2023 Producers Fellows

  • Colleen Cassingham

    Colleen Cassingham is a producer at Multitude Films, where her work focuses on politically committed artful nonfiction. 

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  • Félix Endara

    Félix Endara is a bilingual creative professional splitting his time between his native Ecuador and New York City, where he works in private philanthropy resourcing feminist movements globally and as an independent filmmaker supporting authentic and accountable storytelling.

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  • Monica Berra

    Monica Berra (she/her) is an Emmy-nominated documentary film producer who specializes in historical and archive-based storytelling.

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  • Nicole Docta

    Producer Nicole Docta (she/her) is an award-winning documentary filmmaker who has focused her career on producing socially provoking BIPOC stories.

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  • Opal H. Bennett

    Opal H. Bennett is an Emmy-winning Senior Producer at POV and Executive Producer at POV Shorts.

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  • Razi Jafri

    Razi Jafri is a Detroit-based documentary filmmaker and producer. His documentary, HAMTRAMCK, USA, premiered at the SXSW Film Festival and aired nationally on PBS. 

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  • Samantha Curley

    Samantha Curley is a film producer and creative entrepreneur based in Los Angeles. 

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  • Yoni Golijov

    Yoni Golijov is an Academy Award- and BAFTA-nominated nonfiction producer. 

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Colleen Cassingham

Colleen Cassingham is a producer at Multitude Films, where her work focuses on politically committed artful nonfiction. Most recently, she produced the QUEER FUTURES shorts collection (CPH:DOX 2023). She is in production on two Sundance-supported features: Reid Davenport's second feature LIFE AFTER and Casey Carter's debut feature TO USE A MOUNTAIN. She is a 2023 Sundance Producing Fellow, a 2019 Points North Fellow, and a 2018 UnionDocs Collaborative Studio Fellow.

Félix Endara

Félix Endara is a bilingual creative professional splitting his time between his native Ecuador and New York City, where he works in private philanthropy resourcing feminist movements globally and as an independent filmmaker supporting authentic and accountable storytelling. He produced NORTH BY CURRENT (2021, Dir: Angelo Madsen Minax), which premiered at the Berlinale, and was later broadcast on POV in Fall 2021. The film was named one of the Best Movies of 2021 by Rolling Stone, a 2021 highlight in Non-Fiction Cinema by Filmmaker, and won an IDA Documentary Award for BEST WRITING and a Spotlight Award at the Cinema Eye Honors. The film was also nominated for a Film Independent Spirit Award in the Truer than Fiction category. Félix is currently producing UNSEEN (2023, Dir: Set Hernandez), which follows a blind undocumented social worker on a journey of healing. The film was featured as a selected project for the 2022 Gotham Documentary Feature Lab, had its World Premiere at HotDocs in Spring 2023, and will be broadcast on POV in March 2024. Félix is Chair of the Board of Working Films, an organization that convenes documentary filmmakers and grassroots activists to advance social justice. An alum of the “Art of Leadership” at the Rockwood Leadership Institute, Félix has served on selection committees that include BlackStar Film Festival, Creative Capital, National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures, NewFest, and Tribeca Film Festival. 

Monica Berra

Monica Berra (she/her) is an Emmy-nominated documentary film producer who specializes in historical and archive-based storytelling. Her work has been featured on HBO, PBS, WORLD Channel, Field of Vision, NYT Op-Docs, and The Atlantic. Most recently, she produced the Emmy-nominated feature documentary, A CHOICE OF WEAPONS: INSPIRED BY GORDON PARKS (Kunhardt Films/HBO). Originally from South Florida, Monica is the daughter of Cuban and Colombian immigrants and is endlessly curious about the idiosyncrasies and contradictions of her home state – a fascination that informs much of her approach to storytelling. She holds an M.F.A. in documentary filmmaking from Wake Forest University and works between Miami, FL and New York, NY.

Nicole Docta

Producer Nicole Docta (she/her) is an award-winning documentary filmmaker who has focused her career on producing socially provoking BIPOC stories offering her unique viewpoint as a transracial Korean-American adoptee raised in the Midwest. Her previous films include Emmy Award-winning BELLY OF THE BEAST (HRWFF 2020) and duPont Award-winner THROUGH THE NIGHT (Tribeca 2020.) Nicole is also a USC CPD NextGen Creative Fellow, one of DOC NYC’s 40 Under 40, and a Sundance Producers Fellow.

Opal H. Bennett

Opal H. Bennett is an Emmy-winning Senior Producer at POV and Executive Producer at POV Shorts. Under her leadership, POV Shorts broadcast the 2021 NewsDoc Emmy Winner for Short Documentary, The Love Bugs. Previously, Opal was Shorts Programmer and Dir. of Artist Development at DOCNYC and Senior Programmer at Athena Film Festival. She has also worked with Nantucket Film Festival, Aspen ShortsFest and Tribeca Film Festival. Opal is a member of the AMPAS Documentary branch. She has participated on various festival juries and selection committees for film grants. A Columbia Law grad, Opal holds a Masters from the LSE and received her B.A. from NYU.

Razi Jafri

Razi Jafri is a Detroit-based documentary filmmaker and producer. His documentary, HAMTRAMCK, USA, premiered at the SXSW Film Festival and aired nationally on PBS. He is also producer of THREE CHAPLAINS, which will air nationally on the PBS program Independent Lens in the Fall 2023. He’s been awarded fellowships by the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), The Salzburg Global Forum, the Knight Fellowship at the Sundance Film Festival, and the Sundance Documentary Producing Fellowship. Razi holds an MFA from the University of Michigan.

Samantha Curley

Samantha Curley is a film producer and creative entrepreneur based in Los Angeles. She is the co-founder of Level Ground, an artist collective and production company creating experiments in empathy. Her first project FRAMING AGNES (dir. Chase Joynt) won the NEXT Innovator Award and Audience Award at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. She’s currently producing several projects, including UNTITLED LABOR UNION DOCUMENTARY (dir. Steve Maing, Brett Story). Samantha is a graduate of Northwestern University and the Kellogg School of Management. 

Yoni Golijov

Yoni Golijov is an Academy Award- and BAFTA-nominated nonfiction producer. Most recently, Golijov produced Laura Poitras's feature film All The Beauty and the Bloodshed (2022) about legendary artist and activist Nan Goldin. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival where it won the Golden Lion. Previously he produced When We Fight (2022, co-dir. Yael Bridge and Yoni Golijov); Poitras’s feature film Risk (Cannes | 2016) with producer Brenda Coughlin; and various video art installations and short films by Poitras. His current projects include Untitled by Sura Mallouh. Golijov was a 2022 Sundance Producing Lab Fellow and is a member of New Day Films and the Documentary Producers Alliance.