Raphaela Neihausen
Executive Director
Raphaela Neihausen
Executive Director
Raphaela Neihausen is the founding Executive Director of DOC NYC. She co-hosts WNYC’s Documentary of the Week and executive produces the podcast Pure Nonfiction. She produced the 2017 Oscar® nominated short film Joe’s Violin and the feature documentary Miss Gulag. She has served as the founding executive director for several festival startups including Split Screens Festival, 51Fest, and the Montclair Film Festival. Prior to her film career, she worked for seven years at Mercer Management Consulting (now Oliver Wyman), advising Fortune 100 companies on strategic growth. She holds a BSFS/MA from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.
Jaie Laplante
Artistic Director
Jaie Laplante
Artistic Director
Jaie joined the DOC NYC team in June, 2022. Prior to that, Jaie served for 12 years as the Miami Film Festival’s Executive Director and Co-Director of Programming, where his achievements included greatly expanding that festival’s documentary selections, as well as launching successful initiatives such as a digital screening platform, the GEMS festival, and the Google Talks on Gender & Racial Gaps in Film & Technology. He simultaneously oversaw year-round programming at the historic Tower Theater in Miami’s Little Havana. He previously served as Associate Director of the New York City Wine & Food Festival and as a programmer at festivals focused on shorts and LGBTQ+ films. He has served on numerous film festival juries, including the U.S. Competition jury at DOC NYC 2021.
Malikkah Rollins, MSW
Director of Industry and Education
Malikkah Rollins, MSW
Director of Industry and Education
As DOC NYC’s Director of Industry and Education, Malikkah develops and facilitates year-round programs and events, including the festival’s eight-day DOC NYC PRO conference, that support documentary filmmakers and strengthen community across the field. As a licensed clinical social worker, skilled group facilitator, and educator, she designs spaces where filmmakers can pause, connect, and access mentorship, support, and practical resources to move their work forward.
She is the co-founder of DocuMentality, a mental health initiative advocating for filmmaker well-being and more open conversations around mental health in the documentary world. Malikkah is a member of Brown Girl Doc Mafia, serves on the board of Women in Film and Video–DC, and spent six years working as an independent documentary producer. Outside of DOC NYC, she’s usually planning her next travel adventure.
Thom Powers
Director of Special Projects
Thom Powers
Director of Special Projects
Thom Powers is DOC NYC’s Director of Special Projects, a role that includes overseeing the festival’s Visionaries Tribute. He was DOC NYC’s found Artistic Director and served in that position for 12 years. He also works as the documentary programmer for the Toronto International Film Festival now in his 16th year. He hosts the podcasts Pure Nonfiction and WNYC’s Documentary of the Week. He programs for the Miami International Film Festival and teaches at the School of Visual Arts. He is a co-founder of the Montclair Film Festival, Cinema Eye Honors and the Garrett Scott Documentary Development Grant. He previously spent a decade directing documentaries for HBO, PBS, and other outlets.
Caitlin Crowley
Director Programs & Promotions, IFC Center / Festival Communications Director, DOC NYC
Caitlin Crowley
Director Programs & Promotions, IFC Center / Festival Communications Director, DOC NYC
Caitlin manages marketing and communications for DOC NYC. Since 2023, she has served as the Director of Programs and Promotions at IFC Center, where she oversees repertory and midnight programming. Caitlin has over twenty years of experience working in independent film distribution and exhibition, and she’s passionate about helping audiences discover new films.
Annika Horne
Festival Coordinator
Annika Horne
Festival Coordinator
Annika Horne is DOC NYC’s Festival Coordinator. In addition to her work at the festival, Annika is also a filmmaker. For the past year, she has been working on an ongoing series of short documentaries about widespread funding cuts to American Science under the Trump administration, featuring stories from the NIH, NASA, and NOAA. The first episode, NASA v. DOGE premiered theatrically at New York’s IFC Center in April of 2026 and is now freely available on Crafty Short films. Previously, Annika’s film Flying in the Dark, was supported by the Austin Film Society and premiered at the Austin Film Festival. It features the stories of women veterans from the Women Airfare Service Pilots Program of World War II and General Jeanie Leavitt, the first American woman to fly combat, amongst other women working in military and commercial aviation. You can learn more at annikahorne.com.
Karen McMullen
Senior Programmer, Features and Shorts
Karen McMullen
Senior Programmer, Features and Shorts
Senior Programmer Karen McMullen has formerly served as Festival Director/Head of Programming at Urbanworld, Lead Curator for New Voices in Black Cinema at BAM, Head of Programming for TIDE Film Festival, Features Programmer at Tribeca Festival, and on the programming team at Sundance Film Festival. She has served on festival juries and nominating committees at Pan African, Trinidad + Tobago, NY African, Cannes Docs, Visions du Reel, and Cartagena International film festivals, Gotham, Cinema Eye Honors and Film Independent Spirit Awards; Firelight Media and Black Public Media. Karen conducts panels and interviews for HBO, Netflix, Apple, AfroCannes and others. She has editing credits on features and short films, and was a professor of film post-production at Long Island University. She also guest lectures at Columbia and NYU. Karen is a Brown University graduate.
Murtada Elfadl
Senior Programmer, Features and Shorts
Murtada Elfadl
Senior Programmer, Features and Shorts
Murtada Elfadl is a culture writer, critic, and film curator. Born and raised in Khartoum, Sudan he currently resides in New York. His work about cinema lies at the intersection of documentary and fiction with an emphasis on the work of filmmakers from the Global Majority and its diaspora. Additionally he has a keen interest in films that highlight the queer experience in its many forms. His work has appeared at Variety, SEEN , The A.V. Club, and the Museum of the Modern Image, among others. He’s a programmer at NewFest, New York’s LGBTQ Film Festival and at the documentary festivals, DOC NYC in the US and Porto/Post/Doc in Portugal.
Ruth Somalo
Senior Programmer, Features
Ruth Somalo
Senior Programmer, Features
Ruth Somalo is a Spanish-American filmmaker, visual artist, curator, educator, and film programmer based in New York. She has programmed for DOC NYC since 2011, where she serves as Features Senior Programmer. Her curatorial practice is informed by a sustained engagement with international nonfiction cinema and a particular interest in formally adventurous, politically engaged, and deeply personal approaches to documentary filmmaking. Ruth also works as Premieres Programming Consultant at Film Forum and Senior Programmer at the Architecture & Design Film Festival. Her curatorial and programming work has included DocumentaMadrid, DOCMA’s documentary series at Cineteca Madrid, Union Docs, and The Flaherty Film Seminar, where she is a former President of the Board of Trustees and chairs the Programming Committee. As a filmmaker and visual artist, her work explores emotion, illness, grief, ritual, the body, and forms of embodied knowledge. Her films have been presented internationally at festivals, cinemas, and museums including Museo Reina Sofía, San Sebastián International Film Festival, Cinéma du Réel, Documenta Madrid, and Anthology Film Archives, with screenings as part of Expo 1 at MoMA PS1 and Spanish Cinema Without Fear at Eye Filmmuseum in Amsterdam. Ruth holds a PhD in Cultural Studies from the Autonomous University of Madrid. She mentors and teaches at UnionDocs Center for Documentary Art, advises MFA thesis students at the School of Visual Arts, and provides creative guidance to nonfiction filmmakers.
Brandon Harrison
Senior Programmer, Features
Brandon Harrison
Senior Programmer, Features
Brandon Harrison began at DOC NYC as screener, before joining the programming team in 2019. He has worked as a Development Executive at Words + Pictures, curated features, shorts, and series at Nashville and Tribeca, and served on various documentary juries and committees. He is currently Executive Director of the Brooklyn Film Festival.
Bedatri D. Choudhury
Senior Programmer, Features
Bedatri D. Choudhury
Senior Programmer, Features
Bedatri D. Choudhury is The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Arts and Entertainment Editor. Before this, she worked extensively with documentary films, particularly in the areas of program management and commissioning. She was most recently the Managing Editor of Documentary magazine, and is a programmer with DOCNYC and SFFILM. An alumna of the NYFF Critics Academy, Sundance and SXSW Press Inclusion Initiatives, the National Critics’ Institute, and Berlinale Talents, she can often be heard on NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour.
Samah Ali
Short List: Shorts Program Consultant
Samah Ali
Short List: Shorts Program Consultant
Samah Ali is a festival and inflight entertainment programmer based in New York City. She is the Video Programming Manager at Stellar Entertainment, curating movies and television shows for airlines around the world, and consults on DOC NYC’s Short List: Shorts. In her spare time, Samah sits on the Board of Directors at The Black Screen Office in Canada.
DeWitt Davis
Programmer, Shorts
DeWitt Davis
Programmer, Shorts
DeWitt has been working with film and cinema presentations for over 15 years. He has been with DOC NYC since the first year of the festival and an Associate Programmer of Shorts since 2018. Over the years he has worked for multiple North American film festivals in the technical and programming teams. He also worked in film restoration and taught classes in motion picture film for Kodak.
Kai Trotz-Motayne
Associate Producer, DOC NYC PRO
Kai Trotz-Motayne
Associate Producer, DOC NYC PRO
Kai Trotz-Motayne (she/her) is a filmmaker, writer, and cultural worker whose work draws on archives, memory, and Black diasporic history to explore how communities remember, resist, and imagine otherwise. She began working in film as a researcher on Black Life: Untold Stories while still an undergraduate. Falling in love with the craft, she went on to work as a researcher, associate producer, and archival producer across television and documentary projects. She has spent more than five years in festival production and programming at Images Film Festival, Hot Docs, BlackStar Film Festival, and Regent Park Film Festival.
As a curator and writer, Kai has organized exhibitions and screenings at The Public Gallery, VTape, and Blackhurst Community Centre, and will present Groundings at Gallery 44 in Toronto. Her writing has appeared in C Magazine, Contemporary And, and Shameless, and she has contributed exhibition texts for Gallery 44.
A graduate of McGill University in History and African Studies, Kai is an alumna of the VTape Curatorial Incubator, the Hot Docs Impact Producer Incubator, and the Flaherty Film Seminar. She is a board member of Whippersnapper Gallery and a member of Brown Girls Doc Mafia and the Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto. She is excited to bring her Canadian perspective to DOC NYC and to say sorry when the line for the screening gets too long!
Daniyel Turner
Submissions Manager
Daniyel Turner
Submissions Manager
Daniyel Turner is a film festival strategist specializing in project management and communications. He has worked with organizations like Aspen Film, SFFILM, and Sundance to streamline operations and create memorable experiences for audiences. As a co-founder of Drunken Film Fest Oakland, a free pop-up festival bringing world-class short films to bars, he champions unconventional spaces that connect audiences with independent cinema in new and engaging ways.
Curt Heiner
Technical Director
Curt Heiner
Technical Director
Curt Heiner is a media artist from Denver, Colorado working primarily with projection performance, installation, and single-channel projects rooted in documentary, experimental, and photochemical filmmaking techniques. In addition to his creative endeavours, Curt works professionally as a technician for various film festivals and is involved in the international film community through several nonprofits including Process Reversal and Mimesis Documentary Festival, where he provides support and promotion for analog film, video, and sound artists through educational workshops, equipment distribution, and screenings.
Isabella Jackson
Cinesend Content Manager
Isabella Jackson
Cinesend Content Manager
Isabella Jackson is a filmmaker, writer and dancer from Pennsylvania. She moved to New York in 2010 to pursue dance at The New School where she received her BA with a double major in Dance Culture & Media studies. Out of undergrad she worked as an Assistant Editor for director Caveh Zahedi on his web series, The Show About The Show. Soon after she attended graduate school at Brooklyn College, graduating in 2020 with her Masters in Screenwriting. She began working in TV in 2020 as a Script Coordinator for the Paramount series, George & Tammy under showrunner, Abe Sylvia. She moved on to become a Writer’s Assistant for Sylvia at Apple TV where she was also the Writer’s Assistant for an upcoming David E. Kelly project. In between writer’s rooms she has worked as an Associate Programmer for the Hamptons International Film Festival and as the Features Programmer for The Rooftop Film Festival.
Rich Pannullo
Production Manager
Rich Pannullo
Production Manager
Sarah Rogers
Sponsorship Manager
Sarah Rogers
Sponsorship Manager
Sarah Rogers found her love of documentary film ten years ago in her home state of Maine by volunteering for the Camden International Film Festival. She now does everything for film festivals from building guest lounges, to managing volunteers and industry, to supporting sponsor relationships. DOC NYC in November is her favorite time to be in the big apple!
Sam Plakun
Film Manager
Sam Plakun
Film Manager
Samantha Plakun has over a decade of experience in the documentary film space, working primarily in programming and festival management. For seven years, Sam served as the Program Manager for The DC Environmental Film Festival, and has held positions with DOC NYC, DC/DOX Film Festival, the Brooklyn Film Festival, the BlackStar Film Festival, and New Day Films. Her industry experience has earned her a spot on award juries and screening committees for numerous festivals, including the Tribeca Film Festival, DC/DOX Film Festival, Bozcaada International Festival of Documentary, Indie Street Film Festival and the Green Film Network.
Born and raised in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts, Sam is now a proud resident of Washington, D.C., where she shares her love of film with her husband and two cats.
Jason Stefaniak
Film Assistant Manager
Jason Stefaniak
Film Assistant Manager
Emmy & Telly Award-winning filmmaker, Jason Stefaniak, received an MFA in Film/TV Production at NYU. He & his work have been recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the Webby Awards, and the Telluride Film Festival Student Symposium. He created & directed the docuseries, Distressed Real Estate, for Topic/First Look Media. His long-form docuseries project in-development, Calvary, was accepted to IFP Week 2019. In recent years, Jason has directed, produced, and/or hosted over 100 short documentaries & non-fiction editorial & branded pieces for Freethink, Big Think, Great Big Story, & others.
Jason’s short screenplay, Homewrecker, was a Slamdance Short Screenplay Quarter-Finalist, and his feature project, In Love with Night, was an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Feature Film Award Finalist. He is the producer of the award-winning short film, A Warm Spell (World Premiere, Clermont-Ferrand; Official Selection, Raindance), and feature film, But Not For Me (World Premiere, Brooklyn Film Festival; Official Selection, Virginia Film Festival), which co-stars Roger Guenveur Smith (Do The Right Thing, Malcolm X).
Christine Kecher
Manager, Business & Systems IFC Center
Christine Kecher
Manager, Business & Systems IFC Center
Christine Kecher is an Emmy-winning documentary executive who most recently served as the Senior Commissioning Editor for Op-Docs, The New York Times’ series of short documentaries by independent filmmakers. While at the Times, she worked on films including 2022 Oscar winner The Queen of Basketball, 2025 Oscar nominee Instruments of a Beating Heart, 2024 Oscar nominee Island in Between, and Sundance winners Don’t Go Tellin’ Your Momma and WIll You Look At Me. Previously, she worked for A&E IndieFilms on features, series and shorts including Carol Dysinger’s Oscar winner Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (if you’re a girl), Roger Ross Williams’ Oscar nominee Life, Animated, Werner Herzog’s Meeting Gorbachev, Blair Foster and Alex Gibney’s The Clinton Affair, and many more. She received her MBA from NYU Stern and her BA from Boston University.
Allyson Morgan
Visionaries Tribute Luncheon Producer
Allyson Morgan
Visionaries Tribute Luncheon Producer
Allyson Morgan is an award-winning writer, performer, and film festival producer, having most recently worked with Brooklyn Film Festival, Indie Street Film Festival, Montclair Film Festival, and Tribeca Festival, among others. Allyson’s first short film “Need For Speed (Dating)” premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, while her next short, “Sitting,” won “Outstanding Narrative Short” at Tallgrass Film Festival. “First Date,” her short film produced by 20th Digital Studio, is currently airing on Hulu in their “Bite Size Halloween” series. Allyson adapted “First Date” into a feature film for Hulu, titled “Jagged Mind,” which the LA Times called “edgy” and “powerful.” Her newest short, “The Ghost,” which also serves as her directorial debut, made its world premiere at the Oscar-qualifying RiverRun International Film Festival and has played over 30 festivals world-wide. She has also been selected for the New York Stage and Film Filmmakers’ Workshop, twice been awarded “Best Teleplay” at Omaha Film Festival, twice been a top ten Finalist for Cinequest, a Finalist at Stowe Story Labs, and a Semi-Finalist at Austin Film Festival. More: allysonm.com
Julie McElmurry
DOC NYC Crew Manager
Julie McElmurry
DOC NYC Crew Manager
Julie McElmurry, M.S. M.A. creates infrastructure so documentary thrives. She helps independent documentary filmmakers get unstuck and manages behind-the-scenes logistics at film festivals. In 2016, she produced her first of seven short films on monastery life. Wanting to attend in-person filmmaking classes, she started the Charlotte Unconventional Film School, filling 800 seats with adult learners in one year. Julie was named a 2022 Getting Real Fellow of the International Documentary Association and currently serves as the Program Manager for The D-Word. She has always loved bringing people together to create community and produces a live, nonfiction storytelling open mic show in North Carolina
Jordan Maelyn Smith
Newsletter Editor
Jordan Maelyn Smith
Newsletter Editor
Jordan Maelyn Smith is a film critic, public librarian and musician who has been working in various capacities with DOC NYC since 2015. She currently edits the weekly Monday Memo and Weekend Watch newsletters. Her published work focusing mainly on documentary cinema has appeared at Senses of Cinema, Nonfics, Stranger Than Fiction, IONcinema, and Influence Film Club, and is a member of the Trans Journalists Association and the Online Film Critics Society. Jordan completed her undergraduate studies at the State University of New York Fredonia and completed her Masters degree at the University at Buffalo.
3rd Impression
Marketing Agency
3rd Impression
Marketing Agency
3rd Impression is a data-driven digital marketing agency dedicated to independent film. This is their first year working directly for DOC NYC, but they have run digital FYC campaigns for many of its alumni including No Other Land, The Edge of Democracy, The Mole Agent and many more.
Orange Static
Design Team
Orange Static
Design Team
Orange Static is a boutique design and web development agency that helps bring ideas to life. Since 2010, this team has built a niche in the storytelling community by creating purpose driven solutions that help projects breakthrough, stand out, and be unique in every way.