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THE TEAM
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MEDIHA ALHAMAD
Main Participant & Cinematographer
Mediha was an integral part of the making of the Mediha documentary. She filmed herself and her family for three years, bringing the audience into the most authentic telling of her story. She’s brave and determined beyond her years and has become an advocate for her community. She has the potential to help other Yazidi women and girls in very similar circumstances, and we believe that she, a Yazidi survivor herself, is the best person to do this.
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ANNELISE MECCA
Producer
Annelise is a documentary photographer and photojournalist—with a MSc in International Development—focusing on issues of migration and post-war refugee situations. She partners with organizations in refugee camps worldwide on communications campaigns. She has also produced for CNN, History Channel, Discovery, PBS, and the E.W. Scripps Foundation.
STEPHEN NEMETH
Producer
Stephen has produced dozens of films, including The Sessions and Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas. He is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and is on
the board of numerous non-profit organizations including Friends of the Earth.
JASON LOFTUS
Executive Producer
Jason is a Peabody-winning filmmaker and four-time Canadian Screen Award nominee. He produced and directed 2022’s Eternal Spring, the first documentary to represent Canada as its Official Submission to the Oscars® for Best International Feature. A SIMA Award Winner and nominee at both the IDA Documentary Awards and Annie Awards, Jason is CEO of Toronto-based Lofty Sky Entertainment.
JOE MECCA
Virtual Reality Developer
Associate Producer
Joe Mecca is an XR (virtual reality) producer and developer with a background in travel, media and humanitarian productions. He owns and operates a virtual/augmented reality studio between Brooklyn, New York, & Bologna, Italy, that develops programming tools, cross-cultural productions and enterprise software.
"XR allow us to Democratize experience, and this project will put the audience in front of people they would otherwise never meet."
EMMA THOMPSON
Executive Producer
Emma is a British actress, screenwriter, producer, activist, author and comedian. She is a recipient of two Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, a British Academy Television Award and a Primetime Emmy Award. She is particularly active in human rights work.
FAHRINISA CAMPANA
Producer
Fahrinisa is a Senior Audio Producer for Al Jazeera Podcasts, and a freelance multimedia reporter from New York. She graduated from Columbia Journalism School with honors and was one of four inaugural recipients of the Columbia Global Migration fellowship where she regularly reported from the US, Europe, Turkey, India, Jordan and Iraq. Her work has been featured in National Geographic, The Guardian, NPR, PRX The World, Al Jazeera English, Vox, Slate, AJ+, BBC and CNN.
RICK DUGDALE
Executive Producer
Rick Dugdale is the President and CEO of Enderby Entertainment, a film finance and production company founded in 2006 by Dugdale and his filmmaking partner, Daniel Petrie, Jr. Dugdale oversees all aspects of Enderby Entertainment’s business, finance and production and spearheads the company’s relationships with its worldwide community of financial partners.
NISHA PAHUJA
Executive Producer
Nisha Pahuja is an Oscar-nominated, Peabody and Emmy-nominated filmmaker based in Toronto. Her latest film, TO KILL A TIGER, had its world premiere at TIFF where it won the Amplify Voices Award for Best Canadian Feature Film. Since then, it’s garnered 27 awards including the Best Documentary Feature, Palm Springs International Film Festival and three Canadian Screen awards. The film grew out of a long career of addressing various human rights issues, notably violence against women in India. In 2015, she won the Amnesty International media award for Canadian journalism after making a short film about the Delhi bus gang rape for Global News.
ANDY COHEN
Executive Producer
Andrew “Andy” Cohen is an independent filmmaker and journalist.Andy has been involved in many award-winning films as a producer, executive producer, writer and director. His list of credits includes Dealers among Dealers (1996), Killing Kasztner (2008) , Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry (2012, short-listed for Best Documentary Academy Award®), The World Before Her (2012, Best Documentary Feature, Tribeca Film Festival), Hooligan Sparrow (2016, short-listed for Best Documentary Academy Award®), Human Flow (2017, short-listed for Best Documentary Academy Award®), Ximei (2019, Movies That Matter Activist Award), Beijing Spring (2021, Amnesty International/FIFA Jury Award) and To Kill a Tiger (2022, Best Canadian Feature Film, Toronto International Film Festival).
HASAN OSWALD
Director & Producer
Hasan has covered the water crisis in Flint, Michigan (Forgotten USA), drug trafficking and homelessness in Camden, NJ (Higher Love), and the international diaspora of conflict refugees for NatGeo (Hell on Earth).
His latest documentary, Mediha, is executive produced by Emma Thompson and follows a teenage Yazidi girl processing her trauma after being held captive by ISIS. 'Mediha' won the Grand Jury Award and Audience Award runner-up at Doc NYC 2023. Hasan was also named one of Doc NYC’s 40 under 40 documentary rising stars to watch co-presented by HBO Documentary Films.
ALEXANDER SPIESS
Producer
Alexander is a filmmaker and journalist who has worked for National Geographic, CNN, Channel 4, Peacock, A+E, Showtime, Lionsgate, History Channel, Scripps News, Goldcrest Films. A Columbia DuPont Award recipient for Excellence in Investigative Reporting, and most recently with Hasan Oswald, produced Higher Love, which won the Grand Jury Award at Slamdance Film Festival 2020.
JOYCE PIERPOLINE
Executive Producer
Joyce is a producer of feature films and documentaries. She is founder of Pierpoline Films and known for producing the award-winning cult classic Teeth. Past production credits include The Transfiguration (Premiere Un Certain Regard, Cannes Film Festival), Angelica (Premiere Berlinale) and Happy Tears (Premiere Berlinale). She serves on the Executive Board of New York Women in Film and Television and on the board of BAFTA North American were she is Chair of the Film Committee.
KAIT PLUM
Editor
Skilled in uncovering the emotional core of a story, Kait Plum is a dedicated film editor with over a decade of experience. Her debut feature documentary, Higher Love, garnered recognition at Slamdance Film Festival in 2020. She has worked with award-winning filmmakers, Nick Quested (Restrepo), Bobbito Garcia (Stretch and Bobbito: Radio That Changed Lives), Emilia Mello (Waste Land), and Pulitzer winning photographer Anthony Mark Saul. Kait has also ventured into narrative comedy, editing Bad Shabbos, which won the Audience Award at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival. She consistently brings heart and depth to every project she takes on.
HÅKAN KARLSSON
Executive Producer
Håkan Karlsson is a Swedish editor and producer known for The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest, he owns the post production company, People In The Park.
AMI
AMI Expeditionary Healthcare is a novel healthcare support organization. AMI provides tailored healthcare solutions to government agencies, the private sector, international aid organizations and humanitarian concerns in remote and challenging environments.
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