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 before its acclaimed HBO release. 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.
PALOMA MARTINEZ, Co-Director & Cinematographer
Paloma began her storytelling career as a labor organizer in her native Houston, Texas. With her films, she hopes to empower communities and spark dialogue. In 2018, Paloma was named one of the “25 New Faces of Independent Film” by Filmmaker. Her short documentaries have been broadcast nationally on PBS, featured in The Guardian, The New York Times Op-Docs, and The Atlantic and screened at leading festivals including Hot Docs, AFI Docs, Doc NYC, and San Francisco International Film Festival, winning multiple awards. Crisanto Street won both the Golden Gate Award for Best Short Documentary and Best Family Film at the San Francisco International Film Festival. Enforcement Hours received the Jury Prize for Documentary at Aspen Shortsfest. Her co-directed short The Shift was shortlisted for the BAFTA Student Film Awards. Paloma is a graduate of Stanford University’s Documentary Film MFA program.
RACHEL ECKLUND, Producer
Rachel is an Austin, TX-based producer with a passion for socially-conscious storytelling. Her first feature length documentary, Running with Beto, won the SXSW Audience Award and aired on HBO spring 2019. She has produced documentary and unscripted series content for PBS, The Washington Post, Discovery, Food Network, Facebook, Latino Public Broadcasting and more. Rachel has also worked on national ad and print campaigns for Dell, Academy, USAA, Bayer, Asics and Novo Nordisk. Her work has screened at festivals across the globe and received wide educational distribution. Her first film, Switch, was shown in over 10,000 classrooms worldwide. She began her career teaching media literacy to underserved youth, working at a South American news station and coordinating a filmmaker grant program.
SAM WAINWRIGHT DOUGLAS, Editor
Sam has edited work for PBS, HBO, A&E and The Discovery Channel. He edited and co-produced No No: A Dockumentary, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was broadcast on Showtime. SXSW premieres include Through the Repellent Fence and Along Came Kinky: Texas Jewboy For Governor. For PBS, Sam directed Citizen Architect: Samuel Mockbee And The Spirit Of The Rural Studio and edited Ladonna Harris: Indian 101, which was executive produced by Johnny Depp.
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.
DAVID GARZA, Composer
David 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.
BRIAN RAMOS, Sound
Brian J. Ramos is an Austin-based composer, producer, production sound recordist, mix engineer and sound designer whose work spans across film, television and the music industry. His global and national clients have included HBO, ESPN, Showtime, Universal Records, Sony, AMC, PBS, A&E and FX Networks. Brian helped to create and produce the nationally syndicated public radio series, On Story from Austin Film Festival and Public Radio International and was a founding member of both Grupo Fantasma and Master Blaster Sound System.
ARIANNE RIBEIRO, Associate Producer
Arianne Ribeiro is a Brazilian freelance producer and assistant camera based in Austin, TX. She began her career in music videos, commercials, indie films, and TV but has since dedicated her career to capturing stories that focus on the human experience. Having worked across mediums through her career, Ari combines the unique insight of her multicultural upbringing with that of a skilled field producer, allowing her logistically and creatively help bring to life the stories that are true to the subject’s experiences. Versatile by nature, she shoots, produces, coordinates, does archival research and can serve as a camera tech — often a combination of all. Past credits include political documentaries for HBO & Vice; science, adventure and stories of environmental justice for National Geographic; and a variety of other TV projects.
VALERIE TORRES, Junior Editor
Born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, Valerie enjoys assistant editing for its role bridging production and post-production. With the degrees in Radio-Television-Film and Psychology she earned from the University of Texas, she is also focused on reversing the negative stigma against mental illness through the films she writes and directs.
