TEAM
JJ GERBER | Director & Producer
JJ Gerber is a two-time Emmy-nominated creative producer and filmmaker. His feature documentary credits include the News & Documentary Emmy-nominated Omoiyari: A Song Film by Kishi Bashi (MTV Docs, 2023), available on Paramount+; Harmontown (SXSW, 2014); and We Are Blood (The Orchard, 2015). He also served as a consulting producer on the Emmy-nominated Beauty Is Embarrassing (PBS Independent Lens, 2014), helping develop and execute its nationwide hybrid distribution strategy. His short films have been featured on TED-Ed and screened at film festivals across the United States. The Life We Leave marks his directorial debut. Outside of filmmaking, Gerber serves as board president of the Seattle Documentary Association and is a member of the Producers Guild of America and the Documentary Producers Alliance.
CLEMENTINE BRIAND | Producer
Clementine Briand is a multimedia producer whose work spans documentary, television and film. She began her career in Paris, where she worked on international commercial productions for brands including Coca-Cola, IBM, L’Oréal and McKinsey & Co., as well as projects for CNN and the BBC. After returning to the United States, Briand transitioned into documentary filmmaking, working with ITVS on short-form nonfiction content in partnership with PBS Digital and contributing to the Emmy Award-winning series Independent Lens. As a freelance producer, she has worked on projects including The History of White People in America (Tribeca Festival, 2018–19; PBS World Channel) and the feature documentary Personhood (DOC NYC, Big Sky, 2020), which received the ABA Silver Gavel Award. She is currently collaborating on several nonfiction projects, including the short film Worth My Salt (2025 SIFF Courageous Filmmaking Grant), Oh! Possum! (2025 Mountainfilm Commitment Grant), the podcast Rules Apply (Sheffield Podcast Pitch 2024), and the feature documentary The Life We Leave, which premiered at SXSW in 2026.
ANN ROGERS | Humble Heart Films | Producer
Ann Rogers is a Los Angeles-based documentary producer dedicated to telling global stories with integrity and heart. A 2021 Impact Partners Documentary Producing Fellow, she has contributed to documentary films and series for major platforms including Netflix, HBO, National Geographic and Showtime. Her recent credits include Cookie Queens (Sundance, 2026; Roadside Attractions), Blink (National Geographic, 2024), and the Netflix docuseries The Program: Cons, Cults & Kidnapping (2024). Her previous work includes Stealing Magic (Tribeca, 2026), the Peabody Award-winning Inventing Tomorrow (POV, 2019), Jonah Hill’s Stutz (Netflix, 2022), White Coat Rebels (Fuse, 2022), Detainee 001 (Showtime, 2021), and The Final Year (HBO, 2017). Her latest feature documentary, The Life We Leave, premiered in competition at SXSW in 2026 and went on to win the Golden Space Needle Audience Award at the Seattle International Film Festival.
MELANIE MILLER | Fishbowl Films | Producer
Melanie Miller is an Academy Award-winning producer and co-founder of Fishbowl Films. She and producing partner Diane Becker received the 2020 Sundance Institute | Amazon Studios Nonfiction Producers Award. Fishbowl Films, founded in 2009, develops documentary films that spotlight distinctive voices and timely issues, and was a finalist for the 2024 and 2026 SIMA Awards. Her producing credits include the Peabody Award-winning Inventing Tomorrow (POV, 2019), Whirlybird (Mubi), and Navalny (CNN Films | Warner Bros. | HBO Max), which won the U.S. Documentary Audience Award and Festival Favorite at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival before receiving a DuPont Award, Producers Guild Award, BAFTA and the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Additional credits include On the Divide (POV, 2022), Jonah Hill’s Stutz (Netflix, 2022), Trial by Media (Netflix), Equal (HBO Max), Marvel 616 (Disney+), Maestra (Tribeca, 2023; Netflix), The Program: Cons, Cults and Kidnapping (Netflix), and the Emmy-winning Blink (National Geographic, 2024). Her latest feature documentary, The Life We Leave, premiered in competition at SXSW in 2026. Miller is a member of the Documentary Producers Alliance, Producers Guild of America, Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Executive Producers
Rocky Collins
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Rocky Collins is a writer, producer and production executive whose work focuses on documentary film and television. He most recently served as head of programming and executive producer at Red Bull Studios. Previously, he was director of productions and head of development at Vulcan Productions, where he oversaw the company’s film and television slate, including Summer of Soul, Hunger Ward, Youth v Gov, The Reason I Jump, Oliver Sacks: His Own Life, The Cold Blue, Ghost Fleet and Ocean Warriors. Across his career, Collins has produced nearly 300 films and television programs. Earlier roles include executive producer at Science Channel, director of development at Lone Wolf Documentary Group and president of Elevator Pictures. He has also written, directed and edited award-winning narrative features, documentaries, television specials, short films and commercials.
Mark Reed
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Mark Reed is a principal and community investor specializing in impact investing, affordable housing and nonprofit finance. In 2005, he founded Contact Fund, a private debt investment fund supporting community-based organizations in New York City. The fund became the model for the New York Pooled PRI Fund, which Reed co-founded with SeaChange Capital Partners. Together, the funds have deployed more than $43 million in financing to nonprofit organizations. In 2019, he launched Contact Fund II to provide financial guarantees for nonprofit-led housing developments. Since 2006, Reed has invested in the development of more than 2,100 affordable and market-rate housing units across 20 projects. He is also a director of Green Diamond Resource Company and is a former board member of the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities, SeaChange Capital Partners and Corbin Hill Food Project. Reed earned a bachelor’s degree in cultural anthropology from Stanford University and an MBA in finance from New York University’s Stern School of Business.
David J & Linda A Cornfield
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David J. and Linda A. Cornfield have executive produced numerous documentary and short films since 2012, including Chasing Coral, Chasing Ice, Inventing Tomorrow, Won’t You Be My Neighbor? and The Love Bugs. These films have received Peabody Awards, Emmy Awards, Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Awards, an Edward R. Murrow Award and two Academy Award nominations for best documentary feature in 2025.
Recognizing the power of storytelling to inspire meaningful change, David and Linda co-founded the 501(c)(4) Far Star Action Fund in 2018. The organization partners with filmmakers and nonprofits to advance solutions to global challenges, with a focus on good governance and civil society, the climate crisis and the environment, and STEAM education and systems thinking.
Co-Executive Producers ELISA BONORA | PADDY McCAUGHEY | DIANE BECKER | ALI FUJINO
Contributing Producers DAVID LOWE | DAVID KERSHNER | JASON STEPHENS
Co-Producers ANDREW BURTON | KYLE SEAGO
Music by WILLIAM RYAN FRITCH
Director of Photography KYLE SEAGO
Supervising Editor ELISA BONORA, ACE BFE
Edited by SANDY JEGLUM | GIORDANO BONORA GROOME
WITH THE GENEROUS SUPPORT OF
SEATTLE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
THE DARMA FUND
WILLIAM & MATTIE HARRIS FOUNDATION
FAR STAR MEDIA
SATTERBERG FOUNDATION
THE RAYNIER FOUNDATION
MOUNTAINFILM COMMITTMENT GRANT
DOCEDGE