SUSAN KOCH (Director/Producer)

EMMY and Peabody award winning filmmaker Susan Koch has produced and directed award-winning documentaries and non-fiction programming for worldwide distribution and television broadcast.   Her work has appeared on ABC, NBC, PBS, HBO, MTV, The Discovery Channel, National Geographic, Turner Broadcasting, American Movie Classics, The Learning Channel, and the Travel Channel.

Most recently, Koch co-directed and produced a feature-length documentary on a young Latino writer from East LA who was convicted and sentenced to life in prison based on one eyewitness identification and no physical evidence. MARIO’S STORY premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival where it received the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature.  The Los Angeles Times called it “an extraordinary documentary.”  It is scheduled for broadcast and international distribution in 2008.   Koch directed the critically acclaimed film, CITY AT PEACE, which premiered at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C and Lincoln Center in New York City.  It was featured at film festivals throughout the world and was broadcast on HBO.  Executive Producers:  Barbara Streisand and Cis Corman.  She also produced and directed the Friday night special, CITY AT PEACE, for ABC News Nightline, hosted by Ted Koppel.

Susan Koch directed and wrote the award-winning television special, BARBARA STREISAND PRESENTS: REEL MODELS—FIRST WOMEN OF FILM.  This marks Koch’s second collaboration with Barbra Streisand and Cis Corman, President of Barwood Films, serving as Executive Producers.   It received a 2001 EMMY and the Gracie Allen award from the American Association of Women in Radio and Television.   She co-directed and produced a documentary “Movie of the Week” for MTV, entitled CAMP SCOTT LOCK-UP.  For over a year, Koch was given unprecedented access to a court-ordered “boot camp” for teenage girls.   Daily Variety described the film as “valuable, thought-provoking, and highly emotional” and recommended viewing for all high school students.

In September 2002, Koch produced an ABC/Nightline special entitled REMEMBERING A FAMILY on her four family members that were killed on the flight that crashed into the Pentagon.  The program focused on what family and friends are doing to honor their lives by working to build a more just and compassionate world.
In keeping with her strong, personal commitment to social justice issues, Koch has produced, written, and directed videos and films for the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children, Women for Women International, Public Counsel, Girls and Gangs, The National Center to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, Childhelp USA, Planned Parenthood, The Grady Memorial Hospital Teen Pregnancy Project, the Barker Foundation Adoption Agency, the Los Angeles Conservation Corps, Children’s National Medical Center, InsideOut Writers, and a national Service-Learning educational initiative.

Susan Koch has a BA with honors from Bryn Mawr College.  She was a producer at NBC News and Public Televisions, WETA-TV.  She is on the board of the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children and is a founding board member of Our Voices Together, a non-profit organization founded by 9/11 families.  She lives in the Washington, D.C. area with her husband and two daughters. 

JEFF WERNER (Editor and Co-Director)

Jeff Werner is an award-winning editor and director of documentaries, feature films and motion picture advertising.   Most recently, Werner co-produced and edited the documentary feature SECOND CHANCE SEASON, the Nick Young story, which premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival in 2007.   In 2006, Werner also co-directed and edited MARIO’S STORY, a feature documentary about a young Latino who was wrongfully convicted on the basis of one eyewitness and no physical evidence. The film premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival where it received the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature.

Werner edited THE YEAR OF THE YAO, a feature length documentary on Chinese basketball star Yao Ming's first year of living and playing in the United States. The film was selected by The Toronto Film Festival and acquired for world-wide distribution by Fine Line.   His editorial work on the PBS feature length documentary THE SMITH FAMILY was recognized when the film won Best Documentary at the Director's Guild Awards and The Peabody Awards in 2003. Werner co-directed and edited the feature length documentary CAMP SCOTT LOCK-UP, which explored the world of a boot camp for teenage girls. The film aired as a movie of the week for MTV in May, 2001. It was also an official entry at the Seattle International Film Festival and the Full Frame Film Festival.

In 2001, Werner edited the feature length documentary, GO TIGERS!, the saga of a famed high school football team. It was nominated for a Spirit Award for Best Documentary Feature as well as was an official entry at the Sundance Film Festival. It was released in theatres in the fall of 2001 by IFC. Werner also edited the Lion's Gate release of BEYOND THE MAT, a behind the scenes look at professional wrestling. The film was named Academy Award Finalist for Best Documentary Feature and was nominated by the Directors Guild of America for Best Documentary.

CITY AT PEACE, a documentary edited by Werner, dealing with racism in Washington D.C. was aired on HBO in 1998 and was the Grand Prize Winner of the Heartland Film Festival.  While his editorial work on THE MIRROR HAS TWO FACES marked the fifth film in which Werner collaborated with Barbra Streisand, with projects dating back to A STAR IS BORN and including NUTS and YENTYL.   Werner has also directed two documentaries for HBO: THE GODFATHER FAMILY and BLOODLINES; the latter having been nominated for a Cable Ace Award .  He won several Hollywood Key Art Awards for his work in motion picture advertising and is a former elementary school teacher, Werner received his MA in Education from City College of New York.

TED LEONSIS (Producer)

Ted Leonsis is known as one of the country's premiere businessmen having held numerous leadership positions at AOL. He is also a professional sports team owner, a film producer, a private-angel investor, an active Board member and a committed philanthropist.

During his 14-year career with AOL, the company enjoyed its greatest periods of growth and financial success. Ted now serves as Vice Chairman Emeritus, having stepped down from day-to-day management at AOL on December 31, 2006. He has served as AOL Vice Chairman as well as President of several business units including the AOL Services Company; AOL Studios; AOL Web Services; AOL Core Service and the AOL Audience Business.

Ted is now the Chairman of Revolution Money, an innovative new Web 2.0 payment platform and credit-card service created to transform the financial services industry by drastically altering the economics through Internet-based technology. Revolution Money, formerly Gratis Card Inc., is a subsidiary of Revolution LLC, the investment company created by Steve Case.

Ted is also the founder, chairman and majority owner of Lincoln Holdings LLC, a sports and entertainment company that holds ownership rights in several Washington, DC entities including 100% of the NHL's Washington Capitals and the WNBA's Washington Mystics. Lincoln Holdings also owns approximately 44% of Washington Sports and Entertainment Limited Partnership (WSELP), which owns the NBA's Washington Wizards, DC’s Verizon Center and the Baltimore-Washington Ticketmaster franchise. During Ted’s tenure as majority owner of the Capitals, the team has won two division titles and recorded the second-most points in franchise history.

Ted conceptualized and produced NANKING, a documentary film that made its world premiere at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival where it won the Documentary Editing Award. Since that time, the film has been screened at film festivals around the globe including the Hong Kong Film Festival, where it won the Humanitarian Award, and is already the best-selling documentary in China's history. It has been named one of the top five documentaries by the National Review Board and is nominated for the 2008 Writers Guild Award for best documentary.

For NANKING, Ted assembled a highly acclaimed filmmaking team including the Academy Award-winning writer/director team of Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman, as well as a strong Hollywood cast including Woody Harrelson, Jurgen Prochnow, Mariel Hemingway and others to narrate the film. Nanking is a documentary film that serves as a powerful, emotional and relevant reminder of the heartbreaking toll war takes on the innocent as it tells the story of the Japanese invasion of Nanking, China, in the early days of World War II.

While at the Sundance Film Festival, Ted coined the phrase "Filmanthropy" to describe a new category of filmmaking that activates discussion as well as new volunteers and new funds that benefit a social cause.  Ted is a Producer of KICKING IT, an official selection of the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and a natural reflection of Filmanthropy.

Ted is a major philanthropist and is very involved with numerous charities, including Best Buddies, Hoop Dreams, See Forever Foundation, Youth Aids and others through the work of the Leonsis Foundation.

Originally from Brooklyn, NY, and later, Lowell, MA, he now lives in McLean, VA, and Vero Beach, FL, with his wife and two children.