Digital Creator with 7+ years in media production and photography, adept at working on location or in a fast-moving studio. With experience collaborating
as a team or multi-tasking on my own under pressure. Demonstrated skills as a cinematographer and junior producer and moving towards a directing position. Proven expertise in researching and writing scripts, securing locations, and planning/scheduling film shoots. Strong conceptual skills with a keen eye for what makes the shot. Excellent editing and camera skills. After starting my career in London – then moved to Athens – where I picked up my style of cinematography and an eye for developing unique doc stories. I then earned my Documentary Media Studies Certificate at The New School in New York; I hope to continue my journey of expressing people’s mental struggles through cinematic visuals.
Jared Jacobsen is a filmmaker based in Southern California. Since completing a
year-long film program in Mexico, his award-winning films include narratives,
documentaries, music videos, and commercial content. His films impact, entertain, and
inform and most often tell stories from the Southern California or Northern Mexico
regions. His recognition includes best screenplay, best director, best narrative film, best
documentary, best editing, and best PSA at national and international film festivals. His
films have screened at over 175 film festivals. Jared is the creative director of
StephenJake Video Productions.
A passionate disability rights activist, writer, storyteller, and digital communications consultant whose career began at the age of 10, when she appeared on several episodes of Sesame Street to educate kids about life with a physical disability. Emily Ladau is the co-host of The Accessible Stall Podcast, and author of Demystifying Disability: What to Know, What to Say, and How to be an Ally.
Tim Rummel is a veteran producer with a track record of developing and overseeing innovative documentary series and unscripted formats for cable, broadcast and streaming. Tim was with NBCUniversal for 12 years as a creative executive, where he developed and oversaw production of the blockbuster series American Ninja Warrior. After NBCU, Tim served as VP, Development & Production for CORE Media (American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance). Currently, Tim leads development for Redtail Media, selling concepts to Discovery, WarnerMedia, SYFY and AMC.
Like many of Brian Wallach’s college classmates, Chris always looked forward to voting for
Brian for President one day. As it turned out, he wound up supporting Brian in a very different kind of campaign—remaking the fight against ALS. Chris is an Emmy-winning director and has been documenting Brian and Sandra’s fight since early 2019.
Brian Wallach, JD: Co-Founder, Board Co-Chair, Synapticure; Co-Founder, I AM ALS
Brian Wallach was diagnosed with ALS in November 2017. At the time of his diagnosis, he was 37, with two daughters under three. Since then he has become an outspoken, well-known, and impactful patient advocate. He is married to co-founder, Sandra Abrevaya, whom he met on the 2008 Obama campaign. Brian was an avid skier who ran the 400 at Yale. His favorite movie is Big Fish and his favorite band is the National.
In addition to co-founding the nonprofit I AM ALS, Brian was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Northern District of Illinois from August 2014 to April 2018, and from July 2011 to April 2013, Brian served as Senior Vetting Counsel at the White House in the Obama Administration. Brian received his BA from Yale University and his JD from the Georgetown University Law Center. He has also co-founded Synapticure, a telehealth company.
Matthew August Jeffers is a critically-acclaimed little person theater and television performer making his feature film debut in Unidentified Objects. He can be seen as “Doctor Mark Walsh” on hit NBC medical drama New Amsterdam and as “Russell” in Season Four of Amazon’s Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. He also recently finished The Public Theater’s production of Richard III starring Danai Gurira.
Juan Felipe Zuleta (b. 1994) is an award-winning director based in New York City whose diverse body of work celebrates, interrogates, and explores identity through a character-driven and genre-bending cinematic lens. After immigrating to the United States from Medellín as a teenager, Juan Felipe earned his first industry internship at the Paramount Pictures lot when he befriended a group of executives on his recreational futbol team. From that unpaid desk job, he went on to study at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts (‘16) before becoming one of the youngest-ever in-house directors at Eva Nosidam following graduation.
When not directing commercials for brands like Budweiser or directing music videos for multi-platinum artists like Anderson .Paak, Nicki Minaj, Maluma and Russ, Juan Felipe works to reconcile the unique and divergent aspects of his identity by creating original films about outsiders. Going from a conservative Catholic upbringing in Colombia to the diverse, liberal atmosphere of Los Angeles and New York gave Juan Felipe a one-of-a-kind perspective on notions of nationality, identity, and art. Accordingly, he is dedicated to
new narratives that ask engaging questions and eschew cliches; melding genres to explore authentic narratives that continually break ground on-screen. His inspirations include Denis Villenueve, Alfonso Cuarón, Luis Buñuel, and the Coen Brothers.
Unidentified Objects —Juan Felipe’s first feature—has played at top international festivals and continues its journey in the festival circuit;
Additional honors received by Juan Felipe include a $50,000 creative grant from the Richard Vague Production Fund, a Cannes Silver Lion for his narrative mockumentary for Kraft, making the shortlist for the Cannes Young Directors award for his short doc 90 Brothers, and inclusion in the 2021 Frontières International Co-production Market for his upcoming second feature. His branded work has also been featured in AdAge and other leading industry publications. He is currently developing a slate of forthcoming projects, including two more feature films.
Steven Fraser is an animator, artist and writer who creates short films, comics, zines, performances and installations. They make inventive use of animation, illustration, puppetry and kinetic art to present unique and interesting stories. Steven identifies as queer and autistic and their animation and performance work has been screened and staged at many international film and arts festivals and won many awards.
BEING MICHELLE was directed, produced and filmed by the award-winning wife/husband duo Mae Thornton Mehra and Atin Mehra, who spent five years following Michelle and her story. They have been producing social justice and impact driven films together for over 15 years at ORANGE KITE PRODUCTIONS.
Mae pulls from her varied background as an oral historian, filmmaker, and the niece of her uncle with Down’s Syndrome—giving her a unique understanding that our society needs to work towards equality for all humans. Both Mae and Atin pride themselves on openly creative collaboration between film participants and diverse production teams, where they believe impact begins within the filmmaking process itself. In 2020, the film team co-founded the nonprofit THRIVING ROOTS INITIATIVE to further their work of social impact documentary filmmaking.
