Who We Are
PETER JAN HONIGSBERG
PROJECT FOUNDER AND PROJECT DIRECTOR
A law professor at the University of San Francisco (“USF”), Peter Jan Honigsberg is well-positioned to lead the project. Peter Jan Honigsberg began his career as a civil rights worker in the South during the 1960s, fighting for racial equality. Soon after graduating from New York University School of Law, he joined the National Housing Law Project in Berkeley as an attorney. In 1983, he was hired as director of the legal research and writing program at Golden Gate University School of Law. In 1986, he joined the faculty at the University of San Francisco School of Law (USF), where he currently holds a full-time faculty position. His classes include Terrorism Post 9/11; Administrative Law; International Criminal Law; and Legal Drafting. In January 2002, he became one of the first law professors in the country to teach a course on the War on Terror, a course he has taught every year since. He visited Guantanamo in 2007 and has written extensively on post 9/11 issues, including a highly-acclaimed book, several law review articles and a number of pieces for the Huffington Post.
Honigsberg’s most recent book, Our Nation Unhinged: The Human Consequences of the War on Terror, earned several honors. On May 28, 2009, the London Times Higher Education selected the book as their “Book of the Week.” On June 15, Publisher’s Weekly reviewed the book as one of the “Best Books of 2009.” In 2009, Our Nation Unhinged was one of only three manuscripts that the University of California Press nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. The University of California Press also nominated Our Nation Unhinged for other prestigious prizes and awards.
Crossing Border Street, Honigsberg’s memoir about serving as a civil rights activist in Louisiana in the 1960s, has received several editorial accolades. He has also been the fortunate recipient of numerous research grants in support of his articles, which include “Chasing ‘Enemy Combatants’ and Circumventing International Law: A License for Sanctioned Abuse” (2007) and “Inside Guantanamo” (2009).
To view Peter Honigsberg’s other publications, see the Publications page.
JOHNNY SYMONS
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR AND CINEMATOGRAPHER
Johnny Symons is an Emmy-nominated independent film and videomaker based in the San Francisco Bay Area. His documentary Daddy & Papa (2002), about the personal, cultural, and political impact of gay men raising children, premiered at Sundance, aired on PBS and international television, and garnered multiple Best Documentary awards. His newest film, Ask Not (2008), an award-winning feature-length documentary about the impact of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy in the US military, broadcast in 2009 on PBS’ Independent Lens.
Symons is the co-producer of the Academy Award-nominated Long Night’s Journey Into Day (2000), about South Africa’s search for truth and reconciliation, which won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival. His work has screened at more than 200 international film festivals and is used by hundreds of college educators and community organizers. Symons graduated with honors from Brown University and has a master’s in documentary production from Stanford University. He currently teaches documentary at Stanford and the Art Institute of California–San Francisco.
EVA MOSS
EDITOR
Eva Moss has worked in documentary filmmaking since 2003. She has worked as both an editor and producer on many films whose topics range from alleviating water shortages in Kenya and Mali, the transition of a transsexual woman as seen through the eyes of her 3 young nieces, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and those working to overturn it, and the inspiring journey of the Vietnamese-American community in New Orleans as they fight for their home and future. She uses filmmaking as a means to promote social change and introspection, and works to facilitate the telling of others’ stories, giving voice to those without a voice and sharing with the world that which is rarely seen.
