Dyana Winkler

For over six years, Dyana Winkler worked full time for both the Sundance Film Institute and Tribeca Film Institute, reviewing and deliberating upon thousands of grant submissions. Winkler also programmed for the Sundance Film Festival, Outfest Film Festival, and screened for the granting organization Chicken & Egg.

Fluent in French and Tibetan, Winkler spent nearly a decade living internationally, where she interviewed  recent escapees from Tibet  for local TV stations and newspapers and directed a short documentary film on South Asian orphanages, which aired on BBC (Bhutanese Broadcasting).

Winkler holds a B.A in political science and economics from Mount Holyoke College and an MFA in screenwriting, directing and production, from EICAR, Paris. Bridging her passion for social activism with her love of independent film, Winkler has worked on a wide range of films in French, Tibetan, Nepali, Spanish, Norwegian and Arabic.

Currently directing this feature length documentary Empire Skates, Winkler lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

Skate Skills: As a true child of the 80s, Dyana owned green and purple neon roller blades that matched her pogo ball. Growing up on a small island in Hawaii, there were no roller rinks, so Dyana bladed up and down every bumpy driveway on her block. 

Tina Brown

Tina Brown is a New York-based Producer and Production Manager with a successful 17-year career in the film, fashion, music and magazine industries.

Tina has created film marketing and PR campaigns for major and independent studios including Paramount, Universal, MGM, DreamWorks, Miramax, and Village Roadshow.

She has traveled the world as a Producer, Associate Producer and Production Manager, to cover everything from a travel adventure series in Hawaii, College Football in America’s heartland, Professional Bull Riding to World Extreme Cage Fighting and the Winter Olympics Figure Skating in Vancouver.

Her most rewarding project to date was co-producing the feature length documentary Dear Mandela. Set in the slums of Durban, Dear Mandela has won a plethora of awards including Best Documentary and Grand Jury Prize, 2012 Brooklyn Film Festival; Golden Butterfly Award, 2012 Amnesty International Movies That Matter Film Festival; Best Documentary, 2012 Montreal International Black Film Festival; and Best South African Documentary, 2011 Durban International Film Festival.

Skate Skills: Although an avid skate dance watcher, Tina’s actual skating skills are questionable. During primary school, she spent Friday afternoons at the roller skating rink. Sadly, she hung up her skates after running over her dog (a massive Samoyed/German Sheppard*) and ending up in the garden. She hopes to resurrect her quad skating and prays for all dogs in her path. *No dogs were injured in this attempt to skate

Chloe Walters Wallace

Chloe Walters-Wallace works to blur the lines between art and documentary. Born to a family of local filmmakers in her mother country Jamaica, has instilled a lifelong passion for film, people and the idiosyncracies of life. Chloe holds a degree in theatre and anthropology from Barnard College, an MFA from the New School for Documentary Media Studies program and an MA in Material & Visual Anthropology from the University College, London.

Chloe has gone on to work on films such as Marley, directed by Jonathan Demme, Tsunami Scarecrow and most recently United Skates, and held positions at the Tribeca Film Institute and Article 19 Films.  

Skate Skills: Chloe jumped on roller blades for this first time at 7 years old on a family trip to New York City. Her mother spent the entire week chasing after her (as she didn't know how to brake!)... but Chloe didn't care! Instead she exclaimed, "When I grow up, I want to live in the HEART of this city!" It's been true love ever since.  
 

Matt Peterson

Matt Peterson is an Emmy Award-winning Director of Photography/Cinematographer, and winner of Australia's top cinematography award, the Golden Tripod. From the Arri Alexa and Red cameras, to the Phantom, DSLRs and panning time-lapses, Matt’s wealth of experience combined with creative rigging, car mounts and helicopter rigs make him one of the most sought-after cinematographers in the sports world.

Known for his poetic coverage of extreme sports where he displays an innate ability to anticipate his subject’s next move, his assignments have included the ASP World Surf Tour, Dakar Rally (Africa and South America), Olympics (Sydney, Athens, Beijing), Winter Extreme Games, and the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii.

Crisscrossing the globe filming in some of the most rugged conditions in the world, Matt has managed to capture the spirit and soul of each destination, yet he is equally adept in the studio shooting high-end commercials and look packages, portraits and openers for clients including Gatorade, Puma, Under Armour, Izod, AT&T, NFL, NHL, IndyCar, MLS, and Tour de France.

Away from his ‘day job’ Matt collaborates with filmmakers to promote causes that would otherwise not get the attention they deserve. Dear Mandela was Matt’s debut feature-length documentary as Director of Photography. It won a plethora of awards including Bronze for Cinematography, Australian Cinematography Society State award; Best Documentary and Grand Jury Prize, 2012 Brooklyn Film Festival; Golden Butterfly Award, 2012 Amnesty International Movies That Matter Film Festival; Best Documentary, 2012 Montreal International Black Film Festival; and Best South African Documentary, 2011 Durban International Film Festival. Dear Mandela received support from the Sundance Institute, IFP, NYSCA, BAVC, Chicken & Egg Pictures and NFVF.

Matt is also an accomplished stills photographer. His successful solo photographic exhibitions snap [NYC] and snap [POSTCARDS] featured his exquisite photos including stunning portraitures of Ringo Starr and Kelly Slater. 

Katy Scoggin

Katy Scoggin considers herself a Brooklynite, but she was raised in a smoggy valley east of LA. She had her first fling with documentary as a Fulbright scholar in Berlin, where she made a doc about Turkish women.  Later, in film school at NYU, she held a graduate assistantship in cinematography.  Katy was an associate producer on Laura Poitras’s award-winning documentary The Oath, and now works for Poitras as a co-producer and occasional camerawoman. 

Also developing a feature film, FLOOD, about creationist fossil hunters, Katy is thrilled to be a cinematographer on the United Skates team.

Katharine  Garrison

Award-winning Producer and Editor, Katharine Garrison has created stories for PBS, NBA Entertainment, IFC, AMC Networks, Sundance Channel, Oxygen, Bravo, Voom, Trio and We TV. While at AMC Networks, Katharine co-edited an Emmy Award nominated short documentary about the film industry's relief efforts on September 11. She also produced and edited the AMC Digital Video series 'Inside Breaking Bad.' which received a 2012 People's Voice Webby Award. Other AMC digital video content Katharine produced and edited for amc.com include the multiple Emmy Award winning series Mad Men, The Walking Dead, The Killing, Hell on Wheels and Rubicon. Having worked in most genres, long form documentary film remains her one true love. 
 
Katharine received an MFA degree from Columbia University Graduate Film School, and holds a BA from Oberlin College where she majored in Studio Art and French Literature. Growing up an avid roller skater in Central Park, Katharine is ecstatic aout being a part of the Empire Skates and Untied Skates' production team. 

Skate Skills

As a native New Yorker, roller-skating in Central Park was a way of life. Starting in 6th grade, Katharine spent entire weekends roaming Central Park with friends and looking for the best skate surfaces in midtown Manhattan. On Saturdays, she frequented the Roxy teen skate jam, where she learned new moves and made new friends. However, the freedom of outdoor skating always ranked number one. Katharine has since moved from quad skating to inline and figure skating, and is currently trying to master a pirouette.