NC Heikin

Director

Director - NC Heikin began her career at La Mama Experimental Theatre Club in New York and went on to work on and off Broadway as an actress, singer, dancer, writer and director. She has written screenplays for Disney and Paramount as well as French TV networks. In 2004, she made her directing debut with her prize-winning short, mañana, available on Indiepix. Her first documentary, Kimjongilia, about North Korean refugees, premiered at Sundance, won the One World Human Rights Best Film 2010, and has been seen by millions of people around the world, including on The Documentary Channel and Netflix. Her most recent film, Sound of Redemption, The Frank Morgan Story about a troubled jazz musician, was produced by bestselling author Michael Connelly and premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival in 2014 and theatrically in NY and LA in 2015. It has a 100% Fresh Five Star rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and recently won the Best Biographical Documentary at the Sound on Screen Festival, South Africa. NC is a Sundance and Film Independent Fellow. ncheikin.com

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Nicole London

Producer

Nicole London is the Grammy-nominated Producer of Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool, a major international documentary on the legendary musician Miles Davis. Recent credits include AMERICAN MASTERS Sammy Davis Jr.: I’ve Gotta Be Me, The Talk: Race in America, and 16 short films now playing in the Segregation Gallery of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History & Culture in Washington, DC. Three of her recent films have been nominated for NAACP Image Awards: Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool, AMERICAN MASTERS August Wilson: The Ground On Which I Stand and Firelight Media’s The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, the latter of which was also nominated for a 2016 Primetime Emmy.

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Jessica Wolfson

Producer

Jessica Wolfson is an award winning documentary director and producer. Her work has been broadcast on PBS, IFC, Discovery Channel, TLC, and played film festivals such as Sundance, Tribeca, SXSW, DocNYC, Full Frame and more. Jessica has created content for ESPN, PBS, MTV, CBS All Access, Wall Street Journal, Conde Nast. At IFCtv, Jessica developed and produced documentaries with renowned filmmakers including Kirby Dick, Steve James, John Landis, and Jon Favreau. Her documentaries include RADIO UNNAMEABLE (Kino Lorber/PBS), HOT GREASE (DISCOVERY CHANNEL) and THE KANSAS EXPERIMENT (PBS Independent Lens). Jessica has acted as a consultant and impact producer for many documentary projects, a mentor for IFP and Tribeca Film Institute and teaches at New York Film Academy and Austin Community College.

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Michele Hollander

Editor

Michele started her career editing fiction but once she discovered documentary editing, she became addicted. She likes meaningful complex projects, which is why she was so thrilled to embark on Life & Life. She lives in Paris, where she has worked with talented directors: Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, Gilles de Maistre, Nina Companeez, William Karel, Peter Brook...She received Best Editing Award at FIGRA 2008 (French doc Fest) for The Putin System. Michele recently finished DEMAIN EST A NOUS (FORWARD - Best Documentary Award at COLCOA French Film Fest, LA - 2019).

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Mike Seely

Director of Photography

Director of Photography - Mike Seely has photographed and directed dozens of cross-cultural and international documentaries. Recent cinematography credit highlights include: Hard Earned, produced by Kartemquin Films, Al Jazeera America broadcast 2015, winner of 2016 DuPont-Columbia Award; Code: Debugging the Gender Gap, premiere Tribeca 2015; and Daughters of the Forest, ITVS/PBS broadcast 2015. His work has been broadcast in the US and screened at festivals internationally including Slamdance, Tribeca, Toronto International Film Festival, and the San Francisco International Film Festival. His 2010 film The Most Distant Places about an innovative rural hospital project in Ecuador is in educational distribution through New Day Films. As a director of photography, he works with independent directors, foundations, corporate and broadcast clients, including National Geographic, MTV2, Facebook, Williams Sonoma, Frontline World, Stanford University and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. In 2005, he completed his MA in documentary film production at Stanford University, and in 2010 worked in Poland as a Fulbright scholar.

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Don Starnes

Director of Photography

Don Starnes is an award winning Director and Director of Photography with thirty years of experience shooting in amazing places with fascinating people. He has photographed a dozen features, innumerable documentaries, lots of commercials, web series, TV shows, music and corporate videos. His work has been featured on National Geographic, Discovery Channel, Comedy Central, HBO, MTV, VH1, Speed Channel, Nerdist, and many theatrical and festival screens.

Don is a master storyteller. He believes that movies can reveal our common humanity and sometimes ennoble us. This belief has subtle influence on every frame that he shoots.

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Marcia Jarmel

Co-Producer

Co-Producer - Marcia Jarmel has been producing and directing documentaries for PatchWorks Films for 20+ years. She was consultant to Academy Award nominee LAST DAY OF FREEDOM, consulting producer on HBO’s Emmy-nominated 50 CHILDREN, and IFP Mentor to THE LAST SEASON. Jarmel co-founded PatchWorks with husband, editor, and collaborator, Ken Schneider. Her current projects include: EVOLUTION CUBA about Cuban artists navigating the island’s transformation, and RE:BIRTH, following a homeless mom on the path to stability. PatchWorks’ prior work: Havana Curveball, (Best Documentary, Boston and Seattle Children’s film festivals; Special Jury Prize, Olympia ,Greece International Film Festival; Speaking In Tongues (ITVS, CAAM, LPB, PBS) , Born in the U.S. (ITVS, Independent Lens); The Return of Sarah’s Daughters, The F Word, and Collateral Damage.

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Joel Plotch

Editor

Plotch has been editing feature films for the last 25 years. Included in the 35 films that he has edited is an ongoing collaboration with award-winning director and writer Neil LaBute that includes such films as "In the Company of Men," "Your Friends and Neighbors," "Nurse Betty," "The Shape of Things," "Wicker Man," "Lakeview Terrace," and most recently "Dirty Weekend." Additionally, he has edited numerous feature documentaries, episodic television, commercials and music videos, and has won numerous awards throughout his career. Most recently he edited 3 seasons of Netflix’s Longmire and Showtime’s Billions. He also directed the award-winning short film, Heavy Put-Away which was adapted from a Terry Southern short story (Easy Rider, Dr. Strangelove) starring Gretchen Mol, Dallas Roberts and Mark Boone Jr. Plotch’s first full-length feature script, Ocean Beach, was on The Black List. You can learn more about him at: joelplotch.com

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Lee Child

Associate Producer

Lee Child, best-selling author, is the creator of the indomitable character Jack Reacher, depicted in over 25 novels, two films and an upcoming TV series. In 2019, Mr. Child branched out into music, co-writing an album about Reacher with indy band Naked Blue. He commissioned NC Heikin to direct a short film about the collaboration, and a music video for the cover tune, Just the Clothes on My Back, which you can see here.

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