About the Filmmakers
Nancy Schiesari - Producer/Director
Nancy Schiesari is an experienced director, producer and cinematographer on both broadcast documentaries and award-winning independent films. Her latest full-length documentary, Canine Soldiers: the Militarization of Love, premiered at the Austin Film Festival and aired nationally on PBS over Memorial Day weekend, 2018. She also directed and produced feature-length documentaries, Cactus Jack, Lone Star on Capitol Hill (PBS), Tattooed Under Fire (PBS), Hansel Mieth-Vagabond Photographer (Independent Lens) and History Man, a half-hour profile on Martin Scorsese for BBC 4, London. Nancy comes with thirty years’ experience as a Director of Photography on over 50 documentaries and feature films broadcast for England’s Channel 4, BBC, ABC, National Geographic, and PBS. She has filmed in Europe, the US, Africa, India, Pakistan, Iceland, and Latin America. She was nominated for a Television Emmy for outstanding cinematography on The Human Face (producer John Cleese). Among her work as a cinematographer is Barbara Sonneborn’s Oscar-nominated Regret to Inform, winner best documentary at Sundance, and Pratibha Parmar and Alice Walker’s Warrior Marks, Channel Four, London. Nancy graduated with an MFA from the Royal College of Art, London, and is a professor in production in the Radio –Television and Film Department at the University of Texas at Austin. She is the mother of two grown children, Eleanor Cheetham and Felix Turton. In 2010, she founded MO-TI productions, dedicated to making films with diverse talent committed to telling stories from new perspectives. www.motiproductions.com. Christina Kim - Editor Christina Sun Kim is a Los Angeles-based editor who grew up in South Korea and the Midwest of the United States. She discovered her love of editing while studying documentary filmmaking at the University of Texas at Austin. Soon after graduation, she cut her first full-length documentary, Tattooed Under Fire (dir. Nancy Schiesari), an ITVS-funded film about Iraq veterans and their emotional scars. In 2014, Christina earned her MFA from the University of California, Los Angeles, and was also named a Film Independent Project Involve fellow. She then spent time producing and editing short social justice documentaries, collaborating with Emmy and Peabody Award-winning filmmakers and a network of community organizers throughout California. Her short film, The Migration Continues, chronicled a group of DREAMers fighting to defend DACA and was a finalist for the 2018 Shorty Awards. Christina was happy to find her way back to editing long-form documentaries with her most recent work, Land of My Father (dir. Matthew Koshmrl). She received the 2020 Karen Schmeer Emerging Editor Fellowship and is currently finishing a feature documentary, Liquor Store Dreams (dir. So Yun Um), a 2021 recipient of Sundance Institute Documentary Fund. Alison Rooper - Executive Producer Executive producer Alison Rooper of In Focus Productions cut her teeth at Granada TV on history and documentary series before joining the BBC where she series produced and series edited a number of flagship shows in current affairs, science and documentaries. Amongst recent documentaries she has executive produced are the award winning War Feels Like War (special mention at Hotdocs 2004) and The Headmaster and the Headscarves. Rooper’s recently directed Doping for Gold for the BBC, aired on PBS Secrets of the Dead in may 2008. Laura Sobel - Co-Producer Laura has produced and written for PBS, A&E, Biography, and VH1/MTV Networks. She produced, directed, and wrote Cereal: History in a Bowl, a pop culture pilot for The History Channel that was subsequently extended to a 13-part series. As a development writer, her credits include film treatments and series proposals for PBS, HBO, National Geographic, Bravo, Discovery-Times Television, HGTV, Outdoor Life Network and the Weather Channel. She has also taught documentary filmmaking workshops at DCTV in New York and at The Mobile Film School in Austin. Carol Geiger - Associate Producer Carol Geiger has been involved with the non-profit sector since the 1970s in various capacities. While her educational background was in molecular biology, her desire to work for the greater good has directed her career path. She has been involved with organizations that provide health care services for the uninsured, legal services for victims of domestic violence, and advocate for health and human services issues as well as clean air in Texas . In her spare time, she has raised a son; involves herself in the arts (taking classes and workshops in metal sculpture, life drawing, and clay); and is an associate producer on a documentary for ITVS due to be released in the fall of 2008. Librado Lozano - Associate Producer / Camera Librado Lozano possesses 16 years of professional experience working as a producer, writer, photojournalist and video editor. He started his career working at a studio that served hi-profile advertising agencies, but has since worked on a broad range of productions. He has created behind the scenes trailers for several feature-films starring David Carradine, Elisha Cuthbert and Camella Bell. Currently, Lozano specializes in documentaries and has worked with Nancy Schiesari before on her film Hansel Mieth: Vagabond Photographer. He holds a bachelor degree in Radio-TV-Film from the University of Texas at Austin and is currently a producer for PBS-Dallas (KERA-13). Iskra Valtcheva - Camera A native of Bulgaria, Iskra Valtcheva is an independent cinematographer who has worked on more than forty shorts and tenfeature films in TX, WA, NY, and NM in roles ranging from D.P. to setlighting technician. Her cinematography credits include a 2008 StudentAcademy Award nomination (Red Wednesday, dir. Nazanin Shirazi), and asemi-finalist (Love, Sadie, dir. Naiti Gámez). Iskra holds a B.A. inArt from Williams College, MA, and an M.F.A. in Film Production fromthe University of Texas at Austin. She was nominated for the 2007 JohnAlonzo, and the 2009 Bud Stone ASC Student Heritage Awards in Cinematography. Naiti Gamez - Camera Naiti Gámez is a Cuban-born, Miami-raised, filmmaker willing to call anywhere “with a flexible approach to language” home. She has worked as a cinematographer, director and editor on award-winning films and television series. Her latest film, Love, Sadie, was awarded a Texas Filmmakers’ Production Fund Grant (Austin Film Society), and was a Student Academy Awards semi-finalist. As a cinematographer, her film credits have screened at dozens of festivals worldwide, including Clermont-Ferrand, Tribeca, SXSW, Festival du Cinema de Paris, Woodstock Film Festival, Hampton’s International Film Festival, Festival de Cine Internacional de Barcelona and Taos Talking Pictures. Her film and TV credits have aired on television networks such as Showtime, MTV/MTV2, & tuTV. Naiti has also worked at non-profit organizations in the U.S. and abroad. As a youth-media educator, she’s collaborated with young people to produce videos about social issues that affect them. She holds a B.A. in Latin American Studies from Smith College, and an M.F.A. in Film Production (Cinematography concentration) from the University of Texas at Austin. Marco Slavnic - Camera Marko Slavnic’s background is mainly in documentary work. He has edited and shot several feature length and short documentaries. Within the past year, he co-founded Imprint HD, a national production house specializing in corporate and commercial media. He currently serves as one of the company’s executive producers. Martin Peterson - Sound Tattooed Under Fire was Martin’s first documentary project. He graduated from the University of Texas’ RTF program in ‘06. Since then, he’s done a variety of location recording ranging from documentary to narrative and television, including production mixing for St. Nick and Artois the Goat, both premiering at SXSW in 2009. Martin is based out of Austin, TX. |