Meet The Filmmakers
DANA SCHWARTZ
Director
Dana Schwartz is a documentary film producer, writer, and director. Sea Change is Schwartz’s directorial debut. Schwartz has produced four documentary feature films: Paper Tigers, Resilience, California Typewriter, and The United States of Detroit. Paper Tigers and Resilience examine the positive impact on trauma-informed communities who use the power of education and science to tackle the biology of stress. Resilience premiered to sold-out crowds at the Sundance Film Festival in 2016 and continues to be screened at festivals and national conferences, including The White House Council for Women and Girls.
STEVEN M. ENGEL
Executive Producer
Steve Engel is an Emmy Award-winning executive producer and president of Engel Entertainment. He has executive produced numerous non-fiction projects that have garnered national acclaim, including prime-time television series North Woods Law, Lone Star Law, and Untying the Knot. He produced the Emmy Award-winning human rights documentary, A Walk To Beautiful, which also won the International Documentary Association award for Best Feature Documentary of the year. Steve holds a B.A. from Columbia University and a law degree from New York University School of Law. He is a member of the Writers Guild of America.
KARA SMITH
Co-Producer
Kara Smith is a member of the Producers Guild of America and teaches film production at Seton Hall University. She is a graduate of Manhattanville College and started her career producing content for MTV, VH1, CMT, and LOGO at Viacom. Since then, she has worked for TruTV, HGTV, and Bravo, among other networks. In 2014 Engel Entertainment brought Kara on as the VP of Post Production when they started working on Sea Change. In 2016, Kara joined the development team while maintaining her role on the documentary as a Co-Producer.
HELEN D. (HEIDI) REAVIS
Executive Producer
Helen D. (Heidi) Reavis is a graduate of Smith College, the University of Lund (Sweden), and the University of Chicago Law School. Heidi and her husband, Steven Engel, have collaborated on human rights films produced for the United Nations, non-profit organizations, and television broadcasters. They produced the award-winning documentary film, A Walk to Beautiful, which was featured at over 35 film festivals around the world, and won several major awards including the 2009 Emmy Award in the category of Outstanding Informational Programming and the award for Best Feature Documentary from the International Documentary Association. Heidi is Managing Partner of the law firm Reavis Page Jump LLP, Chair of the non-profit organization Women Creating Change, and a member of Women Make Movies and the Women’s Forum.
GARY MADDISON
Editor / Co-Producer
Gary Maddison is an award-winning editor with experience in a wide variety of genres; from the Emmy-nominated sports documentary series Beyond The Glory to the highly rated James Brown's Last Chance for VH1. His honors include a Telly Video Editing Award for ESPN’s Streetball, a gritty documentary series on urban basketball teams, and a Deadline Merit Award for an investigative news special on segregation in U.S. schools. His credits also include the first season of TLC’s breakout hit Breaking Amish, Bravo’s Southern Charm, and Animal Planet's Lone Star Law. Whether he is cutting documentaries, celebrity profiles, non-fiction TV, or roll-ins for the Oscars, Gary's mantra is that the rhythm of storytelling is as important as the story itself.