Interviewer / Co-Producer
Greg Palast
Greg Palast (Rolling Stone, Guardian, BBC) is the author of The New York Times bestsellers, Armed Madhouse, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits and the book and documentary, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.
Palast is currently working on a new documentary Long Knife, exposing the Koch Brothers' theft of Osage oil, to be released in 2025.
Editor, Director / Co-Producer
Nicole Powers
Nicole Powers is a writer, editor, photographer, and videographer. She has written two chapters for the Aaron Swartz/Demand Progress book Hacking Politics (Or Books) on the fight against PIPA and SOPA, and has contributed words and images to the contemporary protest anthology, Peace, Love and Pepper Spray (Whitman Publishing).
She works as the social media manager for the Palast Investigative Fund, and has served as an admin for three of the most iconic and influential counterculture activist feeds.
Having made video shorts that have been seen by millions on social media, Elise Paschen: In Her Own Words is Nicole's first feature documentary.
Estrella Vargas
Director of Photography
Born in Chicago, Estrella's work is inspired by the diverse cultures she grew up surrounded by. From working on documentaries in Costa Rica to filming her own work, she hopes to continue to tell stories about Latinx cultures in a unique way. Estrella is obsessed with shadow art, and she regularly uses reflection in her cinematography work.
Yuxin Lu
Sound
Yuxin is a versatile sound professional based in Chicago with a background in music. Yuxin brings a unique cultural perspective to their work, infusing projects with a rich blend of Eastern and Western musical traditions. Yuxin's foray into film in 2018 sparked a passion for audio, leading to deep immersion in film scoring, audio post-production and sound design since 2019. As an indie musician, Yuxin released the EP "Pink Area" in 2021.
Gabrielle Dacuycuy
Production Assistant
Gabrielle is a filmmaker based in New York and an indie music video producer and director. She is currently working as a freelance PA in film features. She enjoys creating and collaborating with peers to make stories and visual elements come to life.
Esther Shubinski
Aditional Editing Wi'-gi-e
Esther is an Emmy-nominated documentary film editor based in Los Angeles. Esther edited the YouTube Originals series Defying Gravity: The Untold Story of Women’s Gymnastics, which won the Producers Guild of America Award for Outstanding Sports Program. Most recently, she edited the documentary Petit Rat, which premiered at the Miami Jewish Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award for Best Documentary. In addition, she edited Alethea Avramis’ documentary Sundays (Thessaloniki Documentary Festival) and The Art of Observing Life (IDFA), a documentary by her mentor and veteran Russian filmmaker Marina Goldovskaya. Esther directed and edited the documentary Out of Love, which premiered at the Telluride Film Festival. Last year, Esther collaborated with Grammy-Award-winning composer Aaron Jay Kernis on Elegy, a short memorial documentary honoring the lives of those lost during the pandemic.
Battiste Fenwick
Drone Photography
Battiste is a Los Angeles based documentary filmmaker, cameraman and editor with 10+ years experience. Filming has taken him from Mexico to Asia and from the Middle East to Canada. He is bilingual in French and English, fluent in Spanish. His feature documentary Una Chanza Más, which he produced, directed and shot, premiered at the 2013 Teluride Film Festival..