Film-Makers

Film-Makers

Portrait of Trevor Crafts, p.g.a.

Trevor Crafts, p.g.a.

Producer

Known for creativity, flexibility, and a sense of humor, Trevor Crafts is a Producer/Director whose work has won an Emmy®, the LATV Festival, and 13 additional industry awards.

With a visionary creative drive, strong leadership abilities, and a true understanding and passion for the cinematic arts, Trevor has spent his career creating dynamic stories with striking visuals featuring strong characters.

His proven track record of leading studio teams to produce innovative story-driven content has helped film projects like the recently completed Sundance 2021 Premiere Street Gang: How We got to Sesame Street (2021) a feature length documentary on the origins of Sesame Street distributed by Screen Media and HBO, based on the book of the same name. Other Films include 7 Splinters in Time (2018) 12 Feet Deep (2016), Experimenter with Peter Sarsgaard and Winona Ryder (2015) which premiered at Sundance, Manson Family Vacation from the Duplass Brothers (2015), Deep in the Heart (2013) and Smokewood, Nevada (2013).

In publishing, Trevor is currently working on The Unseen Photos of Street Gang a photo book of behind-the-scenes pictures from renown photographer David Attie. Also he recently released The Not-So Secret Society Graphic Novel for middle readers, published by BOOM! Studios, under their KaBoom imprint. BOOM! Studios also published his original IP series Lantern City in 2015.

Portrait of Ellen Scherer Crafts, p.g.a.

Ellen Scherer Crafts, p.g.a.

Producer

Ellen has over twenty years' experience in entertainment production. She started her career producing live concert events for headline entertainment like Paul McCartney, Diana Ross, and Kenny Rogers, while simultaneously producing boxing co-productions with HBO and Telemundo for Caesar's Entertainment.

She went on to prominent roles in promotion and marketing for branded content with Fortune 100 companies internationally, regularly managing productions with budgets upwards of ten million.

Ellen co-founded Macrocosm Entertainment®, helping to market the original story world Lantern City® published by Boom Studios in 2015, and co-created the original children's property The Not-So Secret Society, published by KaBoom in 2016. Ellen recently produced the Focal Award winning, and Critics Choice nominated *Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street *(2021), which premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival and is Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with 95% critics and audience rating.

In 2017 Ellen produced the largest event and march in US History, as a founder and producer of the Women's March Los Angeles. As a dedicated activist, Ellen has been recognized by the City of Hollywood, and both the County and City of Los Angeles for her work in women's rights.

Portrait of Marilyn Agrelo

Marilyn Agrelo

Director

Marilyn Agrelo’s directorial debut, Mad Hot Ballroom, enjoyed a theatrical run of over 24 weeks and took its place among the top 10 highest-grossing documentary films. Mad Hot Ballroom is currently in pre-production to become a Broadway show.

Marilyn has directed for the Emmy-winning children's series The Electric Company and for Sesame Street and has worked created short films including No Small Parts and Good Muslim Girls. She has made several documentary shorts for the human rights organization Women for Afghan Women and is in her fifth year as an envoy with American Film Showcase, a cultural diplomacy initiative of the US State Dept and the USC School of Cinematic Arts. She has taught workshops in Tajikistan, Bolivia, Panama, Pakistan and during her 2 trips through Iraq.

Her work has screened in most major international festivals and has been broadcast on HBO, Showtime and PBS.

Portrait of Lisa Diamond, p.g.a.

Lisa Diamond, p.g.a.

Producer

Lisa began her career in theater, earning an MFA in Dramaturgy from the Yale School of Drama, before turning to film, where her credits include Donnie Brasco, along with a slew of independent films, such as Coffee and Cigarettes by Jim Jarmusch, and The Guys, starring Sigourney Weaver. Moving into non-fiction, she served as Supervising Producer and/or Line Producer on series for A&E, Discovery ID, and National Geographic, including the Emmy-nominated Brain Games, before finding her way to documentary storytelling. Lisa was Supervising Producer on Showtime's Emmy-nominated series The Fourth Estate, and Co-Producer of the Epix series America Divided. She is currently working on an untitled 4-part series about issues affecting families for Sesame Workshop.

Portrait of Michael Davis

Michael Davis

Co-Executive Producer

Author and journalist Michael Davis describes himself as a storyteller who helps others become better storytellers. His first non-fiction book, Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street, was a 2009 New York Times Best Seller and inspired the documentary film of the same name. Davis has held an array of top leadership and creative positions at digital news sites, magazines, newspapers, and broadcasting outlets. He was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. He received his undergraduate degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a master’s in journalism at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, where he later taught as an adjunct professor.

Portrait of Luke Geissbühler

Luke Geissbühler

Director of Photography

Oscar-nominated Luke Geissbühler has always been interested projects with cultural significance. Some of his achievements include Borat 1 & 2, Fahrenheit 11/9, Helvetica, Buck, and Abstract-The Art of Design. Luke became unexpectedly world renowned when he was the first to capture video of near space with a homemade spacecraft. Since receiving a BFA in Film and Television from NYU, he has traveled the globe orchestrating complex shoots for OKGo, Sacha Baron Cohen, Adam McKay, Will Ferrell, Doug Liman, Barry Levinson, David Wain, and Katherine Bigelow, for outlets such as 20th Century Fox, HBO, Netflix, PBS, Universal, IFC, Focus Features, and many others. His recent projects include the features Time Freal and the newly released Borat: Subsequent Moviefilm.

Portrait of Ben Gold

Ben Gold

Editor

Ben Gold is a Brooklyn based editor who has worked extensively in the documentary field. He has worked on numerous episodes of Frontline on PBS (including Emmy and DuPont winning episodes), and on documentaries for HBO, Netflix, and Participant Media. He was nominated for the best-editing News & Doc Emmy for the HBO film Solitary.

Portrait of Rich Remsberg

Rich Remsberg

Archive Producer

Rich Remsberg is an Emmy Award-winning archival producer and visual researcher based in Western Massachusetts and New York City. His credits include Bobby Kennedy for President, NUTS!, Happy Valley, and the Oscar-nominated A Night at the Garden.

He has served on the faculty of the Maine Media Workshops and the Library of Congress’ American Folklife Center Field School; was a frequent collaborator with the sampling-based music duo The Books; and has been a contributor to VICE, Esopus, and NPR’s online feature, “The Picture Show”.