THE FILMMAKERS
Cy Dodson - Director/Editor
Cy Dodson operates Triumph Pictures in Minneapolis specializing in creative storytelling for documentaries and branding content for corporations and nonprofits. He moved to Minneapolis from Kentucky in 2000 continuing his journalism career. It was the first time in his life that he was surrounded by so much diversity and as a Lebanese-American he felt at home. For the past 20 years he's called South Minneapolis home, near the 3rd Precinct, the epicenter of the George Floyd uprising. Cy has directed and edited four documentaries in the last five years. His last film BENEATH THE INK tackled complex racial issues but in the end highlighted humanity and the opportunity for change. BENEATH THE INK accumulated many festival accolades, including awards at Palm Springs Shortfest, BendFilm, and the Oscar Qualifying DocEdge Festival. BENEATH THE INK was nominated for a national Emmy in 2019. Cy is honored to have received the McKnight Fellowship in Media Arts for 2020 and the Jerome Fellowship in 2021.
Find out more at TRIUMPH PICTURES.
Lindsey Seavert - Producer
Lindsey Seavert is an Emmy, Edward R. Murrow, and Alfred I. duPont award-winning journalist and emerging documentary filmmaker fueled by a calling to bring untold stories to light. Her parents were Minnesota public school teachers who gave her the gift of curiosity. The legacy of teaching in her family inspires Lindsey to use stories as a vehicle to empower, educate, create empathy and spark systemic change. Her work often focuses on women, families and children, but she is most passionate about amplifying the voices of underrepresented communities. She worked as a reporter at five news stations stretching from Northern Minnesota, Nevada, and Ohio before coming home to the Twin Cities and working as a reporter at WCCO-TV and KARE 11 TV. In 2020, Lindsey moved to a freelance journalist and filmmaking role after releasing her first award-winning documentary, Love Them First. The film features a courageous Minneapolis principal fighting to get her students off the list of ‘failing’ schools while grappling with Minnesota’s vast achievement gap. The greatest chapters of Lindsey’s own story feature her family, her husband Ian, her son Stellan and daughter, Phoebe. They live in Southwest Minneapolis.
Find out more at SEAVERT STUDIOS
THE MUSIC
September Penn - Vocalist
A singer, songwriter and performance artist, September Penn has emerged as a leading expert on the music of the Civil Rights Movement. For more than a decade, September has fulfilled the role of as a music director for Dr. Clayborne Carson, a Stanford University history professor who was commissioned by Coretta Scott King to edit Dr. Martin Luther King’s papers. Dr. Carson performed that work for more than 30 years and wrote a play, called Passages of Martin Luther King, for which September was music director in Beijing, China in 2007 and East Jerusalem and the West Bank in 2011. From her work with Dr. Carson, September wrote her own production, Sounds of the Civil Rights Movement: The Power of Song, which served as the official kick-off event for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service in St. Petersburg, Fla. That led to the creation of The Power of Song Inc., in Florida and California.
September is co-founder as well as CEO and artistic director of The Power of Song Inc. In 2020, she earned her Masters of Divinity Degree with a focus on Worship, Theology and the Arts from Fuller Theological Seminary, where she directed the Kaleo Choir and was named a Fujimura Fellow. . A Virginia native and communications graduate from Virginia Tech, September is a wife and mother three. They currently live in Southern California.
Find out more at POWER OF SONG
Alzie Ramsey - Composer
Alzie Ramsey is a composer/musician that works under the independent company name Black Widow Music, LLC that he founded in 2004. In a critical time when the music business is reinventing itself Black Widow Music, LLC has developed to include a production music library as well as brand-driven record label. The result after many hours of labor and hard work is a business organization that stays on the forefront of industry technology and practices, but remains true to the "music" and avoids the traps of commercialism. Featuring the best in EDM, jazz and various genres of instrumentals the catalog is broad and diverse, but prevails on the primary focal point of why the label was created in the first place. Black Widow Music, LLC - Keeping the quality in the music!
Stephen Letnes - Composer
Stephen Letnes‘ music journey began at the age of four, learning the violin by the Suzuki Method, hearing the notes and playing them. This method worked especially well for Stephen because he was born legally blind. At five, Stephen’s violin was stolen at knife point on the way into his elementary school. At age seven, Stephen switched to piano. Not only could he continue using the Suzuki Method, but the piano was immobile.
Nurturing a passion for piano music, having hyper-sensitive hearing of tone and harmony, coupled with a cavernous memory, Stephen learned and played contemporary and classical pieces, from David Lanz to Serge Rachmaninoff.
Throughout his life, alongside the piano, Stephen has always been fascinated with music for media and has over 100 credits for film and television ranging from award-winning short films Beneath the Ink to feature films like “Santa’s Boot Camp” (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment 2016) which was nominated for “Best Score” at the 2016 Love International Film Festival in Los Angeles
. Alongside his contracted film projects, Stephen has founded the non-profit organization Able Artist, it’s purpose is to support artists with disabilities on fixed incomes with educational, vocational training and real-world experience in a professional recording studio as well as provide half-off scholarships on participating vendors’ products and services.
Find out more at www.ableartist.org
Charlie McCarron - Composer
Charlie McCarron has composed for numerous award-winning films and series, including Emmy-nominated BENEATH THE INK, STARZ documentary SILICONE SOUL, the prestigious Alfred I. duPont-Columbia award-winning documentary LOVE THEM FIRST: LESSONS FROM LUCY LANEY ELEMENTARY by KARE 11, and INCOMPLETENESS, which was named "Best Series" in 22 festivals. Charlie also writes folk songs, video game scores, and orchestral music. To open their 2021 season, the Minnesota Opera commissioned Charlie to compose CHIM LẠC (LOST BIRD) with writer and puppeteer Oanh Vu. In 2018, Charlie was selected as a finalist in the Banaue International Music Composition Competition for his orchestral piece BALITÚK: THE DIVIDED CHILD, traveling to the Philippines for a three-week immersion program in the mountain village of Banaue. Charlie is the executive director of FILM SCORE FEST, which has premiered over 100 new films with live scoring by an orchestra. For his podcast COMPOSER QUEST, Charlie crowdfunded a 2-month tour throughout the US, Australia, Taiwan, and Japan, interviewing and writing music with composers there. When he's not making music, Charlie is usually drawing, editing videos, or creating board games.
Find out more at charliemccaron.com