Orlando von Einsiedel, Director
Orlando von Einsiedel is the director of the Academy® Award-winning short documentary, The White Helmets. The film was also nominated for two Emmy® awards. His debut feature documentary Virunga charted the story of a group of courageous park rangers in the Democratic Republic of Congo. BAFTA® and Academy® Award-nominated, the documentary won over 50 international awards including an Emmy®, a Grierson and a duPont-Columbia Award for outstanding journalism. The film was also recognised for its role in protecting the Virunga National Park winning a Peabody, a Television Academy Honor and the prestigious 2015 Doc Impact Award.
More recent notable projects include Evelyn, which won the 2018 British Independent Film Award (BIFA) for Best Documentary, and the Emmy®-nominated short film Lost and Found. Orlando was also an executive producer on Learning To Skateboard In A Warzone (If You’re A Girl) which picked up this year’s Oscar® for Best Documentary Short.
Spencer Bakalar, Editor/Senior Producer
Spencer Bakalar is an editor and senior producer at TIME. She is drawn to stories that take a deeper look at the news and reflect the power of shared human experience. Editing longform documentaries is her passion. In 2017, she produced and edited "FIRSTS," TIME’s award-winning documentary series featuring 46 groundbreaking women. For the series, she interviewed almost every woman on the list — from Madeleine Albright to Aretha Franklin. Prior to TIME, Spencer worked at the Los Angeles Times and covered a wide range of stories, including environmental injustices in East L.A., farm labor in Mexico, and Pulitzer Prize-winning breaking news coverage on the mass shooting in San Bernardino. Her work has been recognized by the Livingston Awards, the Webby Awards, and the News and Documentary Emmys®.
Kaitlyn Schwalje, Co-Director/Writer
Kaitlyn Schwalje is a science journalist and documentary director based in Portland, Maine. She received a B.S. in Physics from Carnegie Mellon University and completed her postgraduate studies at the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design. Before pivoting to storytelling, Kaitlyn worked for the research division of the Walt Disney Company. Her stories about her disaster obsessed father, tsunamis, the seismic history of the Pacific Northwest and squirrels crashing NASDAQ appear in CBC, Atlas Obscura, WNYC, 99% Invisible, Nat Geo, and others.
Alex Wolf Lewis, Co-Director/Director of Photography
Alex Wolf Lewis is a documentary director and DP based in New York City and Portland, Maine. As a director, credits include, Snowy (Sundance 2021), Single Room Occupancy (SIFF '16, Big Sky '17, Short of The Week) and Hildegarde’s Piano (Rooftop Film Festival 2019). As a DP, he has travelled the world for work, shooting for Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown, Vice, Netflix, HBO, CNN, PBS, A&E, Discovery, Well Groomed (HBO Sports, SXSW 2019, Hot Docs 2019) and 2nd Unit DP on the narrative feature Critical Thinking, dir. John Leguizamo, (SXSW 2020).
Orlando von Einsiedel, Director
Orlando von Einsiedel is the director of the Academy® Award-winning short documentary, The White Helmets. The film was also nominated for two Emmy® awards. His debut feature documentary Virunga charted the story of a group of courageous park rangers in the Democratic Republic of Congo. BAFTA® and Academy® Award-nominated, the documentary won over 50 international awards including an Emmy®, a Grierson and a duPont-Columbia Award for outstanding journalism. The film was also recognised for its role in protecting the Virunga National Park winning a Peabody, a Television Academy Honor and the prestigious 2015 Doc Impact Award.
More recent notable projects include Evelyn, which won the 2018 British Independent Film Award (BIFA) for Best Documentary, and the Emmy®-nominated short film Lost and Found. Orlando was also an executive producer on Learning To Skateboard In A Warzone (If You’re A Girl) which picked up this year’s Oscar® for Best Documentary Short.
Spencer Bakalar, Editor/Senior Producer
Spencer Bakalar is an editor and senior producer at TIME. She is drawn to stories that take a deeper look at the news and reflect the power of shared human experience. Editing longform documentaries is her passion. In 2017, she produced and edited "FIRSTS," TIME’s award-winning documentary series featuring 46 groundbreaking women. For the series, she interviewed almost every woman on the list — from Madeleine Albright to Aretha Franklin. Prior to TIME, Spencer worked at the Los Angeles Times and covered a wide range of stories, including environmental injustices in East L.A., farm labor in Mexico, and Pulitzer Prize-winning breaking news coverage on the mass shooting in San Bernardino. Her work has been recognized by the Livingston Awards, the Webby Awards, and the News and Documentary Emmys®.
Kaitlyn Schwalje, Co-Director/Writer
Kaitlyn Schwalje is a science journalist and documentary director based in Portland, Maine. She received a B.S. in Physics from Carnegie Mellon University and completed her postgraduate studies at the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design. Before pivoting to storytelling, Kaitlyn worked for the research division of the Walt Disney Company. Her stories about her disaster obsessed father, tsunamis, the seismic history of the Pacific Northwest and squirrels crashing NASDAQ appear in CBC, Atlas Obscura, WNYC, 99% Invisible, Nat Geo, and others.
Alex Wolf Lewis, Co-Director/Director of Photography
Alex Wolf Lewis is a documentary director and DP based in New York City and Portland, Maine. As a director, credits include, Snowy (Sundance 2021), Single Room Occupancy (SIFF '16, Big Sky '17, Short of The Week) and Hildegarde’s Piano (Rooftop Film Festival 2019). As a DP, he has travelled the world for work, shooting for Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown, Vice, Netflix, HBO, CNN, PBS, A&E, Discovery, Well Groomed (HBO Sports, SXSW 2019, Hot Docs 2019) and 2nd Unit DP on the narrative feature Critical Thinking, dir. John Leguizamo, (SXSW 2020).