The Filmmakers
Madeleine Gavin
DIRECTOR
Primarily an editor, Madeleine works in both narrative and documentary film. She edited Julius Onah's, LUCE starring Naomi Watts and Octavia Spencer (Sundance Film Festival, three Independent Spirit Award nominations). Before that, she finished her second collaboration with director Reed Morano on I THINK WE'RE ALONE NOW starring Peter Dinklage and Elle Fanning (Special Jury Prize for Outstanding Filmmaking, Sundance). Her work on Rebecca Cammisa's Academy Award-nominated documentary WHICH WAY HOME earned her an Emmy nomination. She and Cammisa recently completed the HBO documentary, ATOMIC HOMEFRONT, which received a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award.
Madeleine teaches in the Graduate Film program at Columbia University and is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures.
ALLYSON LUCHAK
PRODUCER
Allyson Luchak is an Emmy award-winning film producer of feature documentaries. Her credits include programming for PBS, CNN Films, HBO, including several films for Academy Award winning director Jean-Xavier deLestrade. She produced The Staircase, which The New York Times described as “a masterpiece”, premiered at IDFA and has been broadcast in over 65 countries. Her film Pet Crimes which was made for HBO, was winner of the 2013 Television Academy Honors Award for “Television with a Conscious.” Recently Allyson was a story producer on Human, directed by Yann-Arthus Bertand, Academy Award winner Alex Gibney’s Zero Days, which premiered at the 2016 Berlin Film Festival and produced City of Joy currently on it’s festival run before airing on Canal +. Her film, Enlighten Us premiered at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival and is currently airing worldwide on Netflix following it’s international broadcast.
Allyson is currently producing This is Not A Movie, directed by Sundance Alumni Yung Chang, for the National Film Board of Canada along with other international co-producers and developing a documentary series with Gaumont Television, producers of the Netflix series Narcos.
Taylor Krauss
Cinematographer
Taylor’s camera work is featured in dozens of films including Eugene Jarecki’s THE KING and THE HOUSE I LIVE IN; David France’s THE DEATH AND LIFE OF MARSHA P JOHNSON; Edet Belzberg’s WATCHERS OF THE SKY; Matthew O’Neill & Perri Peltz’ ALTERNATE ENDINGS and four seasons of AXIOS ON HBO; Rory Kennedy’s WITHOUT A NET; and Ken Burns & Lynn Novick’s THE VIETNAM WAR.
As the founder of VOICES OF RWANDA, an archive dedicated to filming video testimonies of rescapés for use in memorialization, research, and genocide education; and VOICES OF YEZIDI, an archive established to document the 2014 Genocide Against the Yezidi by ISIS; Taylor has been engaged in issues of genocide, oral history, and ethnography, and is a member of the advisory board of The Yale Genocide Studies Program.
Taylor received the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for journalism work in the DR Congo, and brings more than a decade of experience in the Great Lakes Region of Africa to bear with their work on CITY OF JOY.
Lisa Rinzler
Additional Cinematographer
Lisa Rinzler has been Director of Photography on the feature films POLLOCK, MENACE II SOCIETY, TREES LOUNGE, THREE SEASONS, among others. Rinzler was awarded the Independent Spirit award for THREE SEASONS and MENACE TO SOCIETY. She was awarded an Emmy for THE SOUL OF A MAN directed by Wim Wenders.
Ms.Rinzler ’s documentary work includes ROBERT FRANK DON'T BLINK, MAE MAXIMA CULPA and Alex Gibney's SILENCE IN THE HOUSE OF GOD as well as the New York section of BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB. Ms. Rinzler has worked with Martin Scorcese and David Tedeschi on 50 YEAR ARGUMENT and is currently shooting Wim Wenders's new documentary with Pope Francis. She was Additional Camera on NO DIRECTION HOME about Bob Dylan and PUBLIC SPEAKING about Fran Liebowitz.
Tony Bensusan
Production Sound Recordist
Tony has been in film for more than 35 years, primarily as a sound recordist. His work has spanned everything from narrative and documentary film to work with various foreign news services and corporate and ad agency work. Tony is of South African descent and, since the release of Nelson Mandela, most of his work has been concentrated around social documentary in various African countries.