Joshua Tree National Park Visitor Center; February 18, 2007
Desert Gold and Season of the Sand Blossoms screenings

EarthVision Film Festival 2007 Kick-Off Celebration; November 9, 2006
Season of the Sand Blossoms

Vermont International Film Festival 2006
Desert Gold

The Tucson Museum of Art and Historic Block 2006-2007
Echoes Through Time: Grand Canyon screens daily
as part of the major exhibition; "The Grand Canyon: From Dream to Icon" August, 2006 - January 7, 2007

The Autry Library Collection
Autry National Center; Museum of the American West 2005 to present
"The videocassette and DVDs (Echoes Through Time: Grand Canyon, Echoes Through Time: Death Valley and Yosemite Ahwahnee Style) were presented to our Accession Committee which considers each offered donation in order to be certain that it fits our collecting mission...Members of the Committee were delighted with the items and feel they will make a wonderful addition to the Autry Library collection."

Napa Sonoma Wine Country Film Festival 2006
Desert Gold film festival premiere

Mono Lake Visitor Center 2006
Desert Gold and Season of the Sand Blossoms - Premiere screenings

Houston International Film Festival 2006
Gold Award
Season of the Sand Blossoms

Annapolis Film Festival, 2004
Shooting Stars: Great Photographers of the West

Wine Country Film Festival, August 2004
Shooting Stars: Great Photographers of the West film festival premiere at the historic Sebastiani Theater;
selected to open for Monumental, David Brower's Fight for Wild America

Friends of Hetch Hetchy
Native American segment fromYosemite Ahwahnee Style selected for interpretive screenings in Yosemite Valley.

Telly Awards 2001
Silver Award
Echoes Through Time: Grand Canyon

Houston International Film Festival 2000
3 Gold Special Jury Awards, 2 Gold & 1 Silver Awards
Echoes Through Time: Grand Canyon

Worldfest Flagstaff Film Festival 1999
Silver Award
Echoes Through Time: Grand Canyon

White House Millenium Trails Commission 1999
Public presentation of Echoes Through Time: Grand Canyon to the First Lady by the Grand Canyon Association

Fred Harvey Trading Company Seal 1999
Awarded to Echoes Through Time: Grand Canyon. It is the only Grand Canyon DVD/video selected for this honor.

Ahwahnee Hotel, Yosemite National Park 1997
Yosemite Ahwahnee Style, World Premiere and special filmmaker presentation.

FILMOGRAPHY

Desert Gold (revised 2008)
Short Documentary

The HOBY Story (2006)
Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership promotional film

Season of the Sand Blossoms (2006)
Musical suite

The Warner Murals (2005)
Art, Architecture in Mid-City Los Angeles: Short Documentary

Shooting Stars: Great Photographers of the West (2004)
Short Documentary

Echoes Through Time: Death Valley (2003, 2005)
Documentary/Natural History/Travel Film

Echoes Through Time: Grand Canyon (2001, 2005)
Documentary/Natural History/Travel Film

Years of Wonder: Brawerman Elementary School (2001­2004)
Tribute/Documentary

Canyon Spring (2000)
Short Film

Yosemite Ahwahnee Style (1996)
Natural History/Architecture/Travel Film

Short Tribute Documentary Films:

Automobile Club of Southern California
Northrop Grumman
Wells Fargo Foundation
Shraton Kalouria, Vice President, NBC Daytime Programming
Katy Couric
The Boeing Company
HEROES OF LOS ANGELES:
Los Angeles City Fire Department Chief, William Bamattre
Los Angeles Police Chief William H. Bratton
Los Angeles County Sheriff Leroy D. Baca, Chief
Los Angeles County Fire Department Chief P. Michael Freeman
Alfred E. Mann, Chairman, Mannkind and Advanced Bionics
Jim and Beverly Rogers, Sunbelt Communications
Walt Disney Corporation

THE FILMMAKERS

Peter Rhalter

An award winning photographer and graphic artist as well as lifelong outdoor enthusiast, Peter Rhalter co-produces, films and edits Random Walk Productions' award winning work.

An avid backpacker and camper in both mountain and desert environments, his travels have taken him from across the Southwestern desert to Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, the High Uintas, Yosemite, Sequoia and the Sierra, as well as numerous trips inside Grand Canyon. His interests in western history, geology and the natural world combined with his lifelong pursuits in fine art and photography lead him toward making films on natural history-related subjects.

His filmmaking interests extend as well to animation, as seen in the award-winning Shooting Stars: Great Photographers of the West and Random Walk's upcoming live action/animated film for children. As a filmmaker he has been awarded gold medals for cinematography, editing and special digital effects for his films. He co-produces Random Walk Productions films with his wife, Melanie Rhalter.

Peter has a strong personal commitment to supporting arts education for children. He helped pilot a program for the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County in which he taught post-production techniques to middle-school aged students in a museum-based documentary film class. He also has taught photography and traditional darkroom techniques to elementary school aged children. Nurturing his personal interest in traditional cameras and photographic techniques, he continues to work with interesting collectible cameras.

Melanie Rhalter

An award winning filmmaker and educator, Melanie Rhalter co-produces, directs and writes Random Walk Productions' films with her husband, Peter. Random Walk Productions programs have won numerous awards for excellence not only for their cinematography, editing and writing but also as travel, nature and history productions. Melanie interacts with museum specialists and curators as well as naturalists, archivists and cultural interpreters to research and develop her films. She can be heard as narrator of Echoes Through Time Grand Canyon and Desert Gold.

As an independent educator, Melanie has worked with the Natural Museum of Los Angeles County since 2003. She has developed and taught wide-ranging curricula pertaining to natural and human history from the oceans to the deserts. She frequently incorporates perspectives and traditions from native cultures into lessons about ecosystems and conservation. Since 1999 she has also created language arts and science programs for nursery and elementary school students.

Her travels in the American West have taken her from the bottom of Death Valley, through the Southwest's red rock country to the Northern Cheyenne Sun Dance in SE Montana where she earned the name Buffalo Woman Appears (Wo'es-ta Meh-ne'va).

Melanie and Peter have presented Random Walk Production's most recent award-winning films Season of the Sand Blossoms and Desert Gold at the invitation of Joshua Tree National Park, the Arizona Native Plant Society and The Phoenix Desert Botanical Gardens. Melanie's future plans include expanding upon the educational and advocacy messages of Desert Gold and speaking at screenings to be held by The Living Desert Zoo and Botanical Gardens, Palms Springs Public Library and The Desert Institute and the Sierra Club.

Melanie is a member of MESC (Museum Educators of Southern California) and has been a delegate to the Western Museums Association Annual Meeting. Her documentary work has also included juggling family travel, which led to her being a featured presenter at the 2005 Adventures in Travel Expo in San Francisco where she answered questions about how to get the most out of seeing the West.