Andrew James
DIRECTOR, CINEMATOGRAPHER, EDITOR
Andrew James is an independent filmmaker pursuing American stories with an emphasis on character and place. In 2009, he completed Cleanflix, a feature-length documentary about Mormon movie sanitizers re-editing Hollywood films without permission. The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival before screening at festivals across North America such as Sidewalk, Big Sky, Traverse City and Nashville—where it was an audience favorite. The film was distributed by Gravitas Ventures and Passion River, and won Best Documentary at New York United Film Festival. In 2011, Andrew moved to Michigan to begin work on Street Fighting Men, a feature-length documentary ensemble about three men fighting to build a stable life for themselves in post-industrial Detroit. Cited as a "Filmmaker to Watch" by The Independent, Andrew has taken Street Fighting Men to Independent Film Week, the Hot Docs Pitch Forum, the Sundance Documentary Edit and Story Lab, and the Film Independent Documentary Lab. The film also received post-production support from the Sundance Institute and the San Francisco Film Society. Street Fighting Men premiered at IFFBoston in 2017 and screened at festivals such as Big Sky, SF DocFest and Brooklyn—where it took home the Spirit Award—before being distributed by First Run Features. In 2018, Andrew completed Community Patrol, a short, observational portrait of neighborhood self-policing through the eyes of a long-time Detroit activist and community organizer. The black and white companion piece to Street Fighting Men debuted at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival where it won the Best Mini Doc Award. It also won the Special Jury Prize for Documentary Short Film at IFFBoston and was an official selection at festivals such as True/False, Ashland, Traverse City, Hot Springs and Camden. Andrew currently lives with his wife and frequent collaborator, Jolyn Schleiffarth, in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Sara Archambault
PRODUCER
Sara Archambault is the Program Director at the LEF Foundation, a private foundation supporting compelling new documentary film production by New England-based directors, and Programmer/Co-founder of the award-winning documentary film series The DocYard at the historic Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, MA. Sara has an extensive professional history in production, programming, and foundation work. She was Executive Director of the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities, Managing Producer for Ebb Pod Productions on the Emmy-nominated documentary Traces of the Trade: A Story From the Deep North, and Producer with Christopher Lydon’s radio program Open Source. Sara is producing the feature documentary Street Fighting Men which has received support from IFP Week's Spotlight on Documentary, Hot Docs International Pitch Forum, Film Independent Documentary Lab, San Francisco Film Society and the Sundance Documentary Fund. Other film projects in development include JP Sniadecki’s (Iron Ministry, Foreign Parts) Rainbow Farm and Sierra Pettengill’s (Town Hall, The Reagan Show) Riotsville, USA. She is frequently an advisor, juror, moderator, and panelist with a number of film festivals foundations including RIDM, Chicken & Egg Pictures and the National Endowment for the Arts. Sara is a 2013 Sundance Creative Producers Lab Fellow and was sited among the "Ten to Watch" in 2013 by The Independent. She has a BFA from Syracuse University’s in Film, an MA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Cultural Studies, and studied radio production at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in Portland, ME.
Katie Tibaldi
PRODUCER
Katie Tibaldi is a writer, director and producer born and raised in Michigan and currently living and working in New York City. She has worked in professional capacities for NBC, CBS, ABC, Showtime, MTV Networks, the NBA, New York University, Sony Pictures and as a Manager for both DOC NYC and the Traverse City Film Festival. Katie has worked on several films, including the award-winning documentary, Courting Condi, and the 2016 award-winning film series We The Voters: 21 Films for the People, where she produced both comedy and documentary shorts. Between working on shows such as Broad City, Nurse Jackie and Damages, Katie has already worked on over 300 episodes of television. Katie is currently producing Street Fighting Men, working on truTV's new comedy series At Home With Amy Sedaris and directing the independent half-hour pilot Ian Owes U. She is also the writer, director and executive producer of Seeking Sublet, a comedy series with 9 full episodes debuting later in 2017. The series has been showcased by MovieMaker Magazine, Script Magazine and Funny or Die, and has been an Official Selection at Brooklyn Web Fest, Katra Film Series and Cleveland International Film Festival. For her work on Street Fighting Men, Katie was named a 2013 "10 to Watch" filmmaker by The Independent. Street Fighting Men, which has gained support from the Sundance Institute, Film Independent, San Francisco Film Society and IFP, had its World Premiere at IFFBoston on April 30, 2017. Katie has an MFA and BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she graduated with multiple awards. While Katie currently works in NYC, she makes time to be back in Michigan whenever she can.
Zachary Saginaw (SHIGETO)
COMPOSER
The music of Zach Saginaw, who records as Shigeto, has always cross-wired of a host of different musical influences. His EPs Semi-Circle and What We Held Ontoexplored his grandmothers experience from a US internment camp through ambient, beat-driven tracks, using samples of his grandmothers voice. His debut album Full Circle was a culmination of these EPs, employing obsessive field recording and meticulous percussion to create sumptuous instrumental hip-hop. 2012s sophomore album Lineage was a musical journey through his heritage set to the sounds of jazz, hip-hop, funk and folk. And 2012’s No Better Time Than Now was an album about living in the moment, with songs that seemed to be harbingers of change and immediacy. In the years since No Better Time Than Now, Shigeto’s experience as a musician has only deepened. He recorded tracks for the Detroit rapper ZelooperZ, and performed with jazz legend Dave Douglass’ High Risk Project.
Jason Tippet
EDITOR
Jason Tippet grew up in Santa Clarita, California where he went on to graduate from California Institute of the Arts in 2009. He directed a short documentary called Thompson during his final year at CalArts that played Sundance and won the Jury Award at SXSW. Shortly after that he began filming his first feature documentary called Only the Young (POV 2013). Jason and his producer Joe Callander were named 25 New Faces in Filmmaker Magazine in 2012 and 2014. Jason recently finished working on season three of Drunk History for Comedy Central and is now editing Davy Rothbart's new film for Beachside Pictures.
Dennis Przywara
CO-PRODUCER
Dennis Przywara, born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, has been producing creative content for over 17 years working for clients such as PBS, Disney, CNN, Nike, and the BBC and with directors such as Ridley and Tony Scot, Spike Jonze and Jonathan Demme. He went on to direct his first feature, Starwoids, a stranger than fiction documentary about Star Wars fans and their six week, line-waiting quest to see The Phantom Menace. The film won top honors for best documentary at NoDance Film Festival and can be seen on Netflix and DVD. Dennis also co-produced and edited Jam, a documentary about the fast track world of roller derby which premiered at South by Southwest, winning the grand jury prize for documentary. Jam can be seen on the Sundance Channel and Netflix. Dennis is also a long time journalist, writing for Film Threat and other news and entertainment media.
Jamila Wignot
CO-PRODUCER
Jamila Wignot is an award-winning Brooklyn-based filmmaker. Her body of work includes the Emmy-nominated Makers: Women in Business; The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross, hosted by Henry Louis Gates, which won a Peabody, duPont, Emmy, and NAACP awards; Town Hall a feature-length co-production with ITVS about the Tea Party movement; and for AMERICAN EXPERIENCE the Peabody Award-winning, "Triangle Fire" and Emmy-nominated "Walt Whitman." Wignot’s producing credits include “The Rehnquist Revolution,” the fourth episode of WNET’s series The Supreme Court which was an IDA Best Limited Series winner and Street Fighting Men, a character-driven documentary about the daily lives of three men surviving in the neighborhoods of post-industrial Detroit. Her most recent film, A Stray (SXSW ’16), was produced for Sundance Award-winning director Musa Syeed and tells a coming-of-age story of a Somali refugee who discovers a sense of himself and his place in the world through an unexpected friendship with a stray dog. She is currently producing a film about Chris Rock's 1996 special Bring the Pain, directed by W. Kamau Bell.
Brandon Proctor
SOUND EDITOR & RE-RECORDING MIXER
Brandon Proctor is a Sound Designer and Re-recording Mixer who joined the Skywalker Sound team in 1998. He graduated from San Francisco State University with a broadcasting degree while working at the renowned The Plant Studios in Sausalito (known for Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours and Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life) and Coast Recorders in San Francisco. He is also a multi-instrumentalist who has toured with bands across America and Europe. His filmography includes Borat, Bruno, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Shortbus, Take Shelter, Mud, Finding Neverland, and A Most Violent Year. In 2014, he was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Sound for JC Chandor’s All is Lost. He most recently finished mixing The Walk, directed by Robert Zemeckis and Creed, directed by Ryan Coogler.
Phil Foster
Executive Producer
Phil Foster grew up on Philip Street in Detroit, less than a mile from the Jefferson-Chalmers neighborhood featured in Street Fighting Men. His father is a retired Detroit Police sergeant who patrolled the nearby neighborhoods by helicopter for over 20 years. Phil has always had a passion for arts and entertainment. After completing his Bachelor of Arts at University of Michigan, he formed Generic Productions, a theatrical ensemble, with four of his closest high school friends. In 2004, Phil moved to NYC to be associate producer for documentary filmmaker Mario Diaz. In 2011, he co-founded Sleeping Bear Films and was executive producer of the short film Henley, which was an official selection at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and won Grand Jury Prize for Best Short Film at the 2011 Carmel Film and Arts Festival. Also in 2011, Phil built a team of impassioned filmmakers and traveled to Africa to document the plight of the young girls of Kenya – which often consists of poverty, disease, a lack of education and abandonment – and the hope that resides within that desperate reality. Phil is currently Associate Creative Director at Campbell Ewald in Detroit.