about team
Director/Producer
Lily Zepeda’s passion for exploring unconventional stories began with a career in journalism, interviewing subjects ranging from Grammy award-winning musicians to Olympians. She went from TV production to embarking on a 5-year journey to make her first feature film, Mr. Toilet: The World’s #2 Man. She’s a Diversity Fellow and Accelerator Lab grantee from Chicken & Egg Pictures as well as a Hedgebrook Lab finalist. She has also has been selected to pitch at film festivals, including at Big Sky, Hot Docs, Sheffield & Doc NYC.
Producer
Tchavdar Georgiev is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker and a member of ACE (American Cinema Editors). “The Desert of Forbidden Art,” (Independent Lens) that he produced and directed together with Amanda Pope was nominated for two Emmys and won international accolades. He edited the two times Emmy-nominated “Valentine Road” (HBO) as well as “Finders Keepers”, both of which premiered at Sundance. He wrote, co-produced and edited “Off The Rails” (Hot Docs, Full Frame, Sundance Channel) that won many awards including DOC NYC FF. He edited “Skidrow Marathon” that won numerous awards including LAFF. He directed and edited together with Dana Berry for Nat Geo “Finding the Next Earth” and edited the Emmy-nominated “Alien Earths”. He also edited on “The American Meme” (Tribeca FF, Hot Docs, Netflix Original), “Served Like A Girl” (SXSW, Independent Lens), “One Lucky Elephant” (Best Doc Editing at Woodstock FF) and “Bite Size” (Best Doc at Cinequest). He has also written, produced, directed or edited for BBC, History Channel, USA Network, STARZ and Amazon Studios.
Editor
Monique Zavistovski, is a native New Yorker whose work has won awards worldwide, including at Sundance, SXSW, and the Emmys. Her latest project, RAISE HELL: The Life & Times of Molly Ivins, premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. The Wraith of Cobble Hill, which Monique produced and edited, won the Jury Prize in Short Filmmaking at Sundance and was shortlisted for the Academy Awards, and a PBS film she cut, The Legend of Pancho Barnes and the Happy Bottom Riding Club, won the Emmy for Best Historical Film. In addition to Mr. Toilet: The World’s #2 Man, her more recent work includes Sundance’s Film Forward selection The Light In Her Eyes (POV, 2012), Limited Partnership (IDA’s Humanitas Award Winner, 2015), Abortion: Stories Women Tell (HBO, 2016), CITY 40 (Netflix; Emmy Award Nominee for Best Investigative Documentary, 2017), and Served Like a Girl (SXSW, Independent Lens, 2018).
Editor
Hee-Jae Park is a commercial and documentary editor. His most recent editorial works include Nude (STARZ). He has also assisted on “The American Meme” (Tribeca FF, Hot Docs, Netflix Original), “Served Like A Girl” (SXSW, PBS Independent Lens), and “David Blaine: Beyond Magic” (ABC). He has also edited on projects for Subaru, Samsung, Dropbox, XPRIZE, The Salvation Army, The Humane Society, and The Sundance Institute.
Producer
An experienced screenwriter, producer and director for feature films in the US, Europe and Eastern Europe. Eugene Efuni is an Executive Producer of American Independence Film Festival, and an official of the US Embassy film festival in Ukraine. He has produced 6 international feature films including: “Iris Effect,” starring Anne Archer, Agnes Bruckner and Mia Kirshner; “The Second Front,” starring Craig Sheffer, Todd Field and Ron Perelman; “Mirror Wars” starring Malcolm McDowell, Armand Assante and RutgerHauer. Efuni has also produced one of the first s3D feature films shot in Eastern Europe, “Rzhevsky vs Napoleon! 3D!” which was theatrically released in Russia and Ukraine.
Co-Producer
Greta McAnany is an award-winning filmmaker and entrepreneur. McAnany graduated from USC in 2010 and over the next 3 years went on to finance and produce the feature film BITE SIZE, distributed by BOND360. The film won the Grand Jury prize at Cinequest Film Festival and was featured by Katie Couric’ on ABC. It was distributed on Netflix, Amazon, Vimeo, Pivot TV and more. McAnany is a recipient of film grants from Morgan Freeman and his Rock River Foundation, and the prestigious Thornton Foundation. McAnany co-founded Blue Fever, a digital studio and branding platform for content and creators of millennial female entertainment.
Cinematographer, India
Mrinal Desai’s last feature film, ‘Court’ was an astounding critical success winning 19 awards internationally including 2 Lions at the 2014 Venice International Film Festival, Golden Lotus for Best Film at the 2015 National Awards and Best Cinematography at the 2Morrow Film Festival, Moscow. He was second unit Cinematographer on Danny Boyle’s 2009 multi Oscar winning ‘Slumdog Millionaire’. His documentary credits include the Tribeca and Hot Docs winner for 2012, ‘The World Before Her,’ the Emmy nominated ‘Terror in Mumbai’ (BAFTA winner 2010) & ‘The Battle for Haiti’ (BAFTA winner 2011).
Cinematographer, India
Saptarshi Roy (Sappy) started fiddling with his mom’s analog 12mm still camera at the age of 5. After graduating from an electronic media college, Sappy aggressively followed his passion of filmmaking. It’s been more than 12 years and his clients now include Indian CNN-IBN, Star India and NDTV, Tommy Hilfiger, Ambika Pillai (Fashion Make-Up Artist), KOHLER, Kitchen Aid, Samsung, Mc. Donalds, a Hindi Food Show for EPIC channel (currently on the air), and ESPN.
Cinematographer, Singapore
Khairulhakim’s Mohamad Bashir works are prominent in local television such as Mediacorp Channel 5, Mediacorp Okto, Channel News Asia, Mediacorp Channel U, and international television such as Discovery Asia. In 2018, a short film titled “Grandma In July”, was shot by Khairulhakim which got in as Top 10 Viddsee Juree Awards. His directorial debut “Kara” was screened in 2018 Glendale International Film Festival, Semi Finalist in Sydney Indie Film Festival, Cannes Short Film Corner, selected as First Time Filmmaker as part of the Lift Off Festival (Global), screened as a european premiere in Festival Internacional Signos Da Noite (Lisbon) and Internationales Festival Zeichen Der Nacht.
Cinematographer, China
Siyan Liu is a Chinese filmmaker based in New York City who received her MFA in Social Documentary Film from School of Visual Arts in 2015. She has been worked as an assistant director in the Documentary Channel of China Central Television (CCTV-9) for two years. Liu’s film JOLIN: The Evolution of My Life has been officially selected by the 40th Montreal World Film Festival, the 39th Asian American International Film Festival, and the 3rd DC Chinese Film Festival, etc. She is preparing for her first narrative feature about postpartum depression.
Theatrical Outreach Coordinator
Hilari Scarl is an award-winning writer/director/producer who was chosen by Steven Spielberg out of 12,000 filmmakers to appear his television show On the Lot. Her multi-award-winning feature film See What I’m Saying: The Deaf Entertainers Documentary received Critics’ Pick in the New York Times, a theatrical release in 300 cities and is available on Netflix, Amazon and iTunes. She produced the multi-award-winning drama No Ordinary Hero featuring Marlee Matlin and shows on CBS, TLC, Court TV, FOX and the History Channel. She directed/produced the highly acclaimed 30 episode sign language/Deaf culture series SIGN WITH ROBERT that is available to colleges, educators and individuals.
Animators
Kunal and Tisha are the Animation and Motion Designers behind Good Bad Habits. Based in Vancouver, BC, they collaborate with filmmakers, designers and creative agencies on a diverse range of projects to create bold, quirky and thought-provoking work.