Laughing Dog : Biography

Biography

photo by : Bruce Hutson

Virginia B. Bogert: Producer/Director/Writer

Virginia Bogert has produced, written, and directed award-winning film and video, nationally and internationally for more than twenty years with experience ranging from feature production, shorts, and commercials, to corporate film and video, documentaries, as well as programming for Public Television, including the 4-time Emmy award-winning Pike Place Market: Soul of a City. Her short film, Tootie Pie, was an official selection of the 32nd Annual Seattle International Film Festival 2006, Langston Hughes African American Film Festival 2007 and the Milwaukee International Film Festival. Virginia was also chosen as a Seattle International Film Festival Fly Filmmaker; her short romantic comedy, The Delivery screened at SIFF and Palm Springs International Film Festival in 2006.

Following a childhood dream, Virginia began her career on feature productions filming in the Northwest. She wanted to make movies but Hollywood productions didn't come to Seattle every day, so Virginia entered the world of commercials and corporate image as a lead producer. That work has taken her across the country and around the world to locations from Europe to the South Pacific and won her awards such as the coveted Halo and a New York Film Festival Golden Reel.

In 1993, after winning a project directing Tom Skerritt in The Theatre…Magic in Real Time, Virginia launched her company Laughing Dog Pictures. The film helped raise 30 million dollars for A Contemporary Theatre, (ACT) funding the preservation of the historic Eagles Auditorium and the relocation of the four decade-old theater to downtown Seattle. Since directing Mr. Skerritt, Virginia has directed on-screen personalities: Danny Glover, Jeff Probst, and Willem Dafoe.

Virginia’s work for non-profit organizations championing the Arts and social justice causes is well-known in the Seattle film industry. As a writer/director, Virginia was awarded the prestigious Halo Award for Public Service Communications for Expect the Unexpected…On the Boards, for the performing arts center and the first Nell Shipman Women in Film Award, for Winds of Change, produced for the King County Sexual Assault Resource Center. She also won a Nell Shipman Award for directing the documentary, A Matter of Perception, for United Cerebral Palsy Association, and as editor of the commercial, Diversity for Women’s Hospital at Overlake in 2000. She also co-produced a NW Emmy winner for Planned Parenthood. Virginia’s resolution to bring about change for the better through her art further led her to direct projects such as the documentary, in my shoes… for the University of Washington School of Social Work, which traces the lives of three women caught in the social welfare system.

Expressing her commitment on a global scale, Virginia co-wrote and directed the commercial Spoonman for the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, expanding the UN’s campaign to promote global sustainable farming and reduce hunger worldwide. Spoonman received a First Prize National Telly Award and a Silver Emerald City Award. In the same vein Virginia also produced, directed and co-wrote commercials for the Songbird Foundation, advocating globally sustainable coffee farming. She is now in development of Fields of Plenty II, a feature length documentary about sustainable organic farmers and food producers across America.

Virginia’s acclaimed KCTS production, Pike Place Market: Soul of a City, is a passionately human portrayal of multi-cultural life in Seattle’s century-old public market. Produced for public television, the documentary was awarded four NW regional Emmys for best documentary, photography, and editing; a Women in Film Nell Shipman Award for production excellence in directing; and a national bronze Telly, for production and direction. It was screened at The Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Festival, The New York Independent Film and Video Festival in 2002, and Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival 2006. Her short documentary, Fields of Plenty, profiling a sustainable farmer from Oregon fondly known as Potatoman also screened at Hazel Wolf, and Wild and Scenic 2006, can be seen on special features on the 2006 DVD version of Deborah Garcia’s, The Future of Food, and on the KCTS TV-9 All About Us series. It is a 2007 NW Emmy nominee.

Dedicated to the growth of the film industry and community, Virginia is a long-standing member of Women in Film, Vice President 2004, 2005, acting president 2006, elected president in 2007; a member of IFP, and the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. In her early years in the business she co-produced “The Washington State Locations Reel” which was responsible for a 40% increase in the state’s film business.

Virginia has a BA in English with a Fine Arts minor and Master of Arts in Communications, from New Your University. She teaches workshops on the art of film production at film festivals, Cascadia College, Media Arts 911; is an instructor at Seattle Film Institute, Seattle Central Community College, and head of the Documentary track at The University of Washington Extension Certificate Program: “Independent Filmmaking.” Virginia is also the curator of Post Alley Film Festival since it’s inception in 2003: a shorts festival which screens local and international movies by women and about women - female-centric and eccentric. The proceeds are shared by WIF/S which supports and mentors women in the film industry and by Pike Place Preschool and Childcare, which provides equal access to learning for low income families.

Virginia was awarded a series of short documentaries profiling five NW artists produced for the Washington State Arts Commission under the auspices of the NEA, and just finished a project profiling the stories of children with Cystic Fibrosis. Virginia writes, directs, and edits most of her work and recently took a position at Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum as Producer/Director of Film and Video.

Virginia Bogert received Cacadia College’s Cinematic Arts Award in 2007, given to individuals in the industry whose personal life and career advance humanitarian causes. Having worked in many areas of the movie business, Virginia’s heart is in the creation of films that tell the story of the human condition with monumental simplicity and elegance. Virginia believes that humanity is most readily emboldened, ennobled, and enlightened through this kind of visual anthropology which engages the spirit and mind through entertainment.

Laughing Dog Pictures
honest filmmaking, stylishly wrought