Garrett Martin | Director |Producer | Editor
Garrett Martin is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, outdoor photographer, conservationist and owner of the production company - VentureLife Films. Martin has worked on four documentaries to date, with his two features each winning multiple international awards and have screened around the world. His most recent feature, UNBOUNDED, received international distribution and was awarded Official Selection at Wasatch Mountain Film Festival, Adventure Travel Film Festival, NatureTrack Film Festival and Morocco Adventure Film Festival.
Martin is based out of Asheville, NC as he focuses on producing environmental and outdoor media all across the SouthEast. He’s proud to call southern Appalachia his home.
Jeremy Seifert | Producer | Dop
Jeremy is an award-winning filmmaker and the co-director of THE DEVIL WE KNOW which was a Sundance Catalyst Film and an Official Selection of the Sundance Film Festival. His past films, GMO OMG and DIVE! LIVING OFF AMERICA'S WASTE won over 30 awards at festivals around the world, including Best Documentary at the Environmental Media Awards. His short film THE CHURCH FORESTS OF ETHIOPIA is a New York Times Op-Docs featured film.
Jeremy has appeared on Real Time with Bill Maher, NPR’s The Story, and speaks at universities and conferences across the country. Jeremy lives in Asheville, North Carolina, with his wife, Jen, and three children, Finn, Tennessee, and Pearl.
Chad Heartwood | Producer
Chad (Stevens) Heartwood is an Emmy-winning filmmaker, editor, journalist and teacher. His most recent film, FARMSTEADERS (producer) was broadcast on POV in September 2019. His first feature-length documentary, OVERBURDEN (director and cinematographer), was released in 2015 and has screened around the globe as well as broadcasted on the WORLD Channel in 2017.
His work has been recognized in national and international competitions, including an Emmy Award in New Approaches in Documentary, a Special Merit Award from the Grantham Prize and an Alfred I. DuPont - Columbia University Award silver baton. Heartwood is an associate professor of visual communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and he has served as a juror for World Press Photo and the 2016 Full Frame Film Festival.
Michelle Lotker | Associate producer
Michelle is an award winning filmmaker, editor, and environmental scientist. She’s worked on documentary short films that have screened at the International Wildlife Film Festival and Jackson Hole Wild Film Festival including KEEPERS which was part of UNC-TV's REEL SOUTH online Summer Shorts series. She’s a visual storyteller with a background working as an environmental scientist and a strong belief in the power of people-centered storytelling to create connection and empathy and inspire change.
Michelle currently lives in Durham, North Carolina, and is proud to be part of the east coast conservation filmmaker community. She cut her backpacking teeth in Pisgah National Forest with a particularly grueling uphill climb on the Daniel Boone Scout Trail, and never looked back.