DIRECTORS
Director & Producer Gallery
ADVISORS
Advisory Committee
President & Executive Producer
Laurel Ladevich is an award-winning filmmaker and producer with expertise in all aspects of filmmaking – writing, producing, directing and editing. A producer at Lucasfilm and Pixar, she was also an editor on dozens of major feature films, including two Star Wars films, one Indiana Jones, and a Jurassic Park among many others. Writer, director and producer of the acclaimed documentary, Fly Girls, (participating film in the Emmy Award for Best Prime Time Series) for The American Experience/PBS, she also co-produced the Academy award-nominated Imax film, Special Effects, Anything Can Happen. She was nominated for the British Academy Award and received the Woman of Achievement in Communications Award in 2001.
Vice President
David Bergad worked in feature film post-production for twenty years, lending his sound editing talents to fifty films. His credits include Forrest Gump, The Sixth Sense, The English Patient, and Amadeus (Director’s Cut). He also worked with legendary film producer Saul Zaentz for eight years, with responsibility for a wide range of duties related to such notable films as Amadeus, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest andThe Unbearable Lightness of Being.
David served as Vice-President of the Berkeley FILM Foundation’s Board of Directors from BFF’s founding in 2009, transitioning to Executive Director/Program Director from January 2014 until December 2018.
Secretary
Catherine Butler is an Emmy award-winning documentary producer/writer. Her current feature documentary American Heretics: The Politics of the Gospel, is currently enjoying a theatrical run and has been described as "Eye-opening" by The New York Times, "Compelling" by The Daily Beast, "A friendly conversation-starter," by The Hollywood Reporter, and "Authentically inspiring" by Spirituality & Practice.
Other films include Emmy Award winning docs Journey of the Universe (PBS); The Women of Tibet (PBS); and a National Emmy nomination for Documenting the Face of America (PBS). She also produced the critically acclaimed feature-length investigative documentary The Future of Food, which received widespread theatrical and digital distribution worldwide.
Treasurer
Lope Yap Jr. is a producer, director, assistant director, and production manager on major motion pictures, television movies, series, documentaries, specialty films, commercials and visual effects. He has worked on hundreds of shows in these varied capacities. He is currently head of Production for Lopevision, Inc., a feature film production company start up.
Lope is an active member of the Director’s Guild and received an award for his outstanding contribution to the Director’s Guild of America in 2007.
Content Advisor
Susanne Simpson is a two-time Emmy award winner and two-time Academy Award nominee for her documentaries and dramas for PBS. She is Executive Producer of MASTERPIECE and MASTERPIECE Studio.
Prior to MASTERPIECE, Susanne was Senior Producer at NOVA, where she directed and produced several films including Can the Vatican Save the Sistine Chapel? She executive produced five productions in IMAX, including the critically acclaimed Shackleton’s Antarctic Adventure and received an Oscar nomination as Producer of Special Effects, Anything Can Happen. She is a member of both the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and the Academy for Television Arts & Sciences.
Content Advisor
Paula Apsell was Executive Producer and Director of NOVA and the WGBH Science Unit for 33 years, building NOVA into the most popular science series on American television and receiving every major broadcasting award including the Emmy; the Peabody; the AAAS Kavli Science Journalism award; the duPont-Columbia University Gold and Silver Batons; and an Academy Award nomination for Special Effects, Anything Can Happen.
Paula has been recognized with numerous individual awards and in 2018, she became the first science journalist to receive the Lifetime Achievement Emmy from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
Literary Advisor
Jean Thompson is the author of fourteen books of fiction, including the New York Times best seller, The Year We Left Home, and National Book Award Finalist Who Do You Love?
She has received fellowships from Guggenheim Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts and has taught fiction writing at the University of Illinois, Northwestern University, Wichita State University, Reed College, San Francisco State University, and in the Warren Wilson Program for Writers.
Story & Editorial Advisor
Bonnie Koehler is an Emmy nominated motion picture and television film editor with over 45 years of experience. She is on the Board of Directors of American Cinema Editors and a member of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Bonnie began her film career in the Bay Area on One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Star Wars. She is currently writing a memoir about her reel world adventures.
Aviation and Technology Advisor
Deborah Douglas is the director of collections and curator of science and technology at the MIT Museum and a research associate with the MIT Program of Science, Technology, and Society. Prior to joining the museum's staff in 1999, Debbie worked as an independent scholar specializing in the history of technology and science. She is a leading expert in the field of gender and aviation and the author of American Women and Flight Since 1940.
Animation Advisor
Gary Rydstrom has sound designed and mixed many films for Skywalker Sound including Terminator 2, Jurassic Park, A River Runs Through It, Toy Story, Titanic, Saving Private Ryan, Finding Nemo, and Ready Player One. He has won seven Academy Awards and two Career Achievement awards. He was the director of two animated shorts for Pixar, the Oscar-nominated Lifted, and Toy Story Toons: Hawaiian Vacation, and the animated feature Strange Magic for Disney/Lucasfilm.
Palliative Care Advisor
Dawn Gross is a national thought leader on end of life care - committed to transforming the taboo around talking about death. She is board certified in hospice and palliative medicine and practices at UCSF. She is the creator and host of the radio program, Dying To Talk; co-founder and CEO of the communication consulting corporation, Dyalogues; and, co-creator of the education curriculum, Death Ed. Her writing has appeared in JAMA, Science and Annals of Internal Medicine and in the New York Times. Her first book is nearing completion.
Science and Engineering Advisor
Cindy Lowney is a civil and environmental engineer who develops mathematical models of environmental systems. She has worked in both the private and public sectors as an engineer and researcher, and has taught environmental management at the University of San Francisco. Cindy is committed to finding new ways to clarify and communicate scientific concepts.