TEAM

Natalie Zimmerman, Director/Producer/Co-Writer (US)

Natalie Zimmerman is a Bay Area-based filmmaker and educator whose work has been exhibited worldwide in diverse contexts including Independent Feature Project, World Affairs Council and Sigmund Freud Museum (Vienna). She is a former Fulbright Scholar, Headlands Center For the Arts Resident Fellow, and Resident Artist at the de Young Museum (SF) where she created Social Dream Lab— an exploration of the collective dynamics of dreaming and social revolution. In 2017, she organized a gathering of indigenous and western women engaged in climate change activism – On Fertile Ground: Integrating Perspectives Toward a Collective Future was funded by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Zimmerman is currently completing production on feature-length nonfiction film set within the context of climate change on a group of low-lying islands in the South Pacific. OCEANIA was featured at the Ji.Hlava New Visions Forum: US Docs in the Czech Republic last October. Zimmerman was most recently nominated and awarded a Filmmaker Residency funded by Theoria Foundation, Woodstock Film Festival and Gigantic Pictures and spent the month of May working with Barbara Kopple, Alex Smith and Yoruba Richen in Woodstock, New York.

Godfrey Reggio, Executive Producer (US)

Godfrey Reggio is a pioneer of a film style that creates poetic images of extraordinary emotional impact for audiences worldwide. Reggio is prominent in the film world for his QATSI trilogy, essays of visual images and sound that chronicle the destructive impact of the modern world on the environment. Reggio, who spent 14 years in silence and prayer while studying to be a monk, has a history of service not only to the environment but to youth street gangs, the poor, and the community as well.

Koyaanisqatsi (1983), Reggio’s debut as a film director and producer, is the first film of the QATSI trilogy. The title is a Hopi word meaning “life out of balance.” Created between 1975 and 1982, the film is an apocalyptic vision of the collision of two different worlds–urban life and technology versus the environment. The musical score was composed by renowned composer Philip Glass. Powaqqatsi (1988), Reggio’s second film, conveys a humanist philosophy about the earth, the encroachment of technology on nature and ancient cultures, and the splendor that disappears as a result. The film focuses on the so-called modern way of life and the concept of the Global Village, entwining the distinctive textures of ancient and so-called Third World cultures. Powaqqatsi was co-written, co-produced and directed by Reggio and had music composed by Philip Glass between 1985 and 1987. In 1991 Reggio directed Anima Mundi (1991), a film commissioned by Bulgari, the Italian jewelry company, for the World Wide Fund for Nature, which used the film for its Biological Diversity Program. Accompanied by the music of Philip Glass, the 28-minute Anima Mundi is a montage of intimate images of over seventy animal species that celebrates the magnificence and variety of the world’s fauna.

Guetty Felin, Producer (US)

Guetty Felin is a filmmaker, writer, and producer of documentaries and narrative films. A native of Haiti, she grew up in New York and came of age cinematically in Paris while pursuing graduate studies in cinema. She went to work in production and distribution of documentary films and directed her first documentary Hal Singer Keep the Music Going. In 2003, she moved to Haiti and became head programmer for Festival Film Jakmel and director of the first cinema workshops, which planted the seeds for the creation of Cine Institute – Haiti’s only film school on the southeastern coast. She is co-founder of the multicultural film company BelleMoon Productions. Her first feature-narrative film Ayiti Mon Amour was the first filmed entirely in Haiti by a Haitian-born female director. It premiered in Toronto, travelled in over 40 festivals around the world, and was Haiti’s first ever entry for the Best Foreign Language Film Category for the 2018 Academy Awards. Guetty is the founder of “Les Lumieres du Sud” a cinematic encounter in the South of Haiti. Guetty most recently produced critically acclaimed nonfiction feature, Seeking Mavis Beacon, in association with Neon Films which premiered at Sundance in 2024. She is currently producing the nonfiction hybrid film, Lights of Passage, by Yeelen Cohen inspired by Souleymane Cissé, one of the Godfather’s of African cinema.

Sara Dosa, Creative Consultant (US)

Sara Dosa is an award-winning documentary director and producer based in San Francisco, California whose work centers on the human relationship to both economy and ecology. Her most recent feature, Fire of Love (2022), premiered at Sundance, was acquired by National Geographic and was nominated for an Academy Award. Dosa’s feature directorial debut, THE LAST SEASON made its World Premiere in Competition at the 2014 San Francisco International Film Festival where it took home a Golden Gate Award and went on to tour the national and international festival circuit. THE LAST SEASON was nominated for an Indie Spirit Award, was acquired by PBS for national broadcast and by First Run Features for its 2015 theatrical release. Most recently, she produced SURVIVORS, about Ebola in Sieera Leone (POV 2018), co-produced AN INCONVENIENT SEQUEL: TRUTH TO POWER (Sundance 2017, Paramount Picture 2017) and produced the award-winning AUDRIE & DAISY (Sundance 2016, Netflix Originals 2016) about teenage sexual assault and bullying, which premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival and was acquired by Netflix Originals. Dosa graduated from Wesleyan University holds a joint Masters in Anthropology and International Development Economics from the London School of Economics.

Lyn Collie, Associate Producer (New Zealand)

Lyn Collie is an award-winning filmmaker, digital content producer and writer with more than a decade in independent documentary. Lyn’s producing credits include the multi-award-winning Pacific climate change feature ‘There Once was an Island: Te Henua e Nnoho’ (2010), and feature ‘Crossing Rachmaninoff’ (2015). ‘There Once was an Island’ screened in more than 120 festivals world-wide, won 12 awards and has been broadcast in almost every major territory, including on Arte, Al Jazeera and PBS. Lyn has been involved in the production of multiple documentaries by female directors, including Annie Goldson, Briar March and Rebecca Tansley. She taught videography to students at the University of Auckland Business School for seven years, where she was also awarded for innovation in educational video production. She has a BA with Honours in Cultural Anthropology and a Masters with Honours in Documentary Directing. Currently Lyn runs Craft Media Workshop, a content production company based in Auckland, New Zealand.

Tekinati Ruka, Co-Writer/Creative Producer (Republic of Kiribati)

Tekinati Ruka is a native of Kiribati with extensive knowledge of the island’s shifting landscape as well as indigenous cultural traditions. She teaches workshops across the 33 islands on traditional lifeways including planting/growing techniques in high heat/low rain conditions. She is a singer and storyteller within her village community and a main subject within the story of OCEANIA.

Charles Langley, Special Cinematography (Republic of Kiribati)

Charles is a native of Kiribati and has extensive, intimate knowledge of the dynamic atoll landscape and the interrelated ocean tides and currents. In addition to his material practices of fishing and traditional building/carpentry, hIs innate sense of visual composition brings an invaluable and unique cinematic perspective. His voice is an impotent thread within the narrative of the film—and his visual explorations from above the ground and below the sea—bring important artistic and cultural texture, depth and dimension.

Shahzad Ismaily, Composer (US)

Shahzad Ismaily was born to Pakistani immigrant parents. A largely self-taught composer and musician, he plays the electric and double bass, guitar, banjo, accordion, flute, drums, various percussion instruments and various analog synthesizers and drum machines. Ismaily has recorded or performed with an incredibly diverse assemblage of musicians, including Laurie Anderson, Yoko Ono, Damien Rice, Marc Ribot, Ben Frost, Bonnie Price Billy, Raz Mesinai and Burnt Sugar. He has composed regularly for dance and theater, including fMin Tanaka, the Frankfurt Ballet. His film scores include the critically acclaimed  Frozen River, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival  and POV’s Television Series produced El General.

Sean van Doornum, Composer (Australia)

Seán van Doornum is a Composer, Performer, Producer and Multi-Instrumentalist. A graduate of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music with a Bachelor’s in Music Composition and from the Film Scoring Academy of Europe with a Master’s in Film Scoring. Seán lived and worked as a professional musician in New York City for over a decade, managing recording studios, performing shows and producing artists, and creating the original music for several Theatre productions. Seán has composed the original scores for many Theatre and Film Productions in Australia and abroad, predominately within the US. Some notable productions include the award-winning Australian premiere of Stephen Jefrey’s play ‘The Libertine’ through Sport For Jove Theatre Company, a new Theatre production by Venezuelan playwright Lupe Gehrenbeck titled ‘Alice In Teresa’s Land’, which premiered at The Producer’s Club in NYC, in November 2013, in 2017 ‘The Incredible Here And Now’ at Riverside Theatre in Parramatta, and ‘DNA’ for Sydney Fringe, in 2018 a new Australian play by Caleb Lewis, ‘The River At The End Of The Road’, through Sport For Jove Theatre Company, and in 2019 the score and sound design for the award-winning production of ‘Oracles & Miracles’ in the Hollywood Fringe Fest. Recently Seán composed the score for a new film for New York-based production company Form & Pressure Films and composed for 44-piece String Orchestra for the feature-length Documentary ‘Oceania’ by Natalie Zimmerman. Some notable awards include: the 2006/2007 Allan Zavod Jazz/Classical Composition Award, 2010 ArtStart Grant from the Australian Arts Council, 2011 finalist in the APRA Professional Development Award, 2022 awarded the Conrad Pope scholarship for Film Scoring. Seán has also released 6 albums of original songs under the artist name eüsh

Michael Hofacre, Editor (US)

Michael Hofacre (Editor) has edited both independent features (Shelter, Frankie Go Boom, and Winter in the Blood) and edited/co-produced several feature-length documentaries (Walking Man, Political Animals, and Soros). He has been part of the editing team on over forty film and television projects, working for directors such as Milos Forman, Michael Mann, Jodie Foster, Danny DeVito, Tran Anh Hung, Judd Apatow and Adam McKay. As a theatre director, plays he has directed include productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Taming of the Shrew, Much Ado About Nothing, and Twelfth Night. He lives in Los Angeles and is a graduate of the University of Nebraska. 

Tanua Pine, Cultural Advisor (Republic of Kiribati)

Tanua is a poet, songwriter and educator. He brings first-hand knowledge of traditional I-Kiribati cultural values paired with a deep understanding of how these beliefs and practices are situated within a greater contemporary context—both within and beyond the Island Nation of Kiribati. His perspective provides an essential narrative element leading the inquiry within OCEANIA . Currently Tanua serves as General Secretary for the Kiribati Teachers’ Union and is an active board member of Kiribati Associations of Non-Governmental Organizations (KANGO).

Advising Scholars:

South Pacific, Katerina Teaiwa, PhD (Australia)

Teaiwa is of Banaban, I-Kiribati and African American descent. She has a background in anthropology and Pacific Island Studies and led a research project in Ocean Island (Banaba) in Kiribati—where the local population was relocated to Fiji after phosphate mining rendered the landscape uninhabitable. She is author of the book, Consuming Ocean Island: Stories of People and Phosphate from Banaba.

North Pacific, Joanna Macy, PhD (US)

Macy is a scholar of Buddhism, general systems theory, and deep ecology. A respected voice in the movements for peace, justice, and ecology, she interweaves her scholarship with five decades of activism. The author of more than twelve books, she is the root teacher of the Work That Reconnects, a ground-breaking theoretical framework and workshop methodology for personal and social change.