Portland Humanist Film Festival

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About the 2011 Portland Humanist Film Festival Team -

THE ORIGINATOR

SherrY HansOn (Board Chair) - Sherry is a member of both CFI and HGP. She is also a double capricorn and many attribute her organizational & leadership skills to this. Sherry, however, attributes her skills to her career as a nurse plus running many vaccination clinics and health fairs. Sherry hopes that someday soon secular humanist values like compassion & reason , (rather than talk-radio-judging & magical thinking), will be society's new normal. Until then, she will continue to support entertaining events like PHFF in the hopes of helping to get the next renaissance started. She lives near the gorge where she takes lots of hikes with her dogs.

KURT JOHANSEN - Kurt is a 4th generation Oregonian residing in Clackamas with his wife and infant son. He earns a living as an engineer and spends his nights volunteering behind the scenes turning the gears of CFI–Portland. His goal is to organize thousands of Northwest nonbelievers to work together at making positive concrete changes to the direction of our country. "We already have the numbers. Now we just need to join forces so we can achieve our common goals".

Roger Bates - Roger was born in England, but was moved to California when he was 5. He is now a relatively long term Oregonian, having move here some 25 years ago. Roger was introduced to computers with a summer job during college. He began work as a computer designer, moved to mostly programming, and is now retired and occupying his time with occasional web design.

“I am very concerned at this time with what the future holds for my grandchildren. I see a future where humans are smart enough to solve almost any problem, but not intelligent enough to choose the right solutions. The answers are out there but they will only be found with logic, reason and humanism, not religion.”

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

Marsha Abelman is a Board member of Humanists of Greater Portland. She and her husband are thrilled to have retired to green and leafy Oregon; when they say they are “tree huggers,” they mean they literally have paused on hikes to put their arms around gorgeous trees! Born into a fundamentalist church, Marsha has co-facilitated a local support group for others like herself who left religion and have dealt with fallout in their lives. She says, “Films are a powerful medium through which to deliver the messages of humanism and freethinking. Movies not only can expose the harm that religion does to the human spirit but also can show the joys of living rationally, free from ‘loyalty to petrified opinion.’”

HGP COORDINATION

WEBMASTER

PROFESSOR WILL KNOTT - Prof. Knott holds no less than 23 BS degrees from colleges and universities from all over the world. Because of this he is considered one of the world’s foremost experts in BS-ing. Currently the chairperson of the Department of Wee Known Facts at the University of the Lower Highlands in Halfthefax Scotland, Prof. Knott and his staff have relentlessly pursued the casual uncovering of trillions of new facts that challenge accepted versions of historical facts and events. His book, Book of Wee Known Facts (Vol. 246,793) is a best seller on the campus of ULH (and would probably remain so even if not required reading) and his two treatises on 20th century personalities ( Ringo Starr - On the One Hand He is a Popular Drummer, On the Other Hand He Wears Lots of Rings and Richard Wright - The Rights of the Left When Writer Wright Wrote) remain valuable additions to bookshelves everywhere.

But perhaps his greatest uncovery, a revision of the beloved and popular Nativity story of the Christian Bible, has come recently to light and the Portland PHFF audience will be among the first in the world to hear this provocative account.

Prof. Knott presently resides in a hillside farmhouse outside Halfthefax with his two goats, Butthead and Mimsey.

SPECIAL GUEST SPEAKER

Wesley M. - Wes spent 46 years as an evangelical christian, which included a Bachelor of Theology from Multnomah University and several years in England as a Christian missionary. His journey to a rational, non-religious worldview only occurred a few years ago, and was precipitated by critically examining the doctrine of hell, as well as the origins of scriptures and the contradictions found within them. His spare time is now consumed by reading all he can about science and evolution, and also by volunteering with local humanist groups like CFI. His day job is doing graphic design for the advertising department of a well-known Portland daily newspaper.

GRAPHIC DESIGNER

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Portland Humanist Film Festival - About: The Staff