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Agora Productions (www.thepowerofthepowerless.org or www.agoraproductions.org) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote humane values, enhance critical thinking skills and expose people, particularly young adults, to positive role models through film, art and educational materials.
Cory Taylor
Cory TaylorTaylor is a primetime Emmy Award-winning filmmaker with more than twenty years of experience in documentaries. His most recent independent film, THE POWER OF THE POWERLESS (2009), narrated by Jeremy Irons, documents the dissident struggle, which led to 1989’s Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia. Through Taylor’s direct efforts, and in conjunction with several human rights organizations, the film was smuggled into various Arab-Spring countries, as well as Burma and Cuba, and shown to democracy advocates in underground screenings. POWERLESS was also broadcast in thirty countries and screened at twenty-four film festivals where it won multiple awards. Taylor’s short film ANOTHER WAY OF SEEING THINGS (2004), examines the subject of accurate reporting and tolerance in the media and won awards at the Columbus and Tiburon Film Festivals. In 2002, his award-winning film, A QUIET REVOLUTION, narrated by Meryl Streep and featuring Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai, portrayed the successful efforts of ordinary citizens combating deforestation, draught and environmental poisoning in Africa, Europe and Asia. Screened in fifty countries, A QUIET REVOLUTION was also translated into multiple languages, and brought to remote villages on mobile movie screens. Taylor’s television work has been featured on PBS, the History Channel, Nat Geo, and the Discovery Channel. He received his BA from UCLA in Theater, Film and Television.
Darin Nellis
Nellis, Agora’s executive producer and business manager, has twenty five years of experience working in business and nonprofit management in the U.S. and Africa. Nellis produced THE POWER OF THE POWERLESS (2009) and also spearheaded the development of an associated curriculum for high school and college students, which is currently being utilized by many universities around the world, including Stanford, Harvard and Duke. His experience as a former Community Development Agent in Mauritania for the U.S. Peace Corps nurtured his appreciation for globalism, a sensitivity he brings to all the projects he produces for Agora. Nellis’ private sector positions have included Managing Director for the Eurasian distribution company Power Quality Holdings and Director of Marketing and Sales for Nanotech Industries and Hybrid Coating Technologies. Non-profit and public posts have included Community Development Officer at The United Way, Loyola Marymount Peace Corps Fellows and Volunteer & Outreach Coordinator for the American Oceans Campaign. Nellis received his BA from UCLA in International Relations and an MBA from Loyola Marymount University.
Nicole Corbin
Corbin’s first independent documentary, 13 FAMILIES: LIFE AFTER COLUMBINE (2010), was a personal look at the emotional road from loss and grief to healing, hope and inspiration for the thirteen families whose children were murdered at Columbine. Inspired in part by Corbin’s passion for children and the eradication of teen violence, the film enjoyed a long theatrical run in Colorado and was screened at multiple film festivals. After a decade of producing news for NBC, CBS, and ABC, Corbin went on to work in new media for Sony and Columbia Tri-Star Television division, where she developed interactive programming. With a commitment to journalistic integrity acquired through her years producing network news, Corbin currently produces television content, both long-form documentary and other non-scripted programming, for multiple networks, including Discovery, MSBNC, TLC, History Channel and A&E. She graduated with degrees in Broadcast Journalism and Political Science.
James T. Sale
Composer
James T. Sale is an accomplished composer and orchestrator for Film and TV with 15 years of experience including scores for “The Haunting of Molly Hartley” and “Music Within.” He also orchestrates and conducts music for Mark Mothersbaugh (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Fanboys, Herbie: Fully Loaded), Bill Brown (CSI: NY), Lee Holdrige (Kindertransport) and for numerous award-winning video games.
Lionel Friedberg
Production Consultant
Recipient of a Primetime Emmy, a National Emmy, the American Association for the Advancement of Science ‘Westinghouse’ Award for Science Programming, three Columbus and three Golden Eagles for Best Documentaries. He has worked for over 30 years supervising, producing, writing and directing documentaries, reality, investigative and educational programs and has 18 feature film credits as Director of Photography.
Alex Ryan
Alexandra Ryan is two-time Emmy nominated producer who had been producing with Sopranos actor James Gandolfini until untimely passing in June. In 2012, HEMINGWAY AND GELLHORN (starring Academy Award Winner Nicole Kidman and Clive Owen) premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and earned a total of fifteen Emmy nominations. It was HBO’s most nominated show of 2012 and earned Golden Globe nominations as well as SAG, DGA and WGA.
Together James and Alex also produced HBO’s ALIVE DAY MEMORIES: Home from Iraq, which garnered several awards including an Emmy nomination and the very first TV Academy’s Television with a Conscience honor. In a follow up to ALIVE DAY, WARTORN 1861-2010 (earned another Academy Television with a Conscience Honor) examined the emotional cost of war and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Alex is currently developing a bio-pic comedy for HBO Films and Steve Carell’s Carousel Productions.
Darin Nellis
Darin Nellis is the Executive Producer for Jack and Nikita. He is the co-founder of Agora Productions. Nellis produced the award-winning documentary films, JFK: A President Betrayed (Amazon Prime) and The Power of the Powerless. Oliver Stone said JFK was “brilliant” and the Hollywood Reporter called it “an excellent example of cinematic scholarship.” In addition to his work as a producer for Powerless, Nellis spearheaded the development and distribution of an educational curricula for the show that is now being used by hundreds of universities across the globe. He also worked with NGOs to carry out the distribution of Powerless to dissidents seeking non-violent change around the world resulting in many underground screenings, including on The Democratic Voice of Burma. Nellis is adept at distribution and has sold content to international and online distributors, including NHK, FOX, Al Jazeera, ABC, Histoire, and NRK and many others.
In addition to his work in film production, Nellis has served as an executive for multiple high-tech companies and served the Peace Corps in Mauritania, West Africa, where he nurtured an appreciation for globalism. Fluent in French, and conversationally fluent in Spanish and Arabic, he received his MBA in International Business from Loyola Marymount University.
Director/Writer/Editor
Producer
Michael Chandler is the writer, director, and editor of Agora’s new film, Jack and Nikita. He is an Emmy award winning, and Oscar nominated film editor, writer, producer and director of feature and documentary films. His film credits include five Oscar nominations for Amadeus, Waldo Salt: A Screenwriter’s Journey, The Squires of San Quentin, The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers and Freedom on My Mind (Sundance Grand Jury Prize); an Emmy Award for Yosemite: The Fate of Heaven; two American Cinema Editors (ACE) Eddie Awards for Amadeus and the ABC special Can’t It Be Anyone Else? (Christopher Humanitarian Award). His most recent works include Knee Deep (Maysles Brothers Award) and Forgotten Fires (Golden Spire Award) of which Bill Moyers said, “If we wanted a real dialog about race in America, we’d start with this film.”
Sheila Canavan
Sheila Canavan is a producer for Jack and Nikita. Canavan produced and directed the Showtime Broadcast Premier “Compared to What? The Improbable Journey of Barney Frank” and the Independent Lens documentary “Knee Deep,” winner of the prestigious Maysles Brothers Award for Best Documentary Film. Her film credits include “Waldo Salt: A Screenwriter’s Journey” and “Yosemite, The Fate of Heaven.”
Sheila is also a nationally known attorney in consumer law and predatory lending fraud, specializing in financial abuse of the elderly. She served a three-year term on the Federal Reserve Board’s Consumer Advisory Council, which advises the Board on its responsibilities under the Consumer Credit Protection Act.
Max Gittelson
Cory Taylor
Taylor, co-founder and executive producer for Agora Productions, is a primetime Emmy Award-winning filmmaker with 30 years of experience in documentaries and non-fiction television. His award-winning feature docs include JFK: A President Betrayed and The Power of the Powerless and Oleg Vidov. Oliver Stone said JFK was “brilliant” and the Hollywood Reporter called it “an excellent example of cinematic scholarship.” Noted for its contribution to human rights, Powerless was distributed to dissidents seeking non-violent change around the world and broadcast illegally into Myanmar on The Democratic Voice of Burma. Taylor’s award-winning documentary, A Quiet Revolution, was broadcast in more than 50 countries and his writing and editing on Oleg Vidov helped the film win Best Documentary at the Crystal Palace International Film Festival.
Taylor began his career working on the National Geographic Specials for which he received two primetime Emmy nominations. Later, he produced television specials about The Lord of the Rings for New Line Cinema and supervised different series for Discovery, Discovery Health and Animal Planet. Taylor’s work as an editor has also been featured on OWN, the History Channel, MS-NBC, NHK, Planet Green, Nat Geo, Al Jazeera and PBS. As a writer, Taylor is the co-winner of The Edgar Dale Award for Screenwriting and the author of How Hitler Was Made, published by Prometheus Books in 2018. He received his BA from UCLA in Theater, Film and Television.
Darin Nellis
Darin Nellis is the Executive Producer for OTB. He is the co-founder of Agora Productions. Nellis produced the award-winning documentary films, JFK: A President Betrayed (Amazon Prime) and The Power of the Powerless. Oliver Stone said JFK was “brilliant” and the Hollywood Reporter called it “an excellent example of cinematic scholarship.” In addition to his work as a producer for Powerless, Nellis spearheaded the development and distribution of an educational curricula for the show that is now being used by hundreds of universities across the globe. He also worked with NGOs to carry out the distribution of Powerless to dissidents seeking non-violent change around the world resulting in many underground screenings, including on The Democratic Voice of Burma. Nellis is adept at distribution and has sold content to international and online distributors, including NHK, FOX, Al Jazeera, ABC, Histoire, and NRK and many others.
In addition to his work in film production, Nellis has served as an executive for multiple high-tech companies and served the Peace Corps in Mauritania, West Africa, where he nurtured an appreciation for globalism. Fluent in French, and conversationally fluent in Spanish and Arabic, he received his MBA in International Business from Loyola Marymount University.
Marné Jones-Boulware
Marné Jones-Boulware is an executive producer at Agora Productions who has worked with the founders of Agora on multiple films including Gandhi, King, Ikeda. She also owns and operates a successful Standards and Practices company, “Power Pals Productions,” where she consults on such shows as TITAN GAMES, AMERICAN NINJA WARRIOR and ULTIMATE BEAST MASTER. Prior to this, she worked as a Development executive at CBS and as a Senior Standards editor of ABC/Disney.
Director/Writer/Editor
Producer
Michael Chandler is the writer, director, and editor of Agora’s new film, On the Brink. He is an Emmy award winning, and Oscar nominated film editor, writer, producer and director of feature and documentary films. His film credits include five Oscar nominations for Amadeus, Waldo Salt: A Screenwriter’s Journey, The Squires of San Quentin, The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers and Freedom on My Mind (Sundance Grand Jury Prize); an Emmy Award for Yosemite: The Fate of Heaven; two American Cinema Editors (ACE) Eddie Awards for Amadeus and the ABC special Can’t It Be Anyone Else? (Christopher Humanitarian Award). His most recent works include Knee Deep (Maysles Brothers Award) and Forgotten Fires (Golden Spire Award) of which Bill Moyers said, “If we wanted a real dialog about race in America, we’d start with this film.”
Valeria Chu
Valeria Chu currently serves as Agora Productions Director of Financial Affairs & Development. Valeria has been instrumental in the completion of several of Agora’s projects including JFK – A President Betrayed and The Power of the Powerless. Valeria has over 35 years of experience working as a Systems and Strategic planning team member and a consultant for S&P 500 corporations and technology startups. She has also been a community activist for several decades supporting the welfare of each community where she has lived in Northern and Southern California.
Mitch Rosa
Mitch Rosa is an award-winning showrunner who has worked in non-fiction television for the past three decades. He was instrumental in developing and launching The Ultimate Fighter–the UFC competition series that brought mixed martial arts to the mainstream. He went on to executive produce 28 seasons and over 200 episodes for Spike TV, FX, and Fox Sports 1. His credits as a showrunner include Lindsey, a series on the life of Lindsey Lohan for Oprah Winfrey, American Chopper, the long-running reality drama on Discovery, Top Shot for the History Channel, Greensburg, with Leonardo DiCaprio, about a Kansas town wiped out by a tornado and rebuilt to the highest green standards, and Michael Sam, a doc series about the first openly gay NFL draftee for OWN. Mitch has worked for networks including Animal Planet, the History Channel, Planet Green, Lifetime, Discovery, OWN, HGTV, truTV, and PBS.
A product of the UCLA film school, Mitch got his start as a runner for Peter Bogdanovich before moving into non-fiction television as an editor on series including Unsolved Mysteries and Penn and Teller. As a showrunner he has supervised hundreds of hours of television, overseeing both production and post, writing scripts, handling talent, and working with networks. He excels at making a show work.
Lionel Friedberg
Friedberg is the recipient of a Primetime Emmy, a National Emmy, The American Association for the Advancement of Science ‘Westinghouse’ Award for Science Programming, three Columbus and three Golden Eagles for Best Documentaries. He has worked for over 30 years supervising, producing, writing and directing documentaries, reality, investigative and educational programs and has 18 feature film credits as Director of Photography.
Leonard Feinstein
Leonard Feinstein is an award-winning editor of documentary films and non-fiction TV. His work includes National Geographic Specials, HBO documentaries, and the PBS series: The American Experience, NOVA, American Masters and Craft in America. Early in his career, he edited the landmark series Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth.
Among his feature documentary credits are Darfur Now, Betting on Zero, Mona Lisa Missing, and Bitter Seeds, winner of a 2012 IDA Award. In 2019 he edited the short film Women of the Gulag, which was short-listed for an Oscar. He recently edited the critically acclaimed Netflix true-crime series The Confession Killer.
Feinstein has been nominated for the TV academy Emmy and was awarded an American Cinema Editors “Eddie” Award for his work on the reality/doc series Greensburg in 2006.
David Linstrom
Linstrom is an accomplished filmmaker and Emmy Award winning cinematographer with 20 years experience working on over three-dozen documentaries in more than 50 countries for National Geographic, Discovery, HBO, CBS, NBC, ABC, DATA and other NGOs.
Nicole Corbin
Nicole Corbin’s first independent documentary, 13 FAMILIES: LIFE AFTER COLUMBINE, was a personal look at the emotional road from loss and grief to healing, hope and inspiration for the thirteen families whose children were murdered at Columbine. Inspired in part by Corbin’s passion for children and the eradication of teen violence, the film enjoyed a long theatrical run in Colorado and was screened at multiple film festivals. After a decade of producing news for NBC, CBS, and ABC, Corbin went on to work in new media for Sony and Columbia Tri-Star Television division, where she developed interactive programming. With a commitment to journalistic integrity acquired through her years producing network news, Corbin currently produces television content, both long-form documentary and other non-scripted programming, for multiple networks, including Discovery, MSBNC, TLC, History Channel and A&E. She graduated with degrees in Broadcast Journalism and Political Science.
Max Gittelson
Max Gittelson works an Assistant Producer at Agora Productions. Max worked as a sound recordist and PA on location in Russia, Germany, Austria, Washington DC, and Massachusetts. Max has also worked in an administrative capacity at Stone Tiger Productions and in sales at Morgan Fabrics.
© 2023 – Agora Productions – a 501(c)3 nonprofit public benefit organization. All Rights Reserved
Archivist
Helene Van Rossum is the Archivist for “Jack and Nikita.” Van Rossum studied modern history at the University of Amsterdam and archival studies at University College, London, before moving to the United States. Van Rossum has worked as an archivist for most of her professional career, including at the Mudd Library, Princeton University, and Special Collections and University Archives at Rutgers University. She has a deep passion for archival history, the patience to sift through vast quantities of media, and a keen eye to identify what is essential and what is not.
Van Rossum has written several picture books and recently collaborated on a trivia book about Princeton University with the Princeton University Archivist. In addition, she provides instructions and patterns to act out stories from the past with shadow or silhouette puppets on her website, Past Times History
Executive Producer
Darin Nellis is the co-founder of Agora Productions and Stone Tiger Productions. Nellis produced the critically acclaimed documentary films, JFK: A President Betrayed (Amazon Prime) and The Power of the Powerless (TPOP). Oliver Stone said JFK was “brilliant” and the Hollywood Reporter called it “an excellent example of cinematic scholarship.” Nellis headed up the distribution of TPOP, which aired on ten TV networks in Europe and Asia and was distributed by human rights organizations on three continents. He also spearheaded the development and distribution of an educational curricula for Powerless, now being used by hundreds of universities across the globe. Currently, Nellis serves as the Executive Producer for “Calitopia,” a new surf adventure series and “Jack and Nikita – My Partner My Adversary,” an exciting new genre breaking political thriller.
In addition to his work in film production, Nellis has served as an executive for multiple high-tech companies and served the Peace Corps in Mauritania, West Africa, where he nurtured an appreciation for globalism. Fluent in French, and conversationally fluent in Spanish and Arabic, he received his MBA in International Business from Loyola Marymount University.
Producer
Sheila Canavan is a producer for Jack and Nikita. Canavan produced and directed the Showtime Broadcast Premier “Compared to What? The Improbable Journey of Barney Frank” and the Independent Lens documentary “Knee Deep,” winner of the prestigious Maysles Brothers Award for Best Documentary Film. Her film credits include “Waldo Salt: A Screenwriter’s Journey” and “Yosemite, The Fate of Heaven.”
Sheila is also a nationally known attorney in consumer law and predatory lending fraud, specializing in financial abuse of the elderly. She served a three-year term on the Federal Reserve Board’s Consumer Advisory Council, which advises the Board on its responsibilities under the Consumer Credit Protection Act.
Assistant Producer
Max Gittelson works an Assistant Producer at Agora Productions. Max worked as a sound recordist and PA on location in Russia, Germany, Austria, Washington DC, and Massachusetts. Max has also worked in an administrative capacity at Stone Tiger Productions and in sales at Morgan Fabrics.
Director/Writer/Editor
Michael Chandler is the writer, director, and editor of Agora’s new film, Jack and Nikita. He is an Emmy award winning, and Oscar nominated film editor, writer, producer and director of feature and documentary films. His film credits include five Oscar nominations for Amadeus, Waldo Salt: A Screenwriter’s Journey, The Squires of San Quentin, The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers and Freedom on My Mind (Sundance Grand Jury Prize); an Emmy Award for Yosemite: The Fate of Heaven; two American Cinema Editors (ACE) Eddie Awards for Amadeus and the ABC special Can’t It Be Anyone Else? (Christopher Humanitarian Award). His most recent works include Knee Deep (Maysles Brothers Award) and Forgotten Fires (Golden Spire Award) of which Bill Moyers said, “If we wanted a real dialog about race in America, we’d start with this film.”