The Team

Nausheen Dadabhoy (DIRECTOR), is a Pakistani-American director and cinematographer whose work spans fiction and documentary. As a cinematographer she has lensed an Oscar nominated live action short film and an Emmy winning feature documentary. Her films have screened at festivals worldwide including Sundance, TIFF, Tribeca, Locarno and have appeared on Netflix, Amazon, HBO and PBS. THE GROUND BENEATH THEIR FEET (2014) — her directorial debut following two Pakistani women who were paralyzed after an earthquake — premiered at IDFA in the first appearance competition. Nausheen has been a Film Independent Project:Involve Fellow, Berlin Talents participant, Firelight Fellow, Chicken & Egg Eggcelerator Lab Fellow, newportFILM Documentary Cinematography Fellow, Soros Equality Fellow and she is currently a Pillars Artist Fellow. She was part of DOCNYC’s inaugural “40 Under 40.” Nausheen is based in NYC, LA and Karachi, Pakistan. She received her MFA in Cinematography from the American Film Institute.

Heba Elorbany (PRODUCER) is an Egyptian-American journalist and filmmaker based in Los Angeles. Her first documentary film, LIFEHOUSE (2017), earned her a DuPont-Crichton Award. She was a researcher and assistant editor on Oscar-nominated short documentary film ST. LOUIS SUPERMAN and has collaborated with award-winning directors, including Lana Wilson (THE DEPARTURE, AFTER TILLER) and Smriti Mundhra (A SUITABLE GIRL). In addition to making documentary films, she produces audio stories and live shows. She’s worked on productions for the New York Times, Viacom, BBC, Gimlet Media, PRX, Radio Ambulante and more. Heba earned her master’s degree in 2017 from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and is currently a senior producer at the Los Angeles Times.

Kristi Jacobson (PRODUCER) is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and storyteller. Some of her recent films include SOLITARY (HBO), Outstanding Investigative Documentary Emmy winner and Independent Spirit Truer Than Fiction Award nominee; Cartel Bank, a one-hour film that aired as part of the Netflix documentary series Dirty Money; Take Back the Harbor (Discovery), co-directed with Roger Ross Williams and produced by Motto Pictures; and A Place at the Table (Magnolia Pictures/Participant Media), winner of IDA’s Pare Lorentz Award, and PGA nominee for best feature.

Sofian Khan (PRODUCER) is the founder of Capital K Pictures, a New York-based production house. His work has appeared on Field of Vision, The Fader, Al Jazeera, PBS, Fusion, NBC and The Atlantic. He is a 2016 MacArthur Documentary Grant recipient for his film THE INTERPRETERS, which was broadcast on PBS' Independent Lens in 2019. His previous film, GAUCHO DEL NORTE (2015), was a Jerome Foundation grant recipient. It aired on PBS’ America ReFramed series. He is a Sundance Creative Producing Fellow (2019) and a DOCNYC “40 Under 40” (2019).

Ben Garchar (EDITOR) started his editorial career on the HBO broadcast and Oscar nominated film, The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant. Since then he’s been fortunate enough to have worked with many of today’s top filmmakers, including Oscar winners Alex Gibney (Sinatra: All or Nothing at All) and Laura Poitras (Field of Vision). Other credits include films that have premiered at Sundance (Kombit), Tribeca (This Time Next Year / Radium Girls), Full Frame (Remote Area Medical), BAMcinemaFest (Feast of the Epiphany) and Camden International Film Festival (Nobody Loves Me).

MARY KOUYOUMDJIAN (COMPOSER) is a composer and documentarian with projects ranging from concert works to multimedia collaborations and film scores. As a first generation Armenian-American and having come from a family directly affected by the Lebanese Civil War and Armenian Genocide, she uses a sonic palette that draws on her heritage, interest in music as documentary, and background in experimental composition to progressively blend the old with the new. She has received commissions from such organizations as the Kronos Quartet, New York Philharmonic, Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Alarm Will Sound, Roomful of Teeth, OPERA America, Beth Morrison Projects, and Bang on a Can. Kouyoumdjian is on composition faculty at Boston Conservatory at Berklee, is a lecturer at Columbia University, is a cofounder of the annual new music conference New Music Gathering, and is proud to have her music published on Schott’s PSNY.

ABER KAWAS (IMPACT PRODUCER & PARTICIPANT) Aber Kawas is a Palestinian American community organizer from Brooklyn New York. She has been working with the Arab and Muslim communities in New York City around policy issues such as immigration reform, unlawful policing and surveillance, as well as advocating against Islamophobia. Aber served as the NYC Advocacy Specialist with the Campaign to Take on Hate under the National Network of Arab American communities, transitioning from her position as Advocacy Director at the Arab American Association of NY. Currently, she has relocated to Johannesburg South Africa to complete an MA focused on Islamic Liberation Theology.