The Filmmakers

Thomas G. Miller (Producer/Director/Writer/Editor)

THOMAS G. MILLER, ACE has worked on documentaries and in public television since 1994. He associate-produced the Sundance award-winning film Licensed To Kill (POV-PBS), co-produced the feature documentary Code Black (that became a television series on CBS), and co-produced and edited the documentaries Fender Philosophers (PBS) and Camp Out (MTV-Logo). He has edited the feature documentary films, Good Kurds, Bad Kurds (Independent Lens-PBS), and Home of the Brave (Sundance, BBC, CBC).

Miller produced, directed, and was an editor on the award-winning documentaries, ONE BAD CAT (Ovation) and Limited Partnership (Independent Lens-PBS). He was the consulting producer on A Brief Tender Light(POV-PBS) and the supervising editor on SEE WHAT I’M SAYING: The Deaf Entertainers Documentary (the Documentary Channel), Paraiso for Sale (PBS), and Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound (Tribeca, Cannes, PBS). Other credits include producing television films for Discovery, and WNET’s series on disabilities, People in Motion.

Tom served on the board of the International Documentary Association (2004 – 2014), and is a member of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences- Documentary Branch, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, The American Cinema Editors (ACE), and The Alliance of Documentary Editors. He has been a Professor of the Practice of Cinema Arts at the USC School of Cinematic Arts since 2004 and the Sloan science mentor there since 2009. He is also a board-certified pediatrician and has served as a medical consultant for Sesame Street.

He graduated with a BS degree from The University of Michigan, an MD from the Medical College of Ohio and an MFA in film and television production from the USC School of Cinematic Arts.

Kirk Marcolina (Producer/Writer/Editor/Cinematographer)

Kirk Marcolina has been producing, directing, and editing documentaries and factual television for more than 25 years. He produced award-winning feature documentaries such as “Limited Partnership” and “The Life and Crimes of Doris Payne,” both of which were showcased at top international film festivals. He has collaborated with networks including HBO, Bravo, Disney Channel, SBS Australia and MTV. Beyond production, Kirk is a seasoned educator. Currently, he’s a Senior Lecturer in Documentary at the Australian Film Television and Radio School, and previously taught Documentary Production at California State University. After relocating from the US to Australia in 2012, Kirk played a key role as the Advertising Director for Australian Marriage Equality. He currently chairs the Antenna Documentary Film Festival’s Board and serves as a Director for REELise Inc, which harnesses the power of film to combat youth cyberbullying.

Karen Hori (Co-Producer)

Karen is a production executive with Langley Productions, the company behind the long-running documentary series “COPS,” where her responsibilities include developing new programming as well as overseeing operations for the company at large. She has served as Supervising Producer and/or Executive in Charge of Production on several non-fiction series including “Vegas Strip,” “Inside American Jail,” “Video Justice” and “Anatomy of Crime.” Prior to joining Langley, Karen was a producer for syndicated news magazine shows “Personalities” and “Entertainment Daily Journal,” and production manager for feature documentary “Marilyn: Something’s Got to Give.” She currently serves on the Board of Directors for the International Documentary Association.

Leo Chiang (Co-Producer/Cinematographer)

Leo is a Taiwan-born, San Francisco-based filmmaker. His current documentary, Mr. Cao Goes to Washington, won the Inspiration Award at the 2012 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival. His previous film, the Emmy® Award-nominated A Village Called Versailles, about the rebuilding and transformation of the Vietnamese American community in post-Katrina New Orleans, picked up eight film festival awards, aired on PBS Independent Lens series, and has been acquired by more than 200 academic and public libraries. His other films include To You Sweetheart, Aloha (PBS broadcast 2006), One + One (CINE Golden Eagle Award 2002), and Safe Journey. Leo also collaborates with other documentarians as an editor (True-Hearted Vixen, POV 2001; Recalling Orange County, PBS/VOCES 2006) and as a cameraman (Ask Not, Independent Lens 2009). Leo received his M.F.A. in film production from University of Southern California. He is also a lecturer in the Social Documentation program at University of California, Santa Cruz.

Nancy Huffman (Cinematographer)

Shana Hagan (Additional Cinematographer)

Amy Adler (Associate Producer)

Amy Adler was born and raised in New York City. She received an MFA in Visual Art from UCLA and an MFA in Cinematic Arts from USC. She has had one person shows at museums and galleries worldwide. Amy lives in Los Angeles and is Associate Professor of Visual Art at the University of California San Diego.

Rebecca Louisell (Associate Producer)

Rebecca Louisell is a filmmaker with a mission to make media that matters. With an undergraduate background in fine art photography and mixed media, she later worked in the nonprofit sector before returning to graduate school for film production at the University of Southern California (USC). While at USC, Rebecca was recipient of several scholarships, a College Television Award and several festival audience awards for her student work. In addition to writing and directing fiction, Rebecca is currently involved in producing three documentary films, two of which have surpassed crowd sourcing fundraising goals via the Indiegogo platform. Rebecca has raised over $1,000,000 in funds for youth programs and documentary films throughout her career.

David W. Ross (Associate Producer)

David was born in the UK and moved to America after a successful career in music. He starred in the Sundance Film Festival indie darling Quinceañera which won the Fest’s Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award, a Spirit Award, and a GLAAD Media Award. As a filmmaker his feature I Do picked up 13 awards at over 35 film festivals worldwide including Palm Springs International’s Best of the Fest. The crowd funded film which David wrote, produced and starred in, opened theatrically in the U.S. in 2013. David was recently featured in Stephen Fry’s Out There documentary for the BBC.

Carl Pfirman (Editor)

Carl’s most recently Co-Produced and Co-Edited the political mockumentary, Janeane from Des Moines, which premiered at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival. Carl received his M.F.A. from the UCLA School of Film and Television, where his thesis film, The Confession, won a Student Academy Award. His other film, Boy Next Door, screened at over 70 international film festivals and aired on the Sundance Channel, HBO, Showtime, and Channel 4 (UK). Pfirman edited the Emmy-nominated feature documentary A Small Act (Sundance, HBO). Other editorial credits include feature documentaries The Hill That Chris Climbed, The Making of an Avant-Garde, and Beam Drop about the controversial artist Chris Burden.  He also edited the narrative feature film The Hanged Man.  His commercial work has been honored with a CLIO award and a GOLD PENCIL from the New York One Show.

Monique Zavistovski (Editor)

Monique has edited, written, or produced films which have won awards worldwide including at the Sundance, Los Angeles, and South By Southwest Film Festivals. She is the winner of an INSIGHT award for Excellence in Editing/Story Editing for her work on The Shape of Water, narrated by Susan Sarandon. In 2006, a short film she produced and edited, called The Wraith of Cobble Hill, won the Jury Prize in Short Filmmaking at Sundance and was short-listed for the Academy Awards. The following year, Monique cut Circus Rosaire, which premiered at Slamdance and won Best Feature Doc and Audience Awards at several festivals. In 2009, she finished cutting The Legend of Pancho Barnes and the Happy Bottom Riding Club, featuring Kathy Bates, which went on to win a 2011 Emmy Award for Best Film in the Arts & Culture/Historical category. Among her latest projects is The Light In Her Eyes, about a Qur’an school for girls in Damascus, Syria, which aired on POV and is touring the world as part of the Sundance Institute’s Film Forward series.

Joshua A. Wilkinson (Production Sound)

Josh is one of the rare sound guys who enjoys working in both production sound (mixing/recording), as well as post production (sound editing and design), and has an awesome command of both.  Recent credits include the Academy-Award winning documentary “20 Feet From Stardom,” (as additional production sound mixer) and Google’s most recent “International Women’s Day” video (as sound designer/re-recording mixer).  Josh is fluent in Italian and Spanish, loves to travel, but primarily resides in West Los Angeles with his wife and two boys.

Eric Robbins (Post Supervisor)

Adam Parrish King (Post-Production Sound)

Adam Parrish King grew up the son of two scientists in the foothills of the Smokey Mountains in Tennessee. He now works as a sound designer and re-recording mixer for television and film in Los Angeles, occasionally paints and nightly plays the piano. His favorite distractions are soccer, chess, learning Spanish, drawing with his 8-year-old daughter, and having long conversations with his wife over delicious vegan grub. 

Allyson Newman (Composer)

Allyson Newman earned her Masters degree in Composition at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Her earliest film project “Watermark” screened at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival. In 2004 she moved to Los Angeles to study film scoring at the University of Southern California and has since been working in the film and television industry. Last year Allyson scored the indie feature “This Thing With Sarah” and has scored multiple TV shows including the Emmy Winning “Children’s Hospital”.

Zack Ketz (Graphics)

Zack Ketz is an artist, a filmmaker, and Air Force veteran from Virginia.