PRODUCER/DIRECTOR
Peter Nicks is an Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker who has produced projects for network, cable and public television exploring topics such as immigration, journalism and technology. He has also directed media strategy for two social networking start-ups and developed transmedia storytelling projects that make use of emerging social media platforms. He worked as a staff producer for ABC News in New York and as a producer for the innovative PBS documentary series Life 360. Nicks is currently producing and directing the documentary-social media hybrid The Waiting Room, which explores the impact of America’s health care policy on one county hospital and the population of largely uninsured patients it serves. Peter Nicks earned his Masters in documentary filmmaking from the University of California, Berkeley in 1999. He lives in Piedmont, CA with his wife and two children.
PRODUCER
Linda Davis is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker who has explored topics ranging from art looting during WWII, to the high drama of modern opera, and the plight of Palestinian Christians in Bethlehem. Her experience includes work on several award-winning, feature-length documentaries including The Rape of Europa and Jon Else’s film Wonders Are Many: The Making of Doctor Atomic. She has also shot and directed her own short films, notably At Lula’s, a portrait of beauty and community at a hair salon in Oakland, CA. Most recently she co-produced “Nourish: Food + Community,” a television special featuring Michael Pollan that asks the question, What is the story of our food? Linda comes to film from the business world where she helped to grow a consumer products company from start-up to an internationally recognized brand.
SOCIAL MEDIA DIRECTOR
Michael Goodier studied film scoring at Berklee College of Music, film studies and art history at Rhode Island College, and in 2008 received his MFA in media arts from California College of the Arts. His experience in digital media began it 2002 working at kidrobot where he was responsible for photographing and editing images for their online store. Since then he has completed several short films. His most recent work, Love Lafayette, a documentary that contrasts images of suburban achievement with stories of the personally destructive effects of affluence, was was included in the 9th Annual T-10 festival in Oakland.
CO-PRODUCER/EDITOR
Lawrence Lerew is an editor who has worked on numerous documentary films including Wounded Knee (2008) and the Oscar nominated The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers (2009).
FIELD PRODUCER
Emma Cott is a documentary filmmaker and journalist who has worked on films for PBS and NBC News, and reported in Latin America and Asia. A former community health care worker, she is particularly interested in stories that give a voice to the underserved. Emma graduated from UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism’s documentary program in 2009. Her film, “New American Soldier,” about immigrants serving in the US Army, won a student Emmy and is currently screening at festivals across the country.
ASSOCIATE PRODUCER
N’Jeri Eaton is a recent graduate of UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of
Journalism. She received her B.A. in Media Arts Studies from Emerson
College. She has produced work for Time.com and PBS FRONTLINE/World
and has worked as a freelance editor and assistant for various other
production companies and nonprofit organizations. Her past work
includes films for PBS, California Newsreel and Albert Maysles. Before
entering grad school, N’Jeri worked as a video instructor and producer
for the Bay Area Video Coalition.
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT
Taylor Richard is a recent graduate of Millennium High School in Piedmont where he played basketball. He is currently attending Diablo Valley College where he is pursuing a degree in sports management.
PROJECT PRODUCER
Bill Hirsch launched his production career in order to produce films dealing with critical, cutting edge political, social and cultural themes. Since establishing Peer Review Films with Scott Verges, he has produced Reversion, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2008, and is working on various other projects, including films about the religious right and the literary hoax and cultural icon, JT LeRoy. Bill has been a renowned plaintiff’s class action attorney for over 20 years, playing major roles in such cases as the Lincoln Savings & Loan (Charles Keating) scandal, the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and the fen-phen drug litigation. Bill graduated from Princeton University with a masters in political theory and Harvard Law School. He has recently served on the Boards of Equal Rights Advocates, the Coro Center for Civic Leadership and the Family Violence Prevention Fund, where he is currently Secretary and a member of the Executive Committee.
DESIGNER | PENTAGRAM DESIGN
Takaaki Okada attended Kanazawa International Design Institute in Kanazawa, Japan before relocating to New York where he received his BFA from Parsons School of Design in communication design. Upon graduation, he joined Parsons Institute for Information Mapping (PIIM) at New School University where he worked on prototyping user interface designs for a public opinion analysis tool for the 2004 presidential election, a long-term healthcare analysis tool for The National Commission for Quality Long-Term Care, and an emergency operations system for The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Okada then joined Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI), a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software company where he designed interfaces for web-based mapping applications. In 2006, he joined Lisa Strausfeld’s team at Pentagram Design in New York, where he has worked on information design, data visualization, dynamic media displays, user interface and website projects.
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
Scott Verges produced his first documentary with his sister, Emmy award-winning Producer Chrisann Verges, in 1976 about the Frisian revitalization movement in the Netherlands. Scott took a long detour from film and established himself as one of the premier real estate lawyers and developers in Northern California. During the past six years, Scott has rekindled his interest in film and has been the Executive Producer of four recent films (including “Reversion” which had its world premiere at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and “In This Short Life” the winner of many awards at various Film Festivals). Scott teaches at the MBA program at Mills College and is a former director of the Alameda County Health Care Foundation.
CONSULTING PRODUCER
Stanley Nelson is an Emmy-winning MacArthur “genius” Fellow, co-founder and Executive Producer of Firelight Media, which provides technical education and professional support to emerging documentarians; and co-founder of the for-profit documentary production company, Firelight Films. His latest film Wounded Knee is part of the landmark series on Native Americans We Shall Remain. The film produced for American Experience premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and aired nationally in May 2009.
ADVISOR
Arnold Perkins served as the director of the Alameda County Public Health Department in Oakland, Calif. from 1994 to 2006. As director, he provided leadership and management of the administrative, research, epidemiology, program, and policy activities of the department, which had a budget of $105 million and more than 500 employees. His diverse background includes positions as a high school teacher and principal, non-profit executive director, family counselor, college teacher, administrator, and restaurant owner and operator. He has served on numerous boards and is the former board chair for Youth Radio, a radio production division of Youth Media International.
