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The Filmmakers

The Filmmakers

Camilla Becket

Camilla Becket

Producer/Director

Camilla grew up in South Africa and worked in the anti-apartheid movement. After college, she managed outreach and communications for independent publishers who originated works by anti-apartheid intellectuals and artists, including Nobel Laureates Nelson Mandela, Nadine Gordimer, and J.M. Coetzee. She launched Becket Films with Jim Becket with a mission to focus on international environmental issues, social justice, and health. Camilla has co-produced several Becket Films projects, including the award-winning Sons of Africa, and films for the Religion, Science, and Environment series about besieged water bodies around the world that feature leading environmentalists and climate change activists as well as religious and indigenous leaders.

Jim Becket

Jim Becket

Producer/Director

Jim brings a varied career to his filmmaking: developmental economist, human rights lawyer, journalist, and author. As Director of Public Information for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Jim made several films about international refugee problems around the world. Since then he has co-produced several documentaries on contemporary environmental issues, including The Green Patriarch, The Amazon: The End of Infinity, The Arctic: The Consequences of Human Folly, and El Misterio del Capital de los Indigenas Amazonicos. Jim’s most recent film was the multi-award-winning Sons of Africa. Jim’s awards include festival Best Film awards, two Humanitas Awards, and a George Foster Peabody award.

FREDERIQUE VAN DER WAL

FREDERIQUE VAN DER WAL

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER

Frederique took her global success in fashion and beauty and built a career in print, film, television, business, and activism. She’s appeared in the stage production of The Vagina Monologues and also on numerous TV programs, including Oprah and CNN. She has regularly worked with organizations involved in the environment and women’s empowerment. Her many television credits include TLC’s Cover Shot and specials for the Discovery Network. For A&E, she created and hosted HomeGrown Makeover which showcases how we can use plants and flowers to transform living spaces. Widely recognized as a skilled entrepreneur, Frederique has been a guest lecturer at Harvard University and is the recipient of the Marie Claire Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

 Jim Whitney

Jim Whitney

Producer/Camera

Jim attended the Brooks Institute of Photography and LA’s USC Film School where he graduated cum laude. He began his career at A&M and EMI records as Director of Music Videos. Since then Jim has worked with both Oscar and Emmy-winning directors and has edited numerous documentaries that have appeared on PBS and Network TV. His own awards include the Focus Award for excellence in documentary editing, the Jury Award at the New York Film Festival, and the Special Award at the Ann Arbor Film Festival. He shot and edited five films for the Religion, Science and the Environment Symposia (produced by Becket Films), several of which featured Vandana Shiva. Jim recently co-produced Bridgewalkers, a documentary about indigenous leaders.

Paige Livingston

Paige Livingston

Co-producer

Paige is an award-winning creative executive, producer and director. Her work in documentary, online and the television industry spans over 20 years, from producing the award-winning feature documentary Given (Netflix International) to leading a large creative department as Head of Creative at Disney Online Originals in California. She spent 10 years at ABCTV as Series Producer of Race Around the World and Message Stick and was Executive Producer of Good Game. She lead online program development at ABC2 Digital and Disney Online originals and produced the independent animated feature film, The Adventures of Charlotte and Henry. Paige recently produced Knots, a documentary on forced marriage.

Anthony Ellison

Anthony Ellison

Editor

Anthony launched his film career as a cinematographer on Might Times: The Childrens’ March, which won an Oscar for Best Documentary: Short Subject in 2005. He went on to attend film school at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and since then has edited documentaries for The History Channel and many reality shows for the networks, including The Hunt with John Walsh, which was nominated for an Emmy in 2015.  In the current iteration of his career, Anthony edits documentaries that try to help save industrialized civilization from itself, including Kiss the Ground, an inspiring guide to reversing climate change through the way we grow food.

 Jeff Kanjanapangka

Jeff Kanjanapangka

Archives

A child of the Occupy Wall Street movement, Jeff’s journey to land interviews with Noam Chomsky and Glenn Greenwald sparked his passion for archival research. He has since worked with Academy-Award-nominated filmmakers on documentaries illustrating the stories of activists and athletes from the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and across the Americas. He has provided research for the Electronic Frontier Foundation and The New York Times, and his work has aired on PBS. As a producer, Jeff has worked on films about whistleblowers and drone strike survivors and has consulted for the Chumash indigenous people.

Loreto di Cesare

Loreto di Cesare

Camera

Loreto is an Italian filmmaker, now based in the US, with more than twenty years of international experience, including many years filming in Rome at the Vatican. A talented photographer, Loreto also took most of the portraits of Vandana that we use in our outreach and publicity. He is also an avid cook, and just completed Revolution: Food a documentary featuring Vandana Shiva, about positive changes taking root in our food system. The film focuses on real farmers who are growing and raising real food.

 Chronis Pechlivanidis

Chronis Pechlivanidis

Camera

Best known for his acclaimed travel series, Traveling With Maya, Chronis has captured unforgettable moments in every corner of the planet for numerous international TV networks: From rainforests to deserts, far-flung villages to huge cities—he’s traveled in all the world’s continents and in just about every terrain. His specialties are social, political, and environmental issues and indigenous cultures. Chronis has collaborated with many respected journalists, reporters, and academics and is well known in the global TV and documentary festival scenes. He’s worked with Jim and Camilla on many projects.

 Sara Khwaja Williams

Sara Khwaja Williams

Designer

Sara is a designer and art director who has worked on both digital and print projects for numerous clients in food and retail, most recently for Navitas and Bolthouse Farms. But Sara is about more than design–she joined The Seeds of Vandana Shiva team as a volunteer through Patagonia’s Action Works forum, which connects volunteers with grassroots, labor-of-love projects looking for expertise. Since Sara is passionate about the environment and social justice, not to mention the power of documentary film, she jumped on board to provide her invaluable color and graphic skills to this project with lots more to come.