E-Team
TFI Suppport
Logline
E-TEAM follows the intrepid and often hazardous work of four human rights investigators as they document abuses in the midst of conflict zones in Syria and Libya. The investigators are members of the Emergencies Team, or E-Team, of an international human rights organization. Human rights abuses thrive on secrecy and silence – the job of the E-Team is to tear away the secrecy and give a voice to the victims whose stories might otherwise never be heard.
Katy Chevigny
Director, Producer
KATY CHEVIGNY, DIRECTOR/PRODUCER
Katy Chevigny is an award-winning filmmaker and co-founder of Arts Engine, a leading independent media nonprofit and its production arm, Big Mouth Films. She directed the film Election Day (2007) which premiered at the South By Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival in 2007 and was broadcast on POV in 2008. With Kirsten Johnson, she co-directed Deadline, an investigation into Illinois governor George Ryan's commutation of death sentences. After premiering at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, Deadline was broadcast on NBC to an audience of over six million, in an unusual acquisition of an independent film by a major network. It was nominated for an Emmy Award and won the Thurgood Marshall Journalism Award, among others. Chevigny also directed Journey to the West: Chinese Medicine Today, a feature-length documentary about traditional Chinese medicine and its influence in the West. She has produced several acclaimed documentaries: Arctic Son, Innocent Until Proven Guilty, Nuyorican Dream, Brother Born Again, Outside Looking In: Transracial Adoption in America and (A)sexual. Chevigny’s films have been shown theatrically, on HBO, Cinemax, POV, Independent Lens, NBC, and Arte/ZDF, among others and have played at film festivals around the world, including Sundance, Full Frame, SXSW, Sheffield and Berlin. Most recently, she produced Pushing the Elephant, which premiered on Independent Lens in 2011.
Ross Kauffman
Director, Producer
ROSS KAUFFMAN, DIRECTOR/PRODUCER
Ross Kauffman is the director, producer, cinematographer and co-editor of Born Into Brothels, winner of the 2005 Academy Award for Best Documentary. Kauffman began as a documentary film editor, and then spent several years at Valkhn Film and Video Inc., a post-production company where he worked on a wide variety of films for HBO, WNET/Thirteen, National Geographic and The Discovery Channel. In 2001, Kauffman formed Red Light Films to direct and produce Born Into Brothels, a documentary about the children of Calcutta's prostitutes. It was accepted to over 50 film festivals worldwide and has since received over 40 awards, including National Board of Review Best Documentary 2004, LA Film Critics Best Documentary 2004 and the 2004 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award. Kauffman is currently working on a variety of projects, including: Exposure, a scripted television series following the lives of five present day photojournalists around the globe and the documentary Wait For Me, chronicling the story of a mother’s spiritual and emotional search for her son who went missing twenty-three years ago. Other projects include: In a Dream, the story of the Philadelphia mosaic artist Isaiah Zagar which was shortlisted for the 2009 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature; and Project Kashmir, a documentary that takes viewers into the war-zone of Kashmir and examines the conflict from emotional and social viewpoints.
Marilyn Ness
Producer
Marilyn Ness is a two-time Emmy Award-winning documentary producer. Before joining Arts Engine, Marilyn founded Necessary Films in 2005, directing short films for non-profits including the ACLU and the World Federation of Hemophilia and developing documentaries for broadcast. Her most recent film BAD BLOOD: A Cautionary Tale broadcast nationally on PBS in 2011 and was the centerpiece of campaign to change US blood donation policies. Prior to that, Ness spent four years as a producer for director Ric Burns, collaborating on four award-winning PBS films: Ansel Adams, The Center of the World, Andy Warhol, and Eugene O’Neill. Ness’s other credits include films for TLC, Court TV, and National Geographic, as well as films for the PBS series American Experience.