ABOUT US
Lila Schmitz - Director
Lila Schmitz is a filmmaker with experience making independent films from scratch and working on big budget projects as a part of a huge team. Her first feature THE JOB OF SONGS, an Irish music documentary that she directed, produced & edited, premiered at DOC NYC in 2021. Her short documentary JAIEL aired on Rocky Mountain PBS, as did her short fiction film QUEER QAFÉ, which has since gotten 50k+ views on YouTube. Schmitz recently directed three music videos for the titular artist of her short documentary: Jaiel. Her latest short film LOVE IN THE TIME OF CORONA has played LGBTQ+ festivals all over the United States and will premiere internationally in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She has been producing in the documentary world (for PBS, CBS, Richard Linklater, Bill Guttentag) and spent the last year working at Anonymous Content. Her website: lilaschmitz.com
Fengyi Xu - Producer
Fengyi Xu was born and raised in Qingdao, a coastal city on the northeast of China. She discovered filmmaking during her first class in college, and has been telling stories through the camera lens since then. Her short film AS WE WERE premiered at Rocky Mountain Women’s Film Festival. Her dream is to watch the sunset on every beach around the world.
Anika Kan Grevstad - Cinematographer, Producer
Anika Kan Grevstad is an Asian American director from Seattle, now based in Los Angeles. Her fiction short, WHAT WE FIND IN THE SEA, premiered at LA Shorts Fest 2021 and won Best Short Film at the Santa Fe Film Festival 2022. Her documentary short, NO ONE EVER REALLY DIES, won a Special Jury Award for new voices at the LA Asian Pacific Film Festival 2019. She has worked as a cinematographer and editor on numerous films including the feature documentary NEVER CATCH PIGEONS (Newport Beach Film Festival 2021). She graduated Summa Cum Laude from Colorado College with a B.A. in Asian Studies and Film Studies. Her website: anikakan.com
Bill Guttentag - Executive Producer
Bill Guttentag is a double Academy Award winning dramatic and documentary film writer-producer-director. His films have premiered at the Sundance, Cannes, Telluride and Tribeca film festivals. He has also received three additional Oscar nominations, a Peabody Award, three Emmy Awards, two Writers Guild Award nominations, a Robert Kennedy Journalism Award, and more. He advises a number of Silicon Valley companies and has been a lecturer at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business since 2001, and also teaches at the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (Stanford d.school).
Doug Pray - Consulting Producer
Doug Pray is an Emmy and Grammy Award winning documentary filmmaker. He often tells the stories of maverick individuals and misunderstood subcultures, underdogs who were fiercely independent—from graffiti writers to copywriters, truck drivers to surfers, DJs and garage rockers to demanding and inspiring artists—who have more in common than you’d imagine.