Host Screening

Our Team

JESSICA EARNSHAW – Director, Producer, Cinematographer

Jessica Earnshaw is a documentary photographer and filmmaker whose work focuses on criminal justice, familial relationships and women. Her photography has appeared in National Geographic, The Marshall Project, Mother Jones Magazine, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, amongst others. In 2015, she received the prestigious Rita and Alex Hillman Foundation Fellowship & Grant to photograph aging in American prisons. During this project, she received unique unrestricted access in Maine State prisons. In 2016, her Aging in Prison work received an honorable mention by FotoVisura Grant, was published in National Geographic, Huffington Post and PDN Magazine and named one of the most interesting photo essays of the week by Buzzfeed. In 2017, the next chapter of her aging in prison work, centering on re-entry after a life sentence, was published in Mother Jones and The Marshall Project. In 2018, she photographed and shot video for an NPR story called “In Iowa, A Commitment To Make Prison Work Better For Women” which was apart of a special series covering discipline and women in prison, and specifically looked at gender-responsive corrections at a women’s prison in Iowa. Jessica is a graduate of the International Center of Photography’s photojournalism program (New York, New York), and later worked as a junior photo editor at TIME Magazine. Her first feature film, JACINTA, won the Albert Maysles New Documentary Director Award at the Tribeca Film Festival 2020. She was recently selected for Doc NYC’s 40 under 40 list. jessicaearnshaw.com

HOLLY MEEHL – Producer

Holly Meehl is a creative producer who guides films from original inception through distribution. For the past six years she’s produced award-winning narrative and documentary features and short films through her company, Lunamax Films. Holly found her passion for producing while working at Salty Features under director/producer Yael Melamede. She became a co-producer on Melamede’s documentary feature (DIS)HONESTY: THE TRUTH ABOUT LIES which was broadcast on CNBC in 2015. In the same year, Holly launched Lunamax Films and began producing the feature documentary FOR THE BIRDS (directed by Richard Miron) as well as the romantic comedy IN REALITY (directed by Ann Lupo). In 2019 both films were released to critical acclaim. FOR THE BIRDS was noted as a Critic’s Pick in the New York Times and nominated for a Critic’s Choice Documentary Award and is now streaming on Netflix. IN REALITY won 11 awards on the festival circuit including Special Mention in U.S. Fiction at LA Film Festival and is now streaming on Amazon Prime. Holly and Lunamax’s third produced feature is a documentary called JACINTA (directed by Jessica Earnshaw), which will be premiering at Tribeca Film Festival 2020. Holly is currently co-producing a feature documentary with Oak Street Pictures about culinary mastermind Chef Charlie Trotter (directed by Rebecca Halpern). Holly is a 2020 Impact Partners Producing Fellow and was recently selected for Doc NYCs 40 under 40 list. Lunamaxfilms.com

NIMISHA MUKERJI – Producer

Filmmaker Nimisha Mukerji’s award-winning work spans features, shorts and episodic television. Her debut film 65_RedRoses, a portrait of a young woman on the transplant list, was hailed by the New York Times as “Illuminating…an affecting, unnerving portrait of one family’s encounter with the harshest of realities”. It was selected by Oprah Winfrey for her Documentary Club on OWN, helped raise over 3 million dollars for Cystic Fibrosis research and went on to be acquired by Netflix and Hulu. Her follow up feature Blood Relative, about a non profit worker helping Mumbai’s Thalassemic children, premiered at Hot Docs International Film Festival and went on to win audience awards in Paris, Vancouver and New York. Her third feature about burlesque dancerTempest Storm was released theatrically by Mongrel Media and broadcast internationally. Jacinta is her fourth feature documentary, and in addition to her nonfiction work Nimisha continues to explore issues surrounding economic disparity, education and gender inequality in her narrative projects. She co-wrote and produced the narrative short Beauty Mark which was selected by Telefilm’s Not Short on Talent Program for Cannes, and she has also written and produced segments for HBO/PBS’s Sesame Street. Her directing work for television can be found on Disney, Lifetime and Nat Geo. She is an alumni of TIFF’s Talent Lab and splits her time between Vancouver and LA. She is represented by the Kaplan Stahler Agency. www.nimishamukerji.com

GEORGE O’DONNELL – Editor

In his more than two decades as an editor, George O’Donnell has collaborated with many of the leading directors in the documentary world, among them: Ken Burns (Jackie Robinson); Barak Goodman (Kinsey, Clinton); Stephen Ives (Amato: A Love Affair with Opera, Roads to Memphis); John Maggio (Billy the Kid, Into the Amazon); David Grubin (The Jewish Americans); Michael Kantor (Quincy Jones); and Michelle Ferrari (Edison, The Eugenics Crusade). His work for The Independent Film Channel, In the Company of Women and Indie Sex Taboos scored record viewership, while festival favorites such as Undetectable, Peace of Mind, T-Shirt Travels, and Out of the Past found their way to public television. George’s own film, College Boys Live, which he also produced and directed, won him the Emerging Talent Award at OUTFEST. George is a graduate of Bard College and lives in Brooklyn, New York.

GIL TALMI – Composer

Gil Talmi is an EMMY nominated film composer with a passion for socially conscious films. Blending his traditional orchestral background with tasteful modular electronics and eclectic world music sensibilities, Talmi has created a signature sound that can be heard in many award winning productions worldwide. Some of Gil’s most recent work includes original music for The Great Hack (Netflix/Noujaim Films/Othrs Production), Building The American Dream (Panda bear Films/PBS), Man On Fire (Fendelman Films/PBS), Chavela (Aubin Pictures) and Tre Maison Dasan (PBS). Gil’s score for Backyard Wilderness (Archipelago Films) was nominated for the GSCA Awards Best Original Score. Gil’s score for Chavela was nominated for Best Feature Film Score by the Music & Sound Awards. Gil was nominated for a National News and Documentary Emmy Award for his work on CBS Evening News and won Best Documentary Score for Tales Of The Waria (PBS).

ERIN SORENSON – Social Impact Producer

Erin Sorenson is an impact producer and the founder of Third Stage Consulting providing strategic planning and project management of social-justice themed documentary film projects. With a focus on films that are domestic with subject-driven narratives, Erin’s projects have addressed: interpersonal violence, women’s issues, poverty, homelessness, disabilities, and climate change. Erin is a frequent trainer for Brit Doc filmmaker workshops and has recently written the 2016 Brit Doc Impact Award Winner write ups (www.docimpactaward.org) providing analysis and context for the 5 top documentary impact campaigns. Erin graduated with her Masters Degree in Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago. In 1995 she was awarded “Chicagoan of the Year” for her work with Chicago’s Mayor Daley in developing one of the nations largest programs for abused children.Erin’s current and recent impact production projects include: The Homestretch, Chasing Coral, Almost Sunrise, Home Truth, Monster in the Mind, Private Violence, Becoming Bulletproof, Borderline. Prior to founding Third Stage Consulting, Erin spent 5 years as the Chief Programs Officer for the BeCause Foundation, a foundation dedicated to the power of documentary filmmaking and its fusion with creative outreach and engagement projects.

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Dan Cogan, Jenny Raskin, Geralyn White Dreyfous, Regina K. Scully, Patty Quillin, Jamie Wolf

CO-EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Marni J. Grossman, Kelsey Koenig, Ann W. Lovell