Directors

Franco Sacchi

Photo by Aimee Corrigan

Franco Sacchi is an Italian filmmaker and freelance journalist living in Boston. His most recent directorial work, This is Nollywood, portrays the fascinating world of the burgeoning Nigerian film industry. This is Nollywood aired on SABC 1 (South African Broadcasting Corporation), SKY UK and it won the Audience Award at the Abuja International Film festival (Nigeria).

Franco’s first feature length film, American Eunuchs screened at dozens of festivals including the prestigious International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam (IDFA) and it aired in 2004 on the Sundance Channel and on several European networks. Currently, Franco is a filmmaker in residence at the Center for Digital Imaging Arts at Boston University.

Listen to Franco's interview with NPR's Robin Young

Kate Davis and David Heilbroner

Kate Davis and David Heilbroner co-directed Scopes: The Battle over America’s Soul in 10 DAYS THAT UNEXPECTEDLY CHANGED AMERICA.

Davis, who has been producing award-winning documentaries for more than 15 years, won an Emmy® Award for Best Non-Fiction Directing in 2004 for the film Jockey, a feature documentary that followed the harrowing lives of three Kentucky racehorse riders. With Heilbroner, she recently co-produced Pucker Up: The Fine Art of Whistling, (Special Jury Prize and Audience Award, Florida Film Festival), to be released theatrically later this year.

Davis, a Harvard graduate, also produced and directed Southern Comfort, which tells the story of a dying transsexual who finds love during the last year of his life. The Emmy-nominated film won more than 25 international awards, including the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary Feature at the Sundance Film Festival, Best Documentary Feature at the Florida Film Festival and the San Francisco International Film Festival. Other awards included First Prize at the Seattle Film Festival, the Grierson Award for Best International Documentary and the Special Audience Award at the Berlin Film Festival.

Davis’ award-winning documentary Girltalk, about the lives of three teenage runaway girls from Boston, was released theatrically and broadcast worldwide. She has produced and edited films including A World Alive, winner of the Golden Eagle Award for Editing, and worked as an editor on documentaries including Jennie Livingston’s Paris is Burning, Ross McElwee’s Sherman’s March and Robert Stone's American Babylon.

David Heilbroner, a Harvard graduate, is a former Manhattan prosecutor who has been making documentary films for more than ten years. Together with Kate Davis, Heilbroner directed and produced Transgender Revolution, Life After Death Row, The Dark Side of Parole, Anti-Gay Hate Crimes, and Untying the Straightjacket, all for A&E. He also produced Jockey and Pucker Up (see above), and was senior producer for Court TV's Crime Stories.

In addition, Heilbroner produced American Babylon with Robert Stone, and wrote the critically acclaimed non-fiction books, Rough Justice and Death Benefit.