Karen Kuder is a Documentary Filmmaker, TV Field Producer, HD Camera Operator, FCP Editor, Grip & Gaffer with 20 years of experience in stage, film, television, comedy, music videos and commercials.
Karen has most recently worked as a camera person and field producer for clients including HGTV, The Food Network, Amtrak and blue mercury.
Karen Kuder is a Documentary Filmmaker, TV Field Producer, Digital & ENG Camera Operator, FCP Editor, Grip & Gaffer with 20 years of experience in stage, film, television, music videos and commercials.
She started off in New York City as an actor appearing in "Law & Order", "The Late Show with Conan O'Brien" and "The Adventures of Pete & Pete". As a comedy improvisation performer she was on stage at the Westbeth Theater, the West End Gate and the New York Comedy Club. As an alto with the Metropolitan Singers/Greek Choral Society, she sang at Avery Fisher Hall and Riverside Church.
In Los Angeles, she worked in production and development for Reba McEntire at Universal Studios and she appeared on stage at the Ivar Theater in Hollywood. In Miami, Karen worked in music videos with DMX, Timbaland and Jay Z as well as in commercials and independent films. She was also a judge for the South Beach Film Festival.
Upon moving back to the northeast, Karen started her own production company, Archaeo Pictures, in an effort to produce the projects which are perhaps less commercial but closer to her heart. Karen is interested in enlightening audiences by documenting compelling historic and cultural subjects to which they would have otherwise never been exposed.
In 2006, the first film that Karen produced and directed, "Cannonballs, Anecdotes & Artifacts: The Wonderful Life of Christian Sanderson", premiered in Wilmington, Delaware.
Karen now lives in the New York area and has most recently worked as a camera person and field producer for clients including HGTV, The Food Network, Amtrak and blue mercury.
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One might expect a film about Sanderson to bleed into the temporal realm of, say, Ken Burns, who wouldn't have trouble filling an extended series of episodes with tangential stories and backstories related to a man in love with history's minutiae and a wide variety of hobbies.
But Karen Kuder, a Wilmington filmmaker, managed to pack into a tight, fascinating 30 minutes much of what made Sanderson (1882-1966) such a strangely busy and happy man. A peek into Sanderson's collection -- it includes a piece of the rock on which the American flag was hoisted at Iwo Jima, a vial of sand from the 1945 blast of an atomic bomb and a piece of bandage that covered President Lincoln's fatal bullet wound -- often leads the museum's visitors to ask more questions. How did he get this? Why did he keep it? How do we know it's the real thing?
Kuder's film touches on all of those questions, and although it is a portrait of Sanderson himself, it becomes clear that to separate the man from his pursuits would be a folly. She filmed interviews with:
Thompson, who led the daunting effort to organize Sanderson's collection. He then wrote his biography, and continues to maintain the museum.
Andrew Wyeth, the painter who in his youth acted as chauffeur while his family's close friend spun tales of Revolutionary War battles and sketched maps later would include in portraits of Sanderson; the late Ann Wyeth McCoy, a musician, painter and elder sister of Andrew; and several other friends and students.
By CHRISTOPHER YASIEJKO --The News Journal
Andrew Wyeth, Karen Kuder,
Helga Testorf
What do Andrew Wyeth, Helen Keller, Walt Disney, Mae West and Abraham Lincoln have in common? The fascinatingly eclectic collector, historian, teacher, band leader, and radio broadcaster, Christian Sanderson.
Those who are fortunate to live near the Sanderson Museum feel as though they have a branch of the Smithsonian Museum in their own backyard. This museum offers a glimpse at history that the common man will never have.
Christian Sanderson accumulated, cared for and recorded some of modern history's most personal relics. These must be preserved to assure that they will be witnessed by subsequent generations. At the very least, this documentary will preserve the legacy of Christian Sanderson's life and museum. Beyond that, it will reveal this wonder of a man, and the romance of our rich, local Pensylvania history to a new audience.
Think of the many people worldwide who have had a taste of this land through Andrew Wyeth's paintings and who long to visit it, if only to see if such places exist. Yet, there are others who have no interest in what artifacts may rest beneath this soil or which nations crossed our Brandywine and whose blood and bones were absorbed into our earth.
Christian Sanderson cared to learn this land, its people and their stories. He made it his business and shared it with his students, friends and neighbors. The stories that I have gathered and even the actual museum pieces have the power to ignite a renewed enthusiasm for the museum, stirring others to follow his footsteps in preserving our living memories.
KAREN KUDER 484-620-9977 karen_archaeopictures.com All images by Karen Kuder. Clips used with permission. 2011 All rights reserved
