Bio

Actor/Writer

Howard Petrick presented his first solo performance at The Marsh Theater in December 2007.  He has studied with David Ford, Ann Randolph, James Donlon and Leonard Pitt. His show, Harold, the story of a boy who wanted to be a violinist, but  his Polish immigrant father gets him accordion lessons instead has been performed at The Monday Night Marsh, Tell It On Tuesday and FronteraFest 2009 in Austin, Texas.

Petrick’s  Breaking Rank!, is an autobiographical piece about his experiences speaking out and organizing against the Vietnam War while in the US Army  in 1966-68.  It was workshopped as Rambo: The Missing Years.  He has performed at FronteraFest, The Marsh, Words First, City Solo, The San Francisco Theater Festival, the Boulder, Chicago, Winnipeg, Victoria and Vancouver Fringe Festivals,  The Fresno Rogue Festival, Austin’s FronteraFest, The Marsh and The Marsh Berkeley.

Never Own Anything You Have to Paint of Feed, was his story of working on the railroad and meeting hobos and taking to the road himself.  A story of being radicalized by meeting and learning the history of elder Wobblies and socialists.

V.R.Dunne, is Petrick’s tribute to Vincent Raymond Dunne one of the leaders of the 1934 Truck Drivers Strike in Minneapolis. Petrick spent many hours with Dunne in 1965-66 before he was drafted into the army.

Filmmaker

Mr. Petrick holds a BFA in Filmmaking from the San Francisco Art Institute.  He produced and directed the award-winning documentary film about the McCarthy Era, The Case of the Legless Veteran: James Kutcher (1981).  His interest in civil liberties also led him to produce and direct Refugee the story of Salvadoran refugees arriving and settling in San Francisco, CA.  And This is no Granada about the contra war in Nicaragua.  Mr. Petrick also served as a producer on the Emmy award-winning documentary Before Stonewall.  He has received funding awards from The National Endowment for the Humanities, National Endowment for the Arts, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the New York State Arts Council as well as private foundations.

The Case of the Legless Veteran: James Kutcher – Produced/Directed by Howard Petrick

Major Film Festivals: San Francisco Film Festival (Premier), Manheim International Film Week, Germany,  Atlanta Film Festival (Best of Festival) , Sinking Creek Film Festival (Cash Award Winner), Hong Kong International Film Festival, Lipzik International Film Festival, East Germany, U.S. Film Festival (Sundance), Sidney International Film Festival, Festival de Popoli, Italy, Melbourne International Film Festival, American Educational Film Festival (Finalist), Edinburgh Film Festival, Scotland.

 Photographer

As a photo journalist Petrick’s work has appeared in The New York Times, Time, Newsweek, UPI and The New York Times Sunday Magazine, Crawdaddy, The Militant, and the Associated Press wire service among other publications.  He was represented by Nancy Palmer Photo Agency in New York City.

Group Exhibits:

The Whole World’s Watching              Berkeley Arts Center September –December 2001

The Whole World’s Watching              Traveling group show about peace and social justice movements in California, developed by and first shown at the Berkeley Art Center. 2002-2007

Publication:

The Whole World’s Watching              Berkeley Art Center 2001

Other

Howard Petrick was President of Noe Valley Computers from 1987 until 2008.

He has served as a member of the board of directors of the Film Arts Foundation, the Association of Independent Film and Videomakers and the San Francisco Art Institute.