Fiz Olajide
Filmmaker
Directing & Producing: Leading the Vision (Nov 18)
What does it take to carry the vision for a film? This day looks at what it means to lead creatively, logistically, and emotionally. Through real stories and case studies, we’ll explore holding the vision, making tough calls, and staying grounded through creativity and chaos.
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
The Maze of Directing & Producing
From chasing funding to scrambling at the final cut, a director’s path is anything but straightforward. In this candid session, Fiz Olajide (Imported), and producers Xan Parker (New Yorker at 100), and Traci Curry (Attica) join moderator Sarah Rachael Wainio (Documentary Producer’s Alliance) to dig into the unglamorous side of documentary filmmaking: the hurdles film school doesn’t prepare you for. From filming in unpredictable environments to navigating ethical landmines, they’ll share hard-won lessons on protecting vision while managing reality. An honest conversation about the toll, the resilience, and the craft it takes to get a story into the world.
Co-presented by
Fiz Olajide
Filmmaker
Fiz Olajide is a director who crafts visually rich stories centered on people in motion, framed by natural landscapes or the rhythm of real life. Blending raw vérité energy with stylized precision, her work is vivid, intentional, and guided by music that unlocks emotion and wonder.
Her feature directorial debut, Imported, an international basketball documentary, premiered on Hulu and Disney+ in August 2025. Fiz has also directed branded campaigns for Google, Uber, Brand USA, and American Express. Backed by Sundance, Tribeca, ITVS, and Firelight Media, she continues to push the boundaries of documentary storytelling with bold, evocative narratives that reveal untold stories.
Traci Curry
Filmmaker
Traci Curry
Filmmaker
Traci A. Curry is an Academy Award-nominated filmmaker, producer, showrunner, and writer. She has spent more than two decades creating compelling, in-depth narratives for multi-media platforms. Most recently, she directed National Geographic’s five-part documentary series Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time. In 2020, Traci co-directed Attica, a Showtime documentary which received an Academy Award Nomination for Best Documentary Feature. Traci also served as Producer on Attica, which premiered opening night at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival. In 2023, Traci was showrunner of Onyx Collective’s Emmy-nominated eight-part documentary series Searching For Soul Food. Previously, Traci was a producer on the 2020 ESPN “30 for 30” documentary Vick, a comprehensive look back at the rise, fall, and polarizing return of the standout former quarterback, Michael Vick. She is currently in production on an untitled film about Stevie Wonder and the making of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday.
Xan Parker
Producer
Xan Parker
Producer
Xan Parker is a creative documentary producer who has been fortunate to team up with some of the most visionary directors in the field on critically acclaimed films and series for platforms including Netflix, HBO, PBS, CNN, ABC, and National Geographic. Her films have premiered at Sundance, Tribeca, and Telluride, garnered nominations for Academy Awards, Emmys, and a duPont-Columbia Award. Her latest, The New Yorker at 100, directed by Marshall Curry, debuts on Netflix in December 2025.
Early in her career, Xan spearheaded the re-release of cinema verité classics Grey Gardens and Gimme Shelter by forging a collaboration between Maysles Films and Criterion Collection. As former executive producer at a branding firm, she grew a portfolio of award-winning shorts, one of which raised over $100 million for cancer research. She is an active member of the AMPAS, ATAS, and the DPA.
Sarah Rachael Wainio
Producer, Documentary Producers Alliance
Sarah Rachael Wainio
Producer, Documentary Producers Alliance
Sarah Rachael Wainio is one of the industry’s most sought after storytellers. Her credits include The Food Network, Magnolia Network, Netflix, TLC, and HBO. She produced the first three seasons of MTV’s seminal show “Teen Mom: Young + Pregnant,” bringing the real-life consequences of unplanned teen pregnancy to a national audience. She earned an MFA in Social Documentary Film from the School of Visual Arts and has a degree in Psychology and Philosophy from Fordham University. Sarah is Secretary of the Documentary Producers Alliance and co-chairs the ethics task force. She lives in NYC with her cats Theodora and Tovah.
11:30-12:45PM
Ask Us Anything: The Ultimate Legal Q & A
Reavis Page Jump LLP attorneys Nicole Page, Daniel Ain, and filmmaker Nick Bruckman (People’s Television) will dive straight into the legal questions that matter most to filmmakers. From topics like financing and development to production agreements, fair use, and distribution deals, the speakers will unpack the real issues filmmakers face every day. This is an open forum built around your questions, giving you direct access to those with expertise who know the documentary landscape inside and out.
Co-presented by
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 film, television and podcast 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 executive compensation deals for top talent at leading entertainment companies.
Daniel Ain
Counsel, Reavis Page Jump LLP
Daniel Ain
Counsel, Reavis Page Jump LLP
Daniel J. Ain is Counsel for 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 Sports Illustrated, 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.
Nicholas Bruckman
Filmmaker
Nicholas Bruckman
Filmmaker
Nicholas Bruckman is an Emmy-nominated director and the founder and CEO of People’s Television, a production studio and creative agency that produces widely acclaimed independent films as well as video storytelling for the world’s leading brands, foundations, and social movements.
His feature documentary Not Going Quietly, executive produced by Mark and Jay Duplass and acquired by Hulu and Vice Media, premiered at the 2021 SXSW Film Festival where it won the Audience Award and Special Jury Prize, and was nominated for Best Documentary and Best Director of the year by the International Documentary Association.
He previously produced the narrative feature film Valley of Saints, which won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award. His most recent feature documentary, Minted, premiered at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival.
2:00-3:15PM
Navigating Ethical Dilemmas in Doc Filmmaking
Ethical questions in documentaries are rarely clear-cut. Sarah Rachael Wainio (Documentary Producers Alliance and The Ethics Squad), filmmakers Suzannah Herbert (Natchez), and Jeremy Xido (Sons of Detroit) dig into the messy dilemmas of telling real people’s stories: consent, representation, power, compensation, and trust. What happens when access clashes with privacy, or when truth and protection pull in opposite directions? How do relationships with participants shift during and after production, and what changes when the filmmaker is also a participant? Using case studies and discussion, this session explores the gray areas that define ethical responsibility in nonfiction. Sarah Wainio will also introduce the new Ethics Resource Library developed by the DPA.
Special thanks to community partner the Documentary Producers Alliance for their support of this panel.
Sarah Rachael Wainio
Producer/DPA
Sarah Rachael Wainio
Producer/DPA
Sarah Rachael Wainio is a film and television producer with 15 seasons across networks including MTV, TLC, Food Network, Magnolia Network and WEtv. In 2024 she field produced a series of short films encouraging civic engagement for ATTN: featuring President Barack Obama, and served as field producer for The Lost Kitchen Season 2 (HBO Max), winner of Realscreen’s Best Lifestyle Docureality Food Show in 2023. Her documentary work includes contributions to The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson (Netflix), 32 Pills: My Sister’s Suicide (HBO Max) and Busy Inside (PBS America ReFramed). Recognized as a 2023 DOC NYC and A&E Documentary New Leader, Sarah co-chairs the Documentary Producers Alliance Ethics Subcommittee and debuted the groundbreaking Ethics Resource Library at the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival, establishing herself as both a creative force and advocate for ethical storytelling.
Suzannah Herbert
Filmmaker
Suzannah Herbert
Filmmaker
Suzannah Herbert is a filmmaker from Memphis, whose work focuses on the American South. Herbert’s directorial debut Wrestle was Emmy-nominated and named one of the top 5 documentaries of 2019 by the National Board of Review. Wrestle (Oscilloscope/Independent Lens) was lauded as “Superb” by the Los Angeles Times, and hailed a New York Times Critic’s Pick. Herbert has collaborated as an editor on Bob Dylan projects and edited Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga’s Grammy-nominated music video, “I Get a Kick Out of You.” Herbert’s sophomore feature Natchez has been supported by ITVS, Catapult Film Fund, Ford Foundation, Rooftop Films Fund, CIFF Points North Fellowship, Logan Nonfiction Fellowship, Yaddo, True False Catapult Rough Cut Retreat, and Film Independent. Natchez won Best Documentary Feature at the 2025 Tribeca, Middlebury New Filmmakers, and Sidewalk Film Festivals. Natchez will be released theatrically by Oscilloscope Laboratories and broadcast on PBS’s Independent Lens.
Jeremy Xido
Filmmaker
Jeremy Xido
Filmmaker
An award-winning director, actor, and writer, Jeremy Xido is the lead in Pia Marais’ new film Transamazonia, which premiered at Locarno in 2024 and the main slate at the New York Film Festival. His feature documentary, The Bones, premiered in March 2024 at CPH:DOX and HotDocs and continues to make the rounds. His previous film, Death Metal Angola, premiered at IFF Rotterdam and went on to play over 90 festivals on 7 continents, including Sydney, BAFIC, and Bergen. He’s starring in a new Amazon MGM studio series, The House Of David. Sons Of Detroit is his third feature film.
3:30-4:45PM
Behind the Lens: The Art of Crafting Sports Documentaries for ESPN Films and 30 for 30
How do directors turn raw footage into the unforgettable sports stories that resonate far beyond the game itself? This panel brings together acclaimed directors Joe Brewster (Black Girls Play), Nanette Burstein (The Price of Gold), and Jon Hock (The Best That Never Was), with moderator Carolyn Hepburn (ESPN Films’ 30 for 30) to take us behind the scenes of their process in creating documentaries for ESPN Films’ 30 for 30. Through before-and-after comparisons of scenes from their projects, the directors will walk us through their creative journey, showing how storytelling choices shape emotion, meaning, and impact. Attendees will gain insight into the director-driven brand of ESPN Films’ 30 for 30, and how these films continue to influence both the sports industry and the broader cultural landscape.
Co-presented by
Jonathan Hock
Filmmaker
Jonathan Hock
Filmmaker
Jonathan Hock is an 11-time Emmy Award winning documentarian. After a decade at NFL Films, Hock founded an independent production company specializing in sports documentaries. Through the Fire premiered at Tribeca in 2005 and became the first documentary ever acquired by ESPN.
Hock was a member of the original class of directors for ESPN’s 30 For 30 series. The Best That Never Was became the first of nine 30 for 30’s he produced or directed, including Unguarded, Survive and Advance, and Of Miracles and Men.
With his collaborators at Words + Pictures, Hock is in production on The Yankees Win, an eight-part series for ESPN about the New York Yankees, and Keeping the Faith, a series on the impact of sport on America, featuring Dr. Harry Edwards.
He lives outside New York City with his wife Lynn.
Joe Brewster
Filmmaker
Joe Brewster
Filmmaker
Joe Brewster is a Harvard-trained psychiatrist and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker who believes in the healing power of stories. Drawing on his experience as a prison psychiatrist, he made his directorial debut at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival with The Keeper, nominated at the 12th Spirit Awards. Over three decades, Brewster has created genre-bending works that fuse fiction, immersive, experimental, and hybrid forms to center the lived experiences of the Black diaspora. His documentary American Promise (2014) earned three Emmy nominations and the Sundance Jury Prize. His recent films, Black Girls Play, received the Edward R. Murrow Award, and Going To Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project won the Emmy for Outstanding Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking and the Sundance Grand Jury Prize. His VR project The Changing Same won the 2021 Tribeca Grand Prize. Brewster has produced for PBS, HBO, Amazon, and Disney and is a Guggenheim Fellow and Academy member.
Nanette Burstein
Filmmaker
Nanette Burstein
Filmmaker
Nanette Burstein began her career directing the documentary, On The Ropes, which received an Oscar nomination, won the Special Jury Prize at Sundance, and received the DGA award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement. She is most known for her documentary, The Kid Stays in the Picture, a biography about Robert Evans; American Teen which won the Directing Award at the Sundance Film Festival; The Price of Gold, an ESPN 30 for 30 on Tonya Harding which won Best Television Documentary at the Cinema Eye awards; Hillary the documentary series about Hillary Clinton which was nominated for an Emmy for outstanding documentary and won the Critics’ Choice Award; Killer Sally, a Netflix documentary series, and most recently the HBO documentary Eliabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes which premiered at the Cannes film festival. She is currently completely a film about Carl Sagan We Are Made of Star Stuff for National Geographic
Carolyn Hepburn
Producer, ESPN Films
Carolyn Hepburn
Producer, ESPN Films
Carolyn Hepburn is an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning producer whose recent films include American Pain (2022 Tribeca Festival, CNN Films); Unfinished Business (2022 Tribeca Festival); The Return of Tanya Tucker featuring Brandi Carlile (2022 SXSW Audience Winner, Sony Pictures Classics); In The Same Breath (HBO Docs, Oscar shortlisted); The Velvet Underground (Cannes Film Festival, Apple+, Oscar shortlisted); The Mole Agent (Oscar nominee); A Thousand Cuts (Emmy, Gotham and IDA winner); One Child Nation (Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner, Amazon Studios, Oscar-shortlisted); Life, Animated (Oscar nominee and winner of three Emmys); Weiner (IFC Films, Oscar shortlisted).
DOC NYC PRO is co-presented by:
