BEHIND THE LENS

Rennik Soholt

Director/Producer/Writer

Rennik has directed a range of celebrities including Anthony Bourdain, news commentator and host, Brian Unger, the Grammy Award winning rock band, Queens of the Stone Age, and sports legends Jalen Rose and Warren Moon.

Rennik Soholt has worked in high-quality visual content since the turn of the new millennium. He has produced and directed shoots in over 25 countries across 5 continents. During his career, Rennik has assembled a large body of work that includes feature documentaries, non-scripted television series, music videos and other assorted web projects. His work has been showcased on PBS, CNN, Travel Channel, Nat Geo, History, Discovery Channel, ABC and across the Net.

Rennik produced and directed multiple episodes of the Emmy Award winning travel series, Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, as well as the award winning PBS documentary mini-series, Broadway or Bust. He is the recipient of the James Beard award for the PBS series, Gourmet’s Diary of a Foodie, for which he also received an Emmy nomination.

Most recently, Rennik has been focusing on feature documentaries, including Wine to Water: A CNN Heroes Special Presentation, 16 & Recovering and Forced Change. He lives in New York City with his wife and toddler son.

Justine Simonson

Producer

Justine Simonson is a producer and writer of documentary media and the owner of Co Lab Productions in New York City. She’s worked in various genres from investigative journalism to arts and entertainment, and her work has appeared on PBS, ABC, NBC, National Geographic, and Showtime among other outlets. Her favorite topics to cover include travel and social issues.

Most recently, she has lent her directing talents to such clients as the organization BUILD, Marie Claire, Elle and Harper’s Bazaar. Prior to that, Justine was at the helm of her own production, How To Make It In: Berlin, a digital series about entrepreneurs and small business owners. Not too long ago, she went behind the scenes with the Oscars production team for ABC’s Countdown to the Oscars: An Insiders Guide. She supervised the creative content of #NoSweat, a 14-episode series for GQ.com, and also served as the Web Features Producer on Showtime’s Emmy Award winning climate change series, Years of Living Dangerously.

From 2006 to 2010, Justine was a staff producer and writer in the News and Current Affairs department at WNET, the flagship PBS station. Her work at PBS appeared on Frontline, Exposé: America’s Investigative Reports, Bill Moyers Journal, Blueprint America and Need To Know, and earned several awards including two Emmys, a Hugo and several Cine Golden Eagles. She is a graduate of Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications.

Tanya Barringer

Line Producer

Tanya Barringer is a freelance Line Producer based in London and New York City. Over the past nine years she has worked as a producer in a variety of projects from short films to independent features as well as live and corporate events and television series. She is also an active member of New York Women in Film and Television.

BARRY GERMANSKY

Producer

Barry Germansky is a playwright, screenwriter, director, and producer. He graduated summa cum laude from York University in 2013 with an honours BA in humanities. Later, at the same institution, he earned a master's degree in humanities and a master’s degree in English. His plays have been produced Off-Off-Broadway and in Detroit, and he serves as the features programmer for the Pendance Film Festival in Toronto. His horror anthology film For We Are Many II, which he co-wrote, will be released in 2021.

Daniel Weintraub

Editor

Daniel is an accomplished director, producer, editor, compositor, colorist, and effects artist. Daniel does it all. For over 20 years Daniel has worked on all formats under the sun; from award winning short films, commercials and promos to TV shows to music videos and documentaries. He has worked with the likes of Comedy Central, MTV, Voom, HBO, Nikelodeon, VH1, Food Network, NBC, Discovery, Travel Channel, HBO Documentaries, Canon, American Express, Band-Aid, Tylenol, Gillette, Chuck E Cheese, Lycra. Then there is the Music side. He’s been a performing musician and recording engineer for nearly 20 years, recording records for bands in New York City and the Hudson Valley. In addition, he is experienced in the field of sound design and mixing for picture. He’s responsible for keeping Ellenbogen creative ahead of the curve as well as adding his 360 degree editing mastery and supervision on final projects.

A recent transplant to the Hudson Valley, he makes his home in Accord, NY where he also happens to be a coach for his son’s soccer team. Currently Daniel plays with his rock band Talula! and is producing and directing a feature length documentary on Kingston resident and world famous composer Pauline Oliveros – other then that Daniel’s pretty boring.

JOE BRUNETTE

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY:​

Joseph Brunette is an award-winning Director of Photography who has shot independent documentary films and programming for major US broadcasters including National Geographic, PBS: NOVA and Nature, Discovery, Animal Planet, and numerous marquee specials for History. 

The Los Angeles Reel Film Festival awarded him, Best Cinematography for his work on the feature length documentary, "The Rivals."  In 2017, his feature lenth documentary, “The Last Pig” won Best Documentary at the Japan Wildlife Film Festival, The Innsbruck Nature Film Fest in Austria, and the Emerge Film Festival in Maine.

Brunette has filmed all over the world in dozens of countries including Antarctica and well above the Arctic Circle. Most recently he has been filming hundrends of miles off the coast of Florida on an expedition to find the missing planes of Flight 19 for a two hour special for HISTORY narrated by Lawrence Fishburn.

Joseph holds dual US/Italian citizenship and currently resides in Portland, Maine.

Kermit Ruffins


Kermit Ruffins is an American jazz trumpeter, singer, composer, and actor from New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. He has been influenced by Louis Armstrong and Louis Jordan and says that the highest note he can hit on trumpet is a high C. He often accompanies his songs with his own vocals.

Other Cast and Crew

Produced by

Tanya Barringer...line producer
Sarah Borufka...associate producer
Amy Drakeman...associate producer
Barry Germansky...producer
Aimeé Ramos...associate producer
Justine Simonson...producer
Rennik Soholt...executive producer / producer

Editorial Department

Cheree Dillon...consulting editor
Dahlia Fischbein...additional editor
Zijun Guan...assistant editor
Rennik Soholt...additional editor
Hemal Trivedi...assistant editor

Camera and Electrical Department ​

Matt Iha...camera operator
Andy Schwartz...camera operator
Rennik Soholt...camera operator
Todd Taylor...camera operator

Art Department

Olivia Smith...poster/logo design

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