STEPHANIE JOHNES, Director & Producer
Stephanie Johnes is a documentary filmmaker who gravitates toward stories of underdogs and dreamers. With a love of music and movement, she crafts intimate films with a compassionate lens on the human experience.
Stephanie’s directorial debut, “Doubletime”, premiered at SXSW and Tribeca and was acquired by Discovery Films. She served as the Director of Photography for “Venus & Serena”, the Magnolia Pictures and Showtime film about the iconic Williams sisters. Her second film “Maya and the Wave” was ten years in the making.
Rashida Jones is an Emmy-nominated and Grammy award-winning actress, writer, director and producer, best known for her beloved roles on the universally acclaimed, fan favorite sitcoms, Parks and Recreation and The Office.
Meena Harris is the founder and CEO of the Tony-Award winning company Phenomenal Media. She is a #1 New York Times bestselling children’s book author, and the co-founder and general partner of the VC firm Phenomenal Ventures. Meena is also a lawyer and influential activist for gender and racial equity. She most recently co-produced Dylan Mulvaney’s Edinburgh Fringe sensation, Fag hag, and the Tony-Award winning musical Suffs, currently on Broadway.
A primetime Emmy-winning producer, Alexandra Johnes has worked most notably as a producer of big budget feature documentaries with award-winning directors. Her films have premiered at TIFF, Sundance, Tribeca and SXSW, and have received several awards and nominations, including an Oscar nomination for Jehane Noujaim’s “The Square.” Key awards include the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival, the People’s Choice Award at TIFF, the Grierson Award at London Film Festival, the Audience Award at IDFA, an IFTA Academy Award, an IDA award, a DGA award, several Peabody Awards, a News & Documentary Emmy and several Primetime Emmys. Alexandra is Stephanie’s sister.
Julian is an Emmy award-winning filmmaker whose projects have participated at Sundance, Berlin, Toronto, SXSW, Tribeca Film Festivals and have been twice shortlisted for the Academy Awards. His projects have been distributed by Netflix, HBO, Focus, NEON, Paramount, Hulu, and Amazon among others. Producing highlights including “The Crash Reel”, “Clemency”, and “The Lion’s Mouth Opens” have been nominated for numerous awards including the BAFTAs, the Gothams, the DGA and Independent Spirit Awards. Other projects include the PGA award-winning doc series “Defying Gravity: the untold story of women’s gymnastics” and ” Bring Your Own Brigade”, a feature doc directed by Lucy Walker that premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. Julian is partner/founder at Good ‘n Proper, a production and management company, a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences as well as a DJ.
A native of Porto, Portugal, Jorge began filming the giant waves of Nazaré in 2011, with the arrival of Garrett McNamara. They made three films together, and Jorge continued to capture every major swell. His extensive archive of Nazaré provided the foundation for the HBO series 100 Foot Wave. Jorge’s artistic eye, technical capabilities, and love of giant waves is unrivaled in the region.
Jordana Berg has been working as a film editor for over 25 years. During this time she was primarily collaborating with Eduardo Coutinho, considered the most important Brazilian filmmaker of the 20th century. She has taught master classes in Canada, France, Cuba, the US, Argentina and Uruguay, where she was also a mentor in rough cut laboratories. Recently Jordana edited Petra Costa’s “The Edge of Democracy”, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2019 and was nominated for an Academy Award.
Shannon Kennedy is a visual artist, writer and documentary editor. Her award-winning editing credits include “A Walk into the Sea”, “The Trials of Daryl Hunt”, “Prodigal Sons”, “VLAST (POWER)”, “The Canal Street Madam”, “Words of Witness”, “La Camioneta”, “3 Days 2 Nights” and “Bulletproof”. Kennedy also worked as an additional editor on “El General”, “Life 2.0” and “Strong Island”. As a consulting editor, credits include “El Velador”, “Chef Flynn”, “Cutie and the Boxer”, and “Ganden: A Joyful Land”. Her work has screened at premier film festivals and received both critical and popular acclaim. Kennedy has been a fellow as well as and an advisor at the Sundance Institute’s Documentary Edit and Story Lab.
Tamiris Lourenço is a Brazilian editor and assistant editor who has been dedicating herself to documentary film editing since 2011. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Cinema and Audiovisual from Universidade Federal Fluminense and was also a student at the film school Escola de Cinema Darcy Ribeiro (both in Rio de Janeiro). In 2013, she began to work with the well-known Brazilian editor Jordana Berg, first as an assistant and now as an editing partner. Her experience includes films such as “Últimas Conversas” (Eduardo Coutinho, 2015), “Cine Morocco” (Ricardo Calil, 2018), “Legítima Defesa” (Susanna Lira, 2017), “Favela é Moda” (Emílio Domingos, 2019), “Eu sou Carlos Imperial” (Renato Terra and Ricardo Calil, 2016), “Os Arrependidos” (Ricardo Calil, 2021), “Our Land Our Freedom” (Meena Nanji and Zippy Kimundu, 2023), and several others. She also has experience with scripted films, series and video art.