Mentors
BYkids pairs a seasoned filmmaker to guide each young filmmaker in directing, shooting and narrating their personal film.
Dr. Neal Baer
Emmy-Nominated Writer & Showrunner
Seven-time Emmy nominee Neal Baer was a writer/showrunner for ER; showrunner of the hit NBC series Law & Order: SVU for 11 seasons; and showrunner for Under the Dome for its entire run on CBS. Before his career in television, Neal was a practicing pediatrician and teacher.
Rom Barnea
Filmmaker, Co-founder & Creative Director, Pendulum
Rom Barnea is a Tel Aviv-based multidisciplinary cultural entrepreneur, filmmaker, photographer, social activist, actor and curator. He is the co-founder and Creative Director of Pendulum, a creative agency aimed at...
Camilla Becket
Co-owner of Becket Films
"BYkids opens a window to the lived experience of young people across the globe. More importantly, the project provides a platform for diverse youth to share their lives with their peers, which helps to build awareness, empathy and movements for change. I’m honored to be involved.”
Ric Burns
award-winning documentary filmmaker
Ric Burns is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, and is best known for his groundbreaking PBS series, New York: A Documentary Film and his documentaries on Eugene O’Neill, Ansel Adams and Andy Warhol.
Joyce Chopra
Award-Winning Producer & Director
Joyce Chopra has produced and directed a wide range of award-winning films, ranging from Smooth Talk, winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Best Dramatic Feature at the Sundance Film Festival, to the A&E thriller The Lady in Question with Gene Wilder.
Angalis Field
screenwriter, director & photographer
Angalis is an American screenwriter, director and photographer living in New York City. He is currently a graduate film MFA thesis candidate at NYU Tisch School of the Arts.
Karen Goodman
Award-Winning Documentarian
Karen Goodman’s documentaries have garnered an Academy award (”Strangers No More, 2011″), three previous Academy Award nominations, many Emmys and the Dupont-Columbia Award for Independent Programming. She has received filmmaking grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, The Ford Foundation and the American Film Institute.
James V. Hart (J.V.)
Screenwriter & producer
James V. Hart (J.V.) hails from Shreveport, Louisiana and grew up in Fort Worth, Texas thriving on drive-in movies and Saturday matinees. He began producing films in the 1970’s, and his first feature film, Summer Run, opened the USA film festival at Southern Methodist University, his alma mater, in Dallas, Texas.
Susan Hoenig
Emmy-nominated TV producer
Susan was the first BYkids Board member and serves as a Film Mentor to María Ceballos Paz, a 16-year-old girl who is one of the estimated four million Colombians driven from their homes by decades of civil war.
Elizabeth Hummer
producer, director & educator
Elizabeth Hummer is a producer, director and educator. Her work has received two Emmy Awards and four nominations in children’s programming and five nominations for fashion content.
Chiemi Karasawa
Founder, Isotope Films
Chiemi Karasawa is an award-winning documentary director/producer who founded Isotope Films and has made Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me, The Betrayal: Nerakhoon (Academy Award Nominee, Emmy Award Winner), Billy The Kid, and Blue Note Records: Beyond the Notes (premiering at Tribeca Film Festival in 2018).
Maryann De Leo
Academy Award winning filmmaker
Maryann De Leo is an Academy Award winning filmmaker who directs and produces courageous documentaries of international scope for both film and television.
Cynthia Lowen
producer & writer
Cynthia Lowen is the co-creator, producer and writer of BULLY, a feature documentary film following five kids and families through “a year in the life” of America’s bullying crisis, premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival and released by The Weinstein Company.
Celia Lowenstein
Emmy-nominated Director & producer
Celia Lowenstein has directed and produced over fifty films with subject matters extending across science, art, philosophy, human portraits, dance, and music.
Dr. Zuberoa Marcos
Filmmaker & Documentarian
Zuberoa Marcos strongly believes in the power of science, education and storytelling to change the world. She is a producer and director known for her ability to capture extraordinary stories that unravel the complexity of our universe with simplicity, insight and beauty for a wide range of audiences.
Evan Mascagni
documentary filmmaker, Director, producer
Evan is a documentary filmmaker from Kentucky. He most recently directed and produced Building a Bridge, which premiered at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival and was executive produced by Martin Scorsese.
Albert Maysles
Filmmaker, (1926-2015)
Among the world’s pre-eminent documentary filmmakers and the dean of American documentary filmmaking, Albert is recognized as the pioneer of “direct cinema,” the distinctly American version of French “cinema verité.” His films include Salesman, Gimme Shelter, Grey Gardens and Oscar-nominated LaLee’s Kin: The Legacy of Cotton.
Hollis Meminger
Cinematographer & documentarian
Hollis Meminger is a renowned cinematographer with numerous film and television credits such as: The Blacklist (NBC), Narcos (Netflix) and Younger (TVLand). He is also a passionate documentarian, focusing on projects which feature the marginalized community.
Cat Papadimitriou
Filmmaker, New York City
Cat Papadimitriou is a filmmaker born and based in New York City. Her first narrative feature NIA ON VACATION won the Orpheus Award for best picture at the London Greek Film Festival in 2020 and she is currently in development on her second feature.
Chris Rizzo
New York-based film editor
Chris Rizzo is a New York based film editor, who has contributed to a variety of long form and commercial projects. Chris has worked with directors including Alex Gibney, Martin Granger and Earle Sebastian, to name a few.
Alicia Sams
Executive producer & Director
Alicia Sams is currently producer/director of Arab American Stories, a 13-episode series for public television launching in 2012. Her most recent film, as producer/director (with Amy Rice), is the Emmy-Award winning film By The People: The Election of Barack Obama, which premiered on HBO in 2009.
Dirk Simon
award-winning documentary filmmaker
With a degree from the Academy of Performing Arts in West Germany, Dirk started his career as an independent filmmaker in 2002. Based in Denver, he has worked on films as a director, director of photography, co-producer and lead actor. His last film, Between the Lines, received international recognition for exposing the truth about a murderer seeking freedom at the Berlin Wall.
Mary Soan
Director, Founding member of FilmAid International
An assistant director on many international feature films including Welcome to Sarajevo, Before the Rain, Kama Sutra, Madness of King George, Mansfield Park, Narnia, Pearl Harbor and Bridget Jones Diary, Mary is also a founder member of FilmAid International and sits on the Advisory Committee of FilmAid US and on the Board of FilmAid International UK.
Chris Zalla
Award-wininng writer-director
Chris is a writer-director whose first film, Padre Nuestro, won the Dramatic Grand Jury Prize at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. He wrote a feature film set in a Bolivian Prison, entitled Marching Powder, for Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment.