansion's baronial, wood-lined sitting room dominated by an oversized fireplace, Scorsese staged the hostile encounter between Teddy and Chuck on the one side, and Dr. Cawley and Dr. Naehring on the other. In addition, Rachel Solando's cell, from which the barefoot woman mystically vanishes, was constructed from scratch in a Medfield warehouse.
Later, Ferretti would metamorphose an abandoned textile mill in Taunton, Massachusetts into a section of the Dachau concentration camp, where Teddy Daniels, as a young soldier, has a seminal confrontation with humanity's destructive power, replete with barbed wire, fenced-in compounds and a rundown railroad transport carriage.
For the cast, these sets were a kind of vehicle, transporting them into another world beyond everyday reality. Says Patricia Clarkson: ``The set for my scene in the cave was extraordinary from the second you walked in. It was cavernous, ominous, frightening and it even seemed to have a smell to it, although it didn't. It was incredibly real and alive and that set the tone.
Adds Jackie Earle Haley: ``The sets were a trip and incredibly motivating. When I went into my cell and they shut the door it was very dark and isolated. It didn't feel at all like a movie set. The walls were all in place and you'd pound on something and be surprised that it wasn't really brick. I think that really added to our state of mind as actors.
Later, Oscar(R)-winning visual effects supervisor Rob Legato (Titanic, Apollo 13, The Aviator) and visual effects producer/post production supervisor Ron Ames (The Departed) would create further magic by scattering dramatic clouds and skyscapes into sunnier shots and intensifying the film's shades of grey with digital nuances. ``They helped to create the very special look of the cliffs, the water, the cave, the sky, and this also became part of the creation of a state of mind, says Scorsese. ``It was a major challenge all very, very well-thought-out shot by shot.
Another previous Scorsese collaborator, costume designer Sandy Powell, added to the details and depth of Shutter Island's all-enveloping world. Twice an Academy Award(R) winner, for The Aviator and John Madden's Shakespeare in Love, Powell's body of work has spanned many eras and lifestyles, but she had never entered the unusual realm of a 1950s mental institute before. She began her work by talking with Scorsese about his view of the characters.
``He gave me ideas, insights and guidelines that were indispensable, she recalls. ``For instance, he said about Teddy, Leo's character, 'He's not particularly well paid. He's an ordinary kind of guy.' Immediately, I then knew the direction I wanted to go in. Shutter Island is all about what's going on inside the characters, so my challenge was to make what the actors wear believable for that journey.
The compressed, fast-paced time frame of the story was also a challenge. ``It takes place over four days, so there's not much scope to change the characters' clothes progressively, she explains. ``Most of the characters wear one or two costumes, yet those costumes go through a lot. We had to make 44 versions of the orderly outfit Teddy puts on because it is drenched and rumpled in the hurricane and he goes through different adventures in it; he goes into the sea, walks along cliffs, and sleeps in a cave. He passes through various stages of dirtiness, if you will, and that was a process.
Also key to Powell's work in Shutter Island is color, which in itself is so linked to psychology. ``Color is the first thing I think about and it's usually an instinctive feeling, she explains. ``For example, with Dolores, I just had this feeling she should be wearing yellow and her dress plays throughout the film, so I had to get it absolutely right. On the other hand, Ben Kingsley chose the color of his costume. He told me he felt that his character should be in green. So, together we came up with the right shade, a deep, dark, almost olive that suits the doctor's intensity.
In search of authenticity, Powell sought out vintage pieces but mostly created her own. ``Suiting fabrics in the '40s and '50s were actually much heavier than they are today, she notes. ``So for Leo and Mark's suits we had to find contemporary fabrics that matched the vintage ones as best they could and build them from scratch. For Max von Sydow's character, Dr. Naehring, I had a very strong idea that I wanted him in dark black with a strong stripe and I couldn't find the proper weight, so we wove our own fabric. I did use some original clothing for Michelle Williams' character.
Weaving the film's equally vital aural fabric is music supervisor Robbie Robertson, who has known Scorsese since the director filmed Robertson's seminal rock ensemble, The Band, in The Last Waltz. Recalls Scorsese: ``Instead of writing a conventional score, I said to Robbie, 'What if we took some modern composers of the 20th century and some popular songs and moved elements of those around to create a wall of sound?', and he liked that idea. We pulled together pieces by Krzysztof Penderecki, Max Richter, Ingram Marshall, Marcel Duchamp, Morton Feldman, Giacinto Scelsi, Nam June Paik, John Adams, Brian Eno and Robert Erickson and used them in different ways throughout. There's also some popular songs from the early '50s, including Johnny Ray's 'Cry,' Kay Starr's 'Wheel of Fortune' and Lonnie Johnson's 'Tomorrow Night.' What Robbie did with the music was to create a kind of tapestry of what Teddy, Chuck, Dr. Cawley and all of them are feeling as the days and story unfold.

The Storms of Shutter Island: About the Weather
Weather is central to the atmosphere of many a Gothic horror thriller, but in Shutter Island it becomes not only an expression of the film's psychological volatility, but another unpredictable and dangerous character, turning on a dime from a silvery haze to a killer Class 5 hurricane pelting the island with ferocious rain and wind. The task of forging subtle, moment-by-moment changes in the weather fell to special effects coordinator R. Bruce Steinheimer, who helped weave together such elements as bone-soaking, sideways rain and gale-force gusts that uproot trees. Steinheimer previously collaborated with Scorsese on Gangs of New York and The Aviator, so he dove into the task knowing there would be a demand for absolute authenticity. He and special effects supervisor Rick Thompson searched for technical solutions to producing a palpable sense of natural forces at work.
``For the rain, we ended up using four overhead rain-bars, two of which were 100 feet long and held up by huge cranes, to produce rain that covered an area measuring 140 by 60 feet, explains Thompson. ``We also used what we call Spiders, square rain-bars that put down rain in a pattern of 80 by 80 feet, but the real challenge was that, since Marty's camera positions and his camera moves are so inventive, we had to be equally creative in positioning the rain-bars and the cranes.
To feed the rain-bars, Steinheimer and Thompson used water trucks with a 40,000-gallon capacity and high-pressure pumps. In addition, several large fire hoses, producing 60 to 80 pounds of water pressure, were used to bring the rain and mist to a fever pitch late in the film, but it wasn't rain alone that made the hurricane. There also had to be the sense of powerful bursts of wind throughout many of the film's most suspenseful sequences. ``For that, we had four gasoline-powered fans capable of creating breezes up to 80 miles per hour, Thompson recalls. ``For scenes in which dialogue was important we alternately used electrically powered fans that were quieter and produced winds of 75 miles per hour. We also attached tubing around the fans so we could produce sideway drafts, sending out sheets of rain in a horizontal pattern. We not only drenched the actors but most of the crew members as well.
Cast and crew became inured to drying off only to get drenched all over again. They also were ready to jump into action when the real weather suddenly cooperated with the filmmakers' ironic hope for inclement days. ``We worked inside when it was sunny and outside when it was cloudy, remarks Fischer.
Recalls DiCaprio: ``If there wasn't a crane dropping water on you then it was guys with fire hoses or a giant fan blowing air into your face.
But the result was that it ended up feeling very real to us. It added to the sense that these characters are confined to this island, that there's really no way out, and to the increasingly emotional impact to which the story builds.

About The Cast
LEONARDO DICAPRIO (Teddy Daniels) is an award-winning actor and a three-time Academy Award(R) nominee. He most recently garnered a 2009 Best Actor Golden Globe nomination for his work as Frank Wheeler in Revolutionary Road.
He earned his most recent Oscar(R) nod in 2007 for his performance in Edward Zwick's drama Blood Diamond, also receiving Golden Globe, Critics' Choice and Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award nominations for his work in the film. That same year, DiCaprio garnered Golden Globe, BAFTA Award, Critics' Choice Award and SAG Award nominations for his role in the Oscar(R)-winning Best Picture ``The Departed, which marked his third collaboration with director Martin Scorsese. He also shared in a SAG Award nomination for Outstanding Cast Performance with his castmates from The Departed.
He previously earned an Academy Award(R) nomination for his performance in Scorsese's acclaimed 2004 biopic The Aviator. DiCaprio's portrayal of Howard Hughes in that film also brought him a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Drama, as well as Critics' Choice Award and BAFTA Award nominations. In addition, he was honored with two SAG Award nominations, one for Best Actor and another for Outstanding Cast Performance as part of the film's cast.
This past year DiCaprio also starred in Ridley Scott's Body of Lies.
Born in Hollywood, California, DiCaprio started acting at the age of 14. His breakthrough feature film role came when director Michael Caton-Jones cast him as Tobias Wolff in the 1993 screen adaptation of Wolff's autobiographical drama This Boy's Life, in which he starred with Robert De Niro and Ellen Barkin. That same year, DiCaprio co-starred with Johnny Depp in Lasse Hallström's What's Eating Gilbert Grape, earning his first Oscar(R) and Golden Globe nominations for his performance as a mentally handicapped young man. In addition, he won the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actor and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association's New Generation Award for his work in the film.
In 1995, DiCaprio had starring roles in three very different films, beginning with Sam Raimi's Western The Quick and the Dead with Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman and Russell Crowe. He also garnered praise for his performance as drug addict Jim Carroll in the harrowing drama The Basketball Diaries, and for his portrayal of disturbed pansexual poet Arthur Rimbaud in Agnieszka Holland's Total Eclipse. The following year, DiCaprio starred in Baz Luhrmann's contemporary screen adaptation of William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet, for which he won the Best Actor Award at the Berlin International Film Festival. In addition, he joined an all-star ensemble cast in Marvin's Room, sharing a SAG Award nomination for Outstanding Cast Performance with his fellow cast members, including Meryl Streep, Diane Keaton and Robert De Niro.
In 1997, DiCaprio starred in the blockbuster Titanic, for which he earned a Golden Globe Award nomination. The film shattered every box office record on its way to winning 11 Oscars(R), including Best Picture, and remains the top-grossing film of all time. His subsequent film work includes dual roles in The Man in the Iron Mask; The Beach; Woody Allen's Celebrity; Steven Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can, for which he earned another Golden Globe nomination; and Gangs of New York, which was his first film for director Martin Scorsese.
Apart from his acting career, DiCaprio is well known for his dedication to helping the environment on a global level. By launching the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation in 1998 and later LeonardoDiCaprio.org, he has collaborated with other organizations to foster awareness of the environment. The Foundation places particular emphasis on the issues of global warming, alternative and renewable energy sources and the preservation of the planet's biodiversity. He serves on the boards of the NRDC and Global Green USA. In 2007, he wrote, produced and narrated the acclaimed environmentally themed documentary The 11th Hour.
In early 2008, the DiCaprio Foundation joined the California Community Foundation, and is now known as The Leonardo DiCaprio Fund at CCF. The fund will continue to support environmental causes through grant-making and active participation.
MARK RUFFALO (Chuck Aule) is one of Hollywood's most sought after actors, easily moving between stage and screen and working with directors including Ang Lee, Martin Scorsese, Michael Mann, David Fincher, Fernando Meirelles and Michel Gondry.
Ruffalo recently starred in Where the Wild Things Are directed by Spike Jonze and The Brothers Bloom, an international con man adventure directed by Rian Johnson (Brick). The cast included Adrien Brody, Rachel Weisz and Rinko Kikuchi.
In 2008, Ruffalo was seen in Miramax Films' Blindness, directed by Fernando Meirelles (City of God, The Constant Gardener). The film, based on the book by Nobel Prize winner José Saramago, follows a plague of blindness that affects everyone in an anonymous city. His co-stars were Julianne Moore and Danny Glover. Blindness screened at the Cannes International Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival.
In 2007, Ruffalo was seen in the Focus Features film Reservation Road opposite Joaquin Phoenix and Jennifer Connelly. The film screened at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival. The same year, Ruffalo appeared in Paramount Pictures' Zodiac opposite Jake Gyllenhaal and Robert Downey Jr. Ruffalo portrayed Detective Dave Toschi, who devoted his career to tracking down the Zodiac killer. Phoenix Pictures has purchased the rights to The Brass Wall as a starring vehicle for Ruffalo. He will play an undercover cop who infiltrates the Lucchesi crime family in New York to solve the murder of a city firefighter.
In 2006, Ruffalo received a Tony Award nomination for his Broadway debut in the Lincoln Center Theater's revival of Clifford Odets' Awake and Sing! In the Depression-era drama, Ruffalo played a World War I veteran who lost a leg during the war. The cast included Ben Gazzara, Zoë Wanamaker and Lauren Ambrose. The same year, Ruffalo was seen in All the King's Men with Sean Penn, Kate Winslet and Jude Law. The film premiered at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival.
In 2005, Ruffalo starred opposite Reese Witherspoon in DreamWorks' Just Like Heaven. The previous year he appeared in the Michael Mann-directed Collateral opposite Tom Cruise. He was also seen in Warner Independents' We Don't Live Here Anymore opposite Naomi Watts, Peter Krause and Laura Dern. Ruffalo served as an executive producer on the film, which screened at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. Also in 2004, Ruffalo starred in the romantic comedy 13 Going on 30 opposite Jennifer Garner and Charlie Kaufman's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind opposite Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet.
In 2003, Ruffalo was seen opposite Meg Ryan in Jane Campion's film In the Cut. That same year, he appeared in the independent film My Life Without Me, written and directed by Isabel Coixet and also starring Sarah Polley and Scott Speedman.
Ruffalo earned critical recognition in 2000 for his role in Kenneth Lonergan's You Can Count on Me, opposite Laura Linney and Matthew Broderick. For his performance, he won the Best Actor Award at the 2000 Montreal Film Festival and the New Generation Award from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. The Martin Scorsese-produced film won the coveted Grand Jury Prize for best film in dramatic competition and the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival.
Ruffalo's other credits include What Doesn't Kill You, Brian Goodman's autobiographical crime drama; The Last Castle opposite Robert Redford and James Gandolfini; Windtalkers opposite Nicolas Cage; XX/XY; Committed; Ride With the Devil, directed by Ang Lee; 54; Safe Men; The Last Big Thing; A Fish in the Bathtub with Jerry Stiller; and Dan Bootzin's Life/Drawing.
Ruffalo's acting roots lie in the theater, where he first drew attention starring in the off-Broadway production of This is Our Youth, written and directed by Kenneth Lonergan, for which he won a Lucille Lortel Award for Best Actor. Ruffalo has won several awards for other performances, including a Dramalogue Award and the Theater World Award. In 2000, Ruffalo was seen in the off-Broadway production The Moment When, a play by Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner James Lapine.
Having trained with Joanne Linville at the distinguished Stella Adler Conservatory, Ruffalo made his theater debut in Avenue A at The Cast Theater. Ruffalo continued his relationship with The Cast Theater, performing in several of Justin Tanner's award-winning plays, including Still Life with Vacuum Salesman and Tent Show.
A writer, director and producer as well, Ruffalo co-wrote the screenplay for the independent film The Destiny of Marty Fine, which was the first runner-up in the 1995 Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. Additionally, he has directed several plays and one-acts. In 2000, he directed Timothy McNeil's original play Margaret at the Hudson Backstage Theatre in Los Angeles.
Ruffalo resides in Los Angeles.
BEN KINGSLEY (Dr. Cawley) earned an Academy Award(R), two Golden Globes and two BAFTA Awards for his riveting portrayal of Indian social leader Mahatma Gandhi. He continues to bring unequaled detail and nuance to each role.
Garnering three additional Oscar(R) nominations for Bugsy (1991), Sexy Beast (2000) and House of Sand and Fog (2003), his roles have been as diverse as his talents, from a sturdy U.S. Vice President in Dave to the scheming Fagin in Oliver Twist. Since being knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in the New Year's Eve Honors List 2001, Kingsley has continued to earn honors as a truly international star.
Upcoming for Kingsley are Disney's Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, based on the popular video game, starring opposite Jake Gyllenhaal; and Teen Patti, starring alongside India's Amitabh Bachchan in the thriller revolving around a reclusive math genius who becomes involved in the world of gambling.
Steeped in British theater, Kingsley marked the beginning of his professional acting career with his acceptance by the Royal Shakespeare Company in l967. From roles in A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Tempest, Brutus in Julius Caesar and the title roles in Othello and Hamlet, among others, his more recent and diverse stage roles include those in The Country Wife, The Cherry Orchard, A Betrothal, The Elephant Man and Waiting for Godot.
Kingsley's film career began in l972 with the thriller Fear Is the Key, but his first major role came a decade later in the epic Gandhi, directed by Richard Attenborough. He followed this Oscar(R)-winning performance with such early films as Betrayal, Turtle Diary, Harem, Pascali's Island, Without a Clue (as Dr. Watson to Michael Caine's Sherlock Holmes) and The Children opposite Kim Novak. During the '90s Kingsley distinguished himself through such roles as Meyer Lansky in Bugsy, Sneakers, Searching for Bobby Fischer and Dave. In 1994, he was nominated for a BAFTA Award for his memorable supporting role as Itzhak Stern in Steven Spielberg's seven-time Oscar(R) winner Schindler's List.
During the past decade, Ben Kingsley has remained a coveted and ubiquitous talent. Beginning with such films as Rules of Engagement, What Planet Are You From? and an Oscar(R)-nominated role as a brutal gangster in Sexy Beast, he received his most recent Oscar(R) nomination in 2004 for his performance as a proud Iranian emigrant in the highly acclaimed House of Sand and Fog. Among his films in the last several years are Roman Polanski's Oliver Twist, the crime drama Lucky Number Slevin, John Dahl's You Kill Me and the Roman empire saga The Last Legion. His other recent roles give further perspective to his work: The Wackness, in which he played a drug-addled psychiatrist opposite Josh Peck, Famke Janssen, Olivia Thirlby and Mary-Kate Olsen; and the crime thriller Transsiberian, as a mysterious traveler opposite Woody Harrelson, Eduardo Noriega and Thomas Kretschmann. He also recently starred in the sexually charged Elegy; Fifty Dead Men Walking, a thriller set against the dangerous backdrop of 1980s Ireland; and the more lighthearted crime comedy War, Inc. with John Cusack, Hilary Duff and Marisa Tomei.
MICHELLE WILLIAMS' (Dolores) riveting performance in Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain earned her a Broadcast Film Critics Association Award as well as Best Supporting Actress nominations from SAG, Golden Globe and BAFTA, as well as an Academy Award(R) nomination. Williams was last seen starring in Kelly Reichardt's critically acclaimed independent film Wendy and Lucy. Williams' moving and evocative performance as Wendy garnered a Toronto Film Critics Award for Best Actress and her third Independent Spirit Award Nomination.
In 2004, Williams shared a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination with her fellow actors from Thomas McCarthy's The Station Agent for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. In 2005, Williams was honored by the Motion Picture Club as Female Star of Tomorrow. Williams was nominated for a 2007 Independent Spirit Award for Best Actress for her performance in Wim Wenders' Land of Plenty.
She recently wrapped filming on Lukas Moodysson's Mammoth opposite Gael García Bernal and Derek Cianfrance's Blue Valentine opposite Ryan Gosling
Williams' other film credits include Sharon Maguire's Incendiary, Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche, New York, Todd Haynes' I'm Not There, Dan Harris' Imaginary Heroes, Richard Ledes' A Hole in One, Ethan Hawke's The Hottest State, Julian Goldberger's The Hawk Is Dying, Sandra Goldbacher's Me Without You, and Andrew Fleming's Dick.
On television, Williams starred opposite Chloë Sevigny in Martha Coolidge's critically acclaimed HBO movie If These Walls Could Talk 2. She also had a six-year run as Jen Lindley on The WB's hit television series Dawson's Creek. The series premiered in 1998 and remained one of The WB's top-rated shows throughout its run.
On stage, Williams received glowing reviews for her portrayal of Varya in Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. She also achieved critical acclaim for her run in Mike Leigh's Smelling a Rat at the Samuel Beckett Theatre and her off-Broadway debut in Killer Joe.
EMILY MORTIMER'S (Rachel Solando) many film credits include her break-
out role in the critically-acclaimed Lovely & Amazing, a comical, bittersweet tale of
four hapless, but resilient, women and the lessons they learn in keeping up with the
hectic demands of their individual neuroses. The film brought Mortimer great
critical acclaim and a 2003 Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Mortimer recently starred in a diverse range of films, including the widely
acclaimed, touching comedy Lars and the Real Girl, opposite Ryan Gosling and
Patricia Clarkson; David Mamet's Redbelt, set in the Westside Los Angeles fight
world; Woody Allen's critically well-received Match Point alongside Scarlett
Johansson, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Matthew Goode; and the hit comedy The
Pink Panther, playing Nicole, Inspector Clouseau's hapless secretary, opposite Steve
Martin.
Mortimer's other film credits include starring in Shona Auerbach's Dear Frankie, for which she earned a London Film Critics Award nomination as an impoverished single mother who has moved to a seaside Scottish town with her deaf child; acclaimed filmmaker David Mackenzie's first film, Young Adam, starring Ewan McGregor, for which Mortimer earned a nomination as Best British Actress at the 2004 Empire Awards and a nomination for Best British Actress in a Supporting Role at the 2004 London Film Critics Circle Awards; leading the ensemble cast in Stephen Fry's directorial debut Bright Young Things; Kenneth Branagh's Love's Labour's Lost; Shekhar Kapur's award-winning Elizabeth; The Ghost and the Darkness with Michael Douglas and Val Kilmer; Formula 51 with Robert Carlyle and Samuel
L. Jackson; Wes Craven's Scream 3; The Kid opposite Bruce Willis; and Helmut Schleppi's independent feature A Foreign Affair with Tim Blake Nelson and David Arquette. She also voiced the character of young Sophie in Walt Disney Studios' English language version of Howl's Moving Castle, directed by the renowned Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki.
Over the last year, she has worked continuously on a wide range of projects, including the Brad Anderson (The Machinist) thriller Transsiberian, starring opposite Woody Harrelson and Ben Kingsley; and The Pink Panther 2, reprising her role opposite Steve Martin.
In addition to her several film projects, Mortimer has also starred in a range of television projects for the BBC and played the recurring role of Phoebe, Alec Baldwin's character's love interest, during the 2007 season of the hit NBC series 30 Rock.
Mortimer's theater credits include her off-Broadway debut at the Atlantic
Theater (February, 2008 - April, 2008) in the World Premiere run of acclaimed
playwright Jez Butterworth's Parlour Song, directed by Neil Pepe. Other theater
credits included productions of The Merchant of Venice at the Lyceum Theatre and
The Lights at the Royal Court. While studying English at Oxford University,
Mortimer had starring roles in numerous stage productions, including Ophelia in
Hamlet at Oxford Shakespeare Festival, Gertrude in Hamlet, Lady Nijo/Winn in Top
Girls at the Edinburgh Festival, Miss Burstner/Leni in The Trial at the Oxford
Playhouse, and Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Old Fire Station,
Oxford. She also devised, directed and acted in a production of Don Juan, which
was a Drama Cupper's Winner. In November 2007, Mortimer was invited by Eric
Idle (Monty Python) to take part in his tryout run of his new play What About Dick?
for two public performances at the Ricardo Montalban Theater. The stellar cast
included Billy Connolly, Tim Curry, Eric Idle, Eddie Izzard, Jane Leeves, Jim
Piddock and Tracey Ullman. Subtitled A Film for Radio, Idle's work-in-progress
comedy involved the eight actors gathered together on stage to perform a classic
radio drama, What About Dick?, at the original Lux Radio Theater in 1948.
Mortimer was born in London, England. She is the daughter of famed writer
Sir John Mortimer and Penelope Glossop. Mortimer attended the highly respected
St. Paul's Girls School in Barnes, London. She then studied English and Russian at
Oxford University from 1990 to 1994. She married actor Alessandro Nivola in 2002,
and their first child was born in 2003.
Academy Award(R) nominated and Emmy-winning actress PATRICIA CLARKSON (Rachel Solando) has taken on roles as varied as the platform in which she plays them. Her comfort in taking on roles from motion pictures, television and the theater has earned her great accolades and success, and she has become one of today's most respected actresses in the entertainment industry.
This spring, Clarkson was honored at ShoWest with the Independent Award for Acting Excellence for her continuous innovative work in independent film. This summer, Clarkson teamed up once again with Woody Allen in Whatever Works alongside Larry David and Evan Rachel Wood. The film opened this year's Tribeca Film Festival.
She was recently seen in Phoebe in Wonderland opposite Elle Fanning and Felicity Huffman. Peter Travers from Rolling Stone raved She's a sorceress of an actress who makes wicked magic, be it on TV (Six Feet Under) or stage (A Streetcar Named Desire) and in movies from High Art and Far from Heaven to Pieces of April, The Station Agent and Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Clarkson is at her brilliant best in Phoebe in Wonderland.
Last year, Clarkson received praise for her work in Isabel Coixet's Elegy opposite Sir Ben Kingsley, Penélope Cruz and Dennis Hopper. Additionally, Clarkson appeared in Vicky Cristina Barcelona, written and directed by Woody Allen, as well as Ira Sachs' Married Life alongside Chris Cooper and Pierce Brosnan.
Additional credits include Lars and the Real Girl, Blind Date, All the King's Men, Goodnight, and Good Luck., The Dying Gaul, The Woods, Far from Heaven, Miracle, High Art, Dogville, Welcome to Collinwood, The Pledge, The Green Mile, Everybody's All-American, The Dead Pool, Rocket Gibraltar, Tune in Tomorrow, Joe Gould's Secret, Wendigo and Brian De Palma's The Untouchables, her film debut.
In 2003, Clarkson's work in two independent films earned her unparalleled recognition. She was nominated for an Academy Award(R), Golden Globe, SAG Award, Broadcast Film Critics Award and an independent Spirit Award for her role in Pieces of April. In addition, the Sundance Film Festival awarded her the Jury Prize for Outstanding Performance in Pieces of April, The Station Agent and All the Real Girls. Her performance in The Station Agent earned her SAG Award nominations for Best Actress and Best Ensemble Cast. The National Board of Review and the National Society of Film Critics named her Best Supporting Actress of the Year for her work in Pieces of April and The Station Agent.
She also won Best Supporting Actress Awards from the New York Film Critics Circle and National Society of Film Critics for her performance in Todd Haynes' Far from Heaven. That role also earned her a nomination from the Chicago Film Critics. Her performance as Greta in Lisa Cholodenko's High Art earned her a nomination for an Independent Spirit Award.
On television, Clarkson won an Emmy in 2002 and 2006 for her guest-starring role on HBO's acclaimed drama Six Feet Under.
Clarkson made her professional acting debut on the New York stage. Her theatre credits include Eastern Standard (on and off-Broadway), Maidens Prayer (for which she received Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk Award Nominations), Raised in Captivity, Oliver Oliver, The House of Blue Leaves and Three Days of Rain. Her regional credits include performances at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, South Coast Repertory and Yale Repertory.
Born and raised in New Orleans, Clarkson began acting in school plays in her early teens. After studying speech at Louisiana State University for two years, she transferred to Fordham University in New York, where she graduated summa cum laude with a degree in theater arts. She earned her MFA at the prestigious Yale School of Drama, where she appeared in Electra, Pacific Overtures, Pericles, La Ronde, The Lower Depths and The Misanthrope.
She currently lives in New York.
The legendary actor MAX VON SYDOW (Dr. Naehring), who has received innumerable honors from the international film community and has been in films for 60 years, is known for his extraordinary collaboration with the great Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman. Among the 11 Bergman films in which von Sydow has starred are the classics The Seventh Seal, The Magician, The Virgin Spring, Through a Glass Darkly, Hour of the Wolf and Shame, and he appeared in several other Swedish films, including The Emigrants and The New Land.
Von Sydow made his film debut in the Swedish film Only a Mother in 1949 and appeared for the first time in a Hollywood film playing Christ in George Stevens' epic The Greatest Story Ever Told.
He also appeared in such hits as Hawaii, William Friedkin's The Exorcist, John Huston's The Kremlin Letter, Sydney Pollack's Three Days of the Condor, Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters and David Lynch's Dune, as well as Pelle the Conquerer (for which he was nominated for a Best Actor Academy Award(R)), Death Watch, Voyage of the Damned and many, many others.
More recently, von Sydow was seen in Scott Hicks' Snow Falling on Cedars, Steven Spielberg's Minority Report and Paul Marcus' Heidi and received worldwide acclaim for his performance as a grieving father in Julian Schnabel's film The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. He will next be seen in Ridley Scott's Robin Hood.
He was born in Lund, Sweden and attended the Acting Academy at the Royal Dramatic Theater in Stockholm, Sweden from 1948 through 1951, when he appeared on stage in Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt. Among his other appearances are Swedish productions of Luigi Pirandello's Henry IV, Tennessee Williams' Cat on aHot Tin Roof, Jean Anouilh's Waltz of the Toreadors, Moliere's The Mistanthrope, Jean-Paul Sartre's The Condemned of Altona, Ibsen's The Wild Duck, and many others.
He appeared on Broadway in Night of the Tribades and Duet for One, and at London's Old Vic in the role of Prospero in Shakespeare's The Tempest, which he had played in Sweden.
In 1988, he directed the film Katinka, based on Herman Bang's novel Along the Highway.
He currently lives in Paris with his wife, Catherine, a filmmaker.

About the Filmmakers
MARTIN SCORSESE (Director/Producer) was born in 1942 in New York City, and was raised in the downtown neighborhood of Little Italy, which later provided the inspiration for several of his films. Scorsese earned a BS degree in film communications in 1964, followed by an MA in the same field in 1966 at New York University's School of Film. During this time, he made numerous prize-winning short films, including The Big Shave. In 1968, Scorsese directed his first feature film, Who's That Knocking at My Door. He served as assistant director and an editor of the documentary Woodstock in 1970, and won critical and popular acclaim for his 1973 film Mean Streets. Scorsese directed his first documentary film, Italianamerican, in 1974.
In 1976, Scorsese's Taxi Driver was awarded the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. He followed with New York, New York in 1977, The Last Waltz in 1978 and Raging Bull in 1980, which received eight Academy Award(R) nominations including Best Picture and Best Director. Scorsese went on to direct The Color of Money, The Last Temptation of Christ, GoodFellas, Cape Fear, Casino, Kundun and The Age of Innocence, among other films. In 1996, he completed a four-hour documentary, A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies, co-directed by Michael Henry Wilson. The documentary was commissioned by the British Film Institute to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of cinema. In 2001, Scorsese released Il Mio Viaggio in Italia, an epic documentary that affectionately chronicles his love for Italian cinema.
His long-cherished project Gangs of New York was released in 2002, earning numerous critical honors including a Golden Globe Award for Best Director. In 2003, PBS broadcast the seven-film documentary series Martin Scorsese Presents: The Blues.
The Aviator was released in December 2004 and earned five Academy Awards(R) in addition to the Golden Globe and BAFTA Awards for Best Picture. In 2005, No Direction Home: Bob Dylan was broadcast as part of the ``American Masters series on PBS and released on DVD worldwide by Paramount Home Entertainment. Scorsese's most recent feature, The Departed, was released to critical acclaim in October 2006 and has been honored with the Directors Guild of America, Golden Globe, New York Film Critics, National Board of Review and Critics Choice Awards for Best Director, in addition to four Academy Awards(R) including Best Picture and Best Director.
Shine a Light, Scorsese's documentary of the Rolling Stones in concert, was released worldwide April 4, 2008.
Scorsese's additional awards and honors include the Golden Lion from the Venice Film Festival (1995), the AFI Life Achievement Award (1997), the Honoree at the Film Society of Lincoln Center's 25th Gala Tribute (1998), the DGA Lifetime Achievement Award (2003) and The Kennedy Center Honors (2007). Scorsese is the founder and chair of The Film Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and protection of motion picture history.
At the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, Scorsese launched the World Cinema Foundation, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and restoration of neglected films from around the world, with special attention paid to those developing countries lacking the financial and technical resources to do the work themselves. Scorsese is the founder and chair.
LAETA KALOGRIDIS (Screenplay/Executive Producer) has written several episodes of the television series Birds of Prey, which she also executive-produced. She wrote the screenplay for the film Night Watch and her other feature credits include Oliver Stone's Alexander, Pathfinder and Scream 3.
Kalogridis wrote the pilot episode for the television series The Bionic Woman, among several other episodes, and also served as the series' executive producer.
MIKE MEDAVOY (Producer): Sample some of the best American films over the past thirty-five years and there's a good chance Mike Medavoy played a role in the success of many of them. Born in Shanghai, China in 1941 of Russian-Jewish parents, he lived in Chile from 1947 to 1957. Medavoy began his career at Universal Studios in 1964 and joined the International Famous Agency in 1971. In 1974, United Artists brought him in as senior vice president of production, where he was part of the team responsible for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Rocky, Annie Hall, Apocalypse Now, Raging Bull, Network and Coming Home.
In 1978, Medavoy co-founded Orion Pictures and during his tenure Platoon, Amadeus, RoboCop, Hannah and Her Sisters, The Terminator, Dances with Wolves, and Silence of the Lambs were released.
In 1990, Medavoy became chairman of TriStar Pictures, where Philadelphia, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Sleepless in Seattle, Cliffhanger, The Fisher King, Legends of the Fall and Hook debuted. Of all the films Medavoy has been involved in, 16 have been nominated for Best Picture Oscars(R) and seven have won Best Picture Academy Awards(R).
Today, as chairman and co-founder of Phoenix Pictures, Medavoy has brought to the screen The People vs. Larry Flynt, Apt Pupil, The Thin Red Line, The Sixth Day, Basic, Holes, All the King's Men, Zodiac and Miss Potter, among others. Currently, Phoenix is also in production on Shanghai starring John Cusack.
Medavoy is also active in the community and serves on various University boards and on the Council of Foreign Relations. Medavoy has received numerous awards, including a star on Hollywood Boulevard, a Cannes Lifetime Achievement Award and the French Government's Legion of Honor.
ARNOLD W. MESSER (Producer) has, over the course of his distinguished career, firmly established himself as one of the leading figures in the film and television industries. Today, as president and chief operating officer of Phoenix Pictures, Messer brings his wealth of expertise to bear on the company's future as a beacon for film and television entertainment.
A native of Lincoln, Nebraska, Messer is a graduate of Harvard Law School. He launched his career in the entertainment business as senior counsel at Columbia Pictures Television in l979. After a stint as vice president of business affairs at Viacom International, Messer returned to Columbia, where he served first as senior vice president and later executive vice president of worldwide business affairs. In 1983, he was named senior executive vice president and president of Tri-Star Pictures' Telecommunications Group, where he oversaw all theatrical production and ancillary marketing activities for the company.
In 1987, Messer returned to Columbia Pictures as executive vice president. He supervised worldwide television production and distribution activities, and negotiated major international television agreements for the company. In 1989, he was named president of the international releasing group for Sony Pictures Entertainment, where he was responsible for all international activities and ancillary market operations. In 1992, Messer led his division to well over $1 billion in gross revenues worldwide. That year, he was promoted to executive vice president of Sony Pictures Entertainment, taking charge of long-term global strategy and overseeing international production.
In 1994, Messer teamed with his friend and colleague Mike Medavoy to launch their own company, Phoenix Pictures. After months of careful planning, Phoenix opened for business in November 1995.
At Phoenix, Messer has served as a producer on a number of films, most recently Zodiac, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr. and Mark Ruffalo and directed by David Fincher, and Miss Potter, starring Renée Zellweger, Ewan McGregor and Emily Watson and directed by Chris Noonan.
BRADLEY J. FISCHER (Producer) began his career at Phoenix Pictures in August of 1998 as executive assistant to Mike Medavoy, chairman and CEO. He was promoted to director of development in 1999, to vice president of production in 2002, senior vice president of production in 2004 and, most recently, co-president of production in January, 2007.
During his tenure at Phoenix Pictures, Fischer has been instrumental in discovering, developing and producing many high-profile projects for the company, including the critically acclaimed David Fincher film Zodiac, which he produced.
Fischer also executive-produced three 2007 releases: the Warner Bros. comedy License to Wed, directed by Ken Kwapis and starring Robin Williams, John Krasinsky and Mandy Moore; Pathfinder, the Viking saga directed by Marcus Nispel and starring Karl Urban and Clancy Brown, which was released by Twentieth Century Fox; and Resurrecting the Champ, directed by Rod Lurie and starring Samuel
L. Jackson, Josh Hartnett, Alan Alda and Teri Hatcher.
Among the projects Fischer is developing at Phoenix Pictures are RoboCop, which David Self is currently writing and which Darren Aronofsky will direct; Koko by Peter Straub, which Ken Nolan (Black Hawk Down) will adapt; The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, based on the Hugo Award-winning sci-fi classic by Robert Heinlein; The Brass Wall, based on the book by David Kocieniewski, which will star Mark Ruffalo; and an upcoming slate that includes projects with Alex Proyas and Frank Darabont.
In addition to his work at Phoenix Pictures, Fischer also serves on the board of directors of the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in Los Angeles.
Fischer graduated from Columbia University in 1998 with a BA in Film Studies and Psychology and is a native of New York. He resides in Los Angeles with his wife, Karen, and three dogs, Bentley, Chloe and Katie.
CHRIS BRIGHAM (Executive Producer) most recently executive-produced Rob Cohen's The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor and The Good Shepherd, directed by Robert De Niro. He also served as executive producer on Martin Scorsese's acclaimed film The Aviator and Tribeca Films' hit comedies Analyze This and Analyze That, directed by Harold Ramis and starring Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal. Among other films Brigham has executive-produced are The Count of Monte Cristo and The Legend of Bagger Vance. He co-produced Extreme Measures and Before
and After. Brigham has worked as unit production manager on Kiss of Death, Six Degrees of Separation, Interview with the Vampire and Lorenzo's Oil.
DENNIS LEHANE (Executive Producer/Author) grew up in the Dorchester section of Boston's inner-city. Since his first novel, A Drink Before the War, won the Shamus Award, he's published seven additional novels with William Morrow & Co. that have been translated into more than 30 languages and become international bestsellers: Darkness; Take My Hand; Sacred; Gone, Baby, Gone; Prayers for Rain; Mystic River; Shutter Island; and The Given Day. Morrow also published Coronado, a collection of five stories and a play. Both Mystic River and Gone, Baby, Gone have been made into award-winning films. In addition to his novels, Lehane was a staff writer for HBO's acclaimed, Baltimore-based series The Wire.
Lehane has an MFA from Florida International University and is the writer-in-residence at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida, where he runs the Writers in Paradise writers' conference. Before becoming a full-time writer, Mr. Lehane worked as a counselor with mentally handicapped and abused children, waited tables, parked cars, drove limos, worked in bookstores, and loaded tractor-trailers. He and his wife divide their time between St. Petersburg and Boston.
GIANNI NUNNARI (Executive Producer) is president, founder and CEO of Hollywood Gang Productions, L.L.C., a film production company located on the studio lot of Warner Bros. Pictures. Regularly written about in trade publications, Nunnari's development slate has many of the most anticipated feature tent-poles in Hollywood. He is a producer of the ancient Greek action epic 300, which to date has global sales of approximately $700 million. The film was the most successful domestic March theatrical opening in history, and grossed $300 million in just twenty-two days. Previous to 300, Nunnari produced Martin Scorsese's Oscar(R)-winning The Departed. The film was Scorsese's most profitable ever.
From 1987 to 2007, Nunnari served as president and co-founder of Cecchi Gori Pictures, Inc., (``CGP). CGP served as the U.S. production and distribution arm of the Italian-based entertainment and media conglomerate of Cecchi Gori Group Fin. Ma. Vi. CGP became the model of locally-based international production with worldwide commercial appeal. This concept of filmmaking is the cornerstone of Hollywood Gang's philosophy. In addition to spearheading all U.S. activities for Cecchi Gori, Nunnari formed Penta Pictures, a joint venture with Silvio Berlusconi, the current Prime Minister of Italy.
During his tenure at CGP, Nunnari produced a series of smaller Italian films aimed at the US market. In 1991, Cecchi Gori produced Mediterraneo, a small-budget, European-style, Italian-language film that thrilled audiences in America. Due in large measure to Nunnari's efforts, Mediterraneo was sold to Miramax and distributed worldwide. It was subsequently awarded the Academy Award(R) for Best Foreign Language Film.
Next, Nunnari convinced his friend Massimo Troisi, a Neapolitan film star primarily known for his peculiar comedic approach in film, to direct and star in Il Postino. Again, the formula worked. With Nunnari engineering the international distribution and publicity campaigns, Il Postino was successful worldwide, both artistically and financially. The film won one Oscar(R), and was nominated for four additional awards including Best Picture.
Nunnari's most notable success in this strategy of producing foreign films for the U.S. market was Life Is Beautiful, directed by and starring Roberto Benigni. Nunnari orchestrated the distribution of the film worldwide, and the film produced not only artistic success, but was a genuine hit. Life Is Beautiful won multiple awards, including the Academy Award(R) for Best Actor, Best Foreign Language Film and Best Music, Original Dramatic Score and returned over $25 million for Cecchi Gori, in addition to recouping the initial approximately $6 million production investment.
Nunnari has also developed or produced many other mainstream Hollywood movies, including Seven, starring Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Gwyneth Paltrow and Kevin Spacey; Alexander, directed by Oliver Stone, starring Anthony Hopkins, Colin Farrell, Angelina Jolie and Val Kilmer; and From Dusk Till Dawn, starring Harvey Keitel, George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino.
Hollywood Gang's Everybody's Fine, a bittersweet family comedy starring Robert De Niro, Kate Beckinsale, Sam Rockwell and Drew Barrymore, was released by Miramax in late 2009.
Nunnari currently has three films in preproduction: Eleven Minutes, based on the international best-selling novel by Paulo Coelho; War of Gods, for Relativity Media and Universal; and Martin Scorsese's Silence.
LOUIS PHILLIPS (Executive Producer) is senior executive vice president of physical production, post production and music at Phoenix Pictures.
Phillips began his career in 1979, and subsequently worked on approximately 40 features. Starting out in independent production in both New York and Los Angeles on numerous films, including Arthur and Ruthless People, Phillips then spent nine years with Walt Disney Studios working at Disney's Touchstone Pictures and Buena Vista Pictures. During this period he supervised production on a number of feature films, including Funny Bones, Mad Love, Bad Company, Spaced Invaders, Money for Nothing, Blank Check, Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken, It's Pat, Ernest Scared Stupid, My Boyfriend's Back and Shipwrecked.
Phillips next joined Paramount Pictures, where as a production executive he oversaw the films Good Burger, Dead Man on Campus, Jade, Hard Rain, Harriet the Spy, The Saint and Dear God. Moving on from Paramount, he served three years as vice president of production administration for Jim Henson Pictures, supervising Muppets from Space, The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland and Rat.
In 2000, Phillips joined Phoenix Pictures as senior vice president of physical production and post production. In this capacity, he worked as a production executive on Steven Zaillian's All the King's Men for Columbia Pictures, the independent film In My Country, directed by John Boorman, and Rob Cohen's Stealth for Columbia.
Phillips was executive producer on Paramount's Zodiac, directed by David Fincher; executive producer on the Weinstein Company's Miss Potter; executive producer on the Bob Yari Company's Resurrecting the Champ; and executive producer on Disney's Holes, directed by Andy Davis. Other credits include co-producer on John McTiernan's Basic, co-producer on Twentieth Century Fox's Pathfinder, and co-producer on Warner Bros.' License to Wed. He also produced Urban Legends: Bloody Mary.
Phillips received a Masters of Fine Arts from the Peter Stark Motion Picture Producing Program at University of Southern California, Graduate School of Cinema in 1984, and a BA from Franklin and Marshall College in 1982.
ROBERT RICHARDSON, ASC (Director of Photography) is a two-time Academy Award(R) winner for Best Cinematography for his work on Martin Scorsese's The Aviator and Oliver Stone's epic tapestry JFK.
Shutter Island marks Richardson's fifth collaboration with Scorsese, having previously worked with the influential American filmmaker on Casino and Bringing Out the Dead. Most recently, Richardson lensed and supervised an all-star group of camera-operating cinematographers in capturing the rousing Rolling Stones concert film Shine a Light.
A native of Cape Cod, Richardson attended the Rhode Island School of Design and the American Film Institute. Richardson's credits include Salvador, Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July, Eight Men Out, A Few Good Men, The Horse Whisperer, Natural Born Killers, Snow Falling on Cedars, Kill Bill: Volumes 1 and 2 and Inglourious Basterds. Richardson has also photographed several documentaries with Errol Morris, including Fast, Cheap and Out of Control, Mr. Death and the unflinching Abu Ghraib documentary Standard Operating Procedure. He is currently filming Ryan Murphy's Eat, Pray, Love, starring Julia Roberts.
DANTE FERRETTI (Production Designer), who has won two Academy Awards(R) for production design, is making his seventh film for Martin Scorsese with Shutter Island. Ferretti previously designed Scorsese's The Age of Innocence, Casino, Kundun, Bringing Out the Dead, Gangs of New York and The Aviator, for which was honored with his first Oscar(R).
Ferretti has also collaborated with the directors Julie Taymor (Titus), Martin Brest (Meet Joe Black), Neil Jordan (Interview with the Vampire), Franco Zeffirelli (Hamlet), Terry Gilliam (The Adventures of Baron Munchausen), Jean-Jacques Annaud (The Name of the Rose), Ettore Scola (La Nuit de Varennes), Liliana Cavani (La Pelle), and Elio Petri (The Working Class Goes to Heaven).
He also designed five films for Pier Paolo Pasolini (Salo, Arabian Nights, Canterbury Tales, Decameron and Medea), and five for Federico Fellini (La Voce Della Luna, Ginger and Fred, And the Ship Sails On, City of Women and Orchestra Rehearsal).
Ferretti won the 2007 Academy Award(R) for production design for his work on Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd. Ferretti's other Oscar nominations(R) were for Gangs of New York, Kundun, Interview with a Vampire, The Age of Innocence, Hamlet and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. He is the recipient of three BAFTA (British Film Institute) Awards for The Aviator, Interview with the Vampire and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, as well as nominations for Cold Mountain, Gangs of New York and The Age of Innocence. Ferretti has received Art Directors Guild nominations for Sweeney Todd, The Aviator, Gangs of New York and Titus. Among many other international accolades, he also garnered the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Gangs of New York and The Aviator. In 2006, Ferretti was awarded the Cameraimage Lifetime Achievement Award for outstanding achievement in production design. Ferretti's other recent credits include Anthony Minghella's Cold Mountain and Brian DePalma's The Black Dahlia.
In addition to his film work, Ferretti has designed extensively for such prestigious opera houses as Milan's La Scala, Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Teatro Roma Opera and Paris' Bastille Opera House.
THELMA SCHOONMAKER, A.C.E. (Editor) was born in Algiers, where her father worked for Standard Oil Company. She grew up on the island of Aruba and attended Cornell University, where she studied political science and Russian, intending to become a diplomat. While doing graduate work at Columbia University, she answered a New York Times ad offering on-the-job training as an assistant film editor. The exposure sparked a desire to learn more about editing.
During a six-week summer course at New York University's film school, she met Martin Scorsese and Michael Wadleigh. Within a few years, she was editing Scorsese's first feature, Who's That Knocking at My Door. She then edited a series of films and commercials before supervising the editing of Wadleigh's 1971 film Woodstock, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award(R).
Schoonmaker is a three-time Academy Award(R) winner, having been honored most recently in 2007 for her work on Martin Scorsese's The Departed and in 2004 for his film The Aviator. In 1981, she won both the Academy Award(R) and BAFTA (British Film Institute) Award for her editing of Scorsese's Raging Bull. Subsequently, she has worked on all of Scorsese's features: The King of Comedy, After Hours, The Color of Money, The Last Temptation of Christ, the Life Lessons segment from New York Stories, GoodFellas (which earned her another BAFTA Award as well as an Oscar(R) nomination), Cape Fear, The Age of Innocence, Casino, Kundun, Bringing Out the Dead and Gangs of New York, for which she was also nominated for an Academy Award(R).
She also edited Scorsese's documentary A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies, a BBC/Channel Four co-production, commemorating the centenary of motion pictures, and Scorsese's documentary about Italian cinema, Il Mio Viaggio in Italia.
In addition to her film editing, she works tirelessly to promote the films and writings of her late husband, the director Michael Powell.
Two-time Academy Award(R) winner SANDY POWELL (Costume Designer) was honored with the 2004 Oscar(R) for her costumes for The Aviator. In 1999, she won an Oscar(R) for costume design for Shakespeare in Love, having been nominated for an Academy Award(R) the same year for her work on Velvet Goldmine.
Her most recent work includes Julie Taymor's upcoming The Tempest, Julian Fellowes' The Young Victoria and The Other Boleyn Girl. She previously created the costumes for Scorsese's Academy Award(R)-winning The Departed as well as Gangs of New York, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award(R). Her other recent credits include Todd Haynes' Far from Heaven, Sylvia and Stephen Frears' Mrs. Henderson Presents, starring Judi Dench, for which she garnered Academy Award(R) and BAFTA nominations.
Powell's early screen credits include three films by Derek Jarman: Caravaggio, Depuis Le Jour -Aria and The Last of England. In 1991, she designed the costumes for six films: Stormy Monday, For Queen and Country, Venus Peter, Killing Dad, The Miracle and The Pope Must Die.
Among her other credits are Edward II, The Crying Game, Orlando (Oscar(R) nomination, Evening Standard Award), Wittgenstein, Being Human, Interview with the Vampire (BAFTA nomination), Rob Roy, Michael Collins, Butcher Boy, Wings of the Dove (Oscar(R)/BAFTA nominations), Hilary and Jackie, Felicia's Journey, The End of the Affair (BAFTA nomination) and Miss Julie.
Powell has designed costumes for the Lindsay Kemp productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Nijinsky and Cruel Garden, the latter for London Festival Ballet. She also designed the costumes for Gerard Murphy's production of Edward II at the Royal Shakespeare Company, for Atom Egoyan's production of Dr. Ox's Experiment at the English National Opera, for Verdi's Rigoletto in Amsterdam, and for most of the Choolmondeleys and Featherstonehoughs shows with director/ choreographer Lea Anderson.
In 1998, Powell was winner of the Women in Film & Television Technicians Award and, in 2005, she received the Women in Film & Television's AFM Lighting Craft Award.
ROB LEGATO (Visual Effects Supervisor) received a Masters Degree in Cinematography from Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara. Upon graduation, Legato went to work for the newly formed H.I.S.K. Productions (Hagmann, Impastato, Stephens & Kerns) as the live action commercial producer for director David Impastato. He then joined Robert Abel & Associates, where he served as producer, visual effects supervisor and ultimately director of visual effects-oriented TV spots. The experience led to serving as a freelance supervisor and director for various commercial companies before turning to television production.
Legato served as alternating visual effects supervisor for the TV series The Twilight Zone during its second season. This series led to the Paramount Studios production of Star Trek: The Next Generation, where he served as visual effects supervisor, second unit and episode director for a period of five years. Legato then took over as visual effects producer/supervisor for the newly created series Deep Space Nine, as well as directing one of the episodes of its first season. Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine earned Legato two Emmy Awards for Visual Effects.
Legato next joined Digital Domain, the visual effects company founded by James Cameron, Stan Winston and Scott Ross. He became the visual effects supervisor, second unit director and effects director of photography for Neil Jordan's Interview with the Vampire and served as visual effects supervisor on Ron Howard's Apollo 13, garnering his first Academy Award(R) nomination and winning the British BAFTA Award for his effects work. His subsequent feature assignment, James Cameron's Titanic, spanned the next several years and proved to be one of the most successful films ever made. Besides earning Legato his first Academy Award(R), the film went on to win a total of 11 Oscars(R, including Best Picture and Best Visual Effects) and became the highest grossing movie of all time. While at Digital Domain, Legato also offered some last-minute assistance to Martin Scorsese's Kundun and Michael Bay's Armageddon.
Legato left Digital Domain to join Sony Pictures Imageworks, where he served as visual effects supervisor on two Robert Zemeckis films: What Lies Beneath and Cast Away.
Legato was senior visual effects supervisor on Bad Boys II, which was nominated for a VES Award (Visual Effects Society) for Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Motion Picture, and on the international phenomenon Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. He then worked as the second unit director and visual effects supervisor on Scorsese's The Aviator, garnering three VES awards and the International Press Academy's Satellite Award for best visual effects. He reunited with Scorsese for The Departed, which won four Academy Awards(R) including Best Picture; the Clio Award-winning The Key to Reserva, a 10-minute commercial project; and the Rolling Stones documentary Shine a Light.
During the same time frame, Legato created a virtual cinematography pipeline for James Cameron's next feature production, Avatar. He also served as the 2nd unit director/cameraman and VFX supervisor for Robert De Niro's 2nd directorial effort, The Good Shepherd. Legato also worked on Errol Morris's documentary film SOP.
He is currently in post-production on his first directorial feature, Choose, also serving as the film's director of photography and editor.
JOSEPH REIDY (Co-Producer) most recently collaborated with Martin Scorsese as the co-producer and first assistant director on The Departed. Shutter Island marks Reidy's 13th film project with the director, having previously served in the same capacities on The Aviator, Shine a Light, Gangs of New York and Bringing Out the Dead, and as the first assistant director and associate producer on Casino and The Age of Innocence. He was also the first assistant director on Cape Fear, The Last Temptation of Christ and The Color of Money, as well as the first assistant director and second unit director on GoodFellas.
Reidy has also worked multiple times with other directors. For Oliver Stone, he served as the first assistant director and associate producer on JFK, The Doors and Born on the Fourth of July, and as the first assistant director on Talk Radio. Reidy teamed up with Robert Redford as the first assistant director and co-producer on The Horse Whisperer and The Legend of Bagger Vance and as the first assistant director on Quiz Show; worked with Mike Newell as the first assistant director on Mona Lisa Smile and Donnie Brasco; and collaborated with Sidney Lumet on Before the Devil Knows You're Dead and Find Me Guilty. His additional credits as a first assistant director include Barry Levinson's Sleepers, Robert De Niro's A Bronx Tale, Irwin Winkler's Night and the City, Adrian Lyne's Jacob's Ladder, Ridley Scott's Someone to Watch Over Me, Peter Yates' The House on Carroll Street, Steven Soderbergh's Che: Part Two, Sam Mendes' Revolutionary Road, Don Roos' Love and Other Impossible Pursuits and Allen Coulter's Remember Me.
EMMA TILLINGER (Co-Producer) is president of production at Sikelia Productions, working alongside Academy Award(R)-winning director Martin Scorsese on all aspects of his many projects. Tillinger began her career in the film industry as assistant to director/producer Ted Demme, and worked with him on the critically acclaimed film Blow, starring Johnny Depp and Penélope Cruz. While under Demme's wing, Tillinger also assisted on the Emmy-nominated documentary A Decade Under the Influence. In 2003, Tillinger became Martin Scorsese's executive assistant, serving in that capacity for three years. During this period, Tillinger assisted on The Blues, The Aviator and No Direction Home: Bob Dylan.
In 2006, Tillinger was named president of production of Scorsese's Sikelia Productions. She then associate-produced Scorsese's The Departed, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon and Jack Nicholson and produced by Graham King and Brad Grey. The film received four Academy Awards(R), including Best Picture. She then co-produced the director's Rolling Stones documentary, Shine a Light, starring Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Ronnie Wood. Tillinger also associate produced the Oscar(R)-nominated documentary The Betrayal - Nerakhoon, directed by Ellen Kuras.
In addition to co-producing Shutter Island, Tillinger is currently producing Scorsese's upcoming documentary on famed filmmaker Elia Kazan, A Letter to Elia.
AMY HERMAN (Co-Producer) entered the film industry under producer Robert Greenhut on such Woody Allen films as Hannah and Her Sisters and Radio Days. She used that experience to become one of the top unit production managers on the East Coast. Her filmmaker associations include some of the most respected names in the industry, including Martin Scorsese, Mike Nichols, James L. Brooks and Robert Redford.
Her major film credits include Big, Working Girl, GoodFellas, Sleepless in Seattle, Quiz Show, Jerry Maguire, Six Degrees of Separation, As Good as It Gets, The Horse Whisperer, Analyze That, Ladder 49 and Dark Water. Her most recent credits as a co-producer are on the Mel Brooks musical movie The Producers and the upcoming Disney dance film Step Up 3D.
Singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer ROBBIE ROBERTSON (Music Supervisor) is one of rock music's most influential and legendary figures, a living symbol of brilliant roots musicianship, spiritual journey, and Canada's multicultural character. From his early days as a touring musician to his award-winning albums and scores for major Hollywood movies, Robertson has been at the epicenter of the music scene for over four decades. The son of a Mohawk mother and a Jewish father, Robertson grew up in Toronto and on the nearby Six Nations Reservation. ``My early experiences at Six Nations, that lifestyle where the music, the family, the storytelling are all one, had a big influence on me, he recalls.
He first rose to prominence in the early 1960s as part of The Hawks, backing rockabilly star Ronnie Hawkins. That group evolved into The Band. They toured with Bob Dylan, performed at Woodstock, and released a string of hugely successful albums, including Music from Big Pink (1968), The Band (1969), and their swan song, The Last Waltz (1976), also captured in a feature-length documentary directed by Martin Scorsese and produced by Robertson.
He began an extended association with Scorsese, collaborating on the music for Raging Bull (1980), The King of Comedy (1982), The Color of Money (1986), and Gangs of New York (2002). He also produced and starred in films, including Carny (1980) and The Crossing Guard (1995).
Robertson's hit songs range from such classics as The Weight, Up on Cripple Creek and The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down to the more recent ``Showdown at Big Sky and ``Broken Arrow. He has performed with such stars as Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, U2, Peter Gabriel, Daniel Lanois and Gil Evans. He has released four recordings and was profiled in a PBS special about Native American music. He is currently working on a Native North American Broadway musical.
Awards and honors include numerous Juno Awards; induction into Canada's Walk of Fame (2003) and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1994, as a member of The Band); Aboriginal Achievement Award, Lifetime Achievement (2003); Native American Music Lifetime Achievement Award (1998); and honorary doctorates from Queen's University and York University.