Since 2012 the JFI Filmmaker Residency has provided creative, marketing and production support for independent filmmakers. JFI residents are in various stages of completion on their projects whose work promotes the exploration and understanding of Jewish identity and culture. This year’s filmmakers Nora Mariana, Theo Rigby, Eva Ilona Brzeski, Yoav Potash, and Charene Zalis will present clips and trailers of their works in progress and share insight into their creative process in a conversation moderated by programmer Joshua Moore.
NORA MARIANA is a born-and-raised Californian. After studying creative writing at Stanford University, she worked in documentaries all around the world -- including the Middle East, Southeast Asia, East Asia -- before turning her focus to narrative films. Mostly recently, she worked as a staff writer for an upcoming miniseries executive-produced by Sam Esmail (Mr. Robot). She is a Sundance International Feature Film Program alumna and is currently developing her first feature film and one-hour television series.
THEO RIGBY is a director, cinematographer, and interactive storyteller based out of San Francisco. He has been creating stories focusing on the immigrant experience in the United States for over the last decade and is the founder of iNation Media. Theo recently finished Waking Dream, a short documentary series about young undocumented people with DACA permits that was funded by ITVS and distributed on the IndieLens Storycast Youtube channel. He is currently in production on Sanctuary Rising, a feature documentary about the faith-based Sanctuary movement. Theo’s past projects have been screened at more than 50 film festivals around the world. Theo has been recognized with an Immigrant Rights Leadership Award from the City of San Francisco, is a JustFilms Rockwood Fellow, and won a Student Academy Award for his film Sin País. Theo graduated with a M.F.A. in Documentary Film from Stanford University and before making films was an award-winning photojournalist working for major newspapers and magazines around the world.
EVA ILONA BRZESKI is the award-winning writer, director and editor of Fellow American, This Unfamiliar Place, 24 Girls and China Diary, and the director and editor of the independent feature LAST SEEN. A graduate of the Stanford Masters Program in Documentary Film, she edited the acclaimed documentary films Under Our Skin, Unsettled (in post-production) As She Is, Twitch and was a co-editor on Serenade for Haiti and Sacrifice, as well as editing other documentary and narrative films & television series. Eva's films have screened worldwide at such festivals as Sundance and Tribeca Film Festival, and have received numerous awards. Eva lives in the Bay Area where she also works as a free-lance editor and studies meditation.
YOAV POTASH is an award-winning documentary filmmaker whose past films include "Crime After Crime," which screened at the Sundance Film Festival, earned the New York Times Critics' Pick distinction, and garnered over twenty honors.
CHARENE ZALIS is a documentary filmmaker and journalist who has spent the last decade making films about human rights issues and people who are standing up to hate. She has covered the traumatic consequences of bigotry, engaging with survivors and community members who have emerged from violence with remarkable stories of resilience and action. Charene’s PBS/Not In Our Town films, including Light in the Darkness and Waking in Oak Creek, continue to spark dialogue in town halls and schools across the country. She began her career at NBC News and Sports, where she won an Emmy Award for a documentary about Muhammad Ali, produced for the Olympic Games and NBC News programs and specials. For public television, Zalis produced for the Frontline documentary The Arming of Saudi Arabia, and reported stories from the U.S., the Middle East and Asia for the global human rights series Rights and Wrongs.