RACHEL BOYNTON, DIRECTOR/PRODUCER

RACHEL BOYNTON is an award winning documentary filmmaker. She produced and directed the feature-length documentary Big Men, which was executive produced by Brad Pitt. Nominated for three News and Documentary Emmy Awards including Best Documentary, it screened at multiple festivals worldwide including Tribeca, HotDocs, and Locarno, aired internationally on the BBC, ARTE, and VPRO among others and was televised in the US on the PBS series POV. Boynton’s documentary Our Brand Is Crisis won the IDA’s Best Feature Documentary Award and was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award. George Clooney’s company, Smokehouse, remade Our Brand Is Crisis as a fiction feature; Warner Brothers released the fictional version in 2015. Her most recent feature, Civil War (or, Who Do We Think We Are), was executive produced by Brad Pitt and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. It premiered on MSNBC in 2021 and continues to air nationally.

YAEL MELAMEDE is the co-founder of SALTY Features—an independent production company based in New York City whose goal is to create media that is thought-provoking, vital, and enhances the world. Melamede’s documentary credits include ADA – MY MOTHER THE ARCHITECT (2024 anticipated), FLOYD ABRAMS: SPEAKING FREELY (2023), PAY OR DIE (2023), 1341 FRAMES OF LOVE AND WAR (2022), the Jigsaw Productions/Amblin Entertainment six-part series WHY WE HATE (2019), WHEN I WALK (News & Documentary Emmy Award Winner 2015), (DIS)HONESTY—THE TRUTH ABOUT LIES(2015), DESERT RUNNERS (2015), INOCENTE (Academy Award Winner, Best Doc Short, 2013), and MY ARCHITECT (Academy Award Nominee, 2004). Yael was an architect before becoming a filmmaker and is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.

PER DAMGAARD HANSEN, PRODUCER

PER DAMGAARD HANSEN is a Producer and Founding Partner of Paloma Productions in Copenhagen, Denmark. He has produced and co-produced a wide range of awarded shorts and feature films including titles such as Seven Boats, Winter Brothers, Tótem and the Palme d’Or winning Triangle of Sadness. Per Damgaard Hansen was selected Producer on The Move at Cannes Film Festival 2018. He is Member of the Board at the Danish Film Academy and a member of the European Film Academy. Per Damgaard Hansen is also an EAVE graduate and a member of the ACE network.

OVE RISHØJ JENSEN, PRODUCER

OVE has worked with production and outreach at Auto Images since 2011, working on Nelly & Nadine, Touching Freedom, Only the Devil Lives Without Hope, The Last Circus Princess, Patriotic Highway, Every Face Has a Name and Harbour of Hope, among others. With an emphasis on dramaturgy and narrative structures, Ove also gives creative input to the development of new projects and has extensive experience with international funding, co-production and distribution. From 2003 to 2019 Ove worked with the European Documentary Network. He also works as a moderator at the IDFA Forum, heads the FIPADOC International Pitches, is a consultant for the Chinese Fresh Pitch, teaches at MFI Script2Film, and runs his own documentary development program called DocCelerator. Ove has a master degree in film studies with minors in cultural journalism and humanistic computer informatics.

SIMON KILMURRY, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER

SIMON KILMURRY is a documentary producer. He has received one PrimeTime Emmy Award, 17 News & Documentary Emmys, and eight Peabody Awards. He is a Governor of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, a member of the Producers Guild of America, the Television Academy, and served on the board of jurors of the Peabody Awards from 2016-2022. He is a board member of Jewish Story Partners and an advisor to The Redford Center and Firelight Media. Previously he was the executive producer of “POV” on PBS (2007-2015) and co-founded the WORLD Channel documentary series “America ReFramed”.