RIC ESTHER BIENSTOCK

Director

Ric Esther Bienstock is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker best known for her ground-breaking investigative documentaries. Her films and TV series, including Enslaved: The Lost History of the Transatlantic Slave Trade (with Samuel L. Jackson), The Accountant of Auschwitz, Tales From the Organ Trade, Sex Slaves (aka The Real Sex Traffic), Ebola: Inside an Outbreak (aka Plague Fighters), Boxing: In and Out of the Ring, Penn & Teller’s Magic and Mystery Tour and Ms. Conceptions, have screened at over eighty international festivals and aired internationally on every major network including Netflix, HBO, PBS, CNN, Discovery, National Geographic, A&E, TLC, Animal Planet, Amazon, EPIX, CBC, History Channel, Channel 4, BBC, ITV, ZDF/Arte, ProSieben and more.

In September 2024, Bienstock was honoured with a Silver Circle Emmy Award in New York for 25 years of “significant and impactful contributions to the industry”.  Bienstock was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada, Canada’s highest civilian honour, for “her commitment to raising awareness of global events and conflicts through film.” She also received the Gordon Sinclair Award for Broadcast Journalism for her “exceptional body of work and significant contribution to the international profile of Canadian television journalism.”

With a passion for social issues, her films, often years in the making, stand out as the definitive films on whatever topic she tackles. As a result, she has been asked to speak before governments, international organizations and law enforcement the world over. Bienstock gave a TEDx talk about her body of work (entitled “How Ebola, Porn and the Human Organ Trade Led Me to the Ordinary”). She was also a featured speaker at Toronto’s IdeaCity, and she has given talks at numerous Universities both at home and internationally including Princeton, UCLA, Columbia, the New York Academy of Medicine, McGill, Concordia, Simon Fraser University, Carleton and others.

Her work has garnered dozens of prestigious awards, including an Emmy Award for Outstanding Investigative Journalism, two Edward R. Murrow Awards, a Dupont-Columbia Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism, a British Broadcast Award, a Distinguished Achievement Award from the IDA in Los Angeles, two Hot Docs Awards, 5 Canadian Screen Awards, two Donald Brittain Awards for Best Documentary, two Geminis, a Genie, a Royal Television Society Award, multiple Emmy nominations, a BAFTA nomination and two Amnesty International Awards among many others.

ALEX GIBNEY

EXECUTIVE Producer

Director Alex Gibney called “the most important documentarian of our time” by Esquire Magazine has a signature cinematic style that lends itself to penetrating, gripping, and deeply insightful documentaries. His work has been the recipient of an Academy Award, multiple Emmy Awards, a Grammy Award, several Peabody Awards, the DuPontColumbia Award, The Independent Spirit Award, and The Writers Guild Awards.

Gibney’s 2020 releases included: the well-received Crazy, Not Insane, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival, Agents of Chaos, a two-part documentary about Russian meddling in the 2016 US elections both for HBO, and Totally Under Control, a searing look at the administration’s failure to contain the COVID 19 pandemic released theatrically by Neon. In 2021, he directed the HBO and HBO Max two-part documentary, The Crime of the Century, which explored the origins, extent, and fallout of one of the most devastating public health tragedies of our time, the opioid crisis. His most recent release is the Emmy-winning HBO and HBO Max documentary, The Forever Prisoner, which explored the chilling story of Abu Zubaydah, the first high-value detainee subjected to the CIA’s program of Enhanced Interrogation Techniques (EITs), later identified as torture by those outside the agency. In 2022, Gibney’s 2-part feature documentary, Boom! Boom! The World vs. Boris Becker premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival and is available now on Apple TV+. Gibney’s most recent feature documentary, In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2023.

METTE HOFFMAN MEYER

EXECUTIVE Producer

Mette Hoffman Meyer is CEO of THE WHY and was previously head of documentaries at Danish public TV. She has worked on a number of award-winning films, including Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer, Maid in Hell and Stealing Africa to mention a few. She holds a Peabody, a Grierson, two Oscars and an Emmy to her name. She also won a Doc Mogul award for supporting young local filmmakers from around the world.

GARFIELD MILLER

Producer / Writer

Garfield Lindsay Miller, president of Storyfield Productions, is an award-winning filmmaker who’s worked as a fiction and non-fiction producer and writer for over fifteen years. In 2021, he produced and wrote the feature film, Percy vs. Goliath (Saban Films), a true-story scripted drama starring Academy Award winner, Christopher Walken, Christina Ricci, and Zach Braff. 

Upon its release, the film reached #2 on iTunes (#1 in Canada) and received “Certified Fresh” rating on RottenTomatoes.com. Previously, Garfield co-wrote and produced the documentary, The Fires That Burn, nominated for a Gemini and recipient of the Silver Chris and the Wilber awards. His directorial debut, The Last New Year, was selected as the Canadian Gala film for the Victoria Film Festival, and aired nationally in Canada. Garfield was a staff writer on the werewolf drama, Bitten (Netflix). 

He has since worked as a producer and writer on a number of non-fiction series including Dark Side of the 90s (Vice), The Devil Next Door seasons 1 & 2 (Hulu), Fight or Flight (Discovery+), and Sampled (Paramount+), six-part docuseries premiering in the fall of 2022.

RIC ESTHER BIENSTOCK

  • Ric Esther Bienstock is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker best known for her ground-breaking investigative documentaries. Her films and TV series, including Enslaved: The Lost History of the Transatlantic Slave Trade (with Samuel L. Jackson), The Accountant of Auschwitz, Tales From the Organ Trade, Sex Slaves (aka The Real Sex Traffic), Ebola: Inside an Outbreak (aka Plague Fighters), Boxing: In and Out of the Ring,Penn & Teller’s Magic and Mystery Tour and Ms. Conceptions, have screened at over eighty international festivals and aired internationally on every major network including Netflix, HBO, PBS, CNN, Discovery, National Geographic, A&E, TLC, Animal Planet, Amazon, EPIX, CBC, History Channel, Channel 4, BBC, ITV, ZDF/Arte, ProSieben and more.

    In September 2024, Bienstock was honoured with a Silver Circle Emmy Award in New York for 25 years of “significant and impactful contributions to the industry”.  Bienstock was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada, Canada’s highest civilian honour, for “her commitment to raising awareness of global events and conflicts through film.” She also received the Gordon Sinclair Award for Broadcast Journalism for her “exceptional body of work and significant contribution to the international profile of Canadian television journalism.”

    With a passion for social issues, her films, often years in the making, stand out as the definitive films on whatever topic she tackles. As a result, she has been asked to speak before governments, international organizations and law enforcement the world over. Bienstock gave a TEDx talk about her body of work (entitled “How Ebola, Porn and the Human Organ Trade Led Me to the Ordinary”). She was also a featured speaker at Toronto’s IdeaCity, and she has given talks at numerous Universities both at home and internationally including Princeton, UCLA, Columbia, the New York Academy of Medicine, McGill, Concordia, Simon Fraser University, Carleton and others.

    Her work has garnered dozens of prestigious awards, including an Emmy Award for Outstanding Investigative Journalism, two Edward R. Murrow Awards, a Dupont-Columbia Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism, a British Broadcast Award, a Distinguished Achievement Award from the IDA in Los Angeles, two Hot Docs Awards, 5 Canadian Screen Awards, two Donald Brittain Awards for Best Documentary, two Geminis, a Genie, a Royal Television Society Award, multiple Emmy nominations, a BAFTA nomination and two Amnesty International Awards among many others.

Director

Ric Esther Bienstock is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker best known for her ground-breaking investigative documentaries. Her films and TV series, including Enslaved: The Lost History of the Transatlantic Slave Trade (with Samuel L. Jackson), The Accountant of Auschwitz, Tales From the Organ Trade, Sex Slaves (aka The Real Sex Traffic), Ebola: Inside an Outbreak (aka Plague Fighters), Boxing: In and Out of the Ring,Penn & Teller’s Magic and Mystery Tour and Ms. Conceptions, have screened at over eighty international festivals and aired internationally on every major network including Netflix, HBO, PBS, CNN, Discovery, National Geographic, A&E, TLC, Animal Planet, Amazon, EPIX, CBC, History Channel, Channel 4, BBC, ITV, ZDF/Arte, ProSieben and more.

In September 2024, Bienstock was honoured with a Silver Circle Emmy Award in New York for 25 years of “significant and impactful contributions to the industry”.  Bienstock was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada, Canada’s highest civilian honour, for “her commitment to raising awareness of global events and conflicts through film.” She also received the Gordon Sinclair Award for Broadcast Journalism for her “exceptional body of work and significant contribution to the international profile of Canadian television journalism.”

With a passion for social issues, her films, often years in the making, stand out as the definitive films on whatever topic she tackles. As a result, she has been asked to speak before governments, international organizations and law enforcement the world over. Bienstock gave a TEDx talk about her body of work (entitled “How Ebola, Porn and the Human Organ Trade Led Me to the Ordinary”). She was also a featured speaker at Toronto’s IdeaCity, and she has given talks at numerous Universities both at home and internationally including Princeton, UCLA, Columbia, the New York Academy of Medicine, McGill, Concordia, Simon Fraser University, Carleton and others.

Her work has garnered dozens of prestigious awards, including an Emmy Award for Outstanding Investigative Journalism, two Edward R. Murrow Awards, a Dupont-Columbia Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism, a British Broadcast Award, a Distinguished Achievement Award from the IDA in Los Angeles, two Hot Docs Awards, 5 Canadian Screen Awards, two Donald Brittain Awards for Best Documentary, two Geminis, a Genie, a Royal Television Society Award, multiple Emmy nominations, a BAFTA nomination and two Amnesty International Awards among many others.

ALEX GIBNEY

EXECUTIVE Producer

Director Alex Gibney called “the most important documentarian of our time” by Esquire Magazine has a signature cinematic style that lends itself to penetrating, gripping, and deeply insightful documentaries. His work has been the recipient of an Academy Award, multiple Emmy Awards, a Grammy Award, several Peabody Awards, the DuPontColumbia Award, The Independent Spirit Award, and The Writers Guild Awards.

Gibney’s 2020 releases included: the well-received Crazy, Not Insane, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival, Agents of Chaos, a two-part documentary about Russian meddling in the 2016 US elections both for HBO, and Totally Under Control, a searing look at the administration’s failure to contain the COVID 19 pandemic released theatrically by Neon. In 2021, he directed the HBO and HBO Max two-part documentary, The Crime of the Century, which explored the origins, extent, and fallout of one of the most devastating public health tragedies of our time, the opioid crisis. His most recent release is the Emmy-winning HBO and HBO Max documentary, The Forever Prisoner, which explored the chilling story of Abu Zubaydah, the first high-value detainee subjected to the CIA’s program of Enhanced Interrogation Techniques (EITs), later identified as torture by those outside the agency. In 2022, Gibney’s 2-part feature documentary, Boom! Boom! The World vs. Boris Becker premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival and is available now on Apple TV+. Gibney’s most recent feature documentary, In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2023.

METTE HOFFMAN MEYER

EXECUTIVE Producer

Mette Hoffman Meyer is CEO of THE WHY and was previously head of documentaries at Danish public TV. She has worked on a number of award-winning films, including Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer, Maid in Hell and Stealing Africa to mention a few. She holds a Peabody, a Grierson, two Oscars and an Emmy to her name. She also won a Doc Mogul award for supporting young local filmmakers from around the world.

GARFIELD MILLER

Producer / Writer

Garfield Lindsay Miller, president of Storyfield Productions, is an award-winning filmmaker who’s worked as a fiction and non-fiction producer and writer for over fifteen years. In 2021, he produced and wrote the feature film, Percy vs. Goliath (Saban Films), a true-story scripted drama starring Academy Award winner, Christopher Walken, Christina Ricci, and Zach Braff. 

Upon its release, the film reached #2 on iTunes (#1 in Canada) and received “Certified Fresh” rating on RottenTomatoes.com. Previously, Garfield co-wrote and produced the documentary, The Fires That Burn, nominated for a Gemini and recipient of the Silver Chris and the Wilber awards. His directorial debut, The Last New Year, was selected as the Canadian Gala film for the Victoria Film Festival, and aired nationally in Canada. Garfield was a staff writer on the werewolf drama, Bitten (Netflix). 

He has since worked as a producer and writer on a number of non-fiction series including Dark Side of the 90s (Vice), The Devil Next Door seasons 1 & 2 (Hulu), Fight or Flight (Discovery+), and Sampled (Paramount+), six-part docuseries premiering in the fall of 2022.