Catharine Axley, Director
Catharine Axley is a documentary filmmaker and editor who seeks stories of empowerment through subjects that defy expectations. Her films have played at festivals including the San Francisco International Film Festival, DOC NYC, Harlem International Film Festival, and the United Nations Association Film Festival. She was a Regional Finalist for the 2014 Student Academy Awards and an official nominee for the David L. Wolper Award at the 2015 International Documentary Association Awards. She holds an M.F.A. from Stanford University and a B.A. in History and Ethnicity, Race & Migration from Yale University.
Melissa Langer, Producer
Melissa Langer is a documentary filmmaker and cinematographer based in Oakland. She holds an M.F.A. in Documentary Film & Video from Stanford University and a B.A. in History from Carleton College. Her short films include Treasure Island, Hauled Out, and Terms of Intimacy. Her most recent film, My Aleppo, tells the story of a young Syrian family in South Africa as they struggle to retain ties to the ancient city of Aleppo. She is the recipient of a UFVA Carole Fielding Grant and her films have premiered at Telluride Film Festival, SXSW, IDFA, and MoMA's Doc Fortnight.
Kristine Stolakis, Producer
Kristine Stolakis is a BAFTA nominated documentary filmmaker and producer. Her films have played at festivals internationally, including Hot Docs, DOC NYC, and Seattle International and have been featured in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Buzzfeed, and Mother Jones. Her film Where We Stand, about a courageous and controversial group of Mormon feminists, is currently traveling the country. She is the recipient of the Southern Environmental Law Center's Media Fellowship and teaches at Diablo Valley College. She holds an M.F.A. in documentary film and video from Stanford University and a B.A. in Cultural Anthropology from New York University. She proudly hails from central New York and North Carolina.
Evon Peter, Associate Producer & Cultural Advisor
Evon Peter was appointed Vice Chancellor for Rural, Community, and Native Education at the University of Alaska Fairbanks by Chancellor Biran Rogers in July, 2014. A UAF alumnus, Peter is Neetsaii Gwich’in and Koyukon from Arctic Village, where he served three years as the tribal Chief. As a community leader and advocate, he served in numerous board positions including Vice Chair to the Council of Athabascan Tribal Governments. His international work includes participation in the Arctic Council and United Nations forum and locally has focused on implementing behavioral health, leadership and workforce development projects. Evon co-founded Native Movement with his wife Enei Begaye Peter (Navajo) in 2004, a national non-profit Indigenous youth leadership development and sustainability organization.
Jamie Meltzer, Executive Producer
Jamie Meltzer’s feature documentary films have been broadcast nationally on PBS and have screened at numerous film festivals worldwide. His current documentary project, True Conviction (in post-production), is a co-production of ITVS and the recipient of a Sundance Institute grant and a MacArthur grant. Informant (2012), about a revolutionary activist turned FBI informant, was released in theaters in the US and Canada in Fall 2013 by Music Box Films and KinoSmith. Previous films include: Off the Charts: The Song-Poem Story (Independent Lens, 2003), about the shadowy world of song-poems, Welcome to Nollywood (PBS Broadcast, 2007), an investigation into the wildly successful Nigerian movie industry, and La Caminata (2009), a short film about a small town in Mexico that runs a simulated border crossing as a tourist attraction. He teaches in the M.F.A. Program in Documentary Film and Video at Stanford University.
William Ryan Fritch, Composer
William Ryan Fritch is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, engineer and producer living in the artisan community of Petaluma, Califormia. He has scored and contributed music to over a hundred documentary and narrative films, many of which that have been recognized and celebrated at festivals and organizations such as The Independent Spirit award winning "The Waiting Room" and the 2016 Academy Award and Emmy nominated documentary "4.1 Miles." His music has been widely featured in films, shows and miniseries for Netflix, HBO, Amazon, AMC, CBS, IFC, Showtime, Discovery, and PBS. In addition to his commissioned film work, he has created music for dozens of national ad campaigns including multiple Webby and Tribeca X award winning works with Square. He also has a dizzyingly prolific recording career, releasing more than 30 albums of his unique amalgam of folk, contemporary classical, and experimental music through the boutique label Lost Tribe Sound. His distinctly raw, textural and organic sound is the product of his diverse talents as an instrumentalist and recordist; utilizing and manipulating his vast and varied arsenal of live, acoustic and analog instrumentation to fully realize wide ranging compositions.
Lawrence Lerew, Consulting Editor & Additional Editing
Lawrence Lerew is an editor who has worked on numerous documentary films including The Force (2017), The Kill Team (2013), The Waiting Room (2012), Wounded Knee (2008) and the Oscar-nominated The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers (2009).
Eva Louise Grant, Intern
Eva Louise Grant is an undergraduate at Stanford University. She is a proud member of the Sťáťimc tribe of British Columbia, Canada. Having spent time as a child living among South America's indigenous population, Eva recognizes a sacred sense of kinship between Indigenous peoples of this Earth, and the many aesthetic rituals that validate and consolidate indigenous identity. As an artist and poet, Eva believes strongly in the power of art to shape societal values, and takes a special interest in the intersection of language and culture among indigenous people, especially as these relate to their endurance and radical evolution over time. Her slam poems, multi-media visual art pieces, and writings have been showcased through Heritage Canada, the Gathering Our Voices Youth Aboriginal Conference, and other platforms. She represented Canada at the Girls20 Summit in Istanbul, Turkey, last fall and is currently developing a follow-up project in her local community, aimed at increasing economic viability and prosperity among marginalized women. Eva continues both her creative practices and advocacy at Stanford through her participation in the Stanford Native American Indian Students' Organization, her facilitation of campus teach-ins, and her involvement in experimental and traditional film, dance and theater.
Nilo Batle, Intern
Nilo Batle is a filmmaker living in San Francisco, California. He grew up in an artist household where his parents taught him how to draw and sculpt. His latest film played in San Francisco International Film Festival. He recently graduated from Ruth Asawa School of the Arts in the Media and Film Arts department and attends Cal Arts.