STAFF

ROBERTA GROSSMAN - Executive Producer
​An award-winning filmmaker with a passion for history and social justice, Roberta Grossman has written, directed and produced more than 40 hours of film and television. Grossman wrote, produced and directed Who Will Write Our History, about Emanuel Ringelblum and the secret archives of the Warsaw Ghetto, co-produced by Arte and NDR. In 2018, Grossman co-directed and produced the Netflix Original Documentary Seeing Allred, about the women’s rights attorney Gloria Allred, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Grossman’s 2012 Hava Nagila (The Movie) uses the song Hava Nagila as a portal into 150 years of Jewish history, culture and spirituality. Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh, Grossman’s 2008 film, was shortlisted for an Academy Award, aired on PBS, was nominated for a Primetime Emmy and won the audience award at 13 Jewish film festivals. Grossman directed Above and Beyond (2014), for producer Nancy Spielberg, about the American–Jewish WWII pilots who volunteered to fight in Israel’s War of Independence. Grossman also produced the NEH supported Dorothea Lange: Grab a Hunk of Lightning, which aired on PBS/American Masters in August 2014. Grossman was the series producer and co-writer of 500 Nations, the eight-hour CBS series on Native Americans hosted by Kevin Costner. Her film Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action, aired on PBS in 2005.

JOLEEN DEATHERAGE - Executive Director
​With over twenty years of non-profit experience in arts and culture, the environmental sector, and maritime industry, Joleen Deatherage has held senior management roles at the National Museum of the Surface Navy in Los Angeles, Heal the Bay Aquarium in Santa Monica, Grand Vision Foundation in San Pedro, and the Los Angeles Maritime Institute at the Port of Los Angeles. She has led strategic development and marketing efforts, and managed institutional transformation that resulted in raising more than nineteen million dollars.Before joining the non-profit sector, Joleen worked in the entertainment industry as a paralegal and producer in both film and music. She held administrative and production positions at Interscope Records, Nederlander, Beverly Hills Producers Group, and Hachette Premiere Productions.  Joleen is a Los Angeles native, photographer, and writer with an impassioned interest in filmmaking. For nearly a decade, she ran her own studio and was the primary photographer for the Los Angeles Times Consumer Events, covering the annual Festival of Books, Travel & Adventure Show, and The Envelope Screening Series. Her images have been featured in print and online.

SOPHIE SARTAIN
Sophie Sartain is the Director and Producer of the Netflix Original Documentary, Seeing Allred, which premiered in competition at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. She wrote, directed, produced and shot the documentary, Mimi and Dona, which aired nationally on PBS/Independent Lens in 2015. Sartain’s other credits include the 2014 documentary, Above and Beyond (writer), produced by Nancy Spielberg and winner of the audience award at more than twenty film festivals; the 2012 documentary Hava Nagila (The Movie)(writer/producer), and the Emmy-nominated 2008 film Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senseh (writer/co-producer). She has contributed as a writer and consultant on several film projects including Ishi’s Rturn, Rock in the Red Zone, Hotel Everest, Feminists: What Were They Thinking, and In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee.

JULY HODARA
A native of France, producer and storyteller July Hodara completed her undergraduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley before joining Katahdin Productions in 2011. July’s first project at Katahdin Productions was Hava Nagila (The Movie) (2012) with director Roberta Grossman. She stayed on to associate produce Above and Beyond (2014) with producer Nancy Spielberg, On TheMap (2016) with director Dani Menkin, and Netflix Original 2018 Sundance selection Seeing Allred (2018). July co-produced 2019 Berlinale selection Who Will Write Our History (2018). After her work on those five award-winning documentary features, July went on to complete her Master’s in Cinema and Media Studies at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. July founded New Moons Productions in 2019, a media company through which she develops various projects, with a particular interest for women’s stories. She came on as co-producer for Katahdin features Reckonings (2022) with the Claims Conference and the German Ministry of Finance as production partners, and Vishniac (2023) with director Laura Bialis. July is producing the short films for the permanent exhibit of the Lost Shtetl Museum.  

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BOARD MEMBERS

​LISA THOMAS
An innovative entrepreneur, activist, philanthropist, film producer and Grammy Award-winning music producer, Lisa Thomas is best known as the cofounder and former CEO of Clif Bar, Inc. From the moment it was introduced to the marketplace in 1992, Clif Bar – an all-natural energy bar – was a success. Over the next several years, Clif Bar, Inc., appeared frequently on the annual Inc. 500 list of the fastest growing privately held companies, and in Working Woman Magazine’s 500 fastest growing companies owned by women. Thomas was named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in San Francisco in 1998. In addition to managing a rapidly growing and thriving company, she focused heavily on developing a corporate culture that emphasized social and personal responsibility. Thomas executive produced the feature documentary Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action (2005). She also produced Sacred Ground, a companion album to Homeland that won the 2005 Grammy Award for Best Native American Album.

​NANCY SPIELBERG
An accomplished businesswoman, fundraiser and philanthropist, Nancy Spielberg, has in recent years turned her energy and talents to producing documentary films. She served as consultant on the Oscar-winning documentary Chernobyl Heart, and is executive producer of Elusive Justice: The Search for Nazi War Criminals, which aired nationally on PBS. She is the Producer of the award-winning documentary, Above and Beyond, and Executive Producer for Who Will Write Our History directed by Roberta Grossman. She is founder and co-founder of several charities including “A Bid for Charity,” “Children of Chernobyl,” “Project Sunshine” and the U.S. branch of The Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance.

​LISA HOFHEIMER
Lisa Hofheimer advises family foundations and individuals on strategic philanthropy and social impact initiatives. As Finance Director of the Lee Liberman Foundation (LLF) since 2009, Lisa evaluates all funding proposals submitted to LLF, which awards strategic grants to universities and nonprofits in the United States, Australia and Israel. She works closely with grantees to define and manage their program goals, funding strategies and evaluation metrics, and oversees their corresponding progress throughout the grant cycle. Lisa serves on the Boards of JQ International and Temple Israel of Hollywood, and she co-chairs the California Advisory Committee for Sharsheret, a national organization that educates Jewish women affected by breast cancer.

​TERRY LAWLER
Terry Lawler, Executive Director, New York Women in Film & Television, is a Vice President of the Board of Directors of the New York Production Alliance and serves on the advisory committee of Reel New York, an independent film and video series broadcast on WNET/13. In addition to the Katahdin Foundation, she also serves on the Board of the Manhattan Neighborhood Network. Prior to joining NYWIFT, Lawler was Director of Development and Production at Women Make Movies and National Director of Film and Videomakers Services at the American Film Institute. She was production executive on several network television specials. She also was Executive Producer of Visions of Light: The Art of Cinematography (1992), which won Best Documentary awards from the American Society of Film Critics and the New York Film Critics Circle in 1992, and Hollywood Mavericks, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 1990.