Filmmakers

Norah Shapiro, Director and Producer

Norah Shapiro is a Minneapolis-based filmmaker who left a decade-long career as a public defender to pursue documentary filmmaking, and hasn’t looked back since. Her first feature film MISS TIBET: BEAUTY IN EXILE (2014) premiered at the 2014 DOC NYC Film Festival. Additional screenings include the 2015 Minneapolis/St. Paul International Film Festival where it received the “Best Minnesota Made Feature Documentary” award; SF DOCFEST; the Asian American International Film Festival in New York City; and others around the globe. She received a McKnight Filmmaking Fellowship in 2012 and has received numerous production and completion funding awards from funders including the Jerome Foundation, and the Minnesota Filmmakers Legacy Fund. She is also currently producing a new documentary about the recently solved 27-year old abduction of Jacob Wetterling, a young Minnesota boy in rural Minnesota and its far-reaching impact.

Jennifer Steinman Sternin, Producer

Jennifer Steinman Sternin is an award-winning Director, Producer and Editor. Her feature documentary films include TIME FOR ILHAN (Producer; Tribeca & HotDocs 2018), DESERT RUNNERS (Director & Producer; IDFA & MVFF, 2013), and MOTHERLAND (Director & Producer; SXSW Audience Award Winner, 2009). She currently has two feature films in development, one about the life of legendary percussionist, SHEILA E., and one featuring GRAMMA & GINGA who, at age 104 and 99, have become the world’s oldest YouTube stars. Jennifer is also the founder of the Bay Area Chapter of The Film Fatales, an international organization of women film directors committed to gender parity in the film industry.

Chris Newberry, Producer and Director of Photography

Chris Newberry is a Minneapolis-based filmmaker whose work has appeared on the Independent Film Channel and the PBS series Independent Lens, as well as a number of local television outlets throughout the country. His work as cinematographer has appeared in A.J. Schnack’s short documentary Speaking is Difficult, which premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival; Norah Shapiro’s award-winning Miss Tibet: Beauty in Exile; his own documentary American Heart, which premiered nationally on the PBS series America Reframed in 2015, and, most recently, Minnesota 13: From Grain to Glass. He is currently in production on a new documentary he is directing about the Jacob Wetterling case as its wide-reaching impacts.

Jen Bradwell, Editor

Jen Bradwell has edited numerous award-winning documentaries. Recent credits include Time for Ilhan (Tribeca, 2018) the web series Waking Dream (PBS, 2018), In the Wake of Ghost Ship (Field of Vision, 2017), Killing the Colorado (Discovery Channel, 2016), Resilience (Sundance, 2015), Paper Tigers (Seattle, 2014), Toxic Hot Seat (HBO, 2013), The Big Picture (Sundance, 2011), Something Ventured (SXSW 2010), and MINE: Taken by Katrina (SXSW Audience Award Winner, 2009). She and her husband, film composer Todd Boekelheide, live in Berkeley, California with their two children.

Eli Olson, Editor

Eli is an Emmy Award winning film editor with a unique storytelling ability. Her extensive experience reaches into the feature film, documentary, non-fiction broadcast, and commercial realms. Eli won an Emmy for her work on My Flesh and Blood for HBO Films, which also won an Emmy for Best Documentary, and the Audience Award and Best Director Prizes at Sundance Film Festival. In 2015, Eli edited The Nine, a non fiction feature by acclaimed photographer Katy Grannan, and Saving Eden, a documentary by Oscar winning director Bill Couturie. Eli also edited the feature films, And Then Came Lola, a comedy, and Mrs. Menendez a feature length documentary for A&E Films. Other non-fiction television credits include Sam Cooke: Crossing Over for PBS’ American Masters, Amelia Earhart and The Boston Strangler for National Geographic, True Life for MTV, Sports Wives for A&E, and Rocket Dogs for Animal Planet.