Meet the Team

Philip Sugden & Carole Elchert:  Co-Producers/Directors; Filmmakers; Artists-Photographers; Writer-Editor; Speaker-Performer; Eco-cultural Travel Organizer. 

After graduating from the New York School of Visual Arts, Philip Sugden studied at the Paris American Academie des Beaux-Arts under the tutelage of Grand Prix de Rome recipient, Arnaud D'Hauterives. While in Paris, Philip Sugden and Carole Elchert met after her first trip to Nepal in 1981, with 17 working art or Eco-cultural trips to follow over the years. From that first meeting, they collaborated on numerous art, book, travel, and film projects--a creative, professional venture into the domain of ideas and art. Over the years as Professors of Art and Communication, Sugden and Elchert also worked as freelance artists--amassing 200 museum and gallery exhibits nationally and internationally, including London, Paris, Melbourne, Washington DC, New York's St. John the Divine Cathedral, Kathmandu's USIS Cultural Center, among others. After preliminary working trips to the Himalayas and Tibet, Sugden and Elchert organized a 1988 Cultural Arts Expedition of artists, working with the Dalai Lama's representatives in the exiled Tibetan communities throughout India & Nepal to produce their first film-book project. The PBS ambiance film, White Lotus: An Introduction to Tibetan Culture and the companion book published by Snow Lion Publications, was awarded grants from the Ohio Arts and Humanities' Joint Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. Later, they organized the 1990 visit by the Dalai Lama of Tibet to the University of Findlay--an historic event that garnered widespread media exposure throughout a six-state region.  

Over the years, distinguished supporters of their projects included the Dalai Lama of Tibet; the Nicholas Roerich Museum's late director Daniel Entin (where they curated a series of New York exhibits on Tibet); Sir Edmond Hillary and other Explorers Club members; former executive director of Human Rights Foundation, David Phillips; retired President of Nepal's Mountaineering Association, Zimba Sherpa; Pulitzer prize-winning author Oscar Hijuelos; Grammy-nominated soundtrack composer Tim Story; prominent Cuban activist-artists, including Tania Bruguera, Jose Toirac, Jose Vincench, Geandy Pavon, Juan-si Gonzales. From the award-winning Sketches from the High Country of Elchert's prose poems and Sugden's sepia ink drawings, they continued to produce book projects, like Sugden's large format art book, Visions from the Fields of Merit:  Drawings of Tibet and the Himalayas, co-authored, edited by Carole Elchert. They have worked tirelessly on projects that have social-cultural, humanitarian, and educational impact.   

In 2015, the couple gathered video footage, still photography, and artist interviews in Havana, Cuba, and US-based Cuban artists to create the feature documentary, Activismo:  Art & Dissidence in Cuba. As co-producers/directors, Sugden-Elchert worked with National Geographic videographer Alex Goetz (the Baker-Goetz team in Cuba), film editor Jason Baker, and soundtrack composer Tim Story from 2016 to 2021 to complete the production phase. In 2021-2022, the film was submitted to Film Festivals nationally and internationally, awarded laurels/recognition in many but best feature documentary in London's International Art Film Festival. Activismo's distinction as a documentary is its singular, universally applicable focus on extending the function, and purpose of art to produce transformative, social change.  

Jason Baker, Videographer

In 2012, Jason Baker graduated from Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio, as a Telecommunications (TCOM) major. In his junior and senior years, Jason directed and filmed a series of videos for BGSU that feature TCOM alumni living and working in New York or throughout Ohio. In his spare time as a diligent student, he worked at WBGU-TV station as a camera operator and editor. After graduation, Jason worked for a Findlay, Ohio video production company. In 2014, he started his own production company--Lock One Productions--as both the producer and the director of photography. In 2020, he became Ohio State University's Media Director for the College of Education & Human Ecology, developing E-learning content for the Department of Defense.  

Ask Jason what he does for a living, and he’ll tell you he doesn’t work a day in his life. His love for videography is more of a passion than a job, knowing that every day brings exciting new challenges. Since he began studying Communication and Film, he’s worked on a wide array of projects--from television shows to commercials to online videos. For his efforts, he has won more than 14 Telly awards, which honor excellence in video and television cinematography, directing, and editing. The shift from broadcast to online digital marketing and storytelling has allowed him to master new professional skills and find innovative ways to highlight a company’s culture, brand, and products. In his free time, he’s often behind the camera, practicing photography and experimenting with new equipment.  

One of his major career challenges and accomplishments is working with co-producers/directors Phil Sugden and Carole Elchert on their short documentary, Activismo:  Art & Dissidence in Cuba, as a videographer during the 2015 Cuba trip to film and then as the editor, during pre- and post-production stages from 2016 to 2020. For Jason Baker, this project especially was the culmination of educational and professional experiences that allowed him to gain filmmaking insights, technical expertise, and a greatly expanded repertoire of skills in related fields, such as logistics and photography, for his career in video production. Working on Activismo has confirmed that storytelling is an art form and professionalism is a lifelong pursuit, as Jason moves through all phases of the processes of filmmaking and video production.