Instructors

Viki Brown and Zemi Caribbean Workshops:
A multi-dimensional creative artist describes a part of Viki Brown. She has classically trained in oil, water color, acrylic and pastel painting. Some of her schooling has been at the Art Students League, University of Central Florida, and from the ‘Dream World’.
Working with the ancient indigenous Indians is one of her passions. Visions of what can be and will be is evident in her paintings. All cultures have their own way of calling out to spirit. It is important to ask questions correctly and with reverence but, even more so, we need to listen to the answer we receive and follow through. She uses visualizations to help the mind use its imagination, which helps it in actualizing the journey. Soft flute playing and drumming, like the rhythm of your beating heart, aids in the connection. Seeing, hearing, feeling and knowing so much more is what propels her into facilitating these ‘Dream Journeys’.
Viki had a vision of people enjoying themselves in the healing waters of the Caribbean, sailing, dancing, cooling out under the palm trees. But, also learning about valuable subjects that would aid them in their existence. So, thus began the idea of having an ‘Educational Vacation’. Zemi Caribbean Workshops was born.

Laurel Chiten has been an independent filmmaker for over twenty years.
Laurel Chiten's most recent film is Twisted, a documentary about people with the neurological disorder, dystonia was broadcast on PBS's series Independent Lens January 30th 2007. Twisted was honored with Outstanding Achievement in a Documentary film from the Mass Access Awards.
Chiten also produced and directed Touched (2003) a film about people who think they have been abducted by aliens, and the Harvard psychiatrist who believed them.

Touched won Best Documentary at its Canadian premiere at the Female Eye Film Festival (FeFF) in Toronto on November 22, 2003. Touched also won Best Documentary of 2003 in the "Abductee or Contactee" category at a long-running UFO convention.

She also made The Jew in the Lotus (1999) inspired by Rodger Kamenetz's best-selling book, focusing on the author's particular odyssey of suffering and the role of spirituality as a universal theme. The Jew in the Lotus has screened around the world and was broadcast nationwide on the PBS program Independent Lens. It has been honored with Most Outstanding Personal Vision from the New England Film and Video festival. The Jew in the Lotus is distributed by New Day Films.

In 1994 she completed Twitch and Shout, a documentary about people living with Tourette Syndrome, which was nationally broadcast in July 1995 as part of the highly-acclaimed PBS series, P.O.V. Twitch and Shout was nominated for a national Emmy, and has received numerous other awards. Twitch and Shout continues to receive wide educational distribution through New Day Films.

.Chiten was Producer/Director/Co-Writer of Two in Twenty, a five episode satirical soap opera series, completed in 1988. Two in Twenty, which has become a cult classic, screened nationally and internationally at film and video festivals and is being distributed in home video markets through Wolfe Video.

Chiten produced a 10 part series with Robin Casarjian based on her book Houses of Healing, a self study guide utilized in prisons nationwide.

Chiten was an artist in resident at the Bellagio Study and Conference Center sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation. She received a residency scholarship at Yaddo and the MacDowell Artist Colony. Chiten was honored with The Artist 's Fellowship for creativity in video production from the Massachusetts Council for the Arts and Humanities in 1987.

Chiten is also a certified American Sign Language interpreter. She was also a teacher at the Boston Film and Video Foundation in Boston and at the Maine Photographic Workshops. She is a public speaker, and has been around the globe speaking with her films.

She is a featured astrologer on John Edward's new web channel, InfiniteQuest.com. Contact her at kellhunter@earthlink.net and explore her website www.heliastar.com.

STAR GAZING: STORIES IN THE STARS
An hour of astronomy and myth under the tropical night skies of St. John, Virgin Islands. We'll see colored stars, find constellations and see if any planets are out, learning star lore from various cultures.

DEPTH ASTROLOGY CONSULTATIONS — A half or full hour interpretation of your cosmic birth pattern gives illuminating information about your life and the current cycles you are experiencing. If you've had your chart read before, you know; if not, you may be surprised at the insights astrology can offer. Recorded on CD for continued listening. One hour, $125, half hour, $70. Birth information needed: date, time and place of birth.

Steve Simonsen Videographer’s Biography. Born in Michigan. Based on the island of St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands. See his website for more information. Stevesimonsen.com

Steve Simonsen is a world acclaimed photographer with over 25 years
experience and a specialty in underwater photography. He has filmed award
winning documentaries, shorts, music videos and corporate videos.

Experience and Works

Other Services
Scout, still photographer and liaison between film crews and Virgin Islands National Park.

Steve teaches music video production at the Gifft Hill School at the high school level for the past 7 years, Tropical Light Photography and Final Cut Pro Workshops.

Stock video library includes aerial, underwater, nature and water sports.

Steve works largely in Caribbean based projects and is currently working on a documentary about the joint project between the Navy, NASA, and the Department of the Interior documenting the study in human underwater
habitation called Tektite, during 1969 and 1970.

Steve Simonsen's colorful images of the Caribbean have appeared in numerous publications, books,
CD ROM's, exhibits, videos and television programs.
They have also been used to create collateral pieces and advertisements
to help stimulate tourism in the United States Virgin Islands.
Numerous advertising agencies, dive companies and the National Park Service use Steve and his year round access to the Caribbean for many of their photographic assignments.

Steve along with his wife Janet, and their son Jesse, base their stock photography business "Marine Scenes", year round on St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Steve teaches photography classes and presents educational slide shows and can be found most days photographing the island's incredible natural beauty.

Bill Steltzer:

Born Southfield , Michigan – St. John resident since 1992
Education, Michigan State University - Industrial and Graphic Design
University of Texas at Austin - Radio-Television-Film

Stelzer is a freelance artist/filmmaker who has worked on a wide array of commercial film and video projects in the Virgin Islands. Prior to living in St. John he worked as Graphics Director for the ABC-TV affiliate in Central Texas during the First Gulf War and as a Special Effects Director using computer and model animation for accident reconstructions.

He was also part of a research expedition into the Venezuelan Amazon to study burial cave artwork, has taught computer graphics in West Africa and shot documentary footage high on a Peruvian glacier.

Over the past year he helped set up pilots and produced a series of mini documentaries in Haiti, Nicaragua and St. John for the Waveplace Foundation, created to teach Caribbean school kids using OLPC's revolutionary children's laptop computer.

Waveplace Foundation Launches One Laptop Per Child Pilot Program