Ryan Murdock
Producer/Director
Ryan is a filmmaker and the creative director of his company, Saving Daylight Productions, which creates documentary media for clients and develops original editorial projects. His recent work has been featured in The New York Times, MSNBC, The Huffington Post, and Gawker, among others. The Audacity of Louis Ortiz is Ryan’s first feature length documentary. He contributed a story of the same name to a recent episode of This American Life.
Before starting Saving Daylight, Ryan worked at the PBS science series NOVA, where he produced Musical Minds, a documentary about the effects of music on the brain featuring Dr. Oliver Sacks that the New York Times called “revealing.” He also recorded over 300 audio interviews for StoryCorps, the NPR oral history project, and launched their podcast in 2007. His work has screened at the IFC Center, DOCNYC, the Imagine Science Film Festival and numerous live performances. Murdock’s directorial debut, Power Surge, won Best Animation at the 2004 Flicker Film Festival. He holds a B.S. in Radio/TV/Film from Northwestern University and is a graduate of the New York Foundation for the Arts Artist Entrepreneurship Program. He is also a member of the Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective. In 2010, The New York Times said Murdock “defies categorization,” which he considers a compliment.
Mitra Bonshahi
Editor
Mitra Bonshahi is a media artist who lives in Brooklyn, NY. She is currently finishing her master’s degree in Media Studies with a focus in video editing at The New School. Bonshahi recorded hundreds of oral histories for StoryCorps, a non-profit radio project and oversaw their memory loss initiative. She currently produces a live storytelling event called “Two Truths and A Lie” in which everyday people tell both fiction and non-fiction stories. Bonshahi is also a founding member of an all female visual arts production company called Elektric Breakfast. The Audacity of Louis Ortiz is her first feature.
Dawn Porter
Editorial Advisor
Dawn Porter is the Director/Producer of GIDEON’S ARMY, which premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and will air on HBO Documentary Films. She is an alumni of the Tribeca All Access program, where she won the 2011 juried Creative Promise Award for GIDEON’S ARMY. Realscreen named Dawn one of their 2012 Doc Hot Shots 15 emerging directors to watch. She is the founder of Trilogy Films.
Jeremy Siefer
Consulting Editor
Jeremy Siefer is an Emmy-Award winning documentary editor and writer. His work has screened at the Sundance Film Festival, on HBO, Showtime, PBS, Discovery, National Geographic, OWN, and the History Channel. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Gabi, his son, Saul, and his dog, Rafi.