ABOUT PATCHWORKS FILMS
With 20+ years’ experience, and 9 years working in Cuba, PatchWorks tells intimate stories that invoke complicated questions about family, faith, and identity. Their 6 award-winning features and numerous shorts have broadcast worldwide and screened at festivals, schools, organizations, and community venues, facilitating complicated community conversations, enriching curriculum, and sometimes impacting legislation. Their most recent feature, Los Hermanos/The Brothers, won the Best Documentary Award at its Woodstock Film Festival premiere.
Their previous Cuban feature, Havana Curveball screened in six countries, winning Best Documentary awards at the Boston and Seattle Children’s Film Festival, a special juror award at the Olympia Festival in Greece and a spot on School Library Journal’s “Best of 2014” list. Their previous film, Speaking In Tongues, aired on PBS, won the Audience Award at the San Francisco Film Festival, and remains a catalyst for changing language education worldwide. Previous films include the ITVS-funded Born in the U.S.A., which aired on Independent Lens and was hailed as the “best film on childbirth” by the former director of maternal health at the World Health Organization, and several shorts.
Ken Schneider, ACE | Producer/Director/Editor
Ken Schneider is a Peabody- winning producer/director who has also edited nearly 40 feature documentaries for PBS, HBO, Showtime and Al-Jazeera, and others. He received a Peabody as Co-producer and editor of Soft Vengeance. He edited the Oscar-nominated Regret to Inform, described by the New York Times as “unforgettable ... exquisitely filmed, edited and scored.” Other films he edited have earned multiple Emmys, a Columbia-Dupont, three Peabodys, an Indie Spirit and top awards at the Sundance Film Festival. Ken is drawn to stories of war and peace, human rights, artists, American history, contemporary social issues, and Cuba.
Ken has taught at NYU-Tisch, Chapman University, and San Francisco City College, and lectured at the SF Art Institute, University of San Francisco, and Harvard. He has been a panelist for the National Endowment for Humanities, the Emmys, and various film festivals. Other projects include: Soft Vengeance: Albie Sachs and the New South Africa (Peabody), Have You Heard From Johannesburg (Emmy winning series), The Judge (TIFF), In Football We Trust (Emmy, Sundance), Orozco: Man of Fire, Ralph Ellison: An American Journey (PBS' American Masters), Mankiller, Store Wars, School Colors (PBS' Frontline), Bolinao 52 and Ancestors in the Americas. Ken directs and edits in both English and Spanish.
Visit www.kenschneidereditor.net for more details about Ken's editing work.
Marcia Jarmel | Producer/Director/Writer/Impact Producer
Marcia Jarmel is an award-winning independent filmmaker based in the San Francisco Bay Area and Director of Filmmaker Services at the Jewish Film Institute where she oversees the Institute's renowned Filmmaker Residency and Completion Grants programs, serving a national and international community of independent filmmakers. She co-founded PatchWorks Films with husband-collaborator Ken Schneider in 1994 and has been producing, directing, and managing impact for their slate of award-winning films for over two decades. Together, they’ve produced five feature documentaries and many shorts including Los Hermanos/The Brothers (PBS/Arte film) which was nominated for Best Music Documentary by the International Documentary Association and awarded Best Documentary at the Woodstock Film Festival. Marcia's work has been funded by public broadcasting's Independent Television Service (ITVS), Latino Public Broadcasting (LPB), and the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM), the National Endowment for the Arts, and many others. She has taught both undergrad and graduate film courses at NYU and Chapman University and has been honored with residencies with Working Films, the Fledgling Fund, SFFilm, the Kopkind Colony, and BAVC's Media Maker. She has served as a juror for the Emmys, BAVC MediaMaker, and many film festivals. Information on her work can be found at patchworksfilms.net.
Eréndira Olivera | Associate Producer
Eréndira Olivera is a Mexican video and film editor and producer based in the Bay Area. She has been working in film and television since 2007. Graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in Media and Communication from ITESM CCM in Mexico City. Eréndira began her career as an independent filmmaker making videos for nonprofits organizations like Oxfam Mexico, Oxfam GBS and Save the Children. In 2014 she moved to California where she has produced and edit award-winning short films and web series for rLoop, TE Connectivity, and Stanford SEED. She is associate producing Los Hermanos/The Brothers for PatchWorks Films.
Daniel Chavez Ontiveros | Associate Editor
Daniel Chavez Ontiveros was born and raised in Mexico City. He studied Media & Communication Science at the ITESM-CCM. Later, he was accepted at the Centro Universitario de Estudios Cinematográficos (CUEC-UNAM), where he studied an intensive program in Filmmaking. In 2016, with grants from FONCA/CONACYT for studies abroad and from the Jumex Foundation, he graduated from an M.F.A. program in Documentary Film & Video at Stanford University. During the program, he directed four documentary short films: Born Fighter (2015), I am Ayotzinapa (2015), Still Life (2015), and his thesis film El Cisne (2016). In 2013, he started his own audiovisual production company, Think Films, dedicated to creating documentary series for several international organizations such as Oxfam, TE Connectivity, and the Stanford Business School. These documentaries are focused on topics such as worldwide migration, protection of human rights, wilderness preservation, science, and technology. Dani is assistant editing Los Hermanos/The Brothers for PatchWorks.
THE PATCHWORKS TEAM
KEY COLLABORATORS
Cinematographers
Andy Black
Roberto Chile
Vicente Franco
Rafael Solis
Dave Sperling
Sound Design
Will Storkson / AudioSFX
Writing Consultant
Laurie Coyle
Consulting Editors
Nathaniel Dorsky
Bill Weber
Consulting Producers
Doug Blush
Marc Smolowitz
Field Producer (Cuba)
Claudia Maria Bueno
SUPPORT TEAM
Bookkeeping
Jane Greenberg
Impact Producer
Dr. Robin J. Hayes
Graphics
Matthew Baldwin / Bay Area Film Company
Fundraising Consultants
Morrie Warshawski
Julie Mackaman
Webmaster
Sage Brucia
Fiscal Agents
Center for Independent Documentary
SFFILM
FUNDERS
Arnow Foundation
Catalyst Fund
Center for Asian American Media
California Humanties
Center for Cultural Innovation
Film Arts Foundation
Fledgling Fund
Gerbode Foundation
ITVS
Jonathan Logan Family Foundation
Latino Public Broadcasting
Lawrence Choy Lowe Memorial Fund
Lenore and Howard Klein Foundation
Levinson Family Foundation
Lucius and Eva Eastman Fund
National Endowment for the Arts
National Foundation for Jewish Culture
Nion McEvoy and Leslie Berriman
Owsley Brown Foundation
Pacific Pioneer Fund
Shenson Fund
Sillins Foundation
The San Francisco Foundation
The Sarnoff Raymond Foundation