Fathom Film Group
Fathom Film Group creates ground-breaking films and innovative cross-platform projects that tell stories across a broad spectrum of media. Our films and series including The Defector: Escape from North Korea and Security 911 are thought-provoking with a focus on social issues and have aired with CBC, ABC, History Channel, HBO and other broadcasters. Our work has been broadcast, screened and downloaded around the world, garnering numerous awards at festivals: My Enemy, My Brother is shortlisted for an Academy Award and is a 3-time festival winner of Best Short Documentary at Traverse City Film Festival, Sepanta Awards and PromoFest; The Defector: Escape from North Korea premiered at the International Documentary Film Festival of Amsterdam, screened at more than 30 festivals, winning Best Documentary and Best Documentary Director at the 2014 Canadian Screen Awards, a SXSW Interactive Award, Digi Award for Best Cross-platform Project, an FITC Award; Four Seasons Mosaic was nominated for a Gemini for Best Performance Documentary; Incident at Roswell won Silver at the Columbus International Film Festival.
Fathom Film Group Website: http://fathomfilmgroup.com
New York Times Op-Docs
Op-Docs is The New York Times editorial department’s award-winning section for short, opinionated documentaries, produced with wide creative latitude and a range of artistic styles, covering current affairs, contemporary life and historical subjects.
Begun in 2011, Op-Docs videos are produced by both renowned and emerging filmmakers who express their views in the first person, through their subjects, or more subtly through an artistic approach to a topic. Honors for Op-Docs include two News and Documentary Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award and the World Press Photo Multimedia Award for Interactive Documentary — as well as official selections at leading international film festivals (including Sundance, the New York Film Festival, Telluride, SXSW and Sheffield Doc/Fest).
Ann Shin
Producer/Director
Multiple award-winning director and producer, Ann’s previous documentary The Defector: Escape from North Korea won Best Documentary and Best Documentary Director at the 2014 Canadian Screen Awards, as well as winning several interactive awards. Her credits include: My Enemy, My Brother, Gemini-nominated Four Seasons Mosaic (CBC), Fall of an Asian Tiger, Western Eyes, Almost Real: Connecting in a Wired World, and Chris Award-winning The Roswell Incident. Her films have screened globally with ABC, HBO Europe, Arte, CBC, TVO and other broadcasters; and won awards at festivals including: Tribeca Film Festival, SXSW, San Francisco International Film Festival, IDFA, Hotdocs, Sheffield Doc/Fest, Montreal World Film Festival, Mumbai International Film Festival, Vancouver International Film Festival.
Ann Shin's Website: http://www.annshin.com
MELANIE HORKAN
Co-Producer, Co-writer
Melanie worked as Associate Producer with Polar Star Films on Google and the World Brain, a feature length documentary for the BBC Storyville, ARTE France, ZDF, which premiered at Sundance 2013 and screened at 60 festivals worldwide. She also worked as Associate Producer on The Defector: Escape from North Korea, co-produced and co-wrote "My Enemy, My Brother" which had its world premiere at Tribeca Film Festival in April 2015 and has been short-listed for an Academy Award. She is also the co-producer and writer of Fathom's upcoming feature documentary called Smart Drugs (CBC, SBS) with Fathom Films. Melanie is also the Head Video Curator with for TEDx Sydney Film Program.
JASON SPINGARN-KOFF
Executive Producer
Jason is an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker and journalist. Currently a creative executive at Netflix for original documentary programming, Jason was previously the commissioning editor for Opinion video at The New York Times, which he joined in 2011. He oversaw the acclaimed Op-Docs initiative for short opinion documentaries by independent filmmakers. He directed the feature-length documentary Life 2.0, which premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and was acquired by OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network’s Documentary Club. Prior films and journalism have appeared on PBS, BBC, MSNBC, Time.com and Wired News. He was a 2010-2011 MIT Knight Science Journalism Fellow and is a graduate of Brown University and the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.
BRENDAN UEGAMA
Director of Photography
With many awards and nominations for his imagery, Uegama’s work has appeared in major international film festivals around the world such as Cannes, Tribeca Film Festival, Sitges, Toronto International Film Festival and more. In 2015 Uegama shot the remake of Electra Woman & Dyna Girl for Legendary Pictures, due to be released in early 2016. Most recently he shot 10 episodes of The Romeo Section, a noir espionage series created by Chris Haddock (Intelligence, Boardwalk Empire). The Canadian Cinematographer Magazine honoured Uegama in the Nov 2015 issue with the 3rd magazine cover and 5th story about his work. Currently Brendan Uegama, csc is represented by LA based Crayton Smith Agency.
STEVE GUISE
Editor
Documentary, series and commercial editor Steve Guise has edited award-winning films and series including the Gemini Award-winning ‘Departures,’ Chris Bosh: First Ink, ’The Living Legend,’ about the Saudi Royal Family, and the web series that accompanied Peter Mettler's ‘Petropolis,’ a stirring look at the Alberta Oil Sands. He also edited ‘The Water Brothers,’ (TVO) an award-winning TV show that aims to teach young viewers about water issues, ‘The Defector: Escape from North Korea’ and ‘My Enemy, My Brother.’
Working on the continued feature of My Enemy, My Brother:
DURAID MUNAJIM
Director of Photography
Duraid is a Toronto based cinematographer who has worked on a number of films including Kathryn Bigelow’s Oscar-winning film The Hurt Locker. Born in Kuwait to an Iraqi father and an Iranian mother, Duraid was 17 years of age when he immigrated to Canada with his family. His credits are varied between documentary and fiction work, such as Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty, the Oscar nominated short Buzkashi Boys, and a number of documentary titles, including What I’ve Lost (TIFF entry), Nest: Urban Painting (Rotterdam entry) and a number of TV documentary shows. He is currently working on a fictionalized version of the infamous Toronto 18 story, and developing a doc on Iraq’s oldest cinema.
RICARDO ACOSTA
Film Editor
In the past 15 years, Ricardo Acosta has had nine films win or be nominated for best picture in its category at the Canadian Screen Awards and Geminis. Ricardo was a fellow at the Sundance Institute in 2006, 2011 and 2013 and is now a creative advisor for the Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program. His credits include: Shooting Indians, A Journey With Jeffrey Thomas directed by Ali Kazimi; Unbound directed by Claudia Morgado (Winner of The Berlin Film Festival Award for Best Short Film 1996); Spirits of Havana produced by the NFB (Genie Award Nomination for Best Documentary 2001); The Take directed by Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis (Official selection Venice Film Festival, 2004, nomination for Best Picture Editing in a Documentary, 20th Annual Gemini Awards), Herman’s House directed by Angad Bhalla - Nominated for The Donald Brittain Award for Best Social/Political Documentary- for The Canadian Screen Awards - 2014.
Alan Mendelsohn
Story Editor
Alan is an award-winning producer and director whose work as the Series Producer for “Turning Points of History” (History Channel) garnered over 120 international awards, including 34 Houston Worldfest International Film Festival awards including “The Best of the Fest” and several Special Jury and Gold awards, 21 awards at the Columbus International Film & Video Festival, including “Best of Fest,” 12 Chris Statuettes, and 14 bronze plaques. Alan’s directing credits include: The Real Apollo XIII (current), Gemini award-winning The Disappearing Male (2009), The Road to Partition (2007, winner at The Hugo Television Awards), High Water Blues (2006) which won Platinum for Best Documentary at Houston Worldfest, The Bomb Broadcast (2005) and many others.