Jim: The Story of James Foley

FILMMAKERS

BRIAN OAKES, DIRECTOR: “Jim and I were childhood friends from the small rural New Hampshire town of Wolfeboro. I came to the realization that I had a responsibility to tell his story.”

Brian Oakes is a director based in Brooklyn. He began his career in film as a designer and creative director. His motion graphics work has premiered at the Sundance Film Festival with Wordplay, I.O.U.S.A, These Amazing Shadows, and Hot Coffee. Other film and television work includes Freakonomics, Inequality for All, Finding Vivian Maier and Living with Lincoln. Brian received his BFA in communication design from Syracuse University. Jim marks Brian’s feature-film directorial debut.
EVA LIPMAN, PRODUCER: Eva Lipman is a New York based producer. She began her career in broadcast journalism with CNN and the Canadian Television Network (CTV) and participated in coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Her recent credits include PBS’s Emmy Award-winning documentary series 'American Masters' LENNONYC and Inventing David Geffen, Finding Vivian Maier and HBO's Living with Lincoln. Jim is her second feature with Brian Oakes, Kunhardt Films and HBO. Eva grew up in New York City and is a graduate of McGill University.
George Kunhardt, PRODUCER: George Kunhardt, a producer of Jim: The James Foley Story, made his producing and editing debut on Living With Lincoln (HBO, 2015). Recent productions include Nixon By Nixon: In His Own Words (HBO, 2014); The African Americans: Many Rivers To Cross (PBS, 2014); Makers: Women Who Make America (AOL & PBS, 2013/2014); and Finding Your Roots: With Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (PBS, 2013/2014). Previously he worked on Gloria: In Her Own Words (HBO, 2011); Faces of America (PBS, 2011); and Teddy: In His Own Words (HBO, 2009). Kunhardt graduated from Wheaton College as the college’s first film major. George is also the CEO of Goat Tape. He lives in New York City with his wife Jackie.
Teddy Kunhardt, PRODUCER: Teddy Kunhardt is a producer of Jim: The James Foley Story. Previously he served as a producer on Living With Lincoln (HBO, 2015) and Nixon By Nixon: In His Own Words (HBO, 2014). Teddy has worked at Kunhardt Films since 2009 and has been nominated for two Emmy Awards. He helped produce Finding Your Roots with Henry Lewis Gates Jr. (PBS, 2013, 2014, 2015); Makers: Women Who Make America (PBS, 2013, 2014) Gloria: In Her Own Words (HBO, 2011); and Teddy: In His Own Words (HBO, 2009). Kunhardt is a graduate of Skidmore College and the Institute of Culinary Education. He lives in Chappaqua, New York with his wife Sarah and their 2 dogs.
Peter Kunhardt, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Jim is Peter Kunhardt’s tenth film with HBO. He most recently produced Living with Lincoln (HBO, 2015.) Prior to that he produced Nixon by Nixon: In His Own Words. He was an Executive Producer of Finding Your Roots (PBS). He has worked on Faces of America (PBS), Gloria Steinem: In Her Own Words (HBO), Teddy Kennedy: In His Own Words (HBO), African American Lives 1 & 2 (PBS). He has co-authored four companion books including Lincoln: An Illustrated Biography (Knopf and ABC) and Looking for Lincoln (Knopf and PBS). Kunhardt has received five Emmy awards. He lives with his wife Suzy in Chappaqua, New York.
Chris Chuang, WRITER: Chris Chuang is a filmmaker from Holmdel, New Jersey. He has been working with Brian Oakes since 2010. His credits include Living with Lincoln, If You Build It, and Finding Your Roots, among others. He has also written and directed sketch comedy for the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre and Cracked. He currently lives in Brooklyn with his wife and an assortment of animals.
Heather MacDonald, WRITER: Heather MacDonald is a writer and childhood friend of Jim Foley’s. She is a two-time MacDowell Fellow and her plays have been produced and developed in Cambridge at the A.R.T. Institute, and in New York at The New Group, Naked Angels, Atlantic Theater Company and the New York International Fringe Festival. She received her MFA from Columbia University and her BFA from Tisch School of the Arts. Her career in television and digital media includes stints at Sports Illustrated, Chappelle's Show and Damages; currently she is Digital Product Director at Boston.com.
On his frequent visits to NYC, Jim would often crash on Heather’s couch, and spend time debating art and politics, making her laugh, and losing her apartment keys.
Aleks Gezentsvey, EDITOR: Aleks Gezentsvey is an editor based in Brooklyn, New York, where she lives with her husband and two cats. Born and raised in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, she immigrated to the United States at the age of sixteen. After graduating from Purchase Film Conservatory, Aleks worked as a union assistant editor and visual effects editor The Giver, Kill the Messenger, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon II and on independent films with directors such as Hal Hartley Ned Rifle, Meanwhile and Emily Carmichael Stryka. Jim is a film she is proud to have mark her debut as an editor. Aleks aspires to continue to tell stories, real and imagined, through her editing, her own films, and in other mediums. She loves children's books and fairy tales.
Clair Popkin, DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Clair is a New York based cinematographer. He works in all media formats from commercials and films to TV series and documentaries. His recent credits include the HBO documentary film Living With Lincoln where he first collaborated with director Brian Oakes, as well as several segments for the Showtime series Darknet. Other recent projects include commercial work for Spike TV, Apple & American Express. Clair grew up in Maine, where he was introduced to still photography at a young age, printing and processing his own photos at the age of 12. Clair traces his passion for cinematography to his early endeavors with still images. He is a graduate of Ithaca College. Clair is also an avid rock climber and skydive coach.
Dan Romer, COMPOSER: Dan Romer is an award-winning songwriter, music producer and film composer from Brooklyn, NY based in Los Angeles. Romer’s scores include the four-time Oscar-nominated Beasts of the Southern Wild, Tomorrow We Disappear, Digging For Fire, Finders Keepers, Beasts of No Nation, and Mediterranea. Current film projects Gleason and Jim premiere at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. He has produced music for numerous acclaimed artists including A Great Big World and Christina Aguilera, whose single “Say Something,” topped charts worldwide, sold over 6 million copies and won a 2015 Grammy Award.
Saul Simon MacWilliams, COMPOSER: Saul Simon MacWilliams is a Los Angeles based composer, producer and music sound designer raised in York, Maine. Saul has produced and written with numerous indie and major label artists such as A Great Big World, Sawyer Fredericks and Ingrid Michaelson, with whom he also tours as her multi-instrumentalist and music director. Saul has worked closely and extensively with composer Dan Romer on recent films including the Oscar nominated feature Beasts of the Southern Wild, Digging for Fire, Finders Keepers, and Mediterrania and as the music sound designer for the Netflix original Beasts of No Nation. He is joining this year’s Sundance Film Festival as a composer for the documentaries Gleason and Jim alongside Romer.
Osei Essed, COMPOSER: Osei Essed is a New York based composer and songwriter. Alongside Dan Romer, Essed has composed music for The Last Season, Finders Keepers and Jim, which is premiering at this year's Sundance Film Festival. Independent of his collaborations with Romer, he is currently scoring Tower (2016). He is an artist in Residence at NYU’s Clive Davis School of Recorded Music. Since 2003, Essed’s primary performance project is the avant-americana group, The Woes.
J Ralph, SONGWRITER, MUSIC PRODUCER - Original Song “The Empty Chair”: J. Ralph is a two-time Academy Award nominated composer, producer and social activist from New York City who focuses on creating awareness and change through music and film. Over the last 8 years he has written and produced the music for 7 of the Oscar winning/nominated films, including Man On Wire, The Cove, Hell And Back Again, Chasing Ice, Finding Vivian Maier, Virunga and Racing Extinction. He is highly regarded for the original songs he writes and produces for these films including his Oscar nominated song “Before My Time” performed by Scarlett Johansson & Joshua Bell and his Oscar nominated song “Manta Ray,” performed by J. Ralph and Antony Hegarty. His most recent works are the score for the Award winning documentary Meru and the original song “The Empty Chair” for the documentary Jim, which he co-wrote with Sting, who also performs the song. J. Ralph works across multiple genres and mediums and is the only composer to win two consecutive A.I.C.P. awards. Several of Mr. Ralph’s works are included in the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection of film and media in New York City.
Sting, SONGWRITER, PERFORMER - Original Song “The Empty Chair”: Composer, singer, actor, author, and activist Sting was born in Newcastle, England. He moved to London in 1977 to form The Police with Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers. The band released five studio albums, earned six Grammy Awards and two Brits, and was inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003. Since 1989, Sting has released 14 solo albums and received an additional 10 Grammy Awards, two Brits, a Golden Globe, an Emmy, three Oscar nominations, Billboard Magazine’s Century Award, and MusiCares 2004 Person of the Year. A member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, he received the Kennedy Center Honors in December 2014. The Last Ship, his latest release, is inspired by his memories of the shipbuilding community of Wallsend, England, where he was born and raised. He has appeared in more than 15 films and authored two books, including The New York Times best-selling memoir, Broken Music. With wife Trudie Styler, Sting founded the Rainforest Fund in 1989 to protect the world’s rainforests and indigenous people.