DIRECTOR

Maya is a Latina award-winning director and producer with a background in documentary, radio, and audio producing. She is a Netflix Nonfiction Director and Producer fellow and was recently listed on DOC NYC’s “40 Under 40 Filmmakers” co-presented by HBO Documentary Films. Maya’s work has been featured on The New Yorker, NPR's “All Things Considered,” “Latino USA,” The Atlantic, Teen Vogue, and National Geographic. She received a student Emmy for her short film THE PROVIDER and her feature film, ON THE DIVIDE, premiered in the documentary competition at Tribeca Film Festival in 2021. Her most recent short documentary ALE LIBRE was acquired by The New Yorker and was selected to screen at several Oscar qualifying festivals, including Big Sky Documentary Festival, Hot Docs, Aspen Film Festival, and SFFILM. Maya’s feature documentary ON THE DIVIDE will be broadcast on POV on PBS in Spring 2022.

DIRECTOR & DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Leah Galant is a Jewish filmmaker and Fulbright Scholar based in New York whose storytelling focuses on unexpected narratives that challenge perceptions. In 2021 she was recognized as one of DOC NYC’s 40 under 40. While at Ithaca College in 2015 she was named one of Variety’s "110 Students to Watch in Film and Media” for her work on THE PROVIDER that follows a traveling abortion doctor in Texas (SXSW 2016, Student Emmy Award) and BEYOND THE WALL about a formerly incarcerated individuals re-entry process. She was a Sundance Ignite and Jacob Burns Fellow where she created DEATH METAL GRANDMA (SXSW 2018) about a 97 year old Holocaust survivor named Inge Ginsberg who sings death metal which won “Best Documentary” at the American Pavilion at Cannes Film Festival, and is a NY Times Op Doc. Leah is a member of Meerkat Media worker-cooperative film production company. Leah's directorial debut ON THE DIVIDE premiered at the Tribeca 2021 Film Festival and will broadcast on POV PBS in the Spring of 2022.

PRODUCER

Diane is an Emmy nominated, Peabody Award winning producer and a graduate of the American Film Institute. Credits include HBO films SERGIO, MANHUNT, and THE FINAL YEAR. She has produced a slate of prestigious music films: WE ARE X, IF I LEAVE HERE TOMORROW, SID & JUDY, and the Emmy nominated TINA. Recent credits include: BELUSHI (Showtime), the docu-series’ TRIAL BY MEDIA (Netflix), and EQUAL (HBO Max). Diane and Melanie Miller are the co-founders of Fishbowl Films. INVENTING TOMORROW (POV) premiered at Sundance (2018) and won a Peabody Award (2019). Diane and Melanie were awarded the 2020 Sundance Institute/Amazon Producer’s Award for Non-Fiction for WHIRLYBIRD, released this year by Greenwich Entertainment. Their latest, ON THE DIVIDE, premiered at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival. Diane was a Sundance Documentary Creative Producing Fellow and is a member of the Producers Guild of America (PGA), the Documentary Producers Alliance (DPA), the Television Academy (ATAS), and the Academy Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS).

PRODUCER

Melanie Miller is a Peabody Award winning producer with three decades of experience. As Vice President of Acquisitions & Marketing at Gravitas Ventures and Executive Vice President at Samuel Goldwyn Films she was instrumental in the new paradigm of independent distribution. Melanie and Diane Becker are co-founders of Fishbowl Films. Their films include William Dickerson's DETOUR (Gravitas), Shaz Bennett’s ALASKA IS A DRAG (Array | Netflix), Sundance alums INVENTING TOMORROW (POV | Amazon) by Laura Nix and WHIRLYBIRD (Greenwich Entertainment) by Matt Yoka and the yet to be released ON THE DIVIDE (POV) by Maya Cueva & Leah Galant. Recent credits also include docu-series’ TRIAL BY MEDIA (Netflix), EQUAL (HBOMax) and MARVEL 616 (Disney+). She is a member of the Producers Guild of America (PGA), the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the Documentary Producers Alliance (DPA), and was awarded the 2020 Sundance Institute | Amazon Studios Non-Fiction Producers Award with her producing partner Diane Becker.

PRODUCER

Amanda Spain recently joined MSNBC Films as the Vice President of Longform Acquisitions.

Revitalized under MSNBC President Rashida Jones and Amanda Spain, MSNBC Films, distributes a slate of dynamic documentaries, including Memory Box: Echoes of 9/11 which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, Civil War, Four Seasons Total Documentary, award-winning In the Dark of the Valley, and Paper & Glue a project by acclaimed French artist JR.

Before joining MSNBC Films she was the Director of Non-Fiction for Blumhouse Television. Other recent credits - Executive Producer Pray Away, Exposure and In the Dark of the Valley, Producer - Television Event, On the Divide, After Antarctica, and Krimes. In addition to her most recent credits, Amanda produced the audience favorite and award-winning documentary Bathtubs Over Broadway, which was nabbed by Focus Features, as well as a number of films, shorts, and series for numerous outlets including Netflix, ESPN, A&E, PBS, MTV, Discovery, and the Sundance Channel. She was a 2016-2017 Sundance Producing Fellow and is a current member of the Producers Guild of America (PGA), the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), and the Documentary Producers Alliance (DPA).

PRODUCER

Elizabeth Woodward is a producer of documentary and narrative films, and founder of WILLA.

She was selected for Forbes 30 Under 30, DOC NYC 40 Under 40, Berlinale Talents, and is an Impact Partners Producers Fellow and a Sundance Catalyst Fellow. Her recent films include ANOTHER BODY (SXSW Special Jury Award, Sundance Catalyst), YOU RESEMBLE ME (Venice Film Festival, executive produced by Spike Lee, Spike Jonze, Alma Har’el, Riz Ahmed) and ON THE DIVIDE (Tribeca Film Festival, POV on PBS). Other notable projects include Netflix’s THE GREAT HACK (Academy Award shortlist, Emmy nominee, BAFTA nominee, Sundance Film Festival), HBO’s hit series THE VOW: A NXIVM STORY (New York Times Best TV Shows of 2020), a VR experience PERSUASION MACHINES (Sundance New Frontier, SXSW).

Her films have been supported by Sundance Institute, Impact Partners, Chicken and Egg, Film Independent, Field of Vision, The Gotham, New York Foundation for the Arts, the International Documentary Association, among others. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations Young Professionals Group, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, the Documentary Producers Alliance, and the Frontline Club.

Elizabeth graduated magna cum laude and phi beta kappa from Brown University and received a masters with distinction from the University of Cambridge. She speaks fluent French and Italian.

EDITOR

Berenice Chávez is a Latina documentary film editor based in Los Angeles. She received her MFA in Film Editing from the American Film Institute in 2016. She has since worked as an assistant editor for notable films such as M FOR MAGIC (2020 SXSW Film Festival participant), INVENTING TOMORROW (2018 Sundance Film Festival participant), and IF I LEAVE HERE TOMORROW (2018 SXSW Film Festival participant). She has also produced and edited two short documentaries, PASSING THE TORCH and NORTH TO PARADISE, both of which received a total of three Pacific Southwest Chapter Emmy Award nominations. She won two of those awards; one of them for editing. Currently, Berenice is working as Associate Editor for the documentary, GOOD NIGHT, OPPY. ON THE DIVIDE is her editorial debut, which premiered at Tribeca 2021 Film Festival.

STORY PRODUCER

A veteran non-fiction Story Producer, Marina Nieto Ritger has produced documentary and factual programming across multiple platforms - features, television and streaming – for over 12 years. Although she began her career in scripted television as a drama development executive for NBC, she quickly became enthralled with true stories about real people. Both in the field and in post production, Marina has story produced major network competition series, such as the Emmy Award-winning THE AMAZING RACE, as well as various popular docusoaps, documentary series about love, and - a personal passion - shows about food, such as CHEF’S TABLE (Netflix). Most recently, she has been able to focus her efforts on more impactful documentary projects, including TRIAL BY MEDIA (Netflix), ON THE DIVIDE (Tribeca Film Festival, POV), and CANARY (Boardwalk Pictures, soon to be released). Currently, Marina is Supervising and Story Producing the hit HBO documentary series THE VOW, about coercive control and sexual abuse within the NXIVM cult. A member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Marina served on the Reality Peer Group Committee. She attended Bryn Mawr College and remains deeply committed to social and political subjects.

LINE PRODUCER

Gabriela is a Cuban-American producer based in LA, strives to produce projects with under-represented filmmakers that move the world towards empathy.

Some of her recent credits include SELL/BUY/DATE, EQUAL (HBOMax), LEIMERT PARK (BET+), ON THE DIVIDE (POV / Latino Public Broadcasting) and XX ANTHOLOGY (Magnolia). She's had projects premiere at Sundance, TriBeCa, SXSW, AFI Fest and others. She is an alum of the AFI MFA program in producing and completed the PGA's Diversity Workshop, Women In Film's Mentor Circle Program, Film Independent's Project Involve. When not in production, you can find her power lifting or hiking with her dog.

ASSOCIATE PRODUCER | FIELD PRODUCER

Gisela Zuniga is an independent multimedia producer and writer working across documentary, fiction, experimental, and creative technology. She focuses on telling stories around third culture worldbuilding and resistance, informed by her experiences growing up in the U.S. South and Texas-Mexico border. Gisela is an alumnus of the The Laundromat Project Create Change Fellowship, participated in Materia Abierta art + tech program, and graduated with a B.F.A. in Film Production and Latinx Studies from NYU.