About

Raphaela Neihausen

DOC NYC Executive Director

Raphaela Neihausen worked for seven years at Mercer Management Consulting (now Oliver Wyman), advising Fortune 100 companies on strategic growth. As the executive director of Stranger Than Fiction, she oversaw the creation of its web site; media strategy and growth in season pass holders. Neihausen produced the documentary “Miss Gulag” (recipient of grants from the Ford Foundation and Sundance Documentary Fund) that premiered at the Berlin Film Festival and went on to be broadcast all over the world. She speaks six languages and holds a BSFS/MA from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, graduating with honors.

Thom Powers

DOC NYC Artistic Director

Thom Powers is the creator and host of the acclaimed documentary series Stranger Than Fiction that takes place at the IFC Center. Now in its 19th season, STF has earned an international reputation and featured esteemed guests such as Jonathan Demme, Laurie Anderson, Albert Maysles, and Barbara Kopple. Powers also serves as the documentary programmer for the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) where he presented premieres of celebrated titles such as “Capitalism: A Love Story,” “Food, Inc,” “Valentino: The Last Emperor,” and “Encounters at the Edge of the World.” He also curates TIFF’s Mavericks conversation series, where he has hosted discussions with President Jimmy Carter, Chris Rock, Matt Damon, Howard Zinn, and others. He has taught at New York University for 10 years and recently received an award for Teaching Excellence. He co-founded the Cinema Eye Honors – an annual award for documentary excellence – now in its fifth year.

John Vanco

Vice President and General Manager, IFC Center

Through his leadership roles in film distribution and exhibition over the last 15 years, John Vanco has strived to connect great works of cinema with appreciative audiences. Greenwich Village’s IFC Center, led by Vanco since its 2005 opening, is the bricks and mortar home of IFC Entertainment and serves as a focal point for the independent film community. As one of the founders of Cowboy Pictures, Vanco led the distribution efforts on behalf of dozens of foreign language, documentary and American fiction features, including works by Lynne Ramsay, David Gordon Green, Catherine Breillat and Shohei Imamura. Cowboy also programmed an innovative film calendar at a Manhattan cinema and managed the theatrical libraries of Janus Films and Pennebaker/Hegedus films. Previously, Vanco served in various capacities at Miramax, New Yorker Films and Fine Line Features.

Harris Dew

Director of Programs and Promotions, IFC Center

Harris Dew has worked in film programming and publicity for over 15 years, holding positions at New Yorker Films, the San Francisco International Film Festival, the Museum of Modern Art and Film Forum. He has a BA in Comparative Literature from Columbia University and an MA in Film History from NYU.

CAMERON BAILEY

is the Co-Director, Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). He has been a programmer for TIFF for more than 12 years, has been responsible for the annual selection of films from Africa, South Asia, and the Philippines, hosted the highly successful subscription series Reel Talk, and headed the Perspective Canada series. He has also served on awards juries at film festivals in Canada, South Korea, Greece, Burkina Faso, and Tanzania.

ROBERT S. BOYNTON

directs the Literary Reportage concentration at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at NYU. He is the author of “The New New Journalism”, and his articles and reviews have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times Magazine and elsewhere.

JEM COHEN

Cohen’s CHAIN and BENJAMIN SMOKE (co-directed by Pete Sillen) premiered at the Berlin Film Festival and won, respectively, an Independent Spirit Award and 1st Prize at the Full Frame Documentary Festival. His film, INSTRUMENT, premiered at Rotterdam and was chosen for the Whitney Biennial. LOST BOOK FOUND is in the collections of MoMA and the Whitney. His films have been broadcast by The Sundance Channel, ARTE, PBS, and the BBC. He has received grants and fellowships from the Guggenheim, Rockefeller Media Art, N.E.A., and Creative Capital Foundations, and the Alpert Award in the Arts. Cohen was extensively involved in overturning proposed restrictions on street photography in New York City.

PHILIPP ENGELHORN

founded the not-for-profit Cinereach in 2006. Both a film foundation and production company, Cinereach has awarded more than $3 million in grants to over 50 films. Philipp is a member of the Board of Directors of Synergos, a non-profit dedicated to eliminating global poverty and social injustice. He also serves on the board of the Patrons of the Pinakothek in Munich. He is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.

NELSON GEORGE

is a filmmaker, author and cultural critic. Nelson directed the critically acclaimed LIFE SUPPORT, starring Queen Latifah, for HBO in 2007 and produced the Chris Rock hosted documentary GOOD HAIR, both of which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. He executive produced the BET documentary crime series AMERICAN GANGSTER and serves in the same capacity for VH1′s annual HIP HOP HONORS. He is currently in post-production on the on line series LEFT UNSAID and the documentary A WALK THROUGH FORT GREEN, which he’s writing and directing. Nelson’s memoir “City Kid” is in paperback and “Thriller: The Musical Life of Michael Jackson” will be published this summer. Nelson is the travel expert at large for the web site BlackAtlas.com. He can be contacted at www.nelsondgeorge.net.

JENIFER HIXSON

is Senior Producer at The Moth, a not-for-profit storytelling organization that has brought more than 3,000 live stories to over 100,000 audience members. She has been with The Moth since 1999.

DAN KLORES

of Shoot the Moon Productions has made six films during the last eight years, including THE BOYS OF 2nd STREET PARK, RING OF FIRE: THE EMILE GRIFFITH STORY, and CRAZY LOVE, which won the 2008 Independent Spirit Award for best documentary film, and WINNING TIME: REGGIE MILLER VS. THE NEW YORK KNICKS. Klores is also a playwright; his latest play, Little Doc, premieres at New York’s Rattlestick Theatre in June 2010. Klores’s other films include the Peabody Award-winning BLACK MAGIC and VIVA BASEBALL, which both explore his ongoing theme of exclusion from the mainstream.

BARBARA KOPPLE

of Cabin Creek Films produced and directed HARLAN COUNTY USA and AMERICAN DREAM, both winners of the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Her other film subjects include the Dixie Chicks in SHUT UP & SING; Woody Allen in WILD MAN BLUES and Mike Tyson in FALLEN CHAMP. She is currently in production on a documentary about legendary Yankees team owner George Steinbrenner for ESPN’s 30 for 30 series, as well as a feature-length documentary for HBO exploring the meaning of guns in America

RUBY LERNER

is the founding Executive Director and President of the Creative Capital Foundation, an innovative arts foundation modeled on venture capital concepts. Prior to Creative Capital, Ruby Lerner served as the executive director of the Association of Independent Film and Videomakers (AIVF) and as publisher of the highly regarded Independent Film and Video Monthly. Having worked regionally in both the performing arts and independent media fields, she served as the executive director of Alternate ROOTS, a coalition of Southeastern performing artists, and IMAGE Film/Video Center, both based in Atlanta.

MICHAEL LUMPKIN

In January 2009 Michael Lumpkin took over the leadership of the International Documentary Association as its new Executive Director. He had previously served as both Executive Director of Frameline and Festival Director for the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival. He has also been a member of Frameline’s Board of Directors, and co-produced the highly acclaimed documentary, THE CELLULOID CLOSET. Michael has participated as a competition juror for the Sundance Film Festival, and served in an advisory capacity for numerous film festivals around the world.

CARA MERTES

is Director, Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program, overseeing the activities of the Documentary Film Program and Fund, including granting between $1 and $2 million per year to independent documentarians globally, among other activities. In 2008, she inaugurated STORIES OF CHANGE: Social Entrepreneurship in Focus Through Documentary, a $3 million, 3 year partnership between the DFP and the Skoll Foundation which has funded 10 films, currently in production. The DFP also launched DocSource at www.sundance.org/docsource, a website connecting independent documentary filmmakers and human rights stakeholders worldwide.

MICHAEL MOORE

is the winner of an Oscar (BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE), an Emmy (TV NATION), a Palme d’Or at Cannes (FAHRENHEIT 9/11), the People’s Choice at the Toronto International Film Festival (ROGER & ME) and the British Book of the Year award (“Stupid White Men”). In Traverse City, MI, he has revitalized the State Theater into one of the country’s leading art house cinemas and is also a founder of the Traverse City Film Festival and Comedy Arts Festival. His recent films include SICKO and CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY (09).

DEAN OLSHER

has been a broadcaster for more than thirty years, most of which he has spent in public radio. He was an arts and culture correspondent for NPR News as well as the creator and host of The Next Big Thing, a popular national show. He is the author of “From Square One: A Meditation, with Digressions, on Crosswords.” He’s also a visiting professor of the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at NYU, where he teaches a course called “The Medium Formerly Known as Radio.”

ANYA SCHIFFRIN

is the director of the media program at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. She worked overseas a journalist for 10 years and has lived in Amsterdam, Barcelona, Hanoi and Istanbul. She has edited a number of books including “Bad News, How America’s Business Press Missed the Story of the Century” which New Press will publish in November, 2010.

JONATHAN SEHRING

As president of Sundance Selects and IFC Entertainment, Jonathan Sehring oversees multiple brands that are devoted to bringing the best of specialty films to the largest possible audience: Sundance Selects, IFC Films, IFC In Theaters, IFC Festival Direct, IFC Productions and the IFC Center. One of the most well respected executives in the specialty film business, Mr. Sehring has produced or executive produced films and television shows from noted documentarians including Errol Morris, Michael Moore, Kevin Macdonald and Albert Maysles. He is considered a maverick among his peers for expanding the audience for independent films.

PEGGY SIEGAL

In the 1980s, when many studios streamlined and moved their publicity departments to Los Angeles, Peggy Siegal created a business niche by hosting small screenings and dinners for influential New York press. For years, studios have engaged her for her ability to attract journalists, socialites and veteran film and stage professionals. The screenings became important social events as she knows how to attract the perfect audience. Her contacts are a cross-section of heavy-hitters who make up the New York society, show business, publishing, fashion and Wall Street scene. Her guilty pleasure is attending the Oscars for the past 30 years.

DAN STREIBLE

associate professor of cinema studies at New York University Tisch School of the Arts, teaches, curates, and writes about nonfiction film. He is the author of the book “Fight Pictures: A History of Boxing Early Cinema” and co-editor of “Emile de Antonio: A Reader.” He also serves as associate director of NYU’s master’s program in Moving Image Archiving and Preservation. Since 1999, the majority of his work has been devoted to the Orphan Film Symposium, a biennial gathering of media artists, archivists, curators, preservationists, and scholars collectively saving, screening, and studying all manner of neglected film and video.

JOE SACCO

has pioneered a style of comic book war reportage in acclaimed works such as PALESTINE; SAFE AREA: GORAZDE; and THE FIXER. “There is virtually no precedent for what he does…. Sacco is legitimately unique,” wrote David Hadju in the New York Review of Books. Sacco’s work has been honored with the Ridenour Book Prize, Guggenheim fellowship and American Book Award. His latest work FOOTNOTES ON GAZA was hailed as a “gripping, important book” in the New York Times Book Review.

MOLLY THOMPSON

launched and runs A&E IndieFilms the network’s feature documentary division. She executive produces the division’s original productions including: JESUS CAMP, a film by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, which was nominated for an Academy Award; AMERICAN TEEN, a film by Nanette Burstein, which won best director at Sundance 2008 and was released theatrically in July 2008; and THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE, a film on Anna Wintour by R.J. Cutler, which opened in September 2009 and was a theatrical hit around the world. Other A&E IndieFilms include the Oscar-nominated, Sundance Award-winner MURDERBALL; and MY KID COULD PAINT THAT. Thompson is EP on a film THE TILLMAN STORY directed by Amir Bar-Lev, which premiered at Sundance 2010, and will be distributed theatrically by the Weinstein Company in 2010. She is also EP on the film CLIENT 9: THE RISE AND FALL OF ELIOT SPITZER, directed by Alex Gibney, which will be released theatrically by Magnolia Pictures.

MARY WARLICK

Since assuming the role of Chief Executive Officer in 2006, MARY WARLICK has shaped The One Club into an organization with global reach and reputation. She annually produces the One Show awards ceremony in New York City, the premier advertising event in the world capital of media. Mary Warlick authored Advertising’s Ten Best of the Decade, 1980-1990, and has published articles on advertising in Adweek. She has been interviewed as an authority on the industry in the New York Times, Advertising Age, Fast Company and Creativity magazine. She has lectured on advertising trends throughout the U.S. and in China, Italy, France, Singapore, and Japan. Most recently, she was the Executive Producer of the highly acclaimed documentary ART & COPY, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival 2009. Mary Warlick is trained as an art historian at Columbia University, where she received a Masters Degree in Philosophy in 1982.