Jul 23, 2012
SFFILM
The San Francisco Film Society announces the appointment of David J. Winton and Alex Witherill to its board of directors as it continues to enhance its slate of exhibition, education and filmmaker services and, following a highly successful 55th San Francisco International Film Festival, begins preparations for a robust fall season including Cinema by the Bay, French Cinema Now, Hong Kong Cinema, New Italian Cinema and Taiwan Film Days.
Winton and Witherill bring an abundance of experience from their professional and philanthropic work in finance, the arts and the film industry to support the Film Society’s mission to educate, entertain and enrich a wide and diverse range of audiences; and to foster creativity and further the careers of independent filmmakers.
“We are extremely pleased to be able to add the broad-ranging talents and expertise of Dave Winton and Alex Witherill to the Film Society board of directors,” said Pat McBaine, board president. “These new members of our committed and capable team bring experience gained in the trenches of film production to a vital and dynamic cultural organization. They share with all of us at SFFS a passion for film and filmmakers, and they will undoubtedly play an important role in our expanding efforts to forge an organization dedicated to bringing visionary film programming and educational courses to Bay Area audiences and students as well as invaluable financial and professional services to filmmakers nationwide.”
David J. Winton cofounded Winton/duPont Films, a producer of short films and television documentaries, in 1987. The company’s broadcast clients include the Discovery Channel, the History Channel, National Geographic, NBC and PBS. Their institutional clients include Goldman Sachs, the Institute for Recruitment of Teachers, Intel, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Pfizer, the United Jewish Appeal, Warner Bros. and Yale University. Winton’s producing and directing credits include Code Rush (PBS), The Crash (History Channel), Learning the Hard Way (New York Times/Discovery Channel), Big Thinkers (TechTV/Spike TV), The Unabomber (National Geographic Television and Film) and Suburban Jihad (National Geographic Channel). His non-profit board affiliations include Addison Gallery of American Art (Phillips Academy), the Breakthrough Collaborative, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the Hamlin School. Winton is a graduate of Phillips Academy and Harvard College. He lives in San Francisco with his wife Charlotte Vaughan.
Alex Witherill joined Barclays Wealth Americas as a director in December 2010. Prior to working at BWA, Witherill was a director at Credit Suisse Private Banking. He began his career at Lehman Brothers. His passion for movies inspired him to seek ways to become involved in the process of making them, from working with script writers to helping to finance small independent films to raising money for The Film Department, which was run by former head of Miramax Mark Gill. Witherill was recognized in the films that the company made including Law Abiding Citizen. Currently he is working with a partner on several films (as executive producer) including a film about Andrew Jackson and the Battle for New Orleans. He currently serves on the board of Giant Steps, a charity based in Sonoma that provides equine therapy for disabled children and veterans. He graduated with a degree in finance from Arizona State University.