Daniel Ain
Partner, Reavis Page Jump LLP
Carrying the Film: Producers & Directors (Nov 16)
Every documentary requires someone to carry the vision and make the challenging, complex decisions. This day examines the responsibilities producers and directors face as they navigate storytelling choices, ethical questions, competing priorities, and the realities of bringing a film to completion. From creative challenges to practical considerations, we’ll explore what producers and directors are balancing as they guide a film from idea to screen.
TICKETING INFORMATION
Each PRO Day Pass grants access to a single conference day comprised of several panel discussions and all day access to the Festival Lounge where you can enjoy complimentary breakfast and happy hour. Today’s happy hour is co-presented by Consulate General of Canada in New York.
To experience the DOC NYC PRO lineup, purchase an individual PRO Day Pass (via the Buy Ticket button above) benefit from discounted pricing when you purchase Multi-Day Pass Packs to an assortment of thematic days.
SCHEDULE
10:00 AM – 11:15 AM
Protect Your Film: Permissions, Clearances and Fair Use
Nothing kills momentum faster than discovering, after months of work, that a clip, song, photo, or story element could put your film at risk. In this practical conversation, Reavis Page Jump LLP attorneys Nicole Page and Daniel Ain break down the rights issues filmmakers most often wish they’d understood from the start. From fair use and life rights, to licensing music and archival to other clearance pitfalls, Nicole and Dan will demystify decisions that affect financing and distribution. Attendees can submit their toughest rights and clearance questions in advance, and selected questions will be answered live. You’ll leave knowing what needs permission, what might not, and how to protect your film before issues become expensive.
Co-presented by Reavis Page Jump LLP
Daniel Ain
Partner, Reavis Page Jump LLP
Daniel J. Ain is a Partner at Reavis Page Jump LLP, practicing primarily in the areas of entertainment and media law. Dan represents production companies and independent producers across all stages of television, film and digital media projects. He also represents writers, directors, actors, athletes, and other talent in all aspects of their entertainment transactions. He is a recipient of Realscreen’s Factual Under 40 award and is frequently quoted by media, including the Associated Press, Business Insider and The Athletic, on legal issues in the entertainment and sports industries. Dan began his legal career representing corporate clients in the areas of finance, mergers and acquisitions, and executive compensation. Dan holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a B.A. from Brown University.
Nicole Page
Head of the Media and Entertainment practice and Partner, Reavis Page Jump LLP
Nicole Page
Head of the Media and Entertainment practice and Partner, Reavis Page Jump LLP
Nicole Page is the Head of the Media and Entertainment practice and Partner at Reavis Page Jump LLP, where she represents clients in connection with issues ranging from financing, rights acquisition, production, talent and distribution agreements, exploitation of ancillary rights, content licensing, fair use and clearance issues, and an array of related matters. She also represents creative talent, athletes, and authors in their various endeavors and negotiates employment and executive compensation agreements for top talent at leading entertainment companies.
Colleen Cassingham
Vice President of Production, Multitude Films
Colleen Cassingham
Vice President of Production, Multitude Films
Colleen Cassingham (she/her) is the Vice President of Production at Multitude Films. She produced Reid Davenport’s second feature film Life After, which won the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, and Casey Carter’s debut feature To Use A Mountain, which won the Special Jury Award at Visions du Réel 2025. She also produced the IDA Awards-nominated shorts collection Queer Futures (CPH:DOX 2023), which is streaming on Criterion Channel.
Her past credits include Co-Producer on It’s Only Life After All (Sundance 2023), and Associate Producer on Pray Away (Tribeca 2020), Through Our Eyes: Apart (Provincetown 2020), Call Center Blues (SXSW 2020), Always In Season (Sundance 2019), The Feeling of Being Watched (Tribeca 2018), and Love the Sinner (Tribeca 2017) which were distributed by Netflix, Topic, HBOMax, POV, and Independent Lens. Colleen was a 2023-2024 Sundance Producing Fellow, a 2023-2024 Impact Partners Producing Fellow, a VC Sony 2021 Mentor at The Video Consortium, a 2019 Points North Fellow, and a 2017–2018 UnionDocs Collaborative Studio fellow.
Caroline Waterlow
Producer
Caroline Waterlow
Producer
Caroline Waterlow is an Oscar, Emmy & Peabody award-winning documentary film producer based in New York City. Waterlow produced the ESPN Films documentary “O.J.: Made in America”, directed & produced by Ezra Edelman. Waterlow co-founded Laylow Pictures, a Brooklyn-based production company with Edelman. Laylow recently produced the 4-part HBO docuseries “STAX: Soulsville, U.S.A.” about the iconic Memphis record-label; the series was nominated for two Prime Time Emmy awards and was an Audience Award-winner at SXSW in March, 2024. Laylow is currently in production on a 4-part docu-series about the life of Indigenous activist Annie Mae Aquash, with Onyx Collective/HULU.
11:30 AM – 12:45 PM
Anatomy of a Film: Slumlord Millionaire
DOC NYC’s 2024 Audience Award-winning Slumlord Millionaire follows residents, activists and attorneys battling some of New York City’s most notorious landlords. Join co-directors Steph Ching and Ellen Martinez and producer Nicole Tsien for a deep dive into the film’s development, production, distribution and impact campaign. Get an inside look at the access, storytelling, and editorial decisions that shaped the film and hear how they turned a complex housing crisis into an award-winning documentary. Moderated by Sian-Pierre Regis, author of Firelight Media’s newly released case study on the film.
Co-presented by Firelight Media’s Beyond Resilience series
Sian-Pierre Regis
Director
Sian-Pierre Regis
Director
Sian-Pierre Regis is the director of the critically-acclaimed documentary, Duty Free (Independent Lens). Prior to filmmaking, SP was a on-camera journalist (CNN/MTV), covering the intersection of pop-culture and social justice. His latest project Raising Adults chronicles the moment you’re “called to parent your parent”; it was featured on the cover of the NYTimes Sunday Business section in August 2025, and will be released in 2026.
Ellen Martinez
Slumlord Millionaire
Ellen Martinez
Slumlord Millionaire
Ellen directed and produced After Spring, a feature documentary about the Syrian refugee crisis. The film was Executive Produced by Jon Stewart, had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival and was broadcast on STARZ. The film was supported in part by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and is the recipient of a Frontline award for documentary journalism. Ellen is now based in Brooklyn New York.
Steph Ching
Slumlord Millionaire
Steph Ching
Slumlord Millionaire
Steph is a documentary filmmaker based in Brooklyn. She was a director and Producer of After Spring, a feature documentary about the Syrian refugee crisis. The award-winning film was Executive Produced by Jon Stewart and premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2016 and on STARZ in February 2017. Steph is a recipient of the Frontline Award for Excellence in Documentary Journalism and a MacArthur Foundation grantee.
Nicole Tsien
Co-Producer, American Documentary / POV
Nicole Tsien
Co-Producer, American Documentary / POV
Nicole is an Emmy-nominated independent producer from the Chinese diaspora and a lifelong New Yorker based in Queens. She produced the Emmy-nominated and 2024 Doc NYC Audience Award winner, Slumlord Millionaire. She is also the supervising producer on Season 3 (2026) and the upcoming Season 4 of Firelight’s Homegrown short film series. She worked in television for over a decade, as the Director of Program Development at CNN Films and as the Co-Producer of POV on PBS. Nicole is a 2025-2026 Sundance Documentary Producers Fellow; part of the EURODOC 2026 cohort; part of the inaugural Film Independent Documentary Producing Lab in 2024; a 2021 Rockwood JustFilms Fellow; and was honored in the inaugural cohort of Doc NYC Documentary New Leaders in 2020. Nicole is on the Steering Committee for the Asian American Documentary Network and is a board member of Brown Girls Doc Mafia.
2:00 PM – 3:15 PM
What Would You Do? Navigating Ethical Dilemmas in Personal Documentary
Documentary filmmaking is full of tough calls with no easy answers. When you are making a personal documentary the challenges compound. When do you pick up the camera? When do you put it down? How do you handle the unfolding great moment if someone doesn’t want to be filmed, but you think they might change their mind later? What does continued consent look like when a family member’s cognitive capacity is diminishing over time? In this interactive conversation moderated by Documentary Producers Alliance leader Sarah Rachael Wainio, filmmakers Zoe Potkin (Daddy’s Girls), Jacob Fertig (Offcuts) and others will unpack the real-time dilemmas they are navigating as they film their unfolding personal documentaries.
Co-presented by Jewish Film Institute
Sarah Rachael Wainio
Documentary Producers Alliance
Sarah Rachael Wainio
Documentary Producers Alliance
Sarah is a documentary producer and nonfiction television director whose credits include The Food Network, TLC, MTV, Netflix, and Max. She earned an MFA in Social Documentary Film from the School of Visual Arts. Sarah is Secretary of the board of the Documentary Producers Alliance and co-chairs the ethics subcommittee. She lives in NYC with her cats Theodora and Tovah.
Zoe Potkin
Daddy's Girls Film
Zoe Potkin
Daddy's Girls Film
Zoe Potkin is a New York–based filmmaker whose work is rooted in an observational, character-driven approach shaped by long-term immersion and intimacy. She often shoots her own material, working closely with participants over extended periods, and brings a strong visual sensibility informed by her photographic practice. She has been named to DOC NYC’s “40 Under 40” list, received a New York State Council on the Arts Individual Artist Grant, and was selected for the 2026 Jewish Film Institute Residency. As a producer, her credits include the Emmy-nominated Take Care of Maya, which premiered at Tribeca and was released on Netflix, and Rapinoe, which premiered as the opening night documentary at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival and will be released by HBO. She is currently directing and producing the feature documentary Daddy’s Girls.
Jacob Fertig
Denizen Studios
Jacob Fertig
Denizen Studios
Jacob Fertig is a documentary filmmaker, archival producer, and Co-Founder of Denizen Studios. His films have played at festivals including SXSW, AFI, and Hot Docs, and have been published by Scientific American and New York Magazine. His archival producing work spans museums to magazines, including permanent exhibitions at Ellis Island and The Holocaust Center. His projects have received support from Field of Vision, Ford Foundation, Film Independent, Tribeca Institute, ITVS, Jewish Story Partners, UFO, Docs by the Sea, and Doc Society. He is a 2026 JFI Filmmaker-in-Residence, and a former Art & Impact Fellow, Full Frame Fellow, and a Senior Fellow at Humanity in Action. He received his BFA in Film from NYU Tisch and his MPA in Public Policy from NYU Wagner, where he is now an Adjunct Professor. He is pursuing his MS in Journalism at Columbia University.
3:30 PM – 4:45 PM
What Gets a Documentary Made?
Every documentary has to answer a few essential questions: Why this story? Why now? And why should anyone say yes? Join filmmakers Matt Wolf (SUMO) and Ben Selkow (Unforgiven: The Story of Jayson Williams), ESPN Films’ 30 for 30 executives Josh Oshinsky and Tara Nadolny, and moderator Rose Vincelli Gustine of the Museum of the Moving Image for a candid conversation about what makes a project stand out, how decision-makers evaluate stories, and the many paths a compelling story can take to the screen.
Drawing on behind-the-scenes examples from SUMO and Unforgiven: The Story of Jayson Williams, projects that took two very different development pathways, the panel will explore the role of story, audience, access, archives, creative collaboration, team building, and pitching in shaping a project from initial idea to production. With practical insights and a forward-looking perspective on the evolving documentary landscape, the discussion will offer valuable takeaways for directors, producers, editors, and storytellers.
Co-presented by ESPN Films’ 30 for 30
Josh Oshinsky
Senior Director – Original Content Development at ESPN
Josh Oshinsky
Senior Director – Original Content Development at ESPN
A fifteen-year veteran of TV and film production, Josh‘s work has garnered him a National Sports Emmy and over a dozen NY Emmy awards. A versatile presence, Josh has been everything from Executive Producer to an Emmy nominated Writer, to one of the stars of a national TV spot. As EP of Sports Illustrated’s The Making of Swimsuit, he brought the beauty and majesty of SI ‘s swimsuit issue to life in a way it has never been seen before. Under his watch, it has grown from a DVD-only release to a staple of Travel Channel’s Winter programming. His work on Four Days in October, part of ESPN’s critically acclaimed 30 for 30 series which debuted to over 1.4 million viewers, helped earn the series a Peabody Award for excellence. In 2011, he was the Senior Producer of the National Emmy Award Winning series The Franchise- A Season with the San Francisco Giants, which rivaled Hard Knocks and 24/7 as the industry standard for sports docu-series production. Recently, he has Directed ground breaking new films on MLB legends Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron, and brought the story of the 2015 New York Mets dream season to the people in a unique and unexpected fashion with Tears of Joy: 2015 New York Mets.
Tara Nadolny
Director of Development at ESPN Films
Tara Nadolny
Director of Development at ESPN Films
Ben Selkow
Producer
Ben Selkow
Producer
Ben Selkow is an Emmy®-nominated producer, director, and showrunner who explores uncharted human stories. A co-founder of Good Trouble Studios with James Adolphus, Selkow’s forthcoming work includes directing/producing ESPN Films’ 30 for 30 documentary Unforgiven: The Life of Jayson Williams, executive producing a new HBO docuseries, and developing several scripted and unscripted projects.
Past credits include: producing the Emmy®-nominated Being Mary Tyler Moore (HBO), directing/showrunning Killer Lies with The New Yorker, co-executive producing Adam McKay’s Q: Into the Storm (HBO), serving as EP/director on the Emmy®-winning Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller (Nat Geo), showrunning the hip-hop docuseries Rapture (Netflix), directing/producing episodes of the Emmy®-winning Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown (CNN), and producing the environmental thriller Death by a Thousand Cuts (Participant).
Selkow is an Honors graduate of Wesleyan’s Film and African-American Studies programs, a Rosalynn Carter Mental Health Journalism fellow, PGA member, and a Nonfiction Hotlist co-founder.
Matt Wolf
Director
Matt Wolf
Director
Matt Wolf is a filmmaker and writer in New York. His acclaimed two-part HBO documentary Pee-wee as Himself about the artist and performer Paul Reubens won numerous awards, including three Emmys for Best Editing, Best Director, and Best Documentary. Matt’s feature documentaries include Wild Combination about the cult cellist and disco producer Arthur Russell, Teenage about early youth culture and the birth of teenagers, Recorder about the activist Marion Stokes, who secretly recorded television 24 hours a day for 30 years, and Spaceship Earth about Biosphere 2, a controversial experiment where 8 people lived quarantined inside a replica of the planet. He is currently writing the book Trust Me about the relationship between documentary filmmakers and their subjects.
Today’s Happy Hour is co-presented by:
DOC NYC PRO is co-presented by:
