JAMIE BOYLE
DIRECTOR / PRODUCER / EDITOR
Jamie Boyle (she/her) is a two-time Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker living in Brooklyn NY. Her work has played at Sundance, SXSW, Tribeca, and others. In 2019, she was selected to be part of the inaugural Sundance Talent Forum & Catalyst Lab and on DOC NYC’s 40 Under 40 list. Boyle is the Writer and Editor of the forthcoming documentary feature, BREAKING THE NEWS, which premiered at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival, was awarded the David Carr Award for Truth in Filmmaking at Montclair Film Festival, and will broadcast on PBS's Independent Lens in 2024. She was the Editor, Producer, and Cinematographer on JACKSON (Showtime), winner of the 2018 News & Documentary Emmy Award for Outstanding Social Justice Documentary. JACKSON premiered at LA Film Festival and was awarded Best Documentary at over fifteen festivals nationwide. She edited TRANS IN AMERICA: TEXAS STRONG, winner of the 2019 News & Documentary Emmy for Outstanding Short Documentary. TEXAS STRONG was the first of a three-part series she edited that premiered at SXSW and launched on them. (TeenVogue and Conde Nast’s LGBTQ+ platform). She was the Associate Editor and Production Manager on E-TEAM (Netflix), which won the 2014 Sundance Film Festival Cinematography Award and was nominated for two News & Documentary Emmys, including Best Documentary. She was the Director, Cinematographer, and Editor of the short documentary TAKE A VOTE, which highlighted the fight against voter suppression. In 2020, TAKE A VOTE premiered at DOC NYC. She was the in-house editor for The American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch. She taught at the Bronx Documentary Center, as a guest lecturer at Columbia University, and served as a judge for the News & Documentary Emmy Awards.
MARILYN NESS
PRODUCER
Marilyn Ness is a two-time Emmy, Peabody, and DuPont Award-winning filmmaker who works as a director and producer. Most recently, she produced the Netflix Original documentaries BECOMING (dir. Nadia Hallgren), about former First Lady Michelle Obama, which was nominated for four Primetime Emmy Awards as well as DICK JOHNSON IS DEAD (dir. Kirsten Johnson), which premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and won the Special Jury Award for Innovation in Non-fiction Storytelling, was nominated for a PGA Award, an Independent Spirit Award, and later earned three Primetime Emmy® nominations. Marilyn directed the Emmy®-nominated documentary CHARM CITY which premiered at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival and was shortlisted for the 2019 Academy Award® - Best Documentary Feature. The film was broadcast on PBS' Independent Lens in April 2019. Before that, she produced CAMERAPERSON (dir. Kirsten Johnson), which premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, was released by the Criterion Collection and was shortlisted for the 2017 Academy Awards® - Best Documentary Feature. TRAPPED (dir. Dawn Porter), which premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, received the Jury Prize for Social Impact Filmmaking, broadcast on PBS' Independent Lens, and was awarded a Peabody. She also produced Katy Chevigny and Ross Kauffman’s feature documentary E-TEAM, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2014 and was bought by Netflix Original, and later earned two Emmy nominations. She directed the documentary feature film BAD BLOOD: A CAUTIONARY TALE that broadcast nationally on PBS in 2011. Ness is one of the founding members of the Documentary Producers Alliance and is co-chair of the Financing Waterfall Committee. She is currently at work on a multi-disciplinary theater and documentary project entitled POST MORTEM.
ELIZABETH WESTRATE
PRODUCER
Elizabeth Westrate is a filmmaker with over twenty years of production experience, leading complex international projects for a broad range of clients. Her work has been broadcast widely on PBS, HBO, Amazon, NBC, Sundance Channel, Public Radio International and at major film festivals and museums around the world. Westrate is currently in preproduction as Series Producer for a ten-part documentary series for children featuring musical artist, Ben Folds, for Fred Rogers Productions Westrate was Director and Producer of the critically acclaimed documentary A FAMILY UNDERTAKING (PBS/POV), as well as THE JAMES WOLFENSOHN TRIBUTE PROJECT, PASSING ON THE GIFT and many other films. She was Series Producer of I CONTAIN MULTITUDES, a twelve part science series for PBS Digital and HHMI, and also thirty episodes of the innovative ecological PBS series, E2: E2 DESIGN, E2 ENERGY and E2 TRANSPORT. She has acted as Line Producer for high-profile documentary projects such as Dror Moreh’s THE HUMAN FACTOR (Telluride 2019), Roger Ross Williams’ AMERICAN JAIL (CNN Films 2018), and multiple projects for BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN and Thrill Hill with director Thom Zimny.
SAUL SIMON MACWILLIAMS
COMPOSER
Saul Simon MacWilliams is an Emmy nominated, Los Angeles based film composer. MacWilliams has worked closely and extensively with composer and producer Dan Romer on films including his Oscar nominated feature BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD, DIGGING FOR FIRE, FINDERS KEEPERS, MEDITERRANIA, BEASTS OF NO NATION and ABC's THE GOOD DOCTOR. Saul co-scored HBO's Emmy winning documentary, JIM: THE JAMES FOLEY STORY, as well as Amazon's GLEASON, which took the 2016 Sundance Audience Award. In 2017, Saul scored HBO's BECOMING WARREN BUFFET, as well as co-scoring the Netflix documentary CHASING CORAL, which won the Sundance Audience Award and earned him and Romer an Emmy nomination. In 2018 MacWilliams scored HBO's Martin Luther King Jr. biopic, KING IN THE WILDERNESS, directed by Peter Kunhardt and Co-Scored Clay Tweel's award winning documentary OUT OF OMAHA. MacWilliams scored the Anton Yelchin biopic, LOVE, ANTOSHA, which premiered at Sundance '19 followed by a theatrical release.
ELIZA LICHT
IMPACT COORDINATOR
Eliza has been working in the social-issue documentary field for 20 years as an engagement strategist, impact producer, and television executive. She works closely with clients to develop their goals and vision for engagement and impact to maximize the impact and visibility of their films. At Red Owl, she creates and executes campaigns that implement overall strategy, partnership development, the production of high-quality educational resources, as well as tracking, measuring, and evaluating impact. Before Red Owl, Eliza spent 17 years building and expanding the community engagement and education department at the PBS documentary series POV. As Vice President of Content Strategy and Engagement, she set priorities and direction for the organization, along with EPs and fellow executive staff, oversaw the Community Engagement, Communication, and Programs departments, worked closely with the programming team on series selection, and spearheaded broadcast campaigns for over 250 films. Under Licht’s leadership, POV saw a 1000% increase in events, including over 800 screenings annually, and over 46,000 direct engagements with in-person audience members. Eliza has served on juries for DOC NYC, Hot Springs Film Festival, and Brooklyn Film Festival, and on funding panels for the National Endowment of the Arts, Black Public Media, and the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage.
DR. ANDREW KOLODNY
SCIENTIFIC ADVISOR
Dr. Andrew Kolodny is the Medical Director of Opioid Policy Research at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management. His primary area of focus is the prescription opioid and heroin crisis devastating families and communities across the country. He is also the executive director of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing, an organization with a mission to reduce morbidity and mortality caused by overprescribing of opioid analgesics. Dr. Kolodny previously served as Chief Medical Officer for Phoenix House, a national non profit addiction treatment agency and Chair of Psychiatry at Maimonides Medical Center in New York City. Dr. Kolodny has a long-standing interest in public health. He began his career working for the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in the Office of the Executive Deputy Commissioner. For New York City, he helped develop and implement multiple programs to improve the health of New Yorkers and save lives, including city-wide buprenorphine programs, naloxone overdose prevention programs and emergency room-based screening, brief intervention and referral to treatment (SBIRT) programs for drug and alcohol misuse.