THE CREW
Anita womack
Anita Womack, (Producer/Director) is a Peabody Award-winning filmmaker who has worked in documentary filmmaking for over a decade. She served as a Co-Producer of Mad Dog Film’s "Joe Jackson’s Trail" (2003). Womack served as the Managing Producer for WNET’s "Running: The Campaign for City Council" (2002). She served as an Associate Producer on HBO’s "Half Past Autumn: The Life and Works of Gordon Parks" (2000). Womack also worked as the Associate Producer for HBO Sports’ "Ali-Frazier I: One Nation Divisible," for which she earned her Peabody Award.
Tanisha Christie
Tanisha Christie (Producer/Director/Editor) is an interdisciplinary performing artist, director and producer. Her experimental short, "flag/body" has been shown in Australia, Denmark and New York; and her most recent short, Groundwater/Agua/Tierra: A Listening Project was screened as apart of an intercontinental artist exchange in Panama City, co-sponsored by the U.S. Embassy in Panama and the Center for Interdisciplinary Research in the Arts at Northwestern University. Tanisha completed her first feature length documentary (with Ellie Walton) called "Walk With Me", about three women who use theater for personal and social transformation, is digitally distributed by Filmbreak via Amazon, GooglePlay, Vudu, and I love Docs. She holds a Masters of Arts in Media from The New School; and the DC Commission has recognized her creative work on the Arts and Humanities, the Humanities Council of DC and the Puffin Foundation.
Ann bennett
Ann Bennett, (Executive Producer) is a producer, director and writer for documentary films and multimedia projects with over twenty years of experience. She is a producer on the PBS feature documentary, Through A Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People as well as the multi-platform community engagement initiative, Digital Diaspora Family Reunion (DDFR). Bennett's production credits include; Citizen King and Jubilee Singers for the PBS series "American Experience", Hymn for Alvin Ailey for "Dance in America", Marriage Equality: Byron Rushing and the Fight for Fairness for ITVS Interactive and award winning mini-series; Africans in America, America's War on Poverty and This Week in History. In addition to her production expertise, Bennett is well known for her skills as a writer and researcher who have worked on special projects for the Ford Foundation, National Black Programming Consortium and Third World Newsreel. She is a graduate of Harvard College, received a MA from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and focuses her work on exploring the nexus of history, culture, and technology within multi-cultural communities.
JD Urban
JD Urban, (Director of Photography/Editor/Photographer) is a Brooklyn, NY-based professional photographer, multimedia artist and bacon lover who has spent the past three years interviewing hundreds of people for a web-based documentary experience entitled "Everyday People Project”: a candid video interview series offering a living, breathing archive of the human experience. united.states is an installation of these conversations, created specifically for ArtPrize 2013, scored with music by Casey Stratton features a looped video stream revealing a microcosm of the nation's thoughts on race, gender, gun control, politics, the media, sexuality, marriage, and hope. united.states won the 2013 award for Best Use of Urban Space.
Mark Palkoski
Mark Palkoski, (Animation) is a 3D animator and art director with 16 years experience. He has contributed visual effect and animation for films by Spike Lee, Susan Seidalman and Todd Solondz. Mark has supervised and led teams of animators on award winning series, commercials and promos. Clients have included HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, ABC, NBC, CBS, Discovery, NatGeo, and many cable networks.
Sam McCormally
Sam McCormally, (Composer) is a composer, songwriter, singer, and multi-instrumentalist. Sam has scored three feature length documentaries, Igual Que Tu (2008), Walk With Me (2012), Fly By Light (Not yet released); and provided the music for numerous short videos. Currently scoring Mia’s Dream, a full-length play by Anu Yadav. A native of Washington, DC, he plays in several bands including the critically acclaimed Ugly Purple Sweater.
Katherine Danesi
Katherine Danesi (Digital Project consultant) – With twenty years as creative marketing, brand and business development strategist in the tech space. Most recently, Katherine is the former COO of ShopToko.com, a cool online B2B wholesale site connecting independent retailers with fashion and apparel brands.