Sarah Friedland (Director/Cinematographer) is a New York based filmmaker, media artist, and educator. Friedland’s documentaries, made with partners Esy Casey and Ryan Joseph (“Thing With No Name”,”Jeepney”, and “The Rink”), have screened widely in the U.S. and abroad and have aired nationally on PBS. Their films have been supported by grants from the Jerome Foundation, the Paul Newman Foundation, the Ford Foundation JustFilms Program, and the Center for Asian American Media. In 2009, after the debut of her feature documentary “Thing With No Name,” she was named one of the “Top 10 Independent Filmmakers to Watch” by the Independent Magazine. She has received residencies and fellowships from the Center of Contemporary Art in Pont- Aven France, the LABA House of Study, the Palestine American Research Center, the MacDowell Colony, and Meerkat Media. Friedland is the Director of MDOCS Documentary Storyteller’s Institute at Skidmore College.
Rami Younis (Director/Producer) is a Palestinian filmmaker, writer and activist from Lyd. He is currently a writer and editor for the online magazine +972. In addition to his video journalism work for Israeli Social TV, he was part of the writing team on the feature fiction film Junction 48 and a production manager on the feature fiction film Tel Aviv on Fire. Rami served as a parliamentary consultant and spokesperson for Palestinian member of Knesset Haneen Zoabi. Rami is also co-founder and manager of the first ever “Palestine Music Expo”: an event that connects local Palestinian music scene to the world wide industry. He is a graduate of Hebrew University in Jerusalem and is one of the founders of the Palestinian activist group, “Khotweh,” which was active on the issues of home demolitions and Palestinian identity in Lyd and Ramleh, mixed Jewish-Arab cities in occupied historical Palestine. Rami is the recipient of a year long “Religion, Peace and Conflict Fellowship” from Harvard University’s Divinity School to continue his work on Lyd in Exile and cultural activism in Palestine.
Fivel Rothberg (Producer) specializes in producing short nonfiction films for NGOs and long-format documentaries. He received the 2015 DoGooder Award for Best Impact Video from YouTube and See3 Communications, for our production on behalf of the Fund for Modern Courts, Now Is the Time. Currently, he is producing a feature-length documentary by Nathan Fitch, “Island Soldier,” about Micronesian citizens serving in the US military. “Island Soldier” has the backing of the PBS-affiliated funder Pacific Islanders in Communications. It premiered at Full Frame 2017 and had its international premiere at HotDocs 2017. Previously, he was the Associate Producer of Kelly Anderson’s film, “My Brooklyn,” which aired in 2014 on the PBS series America ReFramed.
Baher Agbariya (Producer) is a Palestinian producer based in Haifa. In 2012 he established his own production company “MAJDAL Films,” and has been independently producing fiction and documentary feature films ever since. Notable titles and awards include: Personal Affairs – official selection Un Certain Regard Cannes 2016; It Must Be Heaven – Palme d’Or Cannes 2019; Mussolini’s Sister selected for IDFA; The Idol; and Omar – Oscar nomination, Jury prize Cannes. He received a diploma in Industry Management, as well as a Bachelor Degree in International Business.
Laura Samara (Producer) is a Palestinian film producer, with over 15 years of experience in film production. Laura has produced and line produced many well-known Palestinian films, among them are: Mussolini’s Sister by Juna Sulieman; Tel-Aviv on Fire by Sameh Zoabi; Summer 2014 by Tawfik Abu Wael; Wajib by Annemarie Jacir; Personal Affairs by Maha Assal, and The Idol and Omar by Hany Abu Assad, These films have screened have receievd many honors including screening at IDFA, DocAviv, and Cannes Film Festival and an Oscar nomination. Alongside her work in films, Laura volunteers to promote social values through visual projects working with youth, women and NGO’s. She has a diploma in Television and Cinema production from ‘Bet Rotenberg College’ in Haifa.
Javier Barboza (Animation Director) is an award winning animator and educator. His work tackles the complexity of the urban city, using surreal and narrative methods to engage the audience. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Javier has been animating since the age of sixteen. He received his MFA at U.S.C, School of Cinematic Arts. He has been awarded prestigious fellowships from Princes Grace Foundation and Annenberg. His freelance work has appeared on Netflix, MTV, PBS, Google, Playboy, Nickelodeon, Sony Animation and Disney. His documentary, El Coyote, screened internationally and was chosen as a vimeo staff pick.
Eyas Salman (Editor) Oscar nominated editor of Omar, The Idol, and Degrade.
Roger Waters (Executive Producer) is a founding member of the band Pink Floyd and a successful solo artist. His commitment to activism and human rights can be seen through his work on a multitude of causes including: justice for Palestine, disaster relief, extreme poverty and malaria, global climate change, veterans rights, and many more important areas of struggle and solidarity.
Reda Sabassi (Associate Producer) is a Los Angeles based entrepreneur who started his career in Tech and IT. He is a Palestinian from Jordan who is interested in supporting projects that call for justice in Palestine.
Nancy Kalow, Associate Producer, is a folklorist and filmmaker who has taught at Duke University’s Center for Documentary Studies since 2000. Her video documentary, Sadobabies, was the winner of a Gold Hugo at the Chicago Film Festival and the Special Jury Trophy at the San Francisco Film Festival. She has been co-chair of the Selection Committee of the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival since 2003. She was a co-convener, with miriam cooke and Maha Houssami, of the 2015/16 Mellon Humanities Writ Large project, Arab Refugee Oral History: Collecting Life Narratives. Her e-book, Visual Storytelling: The Digital Video Documentary was published by CDS.
Suhel Nafar, Visual Effects Supervisor and Music Advisor, is a motion graphics artist and filmmaker who helped launch Complex Snapchat Discover channel, the fastest growing platform in the history of Complex Networks. Recently, he was an artist-in-residence at NYU, co-produced and did the GFX for the award winning feature, Junction 48. He is also part of DAM, a Hip Hop Group from Lyd.
Rabab Haj Yahya, consulting editor, is an Emmy-nominated documentary editor and a Sundance Edit and Story Lab Fellow. Her recent work includes the award-winning feature documentary SPEED SISTERS (HotDocs 2015), LOVE THE SINNER (Tribeca 2017) and the web series THE SECRET LIFE OF MUSLIMS (Peabody Finalist, Vox and USA Today, 2016). Rabab has also edited numerous documentaries commissioned by the Al Jazeera Documentary Channel, including ENEMIES OF THE SOUTH (2015), which was featured in multiple prime-time slots on the network. In between projects, Rabab has dedicated a significant amount of her time helping aspiring editors and filmmakers, through training and pro-bono consultations in the Middle East, West Africa, and the Balkans. Rabab speaks English, Arabic, and Hebrew fluently and currently lives in New York.
Jay Arthur Sterrenberg, consulting editor, is a Canadian-American documentary director, editor an cinematographer whose work has broadcast on PBS, HBO, and CNN, and has screened at festivals such as Sundance, Tribeca, Berlin & IDFA. Documentary editing credits include DARK MONEY (Sundance, 2018), TROPHY (CNN Films, 2017), Tribeca award winning UNTOUCHABLE (2016), NARCO CULTURA (Cinedigm, 2013), Academy Award nominated REDEMPTION (HBO, 2013), and Emmy Nominated SECTION 60 (HBO, 2008).
Advisors:
- Tamer Nafar: Musician, actor, and activist. Member of the Lyd based Hip Hop group DAM. Star of Junction 48, fiction film based in Lyd.
- Hannah Mermelstein: Founder of Librarians and Archivists for Palestine.
- Suha Arraf: Fiction film director and screenwriter. Director of Fiction Film, Villa Touma.
- Oren Moverman: Academy award winning fiction film screen writer, director and producer. Credits include Time Out Of Mind, Love and Mercy and Junction 48.
- Joseph Atrash: Chairman of Al-Midan theater in Haifa.
- Jonathan Cook: Award-winning British author and journalist reporting from Nazareth on the Middle East, including the Israel-Palestine conflict.
- Orwa Switat: City planner and doctoral candidate in geography whose research includes the erasure of Palestinian features of “mixed cities” in Israel.
- Dina Dahmash: Palestine advocate. Granddaughter of Khalil Dahmash, who built Dahmash Mosque in Lyd.
- Lami Dahmash: Palestine advocate. Granddaughter of Khalil Dahmash, who built Dahmash Mosque in Lyd.