The Filmmaking Team
JENNIFER STEINMAN STERNIN, DIRECTOR & EDITOR
Jennifer Steinman Sternin is an award-winning Director, Producer and Editor with over 20 years of experience in television and filmmaking. Her documentary film credits include TIME FOR ILHAN (Producer), which premiered at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival and garnered multiple awards including a 2019 Emmy® Award and a NAACP Image Award Nomination. DESERT RUNNERS (Director/Producer/Editor) was named by the Huffington Post as one of "The Top Documentaries of 2013,” won numerous festival awards and was acquired by DirecTV and Netflix. MOTHERLAND (Director/Producer/Editor) had its world premiere and won an Audience Award at SXSW in 2009.
Jennifer is also an accomplished film editor whose films have been accepted into many major film festivals including Tribeca, Rotterdam, and Sundance. She has produced and edited content for ABC, MTV, PBS, Discovery, National Geographic, Disney+ and many other television networks. She has won numerous editing awards and has been nominated for an Emmy® Award for Outstanding Achievement in Editing.
GERALYN PEZANOSKI, PRODUCER
Geralyn Pezanoski is an award-winning director and producer with more than 20 years of experience in commercial, corporate and documentary filmmaking. She embodies mindfulness, commitment and precision in all facets of her work. As Executive Producer of Smush Media, she combines her passion for storytelling with her sharp production acumen to guide the creation of meaningful content in projects of all sizes and budgets.
Geralyn made her feature directorial debut in 2009 with the critically acclaimed documentary MINE. MINE premiered at SXSW (Audience Award for Best Doc), followed by a national theatrical release and broadcast on PBS’ Independent Lens (Audience Award for Best-of-Season). Other standout film producing credits include the award winning feature, Motherland (SXSW), and the narrative short, On A Tuesday (Santa Barbara, LAIFF).
MO SCARPELLI, DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY
Mo Scarpelli is an Italian-American director and cinematographer of mostly-non-fiction cinema. Mo's films have been exhibited at the Berlinale, Visions du Réel, Film Society of Lincoln Center, IDFA, BFI London Film Festival, Olafur Eliasson Studios in Berlin, SXSW, Hot Docs, among other festivals and venues.
Mo's latest film EL FATHER PLAYS HIMSELF premiered at the 51° Visions du Réel where it was awarded the Jury's Special Mention for Best International Film. The film was acquired by Grasshopper Film in the USA, and recently received the Torino Film Lab Audience Design Fund for distribution in the Netherlands, UK, and Latin America in 2021. Mo’s debut solo-directed film ANBESSA screened at the 69° Berlinale, where it was nominated for the Crystal Bear and the Glashütte Documentary Prize. Mo's first feature-length documentary FRAME BY FRAME, shot in Afghanistan, screened at SXSW Film Festival, Hot Docs, BFI London Film Festival, AFI DOCS and 120+ other festivals. The film garnered more than a dozen jury and audience awards and a Cinema Eye Honors nomination. It was acquired by TIME, Inc in 2016.