EXECUTIVE PRODUCER

Michael is a journalist, filmmaker, and artist. He directed the award-winning short film and photo exhibition Water Warriors (POV), a story about a community’s successful resistance to the oil and gas industry. It has since been rebroadcasted hundreds of times by PBS stations across the country, including annually in November. He also co-directed the participatory documentary Sandy Storyline (Jury Award winner at the Tribeca Film Festival), the site-specific performance Sanctuary (The Working Theater), and the PBS series Veterans Coming Home. Michael has directed, produced, and co-written original film, radio, and theater with numerous companies including The Foundry Theater, The Civilians, and the Peabody Award-winning StoryCorps on NPR. Michael’s photography has appeared in publications like The Village Voice, The New York Times, and Het Parool. He has been an artist-in-residence with Camargo Foundation, The Laundromat Project and the National Resource Defense Council. He is the recipient of an NBC News Studios Original Voices Fellowship, a Creative Capital Award, A Blade of Grass Artist Files Fellowship, and a New York State Council on the Arts Individual Artist Award.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Rachel is a documentary filmmaker and multimedia artist. She produced the short film and exhibition Water Warriors (POV), which won more than 10 awards and has screened at hundreds of festivals, schools and communities around the globe. Rachel co-directed the participatory web documentary and exhibition Sandy Storyline (winner of the Jury Award at the Tribeca Film Festival), the site-specific performance Sanctuary and the multi-platform project Housing is a Human Right. She has directed and produced dozens of short films for clients like the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Earth Island Institute. Previously, Rachel produced content with the award-winning national oral history project StoryCorps and EarSay, Inc., and was an associate producer on Incite Picture’s Young Lakota (Independent Lens). She has taught oral history and storytelling in collaboration with institutions like the Museum of the City of New York and Parsons The New School for Design. Rachel is also a sound recordist for film and radio, including most recently Knock Down The House (Netflix) and To the End (Hulu).

ASSOCIATE PRODUCER
Marshall is a journalist and multimedia producer, working at the intersection of storytelling and cultural change. Informed by his knowledge of climate and environmental justice movements, he facilitates the impact campaign for the award-winning short film Water Warriors (POV). He also does research for projects in development, archival research and assists with producing. Through his time reporting on grassroots political organizing, Marshall began writing and interviewing for independent podcasting and oral history projects. He has worked as a journalistic researcher, editor and writer with Political Research Associates (PRA), a research and strategy center. He has participated in various labs and trainings for producers leading social impact campaigns, including the Doc Society Impact Producers Lab.

APPRENTICESHIP MENTOR

Zeshawn is a filmmaker originally from Ohio and currently based in New York. His feature documentary film, Two Gods, was supported by ITVS, Ford Foundation, and Sundance Institute and was selected in festivals across North America. It was released in theaters nationwide as well as on broadcast as a part of “Independent Lens” on PBS. The film was named a New York Times Critics Pick and nominated for a Cinema Eye Spotlight Award. He was recently selected as a fellow for the Gotham/HBO Documentary Development Initiative and the Pillars Artist fellowship. He’s also a member of Meerkat Media, a cooperatively-owned production company based in Brooklyn.

APPRENTICESHIP MENTOR

Ligaiya (they/he) is a trans non-binary documentary filmmaker and visual artist, working with collective memory and the decolonial imagination. They directed the film, Becoming the Moon, about Filipino American artist, Maia Cruz Palileo, for PBS American Masters, Firelight Media, and Topic. He was also the Video Producer & Editor for The Argus Project, a transmedia documentary on police violence and citizen counter-surveillance. The project was a collaboration with CopWatch NYC, supported by Tribeca New Media Fund, and presented at Tribeca Film Festival. Ligaiya was a Firelight Media Documentary Lab fellow, a CAAM fellow, and a Karen Schmeer Diversity in the Edit Room fellow. They are currently working on a project about the end of the world.

APPRENTICE

Kunga is a Tibetan Director, Cinematographer and Photographer hailing from Queens, NY. Son of an immigrant Taxi driver, his directing and photography work carries strong undercurrents of class, identity, and family. His film This is closest to how the last weeks of March felt like was curated at Short of the Week, and screened at festivals like NFFTY, and Tide Film Festival. He is the co-founder of a production Co-op “Are We There Yet?” a group of NYC filmmakers who specialize in making branded content and music videos. Clients include META, Ray Bans, Topicals, and Adolescent Content.

APPRENTICE

Courtney is a Black Southern poet, producer, editor, and impact producer dedicated to facilitating change through the sharing of stories. She served as lead producer of Silence Sam, which premiered at BlackStar Film Festival and has had impact-driven screenings across the country. As an educator, Courtney co-created the History Reclamation Project at Youth FX, an after-school production program in its third year, whose premiere documentary premiered on PBS’ WMHT channel. As an immersion resident with the School of Making and Thinking, Courtney produced and edited And You Can Point Towards The Horizon, a poetic VR meditation, which premiered at Cucalorus Film Festival in 2023. As an impact producer, she led the national impact campaign for the Emmy-nominated feature, The Neutral Ground, directed by CJ Hunt and produced by Darcy McKinnon. A 2018 NeXt Doc Fellow and one of Ms. Magazine’s 25 under 25 to watch, she works to drive viewers past the point of empathy to the point of healing and action.