Beyers, Charlotte K(empner) 1931–2005

views updated

BEYERS, Charlotte K(empner) 1931–2005

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born December 8, 1931, in New York, NY; died of complications from lymphoma March 10, 2005, in Palo Alto, CA. Filmmaker, journalist, and author. Beyers was well known for her documentaries on serious issues, such as AIDS and drugs. Studying journalism at Stanford University, she earned her B.A. in 1952, followed by an M.A. in 1970. After having worked as a freelance writer of science and medicine articles since 1967, in 1978 she became a correspondent to the New York Times and England's Times Higher Education Supplement. Beyers entered filmmaking for personal reasons: her second husband's brother had died from AIDS, and she decided to make an educational documentary about the disease to dispel some of the myths that surround it. Founding the company Peregrine Productions in Palo Alto, she created the 1987 film AIDS in Your School, which she both wrote and produced. Over a dozen other films followed, including "A" Is for AIDS (1989) and Women and AIDS: The Greatest Gamble (1993), as well as documentaries on other subjects, such as New Crack Facts (1990), Night Journey to Crack (1990), Shadow Children (1991), and Working Now (1992); she also produced such films as Healing Circles Choices for Arthritis (1997).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Los Angeles Times, March 17, 2005, p. B11.

New York Times, April 11, 2005, p. A21.

San Francisco Chronicle, March 19, 2005, p. B5.