Peter Bratt/Writer/Director/Producer
PETER BRATT (Director, Writer, Producer) is a Rockefeller Fellow, a Peabody Award winner, an Emmy-nominated film producer, writer and director, and a social justice activist. He wrote, produced and directed Dolores, a feature documentary about civil rights icon Dolores Huerta that was executive produced by legendary musician Carlos Santana. Dolores debuted at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and has won numerous awards, including a 2019 Peabody Award and a Critics’ Choice Award.
Up next for Bratt is The Black Rooster, a feature he wrote and is slated to direct and produce under his 5 Stick Films banner, alongside his brother Benjamin Bratt and Alpita Patel. In 2009 Bratt and his brother Benjamin produced La Mission, a feature he also wrote and directed. La Mission premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, received the prestigious Norman Lear Writer’s Award, and was one of the American independent films selected by Sundance and the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities to launch Sundance Film Forward, a program that uses film and conversation to introduce a new generation to the exciting power of story.
Raised by a strong, indigenous single mother from Peru, Bratt and his family were part of the American Indian Occupation of Alcatraz Island, the Wounded Knee stand-off and the Farm Workers Movement. As a consultant, organizer and community member, he has worked with the International Indian Treaty Council, Amazon Watch, Friendship House Association of American Indians, H.O.M.I.E.S. and Instituto Familiar De La Raza.
Alan Renshaw/Producer
ALAN RENSHAW (Producer) learned filmmaking on the job at Francis Ford Coppola’s Commercial Pictures in San Francisco, the low-budget affiliate of Zoetrope Studios that Coppola conceived as a “hands-on” film school. For Commercial Pictures Renshaw served as assistant to the producer on Indigo and was assistant producer on 1990’s The Spirit of ’76, a time-travel comedy starring David Cassidy, Olivia d’Abo and Devo.
Irene Romero/Producer
Irene grew up in Arleta, California as one of nine children in a traditional Latino family. She was mentored by her high school teacher who helped her get a job at Wells Fargo Bank after graduation. Irene worked day and night to learn everything she could abut banking and also took business classes. Against all odds, a determined Irene persevered for over twenty years servicing the financial and banking needs of the entertainment industry. She has managed the Entertainment Divisions for Wells Fargo Bank, City National Bank, and Mercantile National Bank. She has been involved with the financing of over 200 films, including Braveheart, Driving Miss Daisy, Babel, Iron Man, Twilight and Milk, to name a few.In 1993 Irene formed her own company, Irene Romero & Associates LLC and provides financial consultation services. In addition she serves on the California Science Center Board (appointed by Governor Brown) Board of LA Leadership Academy (charter school) Brave New Films, USC Thornton School of Music, and UCLA Life Sciences.
“Hilarious, raging, and always moving across boundaries as unnatural and as lethal as they are commonplace in today’s racist and homophobic America, this is an incredible movie: The first American film emerging direct from the heart and the headset of the New American Majority.”
— June Jordan, award-winning African-American poet, essayist and political activist
Benjamin Bratt/Producer
BENJAMIN BRATT (Abel, Producer) is a veteran of over 25 films. He won a Screen Actors Guild Award as part of the Outstanding Ensemble Cast in Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic. Most recently he played conflicted sorcerer Jonathan Pangborn in Scott Derrickson’s Doctor Strange and had starring roles in Brad Furman’s The Infiltrator, opposite Bryan Cranston; Ric Roman Waugh’s Shot Caller, opposite Nikolaj Coster-Waldau; Waugh’s Snitch, opposite Dwayne Johnson; Ricky Gervais’ Special Correspondents, opposite Gervais and Eric Bana; Tim Story’s Ride Along 2, opposite Ice Cube and Kevin Hart; and Shawn Ku’s A Score to Settle, opposite Nicolas Cage.
Bratt’s other film credits include Curtis Hanson’s The River Wild, Phillip Noyce’s Clear and Present Danger, Donald Petrie’s Miss Congeniality, Mike Mills’ Thumbsucker, Nicole Kassell’s The Woodsman, Mike Newell’s Love in the Time of Cholera, Anita Doron’s The Lesser Blessed, Taylor Hackford’s Blood In, Blood Out and Leon Ichaso’s Piñero.
Television audiences may know Bratt best for his Emmy-nominated role as Detective Rey Curtis in the original “Law & Order” series. His other starring roles on the small screen include the limited revival “24: Live Another Day,” opposite Kiefer Sutherland, and “The Cleaner,” for which he won an Alma Award for Best Actor in a Drama Series. The actor had two-season stints on Lee Daniels’ “Star” and Shonda Rhimes’ “Private Practice.” Bratt also had a recurring role on “Modern Family” as Sofia Vergara’s ne’er-do-well ex-husband, Javier.
In the realm of animation, Bratt voiced the memorable role of famous Mexican crooner Ernesto de la Cruz in the Oscar-winning Disney/Pixar hit Coco, as well as the villainous El Macho in smash hit Despicable Me 2.
In 2010, Bratt won Cinequest’s Maverick Spirit Award for his work as producer and star of the acclaimed independent film La Mission. Written and directed by his brother Peter Bratt, the locally produced San Francisco-set film garnered much critical praise, received a nomination for Outstanding Independent Motion Picture from the NAACP, a GLAAD Award nomination and multiple Imagen Award bids, including wins for Best Feature Film and Best Actor. Bratt served as consulting producer for his brother’s Peabody Award-winning documentary Dolores, which centers on the work of labor and civil rights leader Dolores Huerta.
Robert GrahamJones/Editor
ROBERT GRAHAMJONES (Editor) was born in Yellow Springs, Ohio, and currently resides in Berkeley, California. Early in his career he edited the indie Dumbarton Bridge and served as assistant film editor on Captain EO, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Rising Sun. Grahamjones was a consulting editor on James and the Giant Peach and second film editor on Mr. Holland’s Opus, Toy Story 2, Monsters Inc., The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Brave, Finding Dory and, most recently, the new Pixar film Soul.
Roy Finch/Composer
ROY FINCH (Composer) is a musician, teacher and filmmaker, whose first film, the indie feature Wake, won him the Best Director award at the Queens International Film Festival as well as the prestigious Prism Commendation Award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Finch received his film training at Francis Ford Coppola’s American Zoetrope, where he worked on such films as Bram Stoker's Dracula, The Secret Garden, and The Godfather Part III in varying production
and post-production capacities. Finch has worked with the world-renowned percussionist Mickey Hart, most notably as a ghost writer and co-composer for Tupac Shakur’s last feature film, Gang Related. Finch has also composed the soundtracks for feature films as well as the hit television show “Survivor.”
Finch holds a Bachelors of Arts Degree in music composition from Hampshire College, a Master’s Degree in writing for the performing arts from the University of California and is an active member of the Actors Studio Playwright/Directors unit. Finch is an assistant professor at Chapman University teaching graduate and undergraduate classes in filmmaking. He is currently writing a book on the art of film sound entitled You Ain’t Heard Nothin’ Yet to be published by Michael Wiese Productions.
Finch has a long-standing electronic music collaboration with renowned jazz pianist and composer Jamie Finegan under the name Finegan Finch. Their fourth album, “Neurogensis,” will be released this this fall.
2020 Digital Restoration
John China/Executive Producer
JOHN CHINA (Executive Producer) is the president of SVB Capital, Silicon Valley Bank’s funds management business, with $5.5 billion under management across venture capital funds of funds as well as direct funds. In this role China is responsible for growing and scaling the funds’ business as well as SVB’s family office practice, which includes its emerging manager and limited partner matching platform LIFT. He now spends most of his time focusing on global limited partners, though he remains a member of SVB’s executive committee.
Over the past 24 years at SVB China has constantly and enthusiastically made connections between entrepreneurs, venture investors, the Fortune 500 and winemakers. He led North America technology banking teams specializing in consumer and enterprise software, frontier tech and hardware, fintech, clean energy, private equity, venture capital and premium wine. He has also been responsible for the company’s corporate venturing group, early-stage banking services, global gateway program, credit solutioning group and corporate finance.
China is a member of the advisory boards of H2 Global and Hello Alice. He also sits on the board of Techstars, the California Partners Project led by Jennifer Newsom, BUILD.org and Meals on Wheels San Francisco.
China earned a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Stanford University. In his free time he is now learning to kite surf.
Adam Zbar/Executive Producer
ADAM ZBAR (Executive Producer) is a Webby Award-winning serial entrepreneur, filmmaker and writer. He has written, directed and produced multiple films including the recent feature film Mermaids & Manatees, which played at the San Francisco Independent Film Festival. His next feature film, The Divine Toad, will be released next year. Zbar is the author of the book Shine.
As an entrepreneur, Zbar most recently founded and grew Sun Basket, a San Francisco based organic meal kit delivery company, to $300 million in annualized revenue and achieved profitability in four years. Currently Zbar is the CEO of Hamsa Pay, a mission-driven global fintech company backed by top-tier investors. As a CEO Zbar has raised over $200 million in venture capital, sold a previous company to the founders of YouTube and built deep domain expertise in e commerce, fintech, mobile and social media.
Zbar started his business career at McKinsey & Company. When not working, he loves to spend time outdoors with his family and their dog Barbara.
Alpita Patel/Executive Producer
ALPITA PATEL (Executive Producer) is a former talent agent who is now a manager/producer. She recently produced the documentary Dolores, which won a 2019 Peabody Award and was also nominated for an Emmy. In 2015 she co-produced Miss India America, starring Tiya Sircar and Hannah Simone. Her other film credits include La Mission, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival and was one of the 25 highest-grossing independent films of 2010, according
to IndieWire. The film garnered Patel an Imagen Award and nominations for both a NAACP Image Award and a GLAAD Award.
Patel got her start in the ICM mailroom and was a motion picture talent agent at the William Morris Agency. During Patel’s tenure as an agent she worked with actors such as Alfre Woodard, Radha Mitchell, Josh Brolin, Anne Hathaway, Alessandro Nivola, Patrick Stewart, Liev Schreiber and Benjamin Bratt.
Bob Edwards/Co-Executive Producer
BOB EDWARDS (Co-Executive Producer, Sound Designer) is a sound designer, editor and re-recording mixer at Skywalker Sound. In his 30 years at Skywalker, Edwards has contributed to narrative feature films, documentaries, television, internet projects and film scores. He has served as supervising sound editor, sound designer and re-recording mixer on the following Sundance Film Festival dramatic, short film and documentary official selections: Always in Season (2019), Akicita: The Battle of Standing Rock (2018), Dolores (2017), Songs My Brothers Taught Me (2015), Marmato (2014), This May Be the Last Time (2014), Fruitvale Station (2013), Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012), On the Ice (2011), La Mission (2009) and Sikumi (2008). Always in Season was the recipient of a Sundance Special Jury Award for Moral Urgency. Fruitvale Station and Beasts of the Southern Wild both won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize for Dramatic Filmmaking in their respective years, as well as prestigious awards at the Cannes Film Festival. Sikumi won the 2008 Sundance Grand Jury Prize for Short Filmmaking.
Other independent films Edwards has contributed to include Fire in Paradise (2019), Women of the White Buffalo (2019), Lifelines (2019), Foster (2018) and The Buffalo Hunt (2018).