Draft:Berry Minott

• Comment: In accordance with Wikipedia's Conflict of interest guideline, I disclose that I have a conflict of interest regarding the subject of this article. SFParrot (talk) 00:02, 24 July 2026 (UTC)

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1. Berry Minott

Berry Minott (also known as Polly Berry Kennedy-Minott) is a San Francisco-based documentary filmmaker and producer with a career spanning more than 27 years. She has worked primarily through her production company, Minott-Weihnacht Productions (also credited as M.W. Productions), frequently in collaboration with longtime co-director Doug Weihnacht. Her films range across labor history, mental health, neuroscience, and the eugenics history of Stanford University, where she was educated.

She is the daughter of the late Rodney O'Gliasain Kennedy-Minott (1928–2004), a historian and former United States Ambassador to Sweden (1977–1980), and Polly Kennedy Minott.

Education

Minott attended Stanford University.

Filmography

From the Floor of the Convention (1984)

Recipient of an ACE Award (1985).

Longshoreman and Automation: The Changing Face of the Waterfront (1986)

A documentary on the impact of automation on waterfront labor.

People Say I'm Crazy (1989)

Credited on-screen as Producer/Director, with Doug Weihnacht as Co-Director. The film was written and narrated by Jean Campbell, Ph.D., principal investigator of the Well-Being Project on which it was based.

Harry Bridges: A Man and His Union (1992)

Produced in association with KQED. Screened at the Sundance Film Festival (in competition, 1993), the Hawaii International Film Festival (1992), and the Margaret Mead Film Festival (1993). Recipient of a duPont-Columbia Award (1994). Features labor historian Studs Terkel and archival ILWU footage chronicling union leader Harry Bridges.

The Illness and the Odyssey (2013)

A 70-minute documentary that explores the 40-year scientific search for the cause of Lytico-Bodig, a rare neurodegenerative disease discovered on Guam in 1952 that shares features with ALS, Parkinson's, and Alzheimer's. The film features neurologist and author Oliver Sacks, along with researchers Leonard Kurland, John Steele, and Paul Cox, science writer Jonathan Weiner, and Bruce Miller, director of the UCSF Memory and Aging Center. It aired nationally on PBS via the *Pacific Heartbeat* series, distributed by American Public Television with support from Pacific Islanders in Communication and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and was reviewed in The Lancet Neurology in June 2014.

Good Girl (2016)

A 15-minute documentary short following Frankie, a Cairn Terrier, as she trains to become a certified pet detective for locating missing cats. Shot beginning in 2005 and completed in 2016, the film follows Minott and her son as they train Frankie, using the process to explore the emotional role pets play in human life.

Whitewashed

A documentary short examining the history of eugenics promoted by Stanford University's founding president, David Starr Jordan, and the circumstances surrounding the death of Jane Stanford, a co-founder of the university. The film has screened on the festival circuit, including DocFest.

Personal life

Minott has spoken about a family history of dementia — including a grandmother who died of what she believes was likely frontotemporal dementia, and a cousin affected by primary progressive aphasia, both from the same street in Portland, Oregon — as part of her motivation for making The Illness and the Odyssey. Her research for the film began after she wrote to Dr. John Steele, who had lived on Guam and studied the disease for decades. Oliver Sacks' book The Island of the Colorblind was part of her original inspiration.

External links

• Berry Minott at IMDb