The Location Managers Guild announced that Caroline Baron, Kokayi Ampah and Marino Pascal will receive honorary awards at the 2nd Annual Location Managers Guild of America Awards at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, March 7. Baron, founder of FilmAid International, will receive the Humanitarian award. Ampah, a veteran location manager, will receive the lifetime achievement award, while Pascal, creator of the online forum Locolist, will take home the trailblazer award
Baron founded FilmAid in 1999, motivated by the surge of refugees from Kosovo migrating to camps in Macedonia. FilmAid provides human connection and hope, supplementing basic needs for food and shelter. All this is done with the magic of cinema – portable projectors, screens, and generators and reels of Hollywood classics as well as indigenous films. Crowds gather for amusement and stay for educational films promoting awareness of social issues like HIV/AIDS, women’s rights, pediatric malnutrition, land mine awareness and conflict resolution.
FilmAid also makes documentaries and educational films with local talent. FilmAid actively includes refugees in the creation and distribution of these films.
Baron’s list of credits includes Capote, Monsoon Wedding, Being Flynn and The Wonder Years.
Ampah’s career spans more than three decades. The count of Oscar nods for films on Ampah’s resume is up to 43. His collaborations include work with top directors on such iconic films as The Shawshank Redemption, Million Dollar Baby (one of six projects he managed for Clint Eastwood) and Amistad, his second film with Steven Spielberg.
“What I’ve done has already faded out as new generations have reached far greater heights, but for a brief moment I was a rung for others,” he said. “I believe, through a series of circumstances, that I was able to break a color barrier in the television and motion picture industry, at least in Los Angeles.”
Pascal is being honored for the development of Locolist, an archival forum for location professionals that unites scouts and managers in a community of shared knowledge.
