TEAM
SYLVIA RYERSON - Director
Sylvia Ryerson is a multimedia artist, organizer, and PhD candidate in American Studies at Yale University. Prior to graduate school, she worked at the documentary arts center Appalshop, in Whitesburg, Kentucky. There she served as a reporter and the Director of Public Affairs Programming for Appalshop’s community radio station WMMT-FM, and co-directed and hosted the Calls from Home radio show. She has co-produced numerous community-based participatory media projects working with movements for the just transition from fossil fuel extraction, the abolition of the prison industrial complex, and migrant justice. Her media & written work has appeared in the New York Times, American Quarterly, the Boston Review, Kentucky Educational Television, NPR, the BBC, the Marshall Project, and other outlets. She is a founding member of the Racial Capitalism and the Carceral State Working Group at Yale and of the Building Community Not Prisons coalition currently working to stop the construction of a proposed new federal prison in Letcher County, Kentucky.
REUBEN ATLAS - Producer
Reuben Atlas is a filmmaker and former lawyer selected for DOCNYC’s inaugural 40 Under 40 list and the 2020 Impact Partners Producers Fellowship. The first documentary he produced and directed, Brothers Hypnotic, about the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, which also featured Prince, Mos Def, and Damon Albarn, premiered at the SXSW Film Festival, broadcast internationally and on PBS’ Independent Lens. With Sam Pollard, he directed and produced, ACORN and the Firestorm, about the impactful community organizing group, ACORN. The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, was supported by the Sundance Institute, and broadcast on PBS’ Independent Lens. He also co-directed (with Jerry Rothwell) the Netflix hit, Sour Grapes, a conman story set in the world of rare and fine wine. His other recent work includes producing Bill Russell Legend, a two-part feature documentary for Netflix about the NBA icon, co-producing the Starz feature tap dancing film, Maurice Hines:Bring Them Back, and the Emmy winning NY Times Op-Doc, Atencion! Murderer Next Door.
ALLISON POWER - Compositor
Ambrosio Garcia was born and raised in the heart of East LA, and graduated from Cal State Long Beach where he received his BFA degree in Animation. He has worked on several respected films in the animation community such as Javier Barboza’s Annie Award nominated film, El Coyote and later worked with Filmmaker/Mentor Aubry Mintz on his film, Nothing to Say, which has been in over 41 festivals both domestic and international and has won 10 awards to date. Most recently, he worked as an animation colorist on Mushka, a film by veteran Disney animator Andreas Deja. Andreas worked at Disney for over 30 years and is renowned as one of Disney's legendary animators. He is most notable for creating and animating such characters as King Triton, Gaston, Jafar, Scar, and Hercules. Currently, Ambrosio is a freelance Animator/Illustrator working with several film directors helping in bringing their visions to life.
Allison R. Power is an energetic animator and compositor from Massachusetts. She works primarily in stop-motion animation but is also familiar with live action film, 2D animation, and digital compositing. She also enjoys creating experimental mixed media works, usually incorporate a blend of both live action and animation. Her latest personal work “Homeward Clown“ has played in many festivals around the world including the Made Here film festival and the Massachusetts Independent Film Festival. She has studied film and theater at Marlboro College and graduated with an animation bachelors degree from Massachusetts College of Art and Design.
And Special thanks to our Film Advisory Team:
CRAIG GILMORE, JUDAH SCHEPT, AMELIA KIRBY & JACK NORTON.
AMBROSIO GARCIA - Animation & Layout
BENJAMIN ABRAMS - Editor & Composer
Benjamin Abrams is a documentary editor, filmmaker and musician based in New York City. Recently his projects have screened at The Centre Pompidou in Paris and The Explorer’s Club in New York.
JAVIER BARBOZA - Animation Art Director & Producer
Javier Barboza is an award-winning filmmaker, Creative Director, Animator, and Educator. His work tackles the complexity of the identity and migration using surrealism, magical realism, narrative, and documentary method, to engage the audience in a visually immersive experience. He studied at East Los Angeles College, dedicating himself to fine arts, animation and graffiti, and continued his animation and film studies at Cal Arts. He went on to receive an MFA in Animation and Film from U.S.C School of Cinematic Arts, where he was awarded an Annenberg graduate fellowship. Javier’s work has showcased at variety of film festivals nationally and internationally. He was nominated for an Anni Award, a Vimeo staff pick and the NickToons film festival. Javier continues to lecture and teach at universities nationally and internationally, and he has pitched for many clients and studios including Netflix, MTV, ACLU, Buck , KCET, Shadow Machine, Telemundo, Univision, PBS, Google, Playboy, Nickelodeon, Sony Animation and Disney TV. He is currently experimenting with new ways of telling stories through V.R., A.R, projections, installations, performance art, muppets, graffiti and animation.
RAYMOND THOMPSON JR - Cinematography
Raymond is an artist, educator, and visual journalist based in Austin, TX. He works as an Assistant Professor of Photojournalism at the University of Texas at Austin. He has received an MFA in Photography from West Virginia University and a MA in Journalism from the University of Texas at Austin. He also graduated from the University of Mary Washington with a BA in American Studies. He was the 2023 winner of the 1619 Aftermath Grant. He has been a freelance photographer for The New York Times, The Intercept, NBC News, NPR, Politico, ProPublica, The Nature Conservancy, ACLU, WBEZ, Google, Merrell, and the Associated Press.
MIMI PICKERING - Producer
Mimi Pickering is an award-winning filmmaker and director of Appalshop’s Community Media Initiative. Pickering’s documentaries often feature women as principle storytellers, focus on struggles for equity and justice, and explore the efforts of grassroots communities to address local issues that frequently reflect global concerns. In 2005, her film The Buffalo Creek Flood: An Act of Man was selected by the Librarian of Congress for inclusion in the prestigious National Film Registry. Other documentaries include Chemical Valley, an examination of environmental racism in West Virginia’s Kanawha Valley that aired on the PBS series P.O.V, and Hazel Dickens: It’s Hard To Tell The Singer From The Song, a portrait of this singer/songwriter whose feminist country ballads, union anthems, and blue collar laments combine the traditional and the political. Pickering and Anne Lewis produced Anne Braden: Southern Patriot, a documentary on the life and legacy of this legendary civil rights leader, journalist, teacher and mentor to three generations of social justice activists.
PETER KAMAU MUKURIA - Artwork & Poster Design
Peter Kamau Mukuria, better known by the nickname Pitt, is a writer, visual artist, and organizer. Pitt was born in Nairobi, Kenya, and lived there until his family moved to Richmond, Virginia when he was 10 years old. He is currently located at Interstate Compact-Facility, formerly at Jessup Correctional Institution and Red Onion State Prison. He is currently the Minister of Labor for the Revolutionary Intercommunal Black Panther Party (RIBPP) and on the steering committee with the Incarcerated Workers of the World Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWW/IWOC). While imprisoned, Pitt organizes against the blatant racism that takes place in his correctional facility. He writes on a variety of topics, from abolition to the COVID-19 pandemic and more, and his commentaries are featured regularly on Prison Radio. Follow Pitt’s artwork at @pittpanther_art on Instagram.