Frank R. Dawson

Frank R. Dawson – Co-Producer/Co-Director is an Associate Dean, and former Chair of the Communication and Media Studies Department at Santa Monica College. Frank is also a Producer, writer, and founding partner in NuHouse Media Group, a Company originally formed to develop and produce television series, movies for television, and cable television features in association with CBS Entertainment Productions. Currently, NuHouse develops projects independently. He is the Co-Producer/Director of the documentary film, Agents of Change.

Frank’s prior experience as a media executive and producer includes having served as Director of Comedy Development and Director of Programming at Universal Television. He served as Universal’s production executive on the NBC dramatic series, “Miami Vice”. During his six-year tenure at the CBS Television Network, Frank supervised the development of network series scripts and coordinated production of various comedy and drama television projects. As a partner in the media company, “2002 Communications”, Frank was a producer of Tavis Smiley’s first television talk show series Pilot.

Frank Dawson earned his undergraduate degree from Cornell University and a Master of Science degree in Television and Radio from the Newhouse School at Syracuse University, where he has been inducted into the school’s professional gallery of distinguished alumni.

Abby Ginzberg

Abby Ginzberg – Co-Producer/Co-Director has been producing award-winning documentaries about race and social justice for the past 30 years.  She is the co-producer and co-director of Agents of Change, which premiered at the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles and won the Jury and the Audience Award for Best Feature Documentary.  Abby attended Cornell during the time depicted in the film.

Her feature award-winning documentary, Soft Vengeance: Albie Sachs and the New South Africa (2014) won a Peabody award and has screened at film festivals around the world.  It has won four audience awards for Best Documentary.  It also won an Outstanding Achievement Humanitarian Award from the Global Film Awards. It will be broadcast on public television later this spring and a segment will be broadcast on Independent Lens in April, 2016.

Her work as a documentary filmmaker took her to the Academy Awards in 2012 with a short documentary film, The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement, for which she was the Consulting Producer.  The Barber premiered at Sundance in 2011 and won numerous awards for Best Short Documentary at film festivals across the US.

Abby’s documentaries, Soul of Justice: Thelton Henderson’s American Journey and Cruz Reynoso: Sowing the Seeds of Justice (about an African American and Latino judge) have aired on public television and been screened at film festivals across the United States and abroad and won numerous awards, including a Silver Gavel and CINE Golden Eagle for Soul of Justice.

Her short films, Cracking the Habit and recovering lives, uncovering hope, have been critical in helping to document model programs for both adult and juvenile drug courts, as well as other successful programs for at-risk youth.  She has also documented the innovative work of cities in combatting the HIV epidemic with films about Oakland, Miami and the Bronx.  She produced Turning the Tide Together for the Opening Session of the AIDS 2012 conference in Washington, DC.

She is the President of the Berkeley Film Foundation, which has awarded over $900,000 in grants to documentary filmmakers; is on the Boards of the Thelton Henderson Center for Social Justice at UC Berkeley Law School, The Impact Fund and the Yale Law School Visual Advocacy Project.  She was selected as a Gerbode Foundation Fellow in 2008.

Satie Gossett

Satie Gossett is storyteller, thinker and an image builder. Satie began his film career re-creating favorite movie scenes from Star Wars and other movies with his childhood friends and a Super 8 camera.  His childhood was filled with legendary people from Muhammad Ali, to playing games with Sidney Poitier. While working for his father, Academy-Award winner Louis Gossett, Jr., Satie became renowned for his filmmaking skills and was granted unprecedented access to political happenings, Hollywood events and philanthropic ventures.

A graduate of Syracuse University, Satie holds a bachelor’s degree in communications and a minor in film studies and is currently a writer, director and producer at Goose Egg Entertainment.  Satie creates feature and short film content for various media outlets.

Satie is best known for his comedic short film, “Jewtholic,” a religious comedy narrated by Louis Gossett, Jr and featuring Deep Roy. Satie’s first short film, “Pillow Talk,” was an experimental piece examining the common denominators in grief.  He also produced and directed “Departure,” a short film, which was featured at the MacWorld Conference in San Francisco. Complimented by the official Tom Cruise blog, the film included footage, shot exclusively with an iPhone 4s, from three different directors in the United States, France, and Belarus and included original music by Public Enemy Founder Hank Shocklee.

Satie completed his latest short film, “Forgiveness.” A dramatic story about the President of the United States of America apologizing for America’s role in slavery. His previous short film, “10 Minutes,” a crime drama short film, featuring Louis Gossett, Jr. and starring Glenn Plummer and Kent Faulcon screened at the Cannes Film Festival along with “Departure” in 2015. He has also produced the documentary feature, “American Addict 2,”  which is available on Amazon Prime.

Alcee H. Walker

Alcee H. Walker is an African American male film director from Palm Beach, FL who attended the public schools of Palm Beach County and graduated from Inlet Grove High School in Riviera Beach, FL. After high school, Alcee attended St. Lawrence University in Canton, NY and graduated in 2011 with a BFA degree in Performance and Communications and a minor in Education.

Alcee later went on to graduate studies at the School of Visual Arts in New York, NY where he earned a MFA degree in Social Documentary followed by a MPS Degree in Directing. His film work has been shown at many venues across the country including the Directors Guild of America where he won his first film award for his documentary film, Pain of Love. Just a year later Walker again won the 2015 Jury Award also from the DGA for his film, Inferno. With huge inspiration from John Singleton and Will Smith, plans to direct all of his future film work towards motivating the younger generation, especially African American and Hispanic youth.

@alceewalker