FILMMAKERS

 

HOPE LITOFF, Director, is a 20-year veteran film editor. 32 PILLS is her directorial debut.  She began her career assisting filmmakers such as Ken Burns and Stephen Ives on THE WEST, as well as MISS AMERICA, dir. Lisa Ades (PBS) and BLUE VINYL, dir. Judith Helfand and Dan Gold (HBO). She went on to edit such verite projects as: KEEPER OF THE COHEN, dir. David Gaynes, COLLEGE BOYS LIVE, dir. George O’Donnell, and SEEING SALLY, dir. Peter Goodman, all of which played in multiple film festivals. Her television credits include CHASING THE CROWN (WE), THE WELL SEASONED TRAVELER dir. George Billard (A&E), and INDIE SEX, dir. Lisa Ades (IFP). Hope is confident that her many years as an editor will serve the storytelling and narrative challenges that she will inevitably face directing this personal film.

 

 

BETH LEVISON, Producer, is an independent producer/director and the recipient of two national Emmy Awards and three Peabody Awards.  Prior to 32 PILLS, she produced THE TRIALS OF SPRING (2015), a cross-media project including a feature-length documentary (dir. Gini Reticker) and six shorts about women human rights activists in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Syria, Bahrain and Yemen.  Her independent documentary directorial debut LEMON (2011) about Brooklyn-born poet and performer Lemon Andersen was executive produced by Impact Partners and Russell Simmons, shown at some 40 festivals around the world, selected for U.S. State Department’s 2014 American Film Showcase, and broadcast on PBS stations nationwide. Levison got her start in television working for HBO, PBS, Sundance Channel, and others.  She is on the producing faculty with the MFA program in Social Documentary Film at the School of Visual Arts (SVA), and brings her creative producing expertise to 32 PILLS.

 

TOBY SHIMIN, Editor, began her film career as a sound editor, and switched to picture editing in 1988 when she cut THE CHILDREN’S STOREFRONT, which was nominated for an Academy Award. Since then, she has cut numerous films that have premiered at Sundance, including MARTHA AND ETHEL, A LEAP OF FAITH, MISS AMERICA, OUT OF THE PAST, which won the Audience Award, EVERYTHING’S COOL, BUCK, which also won the Audience Award, and most recently, HOW TO DANCE IN OHIO, which premiered on HBO. She has edited several projects for PBS, including AIDS WARRIORS, SEABISCUIT, for which she received an Emmy nomination, REPORTING AMERICA AT WAR, and LITTLE WHITE LIE.  She edited THREE OF HEARTS: A POST-MODERN FAMILY (Toronto Film Festival premiere), INDIAN POINT (Tribeca Film Festival premiere) and most recently, MAN WITHOUT A MASK for the NEW YORKER PRESENTS series. Toby is a principal of Dovetail Films, is co-curator of the film series, Depot Docs, and brings her incomparable narrative chops to 32 PILLS.

 

DANIEL B. GOLD, Director of Photography, won the 2002 Sundance Excellence in Cinematography Award for his work on BLUE VINYL, which he co-directed and produced. That film also garnered Emmy Nominations for Research and Best Documentary. Gold subsequently co-directed, produced, and shot EVERYTHING’S COOL, about the politics of denial surrounding global warming. It was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance 2007 and won the Audience Award at the Eckerd Film Festival. Currently Gold is shooting several feature docs, including LOVE AND STUFF, dir. Judith Helfand, THE AMICHAI FILM PROJECT, dir. Sandi Dubowski, THE GIRL IN THE PICTURE, dir. Vanessa Roth.  Recent projects include the Netflix 4-part series DAUGHTERS OF DESTINY, dir. Vanessa Roth, GI JEWS: JEWISH AMERICANS IN WORLD WAR II, dir. Lisa Ades, and INDIAN POINT, dir. Ivy Meeropol. Past projects of note include SELFIE, A PLACE AT THE TABLE, KINGS POINT, BORN SWEET, SAINT MISBEHAVIN’, HARLEM STREET SINGER, COMA, and TOOTS. Dan brings not only his seasoned eye, but also his expertise in first person narratives to 32 PILLS.

 

SEAN O’NEIL, Production Sound Mixer, loves working on vérité documentaries but also works in narrative film, episodic television, commercials, music, and digital media.  He was nominated for a Cinema Audio Society (C.A.S.) Award for his work with Sir Paul McCartney. He has spent the large part of his career traveling the world with the British Broadcast Corporation's famed documentary unit.  In addition to his work with multiple BAFTA, Emmy, Sundance, and Golden Globe winners, he has had the privilege of mixing for 10 Academy Award nominated or winning directors. They include the late Mike Nichols and Sydney Pollack in addition to Laura Poitras, Joe Berlinger, Cynthia Wade, Julie Taymor, Liz Garbus, Kirby Dick, Terri Randall and Ellen Goosenberg Kent.  In addition to his overseas work with the BBC, he has worked for Japanese (NHK), Italian (RAI), German (ZDF), Scottish (STV), Irish (RTE), French, Canadian (CBC) and Al Jazeera Television. Domestically he routinely works for PBS, WGBH, WNET, Bill Moyers, Frontline, American Experience, Nova, Discovery and National Geographic programs.

 

T. GRIFFIN, Original Music, is a composer, producer and songwriter based in Brooklyn, New York. He has composed music for over 30 feature-length films with at least one represented at Sundance every year since 2009. Notable titles include festival award winners Life, Animated, The Overnighters, and Welcome to Leith. He composed and performed music for live cinema events with Sam Green, with Jem Cohen and with Esther Robinson that have toured internationally and been presented by BAM's Next Wave Festival, The Barbican, and festivals from Chile to Istanbul including David Byrne's 2015 Meltdown in London. In 2004 he created the score and songs for theater director Anne Bogart's avant garde reimagining of A Midsummer Night's Dream, which toured nationally. As a player and producer he has worked with such luminaries as Patti Smith, Vic Chesnutt, Tom Verlaine and members of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Fugazi and The Ex. He was selected as a fellow at the Sundance Composer's lab in 2008 and has been nominated twice for CinemaEye Honors for original music score.

 

BLUE SPILL, Title Design and Art Direction. Allison Brownmoore is co-founder of London based design/vfx boutique studio Blue Spill, who recently won the SXSW Excellence in Title Design Audience Award for their work on WE ARE X, dir. Stephen Kijak. They have designed titles and in film motion sequences for over 45 films, including thirteen Sundance films, five Academy Award shortlisted features, and BAFTA, Emmy, RTS and Grierson award winners. Selected works include LISTEN TO ME MARLON, dir. Stephen Riley, MY SCIENTOLOGY MOVIE, pres. Louis Theroux, MAN FROM UNCLE, dir. Guy Ritchie, HILLSBOROUGH, dir. Daniel Gordon, MANHUNT, dir. Greg Barker, and STONES IN EXILE, dir. Stephen Kijak.

 

 

 

JOY E. REED, Associate Editor / Animation / VFX, brings over a decade of experience in documentary, and has worked on a number of films that have premiered at Sundance, including BUCK (Audience Award), and HOW TO DANCE IN OHIO for HBO.  Joy is the creative force behind Oh, MY! Productions, and will be giving voice to Ruth through the animation of her personal journals in 32 PILLS.

 

 

 

 

 

 

ADVISORS

 

LISA ADES is a documentary filmmaker who has produced and directed films for PBS and cable television for more than 20 years. Her acclaimed film, Miss America, was funded by the NEH and premiered at Sundance before its broadcast on PBS in 2002. Her previous work includes producing with Ric Burns NEW YORK, a five part, ten-hour series (PBS, 1999), THE WAY WEST, a four-part, six-hour series (PBS, 1995), and THE DONNER PARTY (PBS, 1992). At Orchard Films, she produced and directed numerous films for television including BEAUTY IN A JAR (A&E, 2003), IN THE COMPANY OF WOMEN (IFC, 2004) and FABULOUS! THE STORY OF QUEER CINEMA (IFC, 2006). Her most recent work includes directing a seven part series on the history of the Jews of Syria for the Sephardic Heritage Museum in Brooklyn, NY.

 

RICHARD HANKIN is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and editor.  Most recently, he won an Emmy for his work as Supervising Editor on the groundbreaking, six-part documentary series THE JINX: THE LIFE AND DEATHS OF ROBERT DURST.  CAPTURING THE FRIEDMANS, which Hankin co-produced and edited, won numerous awards, including the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, and an Emmy for Hankin’s editing, and the honor of being named one of the best documentaries of all time by the IDA.  Hankin has served as a Creative Advisor for the Sundance Institute Documentary Editing and Storytelling Lab and is on the faculty of the School of Visual Arts Social Documentary Film program.

 

MICHAEL LEVINE received an Emmy for editing the Oscar-nominated documentary RESTREPO (2010), directed by Sebastian Junger & Tim Hetherington.  He was also the editor on such critically acclaimed films as: Ken and Sarah Burns' CENTRAL PARK FIVE (2012), Liz Garbus’ BOBBY FISCHER AGAINST THE WORLD (2011), Amir Bar-Lev’s MY KID COULD PAINT THAT (2007), Jennifer Venditti’s BILLY THE KID (2007), Vincent Fremont and Shelly Dunn Fremont’s PIE IN THE SKY: THE BRIGID BERLIN STORY (2000), Bennett Miller’s THE CRUISE (1998), and Ken Burns' BASEBALL (1994).

 

DR. KATHLEEN M. PIKE is Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry and Epidemiology at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC). She serves as Director and Scientific Co-Director of the Global Mental Health Program and is Associate Director of the Health and Aging Policy Fellows Program. She is also Senior Supervising Psychologist in the Center for Eating Disorders at CUMC. Dr. Pike earned her undergraduate and master’s degrees at Johns Hopkins University and her doctoral degree at Yale University.

 

Under Dr. Pike’s leadership, the Global Mental Health Program at Columbia University Medical Center is committed to advancing research, training and education across a broad array of programs designed to raise awareness and improve prevention and treatment of mental disorders. The Global Mental Health Program has an established plank committed to engaging the arts to engage communities around these priorities.

 

Dr. Pike has published over 100 articles and book chapters on eating disorders, culture and psychopathology and global mental health, has authored and presented over 150 workshops and lectures and delivered numerous major public addresses, including TEDxTokyo talk: Don’t Call Me Crazy, and has a weekly blog on mental health.

 

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HBO DOCUMENTARY FILMS presents  in association with IMPACT PARTNERS  CHICKEN & EGG PICTURES  CHICAGO MEDIA PROJECT  and  documentary CHANNEL   a LITTLE DARKROOM FILMS production   “32 PILLS:  MY SISTER’S SUICIDE”  executive producers DAN COGAN and REGINA K. SCULLY  co-executive producers STEVE COHEN PAULA FROEHLE and JENNY RASKIN  title and art direction by BLUE SPILL  Animation & GFX by JOY E. REED and JUDD BLAISE  composer T. GRIFFIN  director of photography DANIEL B. GOLD  editor TOBY SHIMIN  producer BETH LEVISON  director HOPE LITOFF   for HBO DOCUMENTARY FILMS: senior producer SARA BERNSTEIN  executive producer SHEILA NEVINS