Director/Producer/Cinematographer/Editor, Maria Niro

Maria is an artist and filmmaker whose work has been broadcasted on television and screened in theatres, museums, and galleries all over the world. She is a member of New Day Films - a filmmaker owned and run distribution company co-founded by American Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker, activist, and feminist Julia Reichert. New Day has been providing social issue documentaries to educators since 1971. Maria's work includes experimental short films and long-form documentaries. Her art films have explored voyeurism, surveillance and the camera, political tension, war, technological innovation and mass destruction, and collective consumption among other issues. Her feature-length documentary Krzysztof Wodiczko: The Art of Un-War, on New Day Films,  which has been broadcasted on TV Ontario (TVO), chronicles the life and political work of the internationally acclaimed artist Krzysztof Wodiczko. The Art of Un-War has participated in festivals worldwide including Artecinema,  New York Jewish Film Festival, ACT Human Rights Film Festival, Newport Beach Film Festival, New Jersey Film Festival where it won Best Feature Documentary, Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival where it won a Special Jury Mention award, and many others. To date, she's completed one feature-length documentary and over 41 short films with original sounds she's created. Her films have been presented and screened at Teatro San Carlo, Harvard Art Museums, National Gallery of Art DC, MIT ACT, Queens Museum, CUNY Graduate Center, Microscope Gallery, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Anthology Film Archives, Exit Art Gallery, and  Whitechapel Gallery UK,  among others. She studied Film and Media Studies at The New School for Social Research. Maria proudly serves on the advisory board of More Art, a nonprofit organization that supports collaborations between professional artists and communities to create public art and educational programs that inspire social justice. 

 

Supervising Editor, Nyneve Laura Minnear

Laura is a Documentary Film Editor, Writer and Story Consultant based in Brooklyn. Her current film LITTLE RICHARD: I AM EVERYTHING for CNN Films/HBO Max, with director Lisa Cortes, premiered in the Competition at SUNDANCE 2023. Recent work includes: THE ART OF MAKING IT, a tapestry film that lifts the veil off of the Art World ecosystem, won an Audience Award at SXSW 2022 after sold out premieres at DocNYC and Hamptons FF; HBO-THE VOW series as Editor and Story Consultant; 306 HOLLYWOOD, the first documentary to premiere in the NEXT section for Innovative Filmmaking at SUNDANCE 2018, winner of an Emmy, and broadcast on PBS-POV; (T)ERROR, winner of a SUNDANCE 2015 Special Jury Award, an EMMY for Outstanding Investigative Documentary and a Grand Jury Award at Full Frame Film Festival; FARMER/VETERAN, ITVS funded with a PBS-Independent Lens premiere in 2017, winner of Best Documentary at the Shanghai Intl Film Festival; GIRL WITH BLACK BALLOONS, winner of a Grand Jury Prize at DOCNYC and chosen "Best of Fest" at its premiere at the Edinburgh Film Festival; THE LULU SESSIONS, screened at over 20 festivals worldwide, winning six Best Documentary awards. Nyneve began her career in documentaries working on productions for PBS-FRONTLINE and NOVA.

 

Consulting Editor/ Film Advisor, Laura Paglin 

Laura is a documentary filmmaker whose films have dealt with the struggles of marginalized communities. Her recent film Unseen which tells the complex and horrific story of the Anthony Sowell serial murders that were discovered in Cleveland, Ohio in 2009 made the “best of” lists on Amazon Prime. No Umbrella – Election Day in the City, which brings us a street level view of election day chaos as it played out in one inner city poling location, premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and aired on HBO.  Facing Forward: A Student’s Story, which follows a charismatic but troubled teenager at a strict new inner city charter school, aired nationally on PBS. 

 

Colorist, Björn Bellenbaum

Björn is an editor and colorist with over 20 years of experience. He is known for his work on Colette (2021) Academy Award Winner for best documentary short, Cuban Canvas (2018) Diabolical (2018) Parking Wars (2008), and Dog the Bounty Hunter (2003) among others.

 

Sound Mix, Bill Jackson

Bill is a veteran Recording Engineer and Sound Mixer who has devoted much of his time to television and documentaries. He's earned an Emmy Award for Outstanding Sound Mixing for HBO's Entourage. Bill has mixed audio for numerous documentaries including the Oscar-nominated Three Songs for Benazir, To the Future with Love on POV/PBS, The Art of Un-War, Look Away, Look Away, And  She Could Be Next, Deej (Peabody Award), Ruth Weiss, the Beat Goddess, Off The Rails, Everything Must Change, and Unseen among others.  

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Music / Composers

The Flight (Joe Henson, Alexis Smith), The Skinner Bros (Dan Skinner, Adam Skinner), Jody Jenkins, Evelyn Glennie, Chris Bussey, Philip Guyler, Barrie Gledden, Daniel Goldman, and Dario Forzato, among others.