Press Inquiries: Contact Martha de Hoyos at or 310-402-9048 x225.

Robert Greenwald

Robert Greenwald is the president of Brave New Foundation as well as being a producer, director and political activist. Greenwald is the director/producer of several documentaries: "Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers" (2006), “Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price” (2005), and "Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism" (2004). He also executive produced a trilogy of political documentaries: "Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election" (2002); "Uncovered: The Iraq War" (2003), which Greenwald also directed; and "Unconstitutional" (2004). More →

Jim Miller

Jim Miller is the Executive Director for Brave New Foundation. He joined the company when the Foundation was initially formed by putting together the coalition of over 100 groups (including Amnesty International, MoveOn, True Majority, and Voters For Peace) to push our unique system of distribution and house screenings for Iraq For Sale. Since then Jim has strengthened our distribution coalition so that our short videos now get over 1.5 million views per month. His film experience began over 20 years ago working on the film Bull Durham and includes being the Director of Development for The Shooting Gallery, an independent film company which produced 'Sling Blade' and 'You Can Count on Me', and Head of Acquisitions for Cinema Park Distribution. Immediately prior the BNF, Jim produced the star-studded 'Les Girls' charity benefits for the National Breast Cancer Coalition.

Leighton Woodhouse

Leighton Woodhouse is the Political Director at Brave New Foundation. He started at BNF in late 2007. Prior to arriving at BNF, Leighton organized healthcare workers in a democratic, worker-led union, and served as Executive Director at DrivingVotes.org in the 2004 election. Leighton has a Masters degree in Sociology from UC Berkeley.

Martha de Hoyos

Martha de Hoyos is the Communications Director at Brave New Films. She has spent well over six years working in the labor movement in various leadership roles including communications and politics. Martha also worked in the field of economic development where she served as an economic development consultant for non profits throughout Southern California. She is a graduate of the New School where she received her Master's Degree in Public Policy.

Laura Beatty

Laura Beatty, Vice President of Marketing & Distribution, has been in marketing for corporations and start ups for fourteen years. She holds a strong track record of developing, executing and optimizing integrated online and offline campaigns to drive customer traffic, acquisition, sales and retention. With previous positions on the client and agency sides for Helio, Nissan, Saturn, Nestle, Cheap Tickets, Fandango, Lower My Bills, and Opportunity Green, Laura transitioned her career to further the progressive and environmental messages. She holds a BBA in Marketing from the University of Texas at Austin.

Devin Smith

Devin Smith is the Vice President of Operations and Development at Brave New Foundation. Previously, he was a producer at Robert Greenwald Productions where he co-produced the critically acclaimed documentaries Iraq For Sale: The War Profiteers, Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism and Uncovered: The War on Iraq. At Brave New Films, Devin has produced Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price and he was also the supervising producer on two documentary television series – The ACLU Freedom Files and The Sierra Club Chronicles. Currently, he oversees the operations and business affairs of the company. Prior to producing film and television projects in Los Angeles, Devin founded and operated a graphics company (Ideas to Images) in North Carolina. He also worked for several years for indie film company DownHome Entertainment. Devin received his BS degree in business from Wake Forest University’s Wayne Calloway School of Business and Accountancy. He is also a graduate of the American Film Institute (AFI) where he earned his Master of Fine Arts degree in Motion Picture Producing.

Helmut Roethel

Helmut Roethel, Vice President of Production, has worked in the entertainment industry for nearly twenty years. Production experience includes work as Camera Operator, Audio Recorder and Production Manager. Starting at the bottom in Post Production, Helmut quickly worked his way up to Director of Technical Services and Director of Post Production, developing and honing his technical, management, editing and creative skills. Helmut has to his credit work on daytime and primetime programs for all of the major networks (nearly 1000 episodes and 500 hours of air time), including Daytime Emmy Award-winner, Starting Over (NBC).

Jim Gilliam

Jim Gilliam is the creator of Brave New Theaters and former dot com executive turned activist filmmaker. In the wake of 9/11, Gilliam left his position as chief technology officer of high-profile startup Business.com and devoted his time to more pressing matters. Through MoveOn.org, in 2003, he hooked up with veteran filmmaker Robert Greenwald to research and help produce the groundbreaking documentary, Uncovered: The War on Iraq about the faulty intelligence that led the U.S. to war. Bringing together the world of film, politics, and the internet, "Uncovered" defined a new generation of films -- the grassroots political documentary. Gilliam then co-produced Greenwald's next film, Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism, an unprecedented look at the propaganda techniques employed by FOX News, and produced Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price and Iraq For Sale: The War Profiteers. More →

Jesse Haff

Jesse Haff is a dedicated musician who has been writing and releasing albums in an internationally active band for several years. He is also a web and graphic designer and proudly joined Brave New Films as a web developer in February 2005. In the past four years he has designed and worked on the massive online campaigns for Slacker Uprising, Iraq for Sale and the Wal-Mart Movie in addition to over 40 other web sites such as the The REAL McCain, Meet the Bloggers, War on Greed, FOX Attacks, Close Gitmo and many more. Prior to Brave New Films, Haff earned a degree in Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Asheville.

Lissette Roldan

Lissette Roldan joined Brave New Films in February of 2005 as an assistant editor for Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price. She was then the associate editor on Iraq For Sale: The War Profiteers. Since then, Lissette has edited several of the short investigative documentaries that were part of such campaigns as The Real Rudy, FOX Attacks, War on Greed and Fighting Foreclosure. Most recently, Lissette became the editor for Brave New Foundation's compelling new magazine show In Their Boots.

Christopher Sprinkle

Christopher Sprinkle is a Producer at Brave New Foundation. He is currently working on our Issue Campaigns. He has produced two popular public affairs radio programs, written and produced some twenty radio documentaries on subjects as diverse as political party conventions to reformed drug dealers, produced live event coverage from the Presidential Inauguration in D.C. to the inaugural broadcast of a South American cable news network in Caracas, Venezuela, and he also created the country’s only history program on public radio, The Pacifica Radio Archives: From the Vault, heard on public radio stations across the United States. He is directing and editing a documentary film on a Fellini-esque marching band from Portland, OR, in his spare time, of which he doesn't have a lot.

Erikka Yancy

Erikka Yancy is an Associate Producer at Brave New Foundation (most recently she worked on the This Brave Nation series) and first joined the company as a 2007 Fellow. Erikka produced several narrative short films including the festival award-winning Marrying God. She is a graduate of the Goodman School of Drama in Chicago with a BFA in acting, and the American Film Institute with an MFA in producing. Her parents are proud of both of her extraordinarily practical degrees.

Elise Wagner

Elise Wagner is the Outreach Associate at Brave New Foundation. In this position, she works to form partnerships with other organizations. Prior to joining BNF, she worked with other organizations such as the Los Angeles Craft and Folk Art Museum, Helen Keller International and the Alan Lomax Archive. She enjoys learning about other cultures and spent an academic year teaching English in the French Guiana in South America. Elise received her B.A. in Cultural Anthropology and French from Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts.

Pamela Ezell

Pamela Ezell is a producer at Brave New Foundation. She has wanted to work for Robert Greenwald ever she saw Outfoxed. A few months ago, she 'friended' Robert on Facebook, noticed he was hiring at Brave New Foundation, and here she is. Go social networking. For several years, she was on the faculty at Chapman University, where she also earned an MFA. A consummate news junkie, a wannabe blogger, and a producer of public television programming, documentaries, and mobile media, Pamela is thrilled to be using every tool in the viral digital arsenal to further the cause of progressive politics. She also likes hummus.

Myra Donnelley

Myra Donnelley is Director of Development for Brave New Foundation. She brings with her more than twenty-five years experience as a grant writer and development strategist for not-for profits. Most recently, she co-designed a three-year strategic plan to enable a health and human rights advocacy organization to launch an interactive genetics curriculum web platform in partnership with four leading U.S. medical schools. For the past three years she was development and community outreach partner for the Mentor Artists Playwright Project, obtaining funding and in-kind institutional support for arts-based literacy enrichment programs for Native American youth in urban centers and on reservations. Other experience in youth development programming includes fundraising and community arts work in New York, Texas, Massachusetts and Oregon. Arts fundraising experience includes eight years as Producing Director of Portland, Oregon's Stark Raving Theatre, and work as a fundraising consultant for individual artists and five Portland-area not-for-profit theaters. Myra holds a BA in theatre from Sarah Lawrence College and has pursued graduate degree work in Performance Studies and Anthropology at New York University, Irish Drama and Film at Trinity College, Dublin, and Indian Education at University of Colorado/Boulder.

Pam Lama

Pam Lama was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area and graduated from UC Santa Cruz in 2007 with her B.A. degrees in Film & Digital Media and Business Management. She has since worked as an editor at Guerilla Hollywood, a film/music production company where she shot and edited several spots for Warner Bros Records. She also worked with PlanetBravo, where she taught technology and art classes to elementary school students throughout the Los Angeles County.

Anna Almendrala

Anna Almendrala is the Marketing and Distribution fellow at Brave New Foundation for 2009. She was born in Manila, Philippines and grew up in Wellington, New Zealand and the Bay Area, California. She attended UC Berkeley and double-majored in Rhetoric and Spanish. Before starting at Brave New Foundation, she spent a year in DC interning at Sojourners, a progressive faith media and mobilization organization. Anna is spending the year developing her progressive values, empowering grassroots movements with resources, analyzing market data, distributing Brave New content, and getting used to living in Los Angeles.

Odin Ozdil

Odin Ozdil grew up in Michigan and moved to LA two years ago. He has both crewed on and shot numerous independent and commercial projects in the NY and LA area. Most recently, Odin's short film "Babyface," about a street-performer in Queens, just played at the Chicago International Reel Shorts Festival and won the Best Documentary Award. Before coming to Brave New Foundation, Odin worked as an assistant at MTV and Spike TV in Programming and Development. Odin looks forward to 2009 with Brave New Foundation, and working with others to create content that he can be proud of.

Ofelia Yanez

Ofelia Yanez was born in Mexico City, and raised in Dallas, TX. She attended Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (Theatre department), as well as The University of North Texas in Denton, TX (Majored in Radio, Television, and Film, Minored in Spanish). Ofelia just moved to LA 10 months ago.

Joshua Johnson

Joshua Johnson came to our program from Inner City Filmmakers. Josh made a silent 5 minute short film called Young Love, worked as a PA for an Independent movie and worked as a Set Dresser for a short and was a camera operator/interviewer for The Giffoni Film Festival 2007.

Alex Maldonado

Alex Maldonado was born in Mexico City and was raised in Anaheim and Ventura California. He graduated with a Bachelors degree in Digital Film making in 2007 from the Art Institute of Los Angeles.

Dominique Smith

Dominique Smith is a recent graduate from California State University, Los Angeles and won the award for Best Documentary and Best Experimental pieces in the 2007 Golden Eagles Film Festival. She has previously worked with The Wayans Brothers production company as well as being an Associate Producer of GurlTalkk TV. She is working on a documentary about art in the Crenshaw District of South Central Los Angeles, and is a wife and mother of two phenomenal children.