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DAVID MODIGLIANI
Director & Producer
David Modigliani is a documentary filmmaker with a unique knack for capturing the intimate human experience of politics in America. His most recent feature documentary, Running with Beto, takes us behind the scenes with U.S. Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke, his inner circle and the passionate first-time activists who support him in his against-all-odds race to unseat Ted Cruz. The film premiered at SXSW, where it won the audience award, with a May 28th HBO broadcast to follow.
Through his Live Action Projects production company, he directed his first feature documentary, Crawford, which takes us inside the tiny Texas town that George W. Bush turned into the Western White House. The film world premiered at SXSW in 2008, played 33 festivals and became the first new movie to air on Hulu. His second feature doc, 61 Bullets, reveals an untold experience behind the 1935 assassination of populist U.S. Senator Huey P. Long in the Louisiana State Capitol Building. The film follows the son of the alleged assassin, Dr. Carl Weiss, as he fights to clear his father’s name. In addition to features, Modigliani also produced and co-directed a 12-part documentary series about young veterans returning from combat, Wounded: The Battle Back Home, which aired on MSNBC and Netflix.
RACHEL ECKLUND
Producer
Rachel is an Austin, TX-based producer with a passion for socially-conscious storytelling. She's produced documentary and unscripted series content for HBO, PBS, Discovery Channel, Food Network, The Washington Post, Latino Public Broadcasting and more. Rachel has also worked on national ad campaigns for Academy, Schwab, USAA, Dell, Bayer, Asics, Novo Nordisk, and more. Her narrative and documentary work has screened at festivals across the globe and received wide educational distribution.
REBECCA FEFERMAN
Producer
Rebecca Feferman brings 15+ years of expertise in content, business development, and brand management. As Founder of The FefCo, Feferman offers high-level producing and strategy at the intersection of sports, entertainment, and culture for clients like Katie Nolan, The Ringer, and MSG Networks among others. Running with Beto, the first feature film Rebecca produced, premiered at SXSW 2019 and won the Audience Award, and airs on HBO May 28, 2019. She serves as Strategic Content Advisor to MSG Networks, producing on series Conference Room B and developing original content initiatives, and was Consulting Producer on the 2017 Fox Sports television special Rollin’ with Nolan, starring Katie Nolan. Prior to starting her company in 2016, Rebecca spent eight years at SXSW, where she navigated multiple roles, creating and running sports-focused track SXsports, and serving as Head of Convergence Programming. Feferman’s tenure at SXSW began in 2008 as Head of Film Media Relations, where she also worked as a Programmer until 2014. Before moving to Austin, Rebecca was a publicist at ID Public Relations in Los Angeles, representing actors Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Paul Giamatti and John Krasinski, among others. Prior to joining ID, she started her career in the National Publicity department of Warner Bros. Pictures. A proud graduate of the University of Michigan, Feferman originally hails from Albuquerque, New Mexico.
GREG KWEDAR
Producer
Greg Kwedar’s debut as a feature director was with Transpecos, a thriller set within the United States Border Patrol. It premiered in competition at the 2016 SXSW Film Festival where it won the Audience Award. Transpecos was acquired by Samuel Goldwyn Films for theatrical release. He is also known for producing Rising from Ashes, a documentary about the first Rwandan National Cycling Team and their 6-year journey to the Olympic Games in London. Executive Produced and Narrated by Forest Whitaker, Rising from Ashes had its World Premiere at the Hamptons International Film Festival and went on to 16 additional festival wins. Rising from Ashes was released theatrically by First Run Features and Wild Bunch. Greg was a co-producer on Ghost Fleet, a documentary about slavery in the Thai fishing industry which had its World Premiere at the 2018 Telluride Film Festival and International Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. Greg has spoken to thousands of students across the country and sat on panels about his work at esteemed venues such as SXSW, UNESCO, and the United Nations.
NANCY SCHAFER
Producer
Nancy Schafer is an independent film producer and consultant who has premiered seven feature films at top festivals over the past five years, all of which have received distribution in the United States. Her current film, Running with Beto, premiered at SXSW 2019, where it won the Audience Award, and will be distributed by HBO May 28, 2019. Her last two narrative films, Barracuda and Transpecos, premiered in Competition at SXSW, with Transpecos winning the Audience Award. Nancy is Executive Producer of The Battered Bastards of Baseball (Sundance 2014), Producer of 7 Chinese Brothers (SXSW 2015) starring Jason Schwartzman, Executive Producer of Frame by Frame (SXSW 2015), and Come Down Molly (Tribeca 2015). She worked at and ran the Tribeca Film Festival from inception to July 2012, a period of 11 years, in which she was Executive Director of the festival, Executive Vice President of Tribeca Enterprises, and launched Tribeca Film, their film distribution company. Prior to Tribeca, she created and ran the SXSW Film Festival for eight years. She has also recently launched Original Thinkers, an ideas festival occurring in October each year in Telluride, Colorado.
Michelle Modigliani
Producer
Michelle has worked in story development and production for over a decade. With a background in journalism and cultural anthropology, she began her career at KUT, Austin’s NPR affiliate, where she developed award-winning documentary content alongside legendary radio producer David Brown, on the Peabody-winning show, Texas Music Matters. Later, she developed and produced documentary shorts for Dark Rye, an unbranded storytelling platform created by Whole Foods. Since 2015, she has developed projects and strategy for Austin-based Live Action Projects.
PENELOPE FALK
Editor
Penny has worked as a top-tier documentary editor for 25 years. She started her career on Jennifer Fox's groundbreaking series, An American Love Story. Recent editing credits include Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work (for which she won the U.S. Documentary Editing Award from the Sundance Film Festival), the theatrically released documentary Step (Sundance Special Jury Award), A Letter Without Words (Sundance premiere), Toots Shore: Bigger Than Life (Tribeca premiere) and many more.
DAVID BARTNER
Editor
David Bartner works as a film editor and lives in New York City. He edited Arthur Miller: Writer, a documentary that premiered at the Telluride Film Festival and aired on HBO. He’s worked on several other documentary projects, a reality television series that starred Roy Garber, large scale video projections, and the feature film Art Fair Fever by Mark Flood. Say hi if you see him somewhere.
DAVÍD GARZA
Score Composer
Davíd has been making his mark since the late ‘80s, when he emerged from the fertile Austin, Texas music scene with his inimitable blend of glam-rock, power pop, Latin folks, blues and even musique concrete. Through a couple of major-label albums and a trove of indie releases, he’s embodied the troubadour, the guitar hero, the post-punk provocateur, the falsetto-wielding loverman, the effects-looping mad scientist, the griot - but always a storyteller, relentlessly seeking that human connection.
In Association with
CROOKED MEDIA
Crooked Media is a political media company co-founded by former Obama aides Jon Favreau, Tommy Vietor and Jon Lovett. Along with their fellow White House colleague Dan Pfeiffer, they are the co-hosts of top-rated podcast, Pod Save America. In addition to Pod Save America, Crooked Media has produced nearly a dozen other top podcasts that focus on politics and culture.
Ellie Ann Fenton, Director of Photography
Kelly West, Director of Photography
Brian Ramos, Audio Recording
Arianne Ribeiro, Associate Producer
