Caitlin Riggsbee
Archival Producer
Editing: Shaping the Story (Nov 16)
How do editors and directors shape not just footage, but the very heartbeat of a film’s story? This day is for editors, directors, and anyone interested in how to craft a film in the edit. Through case studies and behind-the-scenes insights, we’ll break down how scenes take shape, what makes them land, and how the edit drives both emotion and story.
Co-presented by
Each PRO Day Pass grants access to a single DOC NYC PRO day comprised of several panel discussions and all day access to the Festival Lounge where you can enjoy complimentary breakfast and happy hour.
To experience the DOC NYC PRO lineup, purchase an individual PRO Day Pass (via the Buy Day Pass button) to hone in on a specific topic, or benefit from discounted pricing when you purchase Multi-Day Pass Packs to an assortment of conference days.
10-11:15AM
Music, Archives, and Obstacles in the Edit
The edit is where a documentary really comes together but also where some of the hardest obstacles show up. Music licensing and archival rights can stop a project in its tracks, forcing filmmakers to rethink story, structure, and especially budget. Moderated by editor Sunita Prasad, this conversation digs into those hurdles, with archival producer Caitlin Riggsbee (Move Ya Body: The Birth of House), music licensing expert Nick Floyd (Naxos of America), and editor Ann Collins (Ain’t No Back to a Merry-Go-Round) sharing how they’ve navigated the messy and sometimes frustrating process of clearing materials. From the scramble to secure the perfect track to the hunt for affordable archival footage, the conversation will be honest about what gets in the way and generous with strategies for moving forward.
Co-presented by
Caitlin Riggsbee
Archival Producer
Caitlin Riggsbee is a Philadelphia-based Archival Producer. With over a decade of experience in the documentary world, she has worked on exciting and critically acclaimed projects for distributors such as AppleTV+, HBO, and PBS, among others. Her credits include The Vow, Part II, The Last of the Sea Women, Move Ya Body: The Birth of House, and the 2024 Doc NYC Grand Jury Prize winner Stone Mountain. Caitlin’s interests lie in telling stories that highlight interesting people, uplift overlooked perspectives, and bridge the gap between past and present.
Ann Collins
Editor
Ann Collins
Editor
Ann Collins has worked as a documentary film editor in New York for more than 30 years. Recent credits include Ilana Trachtman’s Ain’t No Back to a Merry-Go-Round; the Peabody Award winning film, Can You Bring It? Bill T. Jones and D-Man in the Waters, directed by Rosalynde LeBlanc and Tom Hurwitz; and Vanishing: A Love Story, directed by Sandra Lukow. She was nominated for an Eddie Award for her work on Griffin Dunne’s Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold. She also co-produced and edited Swim Team, directed by Lara Stolman.
Early in her career, she edited The Heart of the Matter, Belly Talkers, The Charcoal People, and Sound and Fury, all of which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Sound and Fury was nominated for an Academy Award.
She holds a BFA in Film and Television from Tisch School of the Arts at New York University.
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Nick Floyd
Music Licensing Expert
Nick Floyd
Music Licensing Expert
Nick Floyd has spent the last 11 years at Naxos, the leading classical music distributor in North America. He and the Naxos licensing team are responsible for sync placements in hundreds of indie films, features, television series, video games and remixes available on all video and audio platforms. Nick is a musician and lifelong student of creative media. He shares Naxos’ enthusiasm for working with artists to help each project reach the next level.
Sunita Prasad
Editor
Sunita Prasad
Editor
Sunita Prasad is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker best known for editing impactful feature documentaries such as Aftershock (Peabody Award Winner, Emmy Nominee, Sundance Special Jury Award Winner; Hulu), Storming Caesars Palace (BlackStar Shine Award Winner; Independent Lens), and The Ringleader (HBO). Sunita has been recognized as one of DOC NYC & HBO Documentary Films 40 UNDER 40 and a Karen Schmeer Film Editing Fellow & Mentor. Sunita is also a Yaddo alum and a recipient of grants from the Art Matters Foundation, the Jerome Foundation, the New York State Council for the Arts, and most recently the NYC Women’s Fund in support of their award-winning narrative short, Sleep Training.
11:30-12:45PM
Reimagining Archival Editing
Archival footage can carry memory, myth, and truth, all at once. Moderated by editor Tyler Walk (Goodbye Horses: The Many Lives of Q Lazzarus), fellow editors Viridiana Lieberman (The Perfect Neighbor), J.D, Marlow (My Mom Jayne), and Peter Bowman (Cover Up) reveal how they’ve uniquely reshaped existing images into fresh storytelling. From uncovering hidden histories to reframing the familiar, they explore how rhythm, emotion, and intention transform archival material into something alive and contemporary. This session invites you into the creative tension between what was captured then and what needs to be said now.
Viridiana Lieberman
Editor
Viridiana Lieberman
Editor
Viridiana Lieberman is a filmmaker based in Brooklyn, NY. She most recently edited The Perfect Neighbor which world premiered at Sundance in 2025 and won the U.S. Documentary directing award. She’s edited many features and series, most notably the Emmy-award winning films The Sentence, I Am Evidence, Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power and Through Our Eyes: Apart and the Oscar shortlisted Call Center Blues. An avid women’s sports fan, her directorial debut, Born To Play premiered on ESPN and ABC in 2020. Following a semi-professional women’s tackle football team for a season, the film was a result of her book Sports Heroines on Film (published by McFarland) which analyzed patterns of representations of female athletes throughout film history. Viridiana wants to push storytelling into new forms, rooting in personal narratives that shape our imaginations and how we see the world we want to be in.
J.D. Marlow
Editor
J.D. Marlow
Editor
JD is a veteran film editor of documentary features and series. His background also includes post supervision, music editing, and sound design.
His work has premiered at some of the top film festivals in the world including Sundance (2016, 2020, 2023), Cannes (2025), Toronto (2017), Tribeca (2022, 2025), South by Southwest (2014), and Berlin (2015).
Notable credits include Love Fraud (Showtime), One of Us (Netflix), Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You (PBS American Masters), Endangered (HBO), Stephen Curry: Underrated (Apple TV+), and My Mom Jayne (HBO).
JD is a graduate of Emerson College (2008 B.F.A. Film Production), an avid runner, and lives in New York City with his wife and kids.
Amy Foote, ACE
Editor
Amy Foote, ACE
Editor
Amy Foote, ACE is an Emmy Award winning documentary editor based in NYC. Some of her editing credits include Laura Poitras’s Oscar-nominated film All The Beauty and the Bloodshed, as well as Girls State, Hail Satan?, Father Soldier Son and The Work. She most recently cut Laura Poitras’s recent film Cover-Up, about investigative journalist Seymour Hersh that recently premiered at the Venice Film Festival and will be streaming on Netflix soon.
Peter Bowman
Editor
Peter Bowman
Editor
Peter Bowman is a documentary editor from North Carolina. Most recently, he edited Cover-Up (2025) and was an additional editor on the Emmy Award-winning Girls State (2024). He has worked on documentary features and series for AppleTV, Netflix, and PBS.
Tyler Walk, ACE
Editor
Tyler Walk, ACE
Editor
Tyler H. Walk, ACE is a Sundance Special Jury Award for Editing, Cinema Eye award winning, and Emmy-nominated editor whose projects include David France’s Welcome To Chechnya, the Oscar-Nominated How To Survive A Plague, and Michael Moore’s Where To Invade Next. A graduate from Penn State University (’06) and The Edit Center, Tyler is also an amateur pinballer. His Bacon number is 2.
2:00-3:15PM
Case Study: Move Ya Body: The Birth of House
In this lively, craft-focused conversation, editor Francisco Bello guides a deep dive with Jeremy Stulberg, ACE, into the art of shaping story in the edit room. Using clips and alternate cuts, they’ll unpack how pacing, emotion, and perspective shift through each version—and how those choices turn raw footage into a film that truly connects.
Jeremy Stulberg, ACE
Editor
Jeremy Stulberg, ACE
Editor
Jeremy Stulberg, ACE is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and editor whose recent work includes Move Ya Body: The Birth of House (Sundance 2025), directed by Elegance Bratton and produced by Roger Ross Williams. He co-wrote and edited Sabbath Queen (Tribeca premiere, NYT Critics’ Pick), executive produced by Darren Aronofsky. A Sundance Documentary Fellow, Jeremy has produced and edited acclaimed nonfiction films and series including Growing Up Coy (Netflix), Broken Heart Land (PBS/ITVS), Off the Grid: Life on the Mesa (Sundance Channel/Gotham Award nominee), The Education of Shelby Knox (POV), Young Lakota (Independent Lens), Children of the Underground (FX), VICE (Showtime), and Gaycation (Vice). He was consulting editor on Laura Poitras’s Terror Contagion (Cannes premiere, Academy Award shortlist), and also edited the queer cult comedy Another Gay Movie.
Francisco Bello
Editor
Francisco Bello
Editor
Francisco Bello, ACE is an Oscar®-Nominated and Emmy-winning filmmaker, writer and editor. Highlights include Salim Baba (HBO, Best Short Documentary Oscar and Emmy Nominee), WAR DON DON, (HBO, SXSW Special Jury Prize, two Emmy nominations), Most Beautiful Island (SXSW Narrative Grand Jury Prize), Barbara Kopple’s Emmy-nominated Desert One (History), the triple Emmy-winning The First Wave (NatGeo, Neon), and the legendary edit of Sandi DuBowski’s Sabbath Queen. Recent story consultant work includes All The Empty Rooms (Netflix), Coexistence, My Ass! (2025 Sundance Special Jury Award), The Gas Station Attendant (ITVS), and The Martha Mitchell Effect (Netflix, 2023 Oscar Nominee). He is a member of AMPAS, American Cinema Editors, and served on the board of the Karen Schmeer Film Editing Fellowship. In addition to writing and editing, he is currently developing a docu-series, documentary films and scripted projects.
3:30-4:45PM
Case Study: Holding Liat and the Editing of Political Docs
Using the documentary Holding Liat as a case study, this panel reflects on the delicate work of telling politically sensitive stories with respect for the people at their center. Filmmaker Brandon Kramer joins composer Jordan Dykstra and sound designer Tristan Baylis (Gigantic Studios) to explore how choices in editing, sound, and music shape the film’s narrative, preserve complexity, and honor multiple perspectives. The conversation, moderated by Pamela Ryan (Gigantic Pictures), will look at how creative decisions in post-production can amplify the humanity of the story, navigate high stakes ethical challenges, and ensure that both the participants and their experiences remain at the heart of a deeply personal yet globally relevant film.
Co-presented by
Brandon Kramer
Filmmaker
Brandon Kramer
Filmmaker
Brandon Kramer is a Washington, DC-based filmmaker and co-founder of Meridian Hill Pictures with his brother Lance. Brandon directed Holding Liat (Berlinale Documentary Award Winner, 2025); The First Step (Tribeca, AFI DOCS); City of Trees (Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, PBS, Netflix); and the Webby Award-winning independent documentary series The Messy Truth (CNN). Brandon is a Film Independent Fellow, a DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities Fellow, a regular collaborator with Kartemquin Films in Chicago, and has served as a media teaching artist for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Brandon holds a bachelor’s degree in film and cultural anthropology from Boston University.
Jordan Dykstra
Composer
Jordan Dykstra
Composer
Jordan Dykstra is a Brooklyn-based composer and performer specializing in both film and concert music. In addition to Holding Liat, winner of Best Documentary at the 2025 Berlinale, he scored the 2024 Oscar-winning film 20 Days in Mariupol. Past features include Blow the Man Down, Globes, Ovid, New York, and Echo. Dykstra contributed to Fair Play, Hail Satan?, It Comes At Night, and Gus van Sant’s Restless. He scored and contributed to a number of Frontline films including Plot To Overturn the Election, Emmy Award Winner Documenting Hate, Michael Flynn’s Holy War. His compositions for film have been heard at Cannes, Sundance, TriBeCa, TIFF, and the IFFR, amongst others. Dykstra’s chamber music has been heard extensively throughout Europe, North America, and Asia and recordings of his music (solo and collaborative) issued by New World Records, Domino, Milan, Marriage, Mexican Summer, and others.
Tristan Baylis
Sound Designer
Tristan Baylis
Sound Designer
Tristan Baylis is Gigantic Studios’ EMMY® and Peabody award-winning audio creative director, lead re-recording mixer, and supervising sound editor. With another 2x EMMY® & 3x MPSE Golden Reel nominations, a CAS nomination, & 150+ film & television credits, he’s established himself in post audio as a seasoned creative collaborator.
Pamela Ryan
Producer
Pamela Ryan
Producer
Midwestern native Pamela Ryan is a producer of documentaries, podcasts and scripted films. Her recent non-fiction releases include Oscar-shortlisted If Dreams Were Lightening (Telluride Film Festival; PBS), top-10 true crime podcast series Mafia Tapes (ID), and feature docs Charm Circle and The Jungle. Prior, Pamela co-produced Emmy Award nominated, SXSW Grand Jury prize-winning documentary The Great Invisible (Radius-TWC; ITVS) and music doc Heartworn Highways Revisited; she also produced Night School (Tribeca; Oscilloscope Laboratories) and Ramin Bahrani’s Blood Kin (Venice Film Festival). Pamela is a 2024 DOC NYC “40 Under 40” honoree, an Impact Partners Documentary Producing Fellow, and an Oscar Shortlist nominee.
DOC NYC PRO is co-presented by:
