Behind the Greenlight:

Katy Chevigny is an award-winning filmmaker and a co-founder of Big Mouth Productions. She has produced and/or directed over a dozen documentary features and series. She is currently writing and directing the forthcoming feature, The Easy Kind, about a Nashville singer and songwriter. Most recently, she won an Emmy for directing two episodes of Home, a documentary series about innovative architects for A24 / AppleTV+, which were filmed in the Netherlands and France. With Marilyn Ness, she produced several films, including the 2023 documentary short Camp Courage (dir. Max Lowe), which was acquired by Netflix. Marilyn and Katy also produced the acclaimed 2020 documentaries Becoming (dir. Nadia Hallgren), and Dick Johnson is Dead (dir. Kirsten Johnson). Katy also co-directed (with Ross Kauffman) E-Team, which premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. She also directed one of the storylines in Kartemquin Films’ documentary series Hard Earned, winner of a 2016 Alfred I. DuPont Award. Her work has been distributed by PBS, NBC, Netflix, AppleTV+, HBO, Arte/ZDF, VPRO and Channel 4, among others, and has played in theaters and at festivals around the world.

Justin Lacob is a 6x Emmy nominated producer, executive, and content strategist with over 20 years of experience in the media and tech industry. He is the President and Co-Founder of XTR, a nonfiction studio that produces and distributes Oscar nominated and Emmy and Peabody winning documentaries, series, and podcasts. He is also a co-founder of DOCUMENTARY+, a streaming platform and channel that showcases diverse and impactful stories from around the world. And as the Head of Development at Asteria, a technology driven animation studio, he leads a team to develop and produce 2D and 3D animated features, series, and shorts. Justin is passionate about entertaining, informing, and moving culture through innovative storytelling.

As Head of Studio, Jared Lipworth oversees HHMI Tangled Bank Studios’ documentary production and distribution, as well as its public engagement and educational outreach efforts. He directs the studio’s mission, strategy, and editorial focus with an emphasis on the power of storytelling to inspire interest in science and nature.

Lipworth has deep industry experience as an editorially focused production executive, writer, co-production partner, and outreach producer. He is executive producer of the AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Award-winning series WILD HOPE; the AAAS Kavli-winning and Emmy-nominated film BATTLE TO BEAT MALARIA; and the multiple award-winning giant screen film BLUE WHALES: RETURN OF THE GIANTS, among others. He has served as Board Chair of the World Congress of Science and Factual Producers and is currently Board Chair of Jackson Wild.

Prior to joining Tangled Bank, Lipworth was Vice President of Specials at National Geographic Studios and, before that, Director of Science Programs at WNET, New York’s flagship public media provider. Lipworth holds a Master of Arts in broadcast journalism from New York University and a Bachelor of Science in applied economics and management from Cornell University.

Dawn Porter is an acclaimed American documentary filmmaker and founder of Trilogy Films, known for her storytelling on social justice, history, and cultural icons. Her documentaries, including TRAPPED, JOHN LEWIS: GOOD TROUBLE, and THE LADY BIRD DIARIES, have aired on platforms including HBO, Netflix, Amazon, Apple, CNN, and PBS.

Her recent film LUTHER: NEVER TOO MUCH highlights the life and legacy of Luther Vandross. Produced with Sony Music Entertainment, Jamie Foxx’s Foxxhole, and Colin Firth’s Raindog Films, the film was released in theaters and premiered on CNN/MAX on January 1, 2025. Her recent work, THE SING SING CHRONICLES, won the Best Documentary Emmy at the 46th annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards.

A three-time Sundance Film Festival alum, Porter’s film GIDEON’S ARMY was nominated for an Emmy and an Independent Spirit Award and won the Ridenhour Prize and the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award. TRAPPED also earned a Silver Gavel, along with a Peabody Award and the Sundance Special Jury Prize for Social Impact Filmmaking, while JOHN LEWIS: GOOD TROUBLE won the 2021 NAACP Image Award.

Her work has been widely recognized with honors including the Critics’ Choice Impact Award (2022) and Gracie Awards (2022, 2023). She was recently awarded the National Humanities Medal by Joe Biden, elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and received the IDA Career Achievement Award.

Amanda Spain oversees all documentaries and documentary series for EverWonder Studio. With over 20 years of experience, she has a unique 360 perspective on the industry having worked as an independent director and producer, in the studio system, and as a buyer. She joins from MSNBC Films where she was Vice President of Longform Acquisitions. She helped revitalize the division as a home for dynamic, thought provoking, and artistically excellent films such as the critically acclaimed Paper & Glue by renowned French artist JR. Prior to MSNBC Films, she was the Director of Non-Fiction for Blumhouse Television, where among others, she was an Executive Producer on the critically acclaimed Pray Away and produced the Netflix hit Our Father. As an Independent Producer she produced the cult hit Bathtubs Over Broadway. She also recently won an Emmy for the documentary Art & Krimes by Krimes. She is based in Los Angeles.