Maria Hinojosa video: Xochitl Dorsey
Marty Spanninger
Executive Producer
Mincho Jacob
Producer
Nusha Balyan
Web Producer
Maria Hinojosa: I always felt invisible as a Mexican immigrant kid growing up on the south side of Chicago. We formed this media company to make the invisible visible — to give voice to the voiceless and take people to places they might never go. And along the way, we want to create a community of critical consumers of the media in the USA. I do this because I have to and because this is what I love.
Martha Spanninger is an award-winning documentary producer and broadcast journalist with more than twenty-five years of experience. She first collaborated with Maria Hinojosa as Senior Supervising Producer of NOW on PBS from 2005 – 2008. Before joining Futuro she spent a year traveling across the country with Tom Brokaw in search of the changing face of America. “American Character Along Highway 50” featured dispatches from the road appearing across all platforms on NBC, MSNBC and USA and culminated in an hour documentary that premiered in January 2010. As an independent producer and director, she won a Peabody and Emmy award for “Decade” a two hour special for MTV, and a Gracie for “The Wrong Stuff?” about America’s first women astronaut hopefuls. Her career has included assignments with CBS News (CBS Reports, Our Times with Bill Moyers and West 57th), NBC (Now and Dateline) and ABC (20/20 and Primetime). As a Senior Producer at ABC News Productions, she oversaw the editorial content and production of over 50 documentaries, winning over 50 awards. Spanninger is a graduate of Swarthmore College where she serves on the Board of Managers and the advisory boards of War News Radio and Life Long Learning. She is also on the Board of India Unheard/Video Volunteers, an International organization based in India and Brazil with a mission to give voice to the poorest people in the world using digital video.
Mincho Jacob is the Producer of FMG’s Latino USA. A Guatemalan who grew up steeped in Tex-Mex culture, and a love of Puerto Rican and Cuban music, he has also lived throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, most recently completing a year of study at the Universidade Federal da Bahia, Brazil. While in Brazil, Mincho worked closely with Ilê Aiyê, the renowned Bloco Afro or Afro-centric carnival and community association. He also taught English and Spanish classes to youth in the community, and trained students to conduct field recordings to document stories of their neighborhoods. Mincho earned a BA Latin American Studies (focus media & communications) from the University of Texas at Austin.
Xochitl Dorsey is an independent director/writer/producer based in New York. She holds an MFA in Film Directing & Production at UCLA and a degree in Latin American Studies from NYU. Her narrative and documentary films have appeared on PBS, Showtime, MSNBC and mun2, as well as numerous film festivals around the country. In 2006 she received the Directors Guild of America (DGA) award for Best Short Film in the Latino Category and won the Mercury Latino Lens Short Film Challenge for her film, "Tears & Tortillas." Xochitl completed a Media Fellowship with the National Minority Consortia (NMC) and the PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. She was also a Tribeca All Access Fellow and a CPB/PBS Producers Academy Fellow. In 2008 she directed and produced a one hour special on the Latino youth vote, titled "Vote 4 UR Future 2008," which was broadcast nationally on the cable channel mun2 (a subsidiary of NBC/Universal.) She produced the reality show "The Cheering Life" for MSG Varsity in New York City, and is now working on an independent feature documentary titled “Shot in Mexico" (which received funding from Latino Public Broadcasting.) Xochitl recently produced a one-hour news special about Latinos and the 2010 census called "The New America," which aired nationally in April 2010 on mun2 and MSNBC.
Nusha Balyan is the web producer for Futuro Media Group. An immigrant who came from Bulgaria at the age of 19 in pursuit of a better education, Nusha is a multimedia journalist and recently graduated from The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Nusha is proud to be a part of a diverse team where she can apply her worldviews and contribute to telling untold stories.
María Emilia Martin was the Founder and is the former Executive Producer of LUSA and remains an integral member of the FMG LUSA team, working as a consultant and contributor, based in Guatemala. María is a pioneering public radio journalist with over two dozen awards for her work covering Latino issues and Latin America. She started her career at the first community public radio station owned and operated by Latinos in the U.S. In addition to LUSA, she has developed groundbreaking programs and series for public radio, including NPR's Despues de las Guerras: Central America After the Wars. A recipient of Fulbright and Knight Fellowships, María holds a Masters Degree in Journalism from the Ohio State University, and currently heads the Gracias Vida Center for Media and Gracias Vida Productions based in Austin, Texas and Antigua, Guatemala.
Steve Bennett is FMG’s Business Manager and a New York based independent producer. He has served as supervising producer on series from National Geographic and the Discovery Channel, has edited programs for clients including PBS and the History Channel, and has produced media and exhibits for institutions ranging from the National Aquarium in Baltimore and the Wildlife Conservation Society to the Mount Saint Helens National Monument and the US Fish and Wildlife Service. As the line producer for NOW on PBS and the business manager for its producing company JumpStart Productions, Mr. Bennett oversaw the financial and business affairs for the weekly documentary-oriented news magazine program from 2005 through 2010. His independent documentary film work has included co-producing award winning films such as Give Up Tomorrow (Winner 2011 Audience Award at Tribeca Film Festival), A Dream in Doubt and Sumo East West, and providing consulting support on such films as Kokoyakyu, Water Flowing Together, and Herb and Dorothy. His narrative film work includes producing the short Alone and overseeing post-production on the award winning feature Singapore Dreaming.
Andrés Caballero Production Assistant
Andrés Caballero was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina to a family of journalists – Bolivian father and Argentine mother. He lived in Bolivia and Ecuador before settling in the United States in 1998. He holds a M.S. in Journalism from the Columbia University School of Journalism, and a B.S. in Political Science from Notre Dame De Namur University. Andres has covered issues that affect Latinos across the U.S., contributing to the Hispanic Link News Service in Washington D.C., New America Media, El Tecolote in San Francisco, among others.
Xochitl Dorsey
Producer
María Emilia Martin Contributor
Tena Rubio
Managing Editor/ Senior Producer
Tena Rubio is an award-winning journalist and the former executive producer/host of National Radio Project’s syndicated weekly public affairs radio program, “Making Contact”. She began her radio career as the senior producer and fill-in host at Pacifica Radio's Washington, DC bureau, WPFW. Tena’s work has been recognized with several honors, including a 2010 USC Annenberg CA Health Journalism Fellowship, a 2006 Open Society Institute/Soros Foundation Katrina Media Fellowship to report on post-Katrina New Orleans immigration and labor issues, two 2007 Society of Professional Journalists (NorCal Chapter) awards and a 2008 National Association of Hispanic Journalists national radio reporting award. She was also named a finalist for the 2009 DART Center Awards and 2007 Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) award. With a background in local and national TV news and news magazine programming, Tena's media experience includes producer and newswriter roles at NBC, CBS and Fox affiliates, and DC-based commentary segment producing. She holds a B.A. degree from UC Berkeley and received her M.A. in journalism and public policy from American University in Washington, DC. Tena was recently elected to a three-year term on the Board of Directors of the Association of Independents in Radio (AIR).