Driver
Logline
DRIVER follows a dynamic community of women long-haul truck drivers. Threatened by routine sexual violence and bound by a system in which multibillion-dollar megacarriers conspire to make individual drivers anonymous and disposable, one woman brings together an unlikely group of drivers to find strength, solidarity, and self-determination on the road.
Nesa Azimi
Director, Producer
Nesa Azimi is a filmmaker based in New York City. Over the last decade, she has worked on over a dozen documentaries, including an investigation of the Firestone Corporation’s intimate dealings with Liberian ex-president and war criminal Charles Taylor, and an exploration of Resignation Syndrome, an inexplicable medical condition that afflicts the children of asylum seekers in Sweden. She started as an intern at The Maysles Documentary Center in Harlem and has since been on staff as a producer for Rain Media, PBS FRONTLINE, Fault Lines on Al Jazeera, National Geographic, and the Ciné Institute of Haiti. Three of the films she helped produce for FRONTLINE received major recognition, including two Emmy Awards, an Investigative Reporters and Editors Award, and a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award. Nesa is a fellow with the Points North Institute, 2019-20 and the Firelight Documentary Lab, 2019–21. DRIVER, her first feature film in progress, was recognized with the Points North Pitch Award at the 2019 Camden International Film Festival. Her work has been supported by Catapult Film Fund, Doc Society and the Perspective Fund, and Tribeca Film Institute.
Kellen Quinn
Producer
Kellen Quinn is an independent producer whose credits include Garrett Bradley's TIME (Sundance 2020 US Documentary Competition), Luke Lorentzen's MIDNIGHT FAMILY(shortlisted for Documentary Feature Oscar; Sundance 2019 winner of US Documentary Competition Special Jury Award for Cinematography), Daniel Hymanson’s SO LATE SO SOON (True/False 2020) and Viktor Jakovleski's BRIMSTONE & GLORY (True/False 2017; aired on POV). In 2017 and 2018, Kellen participated in the Sundance Documentary Creative Producing Lab and Fellowship. In 2016, he was among six producers selected for Impact Partners’ Documentary Producers Fellowship. In 2012, he developed Aeon Video for Aeon Magazine, a curated program of short documentaries that he continues to oversee. Before moving into producing, he was the deputy director of the Abu Dhabi Film Festival from 2009 to 2012, prior to which he worked in the Tribeca Film Festival's programming department from 2007 to 2009.
Elise McCave
Producer
Elise McCave has been working with documentary filmmakers since 2008. As Kickstarter's Senior Director of Film since 2016, she's worked with film organizations and filmmakers worldwide, providing tailored support and mentorship on fundraising and audience-building for projects in development and production. From 2008-2016 she was Deputy Director of Doc Society (formerly BRITDOC) in London and then in New York, primarily overseeing the Good Pitch program. DRIVER is her first producing role.