Brenda Greene Mitchell
Co-Director
Brenda is a small town native Texan who grew up in Central Texas dance halls, which became an integral part of her social upbringing. In 1982, she and husband Scott Mitchell bought and restored the historic 1902 Wunsche Bros. Cafe in Spring, where she booked and hosted countless Texas folk/country musicians including Lyle Lovett, Jerry Jeff Walker, Townes Van Zandt, Ray Wylie Hubbard and Clint Back. She founded and co-produced the Spring Music Festival from 1988-1992, which showcased Texas musicians and drew up to 5,000 attendees. In 1993, Brenda and her family moved to Austin. She co-produced her first short Redemption. and managed extras casting on the indie film Flushed. She was an executive producer on Somebody Up There Likes Me, which premiered at SXSW in 2012 and Icebreaker, currently in post production. Her deep desire to preserve the story of the legendary Broken Spoke dance hall inspired her to document it through film. Honky Tonk Heaven is her directorial debut.
Sam Wainwright Douglas
Co-Director and Editor
Sam is a director and editor working in Austin, TX. Recently, Sam edited and co-produced No No: A Dockumentary, which premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, screened theatrically in 35 cities and was broadcast on Showtime throughout December 2014. Sam also edited and produced the PBS documentary Ladonna Harris: Indian 101, which was executive produced by Johnny Depp and screened throughout November 2014 on PBS. He last directed Citizen Architect: Samuel Mockbee And The Spirit Of The Rural Studio, which was broadcast nationwide on PBS in 2010. He co-directed The Holy Modal Rounders… Bound To Lose (2006) and has edited and produced other feature documentaries such as Along Came Kinky: Texas Jewboy For Governor, which had its premiere at South By Southwest in 2009. As an editor he has cut countless hours of television for PBS, HBO, A&E, The Discovery Channel, The History Channel and The Food Network.
Michelle Randolph Faires
Producer
Michelle joined the Broken Spoke project in January 2015 as part of the producing team. She works as a consultant at Production For Use, a production company conceptualized by Louis Black and Joe Dishner. She served as an associate producer on the television series Stand Up Empire, a half hour program featuring the exploding comedy scene in Austin, Texas. Additionally, she has been working as part of the producing team for the documentary Leslie since 2011., a feature about the life of Austin's own Albert Leslie Cochran, due for completion in early fall of this year.
Michelle has been involved in local non-profit, film-based organizations for the past several years including Austin Film Festival, where she served as the 20th Annual Festival and Conference Hospitality Coordinator in 2013. The following year she joined AFF as a full-time staff member, serving as Outreach Coordinator. Michelle worked for approximately 3 years as Volunteer Coordinator and Festival Manager for aGLIFF/Polari, as well as serving 3 years on the Board of Directors. In both organizations, Michelle was a member of the screening teams as well, sharpening her skills as a storyteller through the medium of film.
Lee Daniel
Director of Photography
A graduate of the University of Texas and founding member of the Austin Film Society, Lee has amassed an impressive collection of cinematography credits, including feature films, documentaries, and music videos. He is best known for his work on Boyhood, The Unforeseen, Fast Food Nation, Dazed and Confused, and the ground-breaking Slacker. Current projects include Leslie and Forty Panes: A Portrait of Wendell Berry.
David Layton
Director of Photography
David is an Austin-based filmmaker with a passion for cinematography and documentary film. He began his career as a newspaper reporter, but honed his technical skills working as a camera operator, focus puller and gaffer on such notable documentary features asThe Unforeseen, Be Here to Love Me, The Devil and Daniel Johnson, You’re Gonna Miss Me, Nuclear Family, Troop 1500, and Letter From Waco. David produced and directed his first documentary feature, The Hot Shoe, in 2004. That film, about professional blackjack card counters, was broadcast in the U.S. and Europe. He has photographed several documentaries for PBS, including Don Howard's By the Rivers of Babylon and the award-winning feature Better This World, co-produced by his company, Picturebox. He was also Director of Photography on the documentary, Richard Linklater: dream is destiny, currently screening at this year's SXSW.
Jenny Holm
Co-Producer
A native Texan with deep South Austin roots, Jenny Holm has long been involved with the local arts community. She is the great-niece of the blacklist-busting humorist, John Henry Faulk and the niece of Karen Kuykendall, Grand Dame of musical theatre stages at Zach Scott and across Austin. Jenny's dad, Guich Koock, was the original owner (along with Hondo Crouch) of Luckenbach, Texas, where Jenny's love of Texas Dance Halls & Country music was born. Some of her film experience includes: Square Dance, The Newton Boys, Michael, Hope Floats, True Women, Equinox Knocks, Office Space, & others. Bringing her creativity, energy and lifelong love for down-home Texas tradition to "Honky Tonk Heaven", Jenny hopes to champion preservation of and appreciation for this legendary dancehall.
Brian McNulty
Story Consultant
Brian McNulty is a Television and Film Producer living in Austin Texas. A member of the Producers Guild of America and Visual Effects Society since 2000, Brian specializes in post production workflow. After graduating from Pepperdine University in 1988, Brian began his career in Hollywood working at Imagine Films for producer Brian Grazer. In 1992 Brian moved to Radiant Productions, where he worked with Director Wolfgang Petersen on such feature films as "In The Line of Fire," "Outbreak," "Air Force One," as well as "The Perfect Storm," for which Brian was the Associate Producer. After a year at Pixar Animation as the Post Production Supervisor on "A Bug's Life," Brian answered the call to come home to Austin and work for Robert Rodriguez, pulling double-duty as the VFX Producer and Post Supervisor on "Spy Kids 2, "Spy Kids 3D" and "Once Upon a Time in Mexico." Since 2004, Brian has traveled, consulting and producing, implementing new technologies and work-flows for companies such as Castle Rock Entertainment ("Best in Show"), Warner Bros. Pictures ("Starsky and Hutch"), Fox Searchlight ("The Savages"), The Weinstein Co. ("The Great Debaters"), and Dreamworks ("The Help"), as well as Texas companies Reel FX Creative Studios, in Dallas, Spiderwood Studios, in Bastrop, and the Whole Foods Market's Global Communications team in Austin. Currently, Brian is at Enthuse Entertainment, in San Antonio, where he recently co-produced an 8-DVD box set for renowned family psychologist Dr. James Dobson, entitled "Building a Family Legacy." The advice dispensed by Dr. Dobson has proven useful as Brian navigates the delicate balance of professional career and home life, where his heart resides with his wife and daughter. Brian finds the process of making films, television programs, and new media content to be challenging, mainly because of the external forces on the creative process, but always in the end inspiring and rewarding, usually because of the people who have pulled together to tell their story.