THE TEAM

Nanfu Wang, Director, Producer, Cinematographer, Editor

Nanfu Wang is an Emmy-nominated and Peabody-winning filmmaker based in New York City. Wang’s feature debut Hooligan Sparrow was shortlisted for the 2017 Academy Award for best documentary feature. Since its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival 2016, it has won over twenty awards internationally including two Emmy Nominations, a Peabody Award, a Cinema Eye Honor award, the George Polk Award, an IDA award, and an Independent Spirit Award. Her second feature documentary I Am Another You premiered at the SXSW Film Festival in 2017, won two special jury awards at the festival, and opened theatrically in September 2017.

Jialing Zhang, Director, Producer

Jialing Zhang is an independent filmmaker based in Beijing and Massachusetts. She is co-director and editor of Complicit, a feature documentary that follows the journey of a benzene-poisoned Chinese migrant worker who takes on the global electronic manufacturing industry. The film premiered at HRWFF in London in Mar. 2017. Lynn also freelances as a local producer for various programs and media including Vice on HBO, Fusion TV, the New York Times, and independent documentary projects.

Christopher Jörg, Producer

Christoph Jörg has been producing and commissioning documentaries for over twenty years. From 1994 to 2008, he was Senior Commissioning Editor at ARTE FRANCE in Paris. Christoph Jörg founded PUMPERNICKEL FILMS in 2009 in Paris. Since then, he has produced a wide range of award winning documentaries including BOBBY FISCHER AGAINST THE WORLD (2009) by director Liz Garbus; BE LIKE OTHERS (2009) (HBO), LOVE CRIMES OF KABUL (2012) (HBO),THE LOVERS AND THE DESPOT (2015) (Sundance Film Festival); WINNIE (2017) (Sundance Film Festival), among many others.

Julie Goldman, Producer

Julie Goldman founded Motto Pictures in 2009. She is an Oscar-nominated and Emmy Award-winning producer and executive producer of documentary feature films and series. She produced Steve James’ Emmy Award-winning and Oscar-nominated Abacus: Small Enough To Jail, and The Final Year, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, was released by Magnolia Pictures and broadcast on HBO. Julie is producer of Life, Animated and executive producer of Weiner, both of which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Life, Animated won the US Documentary Directing Award, was nominated for the 2017 Best Documentary Feature Academy Award, and won three Emmys, including the award for Best Documentary in 2018. Weiner won the US Documentary Grand Jury Prize and was shortlisted for an Academy Award. Julie executive produced the Emmy-nominated Facebook series Humans of New York, Emmy Award-winning, Oscar-shortlisted Best of Enemies, and several Emmy-nominated films: 3½ Minutes, Ten Bullets, The Kill Team, Art and Craft and 1971. Julie also produced and executive produced: Emmy Award-winning The Music of Strangers, Emmy Award-winning Solitary, Enlighten Us, Southwest of Salem, Gideon’s Army, Manhunt, God Loves Uganda, Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry and Buck. Julie received the Amazon Studios Sundance Institute Producer's Award and the Cinereach Producer’s Award.

Christopher Clements, Producer

Christopher Clements is an Emmy Award-winning and Peabody Award-winning producer and partner at Motto Pictures. He executive produced Steve James’ Emmy Award-winning and Oscar-nominated Abacus: Small Enough to Jail; Weiner, which won the U.S. Documentary Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and was shortlisted for the 2017 Academy Award; and two Sundance 2018 premieres, Inventing Tomorrow and The Cleaners. Chris co-produced Life, Animated, which won the US Documentary Directing Award at Sundance, was nominated for the 2017 Best Documentary Feature Academy Award, and won three Emmys, including the award for Best Documentary in 2018. He executive produced Shadowman, When God Sleeps, The Family I Had, Kristi Jacobson’s Emmy Award-winning Solitary, Deborah Esquenazi’s Emmy-nominated and Peabody Award-winning Southwest Of Salem and the CNN Films feature, Enlighten Us. Christopher produced Chicken People, released by Samuel Goldwyn Films, co-produced Ivy Meeropol’s Indian Point, and co-executive produced Alison Klayman’s film The 100 Years Show and The Yes Men Are Revolting. He also executive produced Art and Craft, shortlisted for the 2015 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Recent films include Alison Klayman’s Take Your Pills which premiered at SXSW 2018 and Love, Gilda, the opening night film of the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival. Christopher is a member of the Producers Guild of America (PGA), British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), and the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS).

Carolyn Hepburn, Producer

Carolyn Hepburn is an Emmy winning producer who joined Motto Pictures in 2010. She executive produced Charm City, shortlisted for the 2019 Academy Award, and Love, Gilda, the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival Opening Night Film. In 2018, Carolyn produced Take Your Pills for Netflix which premiered at the 2018 SXSW Film Festival and Take Back the Harbor for Discovery as well as co-executive produced Inventing Tomorrow and The Cleaners, both of which premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival premiere. She co-produced Life, Animated, which won three News & Documentary Emmys, the U.S. Documentary Directing Award at Sundance, and went on to be nominated for the 2017 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Carolyn executive produced Weiner, winner of the 2016 Sundance Film Festival U.S. Documentary Grand Jury Prize and shortlisted for the 2017 Academy Award. She produced 3½ Minutes, Ten Bullets, winner of the 2015 Sundance Special Jury Prize for Social Impact, nominated for an Emmy Award, and shortlisted for the 2016 Academy Award for Best Documentary. Carolyn executive produced Art and Craft, shortlisted for the 2015 Academy Award and Emmy nominated. Other recent projects include Humans of New York: The Series; Shadowman; Chicken People; and Indian Point. Carolyn is a member of the Producers Guild of America (PGA), British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), and the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS).

Yuanchen Liu, Cinematographer

Yuanchen Liu is a cinematographer and director from China and currently based in New York. He directed and shot To the Light (2011), which won the Mead Filmmaker Award at the 35th Margaret Mead Film Festival. He was the Director of Photography for Time to Choose (2016), a feature film directed by Oscar winner Charles Ferguson (Inside Job), and the Director of Photography for Charles Ferguson's upcoming A&E series Watergate (2018). Other feature documentaries he directed photography for include An Exile's Home in the Bronx (2012) and the upcoming Invisible Hands (2017). Yuanchen also frequents as a freelancing cinematographer for United Nations, VICE, CNN, Al Jazeera, CCTV and numerous commercial clients include Samsung, Coach and New Balance, etc. He is a graduate of NYU's masters program in documentary. Yuanchen is the recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship.

Nathan Halpern, Composer

Nathan Halpern is an Emmy-nominated composer, named one of Indiewire's ‘Composers to Watch.’ His score for the acclaimed narrative feature THE RIDER (Sony Pictures Classics) was ranked #3 in New York Magazine / Vulture’s “Ten Best Movie Scores of 2018.” Other notable film scores include MINDING THE GAP (HULU), which has been Oscar-shortlisted for Best Documentary Feature of 2018 and nominated for “Best Music” by the Cinema Eye Honors. Other notable scores include Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner RICH HILL ("one of the best non-fiction scores we've heard in years" - Indiewire), the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning MARINA ABRAMOVIC: THE ARTIST IS PRESENT (HBO Films), and the 2017 Oscar-shortlisted films HOOLIGAN SPARROW and THE WITNESS. Four films scored by Nathan Halpern were recently nominated for 2018 Emmys: WHAT HAUNTS US (STARZ); THE WITNESS; JOAN DIDION: THE CENTER WILL NOT HOLD (NETFLIX); and ABORTION: STORIES WOMEN TELL (HBO FILMS.)

Chris Ruggiero, Composer

Chris Ruggiero is an Emmy-nominated composer and music producer. Recent film scores include Minding The Gap (Sundance Film Festival 2018, now in theaters), Los Comandos (Jury Award winner, Austin Film Festival 2017), I Am Another You (SXSW Film Festival 2017), Tribal Justice (Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2017), Hooligan Sparrow (Sundance Film Festival 2016), and Indian Point (Tribeca Film Festival 2015). Ruggiero has composed for television series including Soundbreaking (PBS), and his original compositions currently appear in over 160 television series including The Voice, Pawn Stars, and American Pickers. Commercial credits include music for brands such as Coke, Taco Bell, HSN, Dewars, Coppola Winery, and Liberty Mutual. As a music producer Ruggiero works with bands and artists across genres. He lectures on film, sound, and semiotics at the University of Bridgeport, and runs the popular audio-history website Preservation Sound.