Officers

Patricia White, President
Associate Professor of English Literature and Chair of Film and Media Studies at Swarthmore College

Kathryn F. Galan, Secretary
Executive Director, National Assc. of Latino Independent Producers

 

Helen D. Reavis, Vice President

Co-Managing Partner, Reavis Parent Lehrer LLP

Taina Bien-Aime, Vice President
Executive Director, Equality Now

 

Marian Masone, Treasurer
Managing Director of Festivals and Associate Director of Programming, The Film Society of Lincoln Center

 

Board
Claire Aguilar, Vice President of Programming
Independent Television Service (ITVS)

Vanessa Arteaga, Sr. Programming & Production Exec., Wellspring
Tina DeFeliciantonio, Director/Producer
Leslie Fields-Cruz, Grants Manager, National Black
Programming Consortium

Michelle Halsell, CEO and Co-Founder of Missing Pixel

 

 

WMM Staff Page

Claire Aguilar
Vice President of Programming, Independent Television Service (ITVS)
 
Claire Aguilar is the Vice President of Programming at the Independent Television Service (ITVS), which funds, promotes and distributes independently produced programming to public television. At ITVS, she oversees all aspects of program initiatives, including programming strategy, funding calls, peer panel review and funding recommendations. She co-curates the Independent Lens series, a new series of independent programming on PBS which premiered in February 2003. She came to ITVS from KCET/Hollywood as Manager of Broadcast Programming, where she programmed the station’s schedule and managed programming acquisitions. From 1984 to 1991 she was a film programmer at the UCLA Film and Television Archive, one of the nation’s leading exhibition venues for international, documentary and classic Hollywood films. She has curated for the American Film Institute, the Los Angeles Asian American Film and Video Festival, and the Wexner Center for the Arts in Ohio. She has served as a programming consultant and panelist for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Rockefeller Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts, the Pew Fellowships in the Arts and other media and funding organizations. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communications Studies and a Master of Arts in Film and Television Studies from UCLA.

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Vanessa Arteaga
Senior Programming & Production Executive, Wellspring

Vanessa Arteaga is the Senior Programming & Production Executive for Wellspring, managing the companies’ Special Projects strand. Arteaga tracks documentaries in the production and post-production phase securing them as a co-production for distribution through Wellspring’s major channels. Other initiatives include working alongside with Wellspring’ parent company - Genius Products, Inc., on a development slate for their children’s line of programming as well as pursuing content that falls under Wellspring’s wellness strand. Ms. Arteaga has been involved in spearheading and managing various documentary projects, including as of late, the Wellspring acquisition of the documentary film Unknown White Male which chronicles the mesmerizing journey of Doug Bruce, a man who spontaneously loses his memory and has no recollection of his past. Ms. Arteaga has been with Wellspring for eight years in various production and programming capacities. Prior to joining Wellspring, she was positioned at CBS News Productions working on the acclaimed A&E Biography series, and 20th Century with Mike Wallace.

Leslie Fields-Cruz
Grants Manager, National Black Programming Consortium

Leslie A. Fields-Cruz has worked in the independent film and theatre-in-education communities as an actor, producer, director, educator, and administrator. She served as the Membership Director at AIVF, supervised student productions at New York University's Television Center, and is currently serving as the Grants Manager at the National Black Programming Consortium (NBPC). She has also worked for the Creative Capital and the Rockefeller Foundations administrating the Multi Arts Production (MAP) Fund. As the Artistic Director at City Lights Youth Theatre she produced and/or directed several plays and musicals including "Susannah and the Star Thing" by Susan Birkenhead, "Best Friends" by William Holt and Aaron Hagin, "The Wrestling Season" by Laurie Brooks, and the US premiere of "Sparkle Shark" by Philip Ridley. She continues to serve as an artist/teacher having just recently led a 6-week workshop in beginning acting at the Playground Theatre in White Plains. Mrs. Fields-Cruz holds an MA in Cinema Studies from New York University, received her Acting training at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, and holds a BA in Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley. She has served as an panelist/evaluator for ITVS, the New York Department of Cultural Affairs (Cultural Challenge), and ART/NY's Nancy Quinn Fund. She is married and the happy mother of two beautiful girls.

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Kathryn F. Galan
Executive Director, National Association of Latino Independent Producers

Kathryn F. Galan is the Executive Director of the National Association of Latino Independent Producers, a national non-profit arts services organization dedicated to the support and development of Latino and Latina film, television and documentary makers. Now an independent producer, she is Executive Producer of EARLY BIRD SPECIAL, a low-budget black comedy directed by Mark Jean ("7th Heaven") that stars Anita Gillette and Max Perlich, and is also working on a number of other features in progress. Previously, Ms. Galan produced FRENCH KISS with Meg Ryan and Working Title Films, and for two years, partnered with Ryan in Prufrock Pictures at Twentieth Century Fox to develop and produce feature films that examined contemporary themes and issues. Between 1989 and 1993, Ms. Galan was Vice President, Production for Walt Disney Studio's motion picture division Hollywood Pictures and prior to that spent seven years at Atlantic Entertainment Group in acquisitions, purchasing the rights to distribute foreign and independent films in the U.S. and Canada. She eventually moved into the role of Senior Vice President, Production, supervising the production and development of hip low-budget, high-quality features, and worked on over twenty movies there. Ms. Galan graduated Magna Cum Laude from Amherst College in 1980 as an English major. She moved to Los Angeles to study film and television history, aesthetics and critical theory at UCLA. She grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan and is the mother of a son Wynn Vicente, born in 1995. She is a past board member of the AFI Third Decade Council and now serves on the Boards of Directors of the International Documentary Association and Women Make Movies.

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Michelle Halsell
CEO and Co-Founder of Missing Pixel

Michelle Halsell is the CEO and a Co-Founder of Missing Pixel. A producer and a filmmaker, Michelle brings over 12 years of experience in building teams and leading projects in exploring new technologies and interactive story telling. Throughout her career, she has developed and led projects for ITVS, the Corporation of Public Broadcasting (CPB), NEH, and Star Schools Grants for the U.S. department of Education. In addition her work as a visual artist has premiered in projects at The Kitchen and 651 Arts. Her ongoing collaborations with award-winning filmmakers, musicians, and Tony nominated performers over the years has led to the development of web sites, CD-Roms, DVDs, digital video projects and interactive installations.  Through Missing Pixel, Michelle continues her goals to create media that explores and tests pre-existing boundaries of new media while reflecting both diversity and innovation. She is equally committed to developing new audiences and addressing issues of accessibility at all points in the production process.  Ms. Halsell received her Masters Degree from the Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) at New York University. She has presented to audiences ranging from Harvard University to PBS Annual conferences in San Francisco and Nashville. Ms. Halsell teaches graduate seminars in Interactive Documentary production and Technology and Social Activism at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

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Marian Masone
Managing Director of Festivals and Associate Director of Programming,
The Film Society of Lincoln Center

Marian Masone is Managing Director of Festivals and Associate Director of Programming for the Film Society of Lincoln Center, producer of the New York Film Festival. She is a member of the selection committee for the New Directors/New Films Festival, which is presented with The Museum of Modern Art in New York. She curates the New York Video Festival and is on the programming committee of the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival. She organizes new and retrospective programs, as well as on-going series such as Image Innovators at the Film Society's Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center. In addition she is on advisory boards for the Boston International Festival of Women's Cinema, the N.Y. Expo of Short Film & Video, and the Hamptons International Film Festival. She previously curated Philadelphia's Festival of Independents, presented programs of American media makers at the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid, and has served on various juries and panels including Art on Film at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Black Maria Film Festival, NYSCA, and the Hamptons International Film Festival. She has a B.A. in Theater from Marymount Manhattan College and an M.A. in cinema studies from NYU and writes on media for various publications.

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Taina Bien-Aime, Vice President
Executive Director, Equality Now
 
Taina Bien-Aime is currently Executive Director of Equality Now, an
international human rights organization working for the rights of girls and
women. She holds a Juris Doctor from New York University School of Law and a
Licence in Political Science from the University of Geneva/Graduate School of
International Studies, Switzerland. She also practiced international corporate
law at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton from 1992 to 1996 and was Director of
Business Affairs/Film Acquisition at Home Box Office from 1996 to 1999.

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Tina DeFeliciantonio
Director/Producer

Tina DiFeliciantonio is a director/producer whose critically acclaimed work has been screened and broadcast in countries throughout the world. Her independent documentaries have garnered numerous top honors, including the Sundance Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary and two National Emmy Awards. In addition to her own films, Tina has worked on a number of independent docs and features, including Mira Nair's Kama Sutra. Support for her work has come from the National Endowment for the Arts, American Film Institute, Independent Television Service, Rockefeller Foundation, Women In Film Foundation, California Council for the Humanities and New York State Council for the Arts. Tina has participated on various panels and juries, and, is a member of The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

Patricia White
Professor, Swarthmore College

Patricia White is Associate Professor of English Literature and Chair of Film and Media Studies at Swarthmore College where she teaches Feminist Film and Media Studies among other courses. She was an intern and later a staff member at Women Make Movies. She's the author of Uninvited: Classical Hollywood Cinema and Lesbian Representability and she is a member of the editorial collective of Camera Obscura.

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