The Filmmakers

  • Justine Nagan, Producer/Director

    Justine is currently directing Typeface, while also working as Kartemquin Films’ Director of Communications and Distribution. She recently worked as the Associate Producer on Kartemquin’s award-winning documentary, Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita, which aired on PBS’ Independent Lens in January 2008, and screened at several festivals around the world in 2007. She is also a Producer on Kartemquin’s documentary in development, An All American City. Prior to these projects, she worked with Kartemquin on development of the series The Learning Chronicles while earning her Master’s Degree in the Humanities with an emphasis on Cinema and Media Studies from the University of Chicago in 2004. Other recent Chicago experience includes working as a Theatre Manager at the Cadillac Palace and Thorne Auditorium for the Chicago International Film Festival and as a summer Fellow for The HistoryMakers®, an African-American video oral-history archive.

    Before moving to Chicago, she produced and directed promotional spots for Public Television, directed the post-production department for a small media firm and worked for various other companies ranging from M&C Saatchi in Sydney, Australia to Michael Feldman’s Whad’Ya Know? on National Public Radio. Justine received her Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 2000 in Film and Journalism.

  • Maria Finitzo, Executive Producer

    Maria Finitzo has been an award-winning filmmaker for 20 years. She is a long time associate of Kartemquin Films and recently finished, Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita. Her most well-known film, 5 GIRLS, is a feature length documentary film that delves into the hearts and minds of five remarkable young women. Maria has been a producer and writer for the PBS science series The New Explorers. She has produced and directed a variety of educational and broadcast programs including WHALES, an episode of the National Audubon Society’s Audobon’s Animal Adventures. The series was awarded the ACE CABLE AWARD for Best Children’s Series. Maria also directed and produced a two-part special titled On the Brink…Doomsday for The Learning Channel and Towers Productions.

  • Gordon Quinn, Executive Producer

    President and founding member of Kartemquin Films, Gordon Quinn has been making documentaries for nearly 40 years. He is currently executive producing several Kartemquin films including Typeface, Terra Incognita, Prisoner of Her Past, In the Family and Milking the Rhino. Gordon’s early work includes: The Chicago Maternity Center Story (1976), Taylor Chain I: Story In A Union Local (1980), Taylor Chain II: A Story Of Collective Bargaining (1984), and The Last Pullman Car (1983).

    Kartemquin’s best-known film, Hoop Dreams (1994) was executive produced by Gordon. Recent works include Stevie (2002), for which Gordon, who was the film’s executive producer, producer and cinematographer, won the Cinematography Award at the Sundance Film Festival, 5 Girls (2001), Refrigerator Mothers (2002),and Vietnam Long Time Coming (1999) the story of disabled and able-bodied Vietnamese and American veterans on a journey of reconciliation. Broadcast on NBC, the film won a National Emmy and the Director’s Guild of America’s award for Best Documentary. Additionally, Gordon executive produced The New Americans (2004) and directed the Palestinian segment of this award winning seven-hour PBS series. With Jerry Blumenthal, he also recently produced Golub, Late Works are the Catastrophes (2005), a documentary on art, politics and the media.

  • Thomas Bailey, Director of Cinematography

    Thomas Bailey is an independent filmmaker, teacher and community activist in Chicago, where he works with urban youth as the lead artist/video instructor for Community TV Network. Thomas also writes, produces, and photographs both narrative and documentary videos for Talking Walls Productions. He completed his graduate studies at the University of Chicago, where his thesis project, a documentary entitled “Namesake,” won the Catherine Ham Memorial Award for Excellent Creative Work.

  • Elizabeth Kaar, Editor

    After Liz Kaar graduated from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 2005, she moved to Chicago and began her relationship with Kartemquin Films. At Kartemquin she learned the power of documentary film to convey meaningful ideas to the world, and how to go about sculpting them in the editing room. She is currently editing Kartemquin’s work-in-progress, Typeface, as well as acting as the assistant editor on two Kartemquin projects, In The Family, and Milking the Rhino. Recent projects also include assistant editing Kartemquin’s Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita and working as one of the producers for Kartemquin’s recent DVD releases including, Home for Life and Vietnam Long Time Coming. She also does freelance assistant editing and editing around Chicago.

  • Starr Marcello, Associate Producer

    Starr Marcello has been a freelance film writer for several years, contributing most recently to the Encyclopedia of Documentary Film (Routledge, 2005), and the Journal of Film and Television (her article “Performance Design: An Analysis of Film Acting and Sound Design” will appear in the Spring/Summer 2006 forthcoming issue). She has worked as a grantwriter and editor for the Chicago Film Archives and is an annual filmmaking and screenwriting judge at the NYC Midnight Movie Making Maddness film competition in New York City. She received her BA in Film Studies from Wesleyan University and her MA in Cinema and Media Studies from the University of Chicago.

  • Brendan Kredell, Researcher/Photographer

    Brendan Kredell has called Chicago home since 2003, and is currently pursuing his PhD. at Northwestern University. He earned his master’s degree in film studies (from the University of Chicago, 2004) and directed his first feature (You Made Me Love You, forthcoming). His photography has appeared in Smithsonian and has been recognized by the Washington Post Foundation. He currently teaches film studies at Harold Washington College and works as a programmer and researcher at the Chicago Historical Society.

  • Zak Piper, Sound Design

    Zak Piper is currently the Director of Production for Kartemquin Films and has done sound work on their current projects In the Family and Terra Incognita. He also has done freelance sound for countless other domestic and international productions. Previously for Kartemquin Films, he served as Post Production Manager, Audio Mixer and Assistant Editor on the acclaimed PBS documentary mini-series The New Americans. Zak also served as Post-Production Assistant on the feature-length documentary MC5: A True Testimonial and as Post Production Technical Advisor on the feature-length documentary Reel Paradise. Most recently, he worked as Assistant Editor on Kartemquin’s Golub: Late Works are the Catastrophes. Prior to Kartemquin, he collaborated with four other artists from the Chicago Public Art Group to create the city’s largest mosaic, now installed at the Roosevelt Street CTA station. Zak graduated from Columbia College in 2001.

  • Kartemquin Films, Production Company

    Kartemquin Films, a 501 (c) 3 not-for-profit, has been producing high-impact documentary films on a variety of subjects from its Chicago studio for the past 40 years. Kartemquin is a home for independent filmmakers developing documentary as a vehicle to deepen our understanding of society through everyday human drama. With five films currently in production, Kartemquin continues to act as a trusted bridge between communities and the media, to foster the growth of passionate new filmmaking voices, and to advocate for the importance of strong local and public media. Kartemquin’s films have won prizes at festivals throughout the world and have been broadcast nationally and internationally to critical acclaim. Our best-known film, Hoop Dreams, won nearly every major critics award and journalism prize in 1995. Kartemquin¹s most ambitious project, the seven-hour series The New Americans, enjoyed extraordinary reception from both American and international critics as well as the prestigious International Documentary Association Best Limited Series Award in 2004. With a record number of films currently in development and production, Kartemquin is poised to continue this legacy for years to come. Additionally, Kartemquin was one of eight international recipients of the 2007 MacArthur Awards for Creative and Effective Institutions.

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