In this episode of the Frontier Café, Michael Pardy hosts a discussion with SEEFest Jury alum, writer, and prolific filmmaker George Csicsery. Csicsery and his production company, Zala Films (zalafilms.com) are based in Oakland, California.

An independent filmmaker since 1968, George has directed 35 films on various subjects, focusing much of his work in the last 30+ years on mathematicians who may be renowned and influential in their field, but whose work and lives are unknown to the general public. In 2009, he received the Joint Policy Board for Mathematics Communications Award for “bringing mathematics to nonmathematical audiences.”

In this wide-ranging discussion, George talks about his journey from an undergrad majoring in comparative religion to his life’s work as a journalist and filmmaker and the inherent challenges and rewards in making and financing his films.  He also discusses some of his latest projects, including the remarkably poignant Secrets of the Surface: The Mathematical Vision of Maryam Mirzakhani (2020) and his still-in-production, Journeys of Black Mathematicians.

Please visit: http://www.zalafilms.com

About the Host

Michael Pardy was an actor in New York City for over twenty years.  He had a second career at the Open Society Foundations (OSF), most notably working on the Arts & Humanities Initiative of the OSF Project on Death in America.  Subsequently, he was the founding COO of the OSF spinoff, Institute on Medicine as a Profession at Columbia University.  As well he is an avid collector of Outsider Art and Mexican Retablos.  Post-covid, he looks forward to resuming his acting career.