Elisa Levine
Director / Producer
Elisa Levine is a Seattle-based director, producer and editor. SWEETHEART DEAL is her directing debut, and represents the culmination of a longtime interest in exploring and giving voice to subcultures hidden in plain sight using verite storytelling. Elisa was lead researcher on Robinson Devor’s haunting and controversial documentary Zoo, which played Sundance and Cannes. She is a Film Independent, Points North (Camden Intl Film Festival), Garrett Scott (Full Frame), MOFFOM (Denver Film Society), Sundance Documentary Film Program and Sundance Edit & Story Lab Fellow.
Gabriel Miller
Director / Cinematographer
Gabriel Miller (1972 - 2019) was an award-winning cinematographer who worked with a number of Oscar-winning and Oscar-nominated filmmakers, including Cynthia Wade, Sari Gilman, and Liz Garbus. Productions he worked on have been broadcast on HBO, the BBC, Sundance Channel, PBS, MTV, Discovery, A&E, and ARTE. Miller’s cinematography credits include the 2019 Peabody winning HBO doc A Dangerous Son and the Oscar-nominated King’s Point. Gabriel dedicated eight years to shooting and co-directing Sweetheart Deal.
Peggy Case
Producer
Peggy Case is an award-winning producer and director of dramas and documentaries. Her producing credits include Lynn Shelton’s feature debut We Go Way Back, David Russo’s dark, stylish comedy The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle and Robinson Devor’s provocative documentary, Zoo. Zoo was an official selection for the Sundance Documentary Competition and Cannes Directors Fortnight. Her directorial credits include a number of PBS productions -- the feature documentary Perfect Illusions, the series Inside the Box, and six spots awarded the Silver Promax and Cine Golden Eagle. Peggy is a Film Independent Fellow.
Tracy Rector
Co-Producer
Tracy Rector is a mixed heritage filmmaker with a passion for amplifying and uplifting Indigenous and BIPOC voices. She holds three decades of experience as a community organizer, educator, filmmaker, film programmer, and arts curator, all infused with her deep roots in plant medicine. For the last 20 years she has directed and produced over 400 films including shorts, features, music videos, and virtual reality projects. Her work has been featured on Independent Lens, ImagineNative, PBS, and National Geographic, as well as at international film festivals including Cannes and Toronto. Tracy served as a Seattle Arts Commissioner for 8 years, sits on the boards of the Mize Foundation, Working Films, the Flaherty Seminar, and is the Managing Director of Storytelling at Nia Tero. She enjoys travel, design, collective social justice campaigns, and learning about new cultural arts movements.
KAREN KH SIM
Supervising Editor / Writer
Karen KH Sim began her documentary filmmaking career as editor on Maro Chermayeff’s Juilliard. She then further honed her skills in storytelling by working with Frontline producer/director Ofra Bikel, editing a number of her films, including the Emmy Award winning An Ordinary Crime. Since then, she has contributed to many documentary projects as producer, writer and/or editor, among them Back on Board: Greg Louganis; Nothing Left Unsaid: Gloria Vanderbilt and Anderson Cooper; and Who Killed Garrett Phillips. In 2014, Sim won the Sundance Film Festival Documentary Editing Award for Watchers of the Sky. Most recently, she edited Convergence: Courage in a Crisis which premiered on Netflix in 2021. Sim is faculty at SVA’s MFA Social Documentary Film program.
BRITTANY KAPLAN
Editor
Brittany Kaplan is a Brooklyn-based editor. She started her documentary career as a PA on Oscar-winning Inside Job. In 2016, Brittany was a Karen Schmeer Editing Fellowship finalist with her feature documentary, Beyond Borders: Undocumented Mexican Americans. In 2017, she edited a documentary web series with Great Big Story/CNN, 8 Bit Legacy: The Curious History of Video Games, which was nominated for a daytime Emmy. Recent editing credits include: PBS’s Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr., Hulu’s Taste The Nation with Padma Lakshmi, and The Vow Part Two for HBO.
Peggy Rajski
Executive Producer
Peggy Rajski is an Academy-Award winning filmmaker, founder of the groundbreaking nonprofit The Trevor Project, tenured professor and former Dean of the School of Film and Television at LMU in Los Angeles. Previously she spent eight years at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Film Program as Head of Studies for producing. Her many credits include three of writer/director John Sayles' films: The Brother From Another Planet, Matewan, and Eight Men Out, as well as Stephen Frears' film noir classic The Grifters, which she co-produced with Martin Scorsese. The film received four Academy Award nominations and won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Feature. Rajski also produced Jodie Foster's directorial debut Little Man Tate as well as Home for the Holidays. Rajski is a longstanding member of the Directors Guild of America, Film Independent, and the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.
Brent Stiefel
Executive Producer
Brent Stiefel is the founder and CEO of VOTIV, a music, film and entertainment firm that specializes in independent, boundary pushing arts and ventures. In addition to his extensive work in music, Brent has helped produce a number of high profile independent feature films that have garnered the attention of film festivals and awards ceremonies alike. Brent is best known for his work on Obvious Child, The Giant Mechanical Man and Circle. His most recent productions have won major awards at Venice International Film Festival (Free in Deed) and Sundance (As You Are).
ALAN PRUZAN
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
Alan Pruzan has been creating entertainment professionally in one form or another since the 1980s, as an artist, activist, and media arts enabler. He has served as a consultant, investor, and executive producer on many feature films, including Thin Skin, The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle, Frank Vs God, and Potato Dreams of America. He was a founder and principal of Forrest-Pruzan Creative, a prolific board game invention and design studio in Seattle. He retired from the toy industry after selling his company to Funko in 2019. He has served on the board of Northwest Film Forum since 2000.
Elizabeth Rudolf
Executive Producer
Elizabeth’s initial involvement in the arts was in the professional theatre in New York and on tour. Later she served as the Executive Director of the Off Broadway Theater company Theatre of The Open Eye until 1979. In Seattle she became active in numerous civic and cultural organizations including Seattle Art Museum Supporters SAMS, Hugo House Board, Hedgebrook Board, ARCS Board, and nine years as trustee on the Board of Seattle Rep. She currently serves on the SRT Foundation Board and the Board of Visitors at Columbia University. Her film credits include Sweet Crude, All I Want is Christmas, and Sold.
MELISSE BARRETT
Executive Producer
A lover of independent film and documentaries throughout her lifetime, Sweetheart Deal is Melisse’s first venture into producing. A native Seattleite, she is well acquainted with Aurora Avenue’s struggles, and was drawn to Sweetheart Deal from its early days. She was so compelled by the women’s plight and the unflinching intimacy the filmmakers were able to capture that she wanted to become part of the project. An avid reader, traveler, and occasional artist, Melisse has long been a supporter of the arts. Since retiring from a career in commercial real estate, she has supported philanthropic organizations primarily in the arts and education.
JOE SHAPIRO
Co-Producer
Joe Shapiro is a filmmaker who believes in spreading stories that illuminate the better angels of our nature. He is certain that collaboration is humanity’s superpower, even if society seems to have forgotten this. He is actively working on creating films that entertain while trying to regrow social connection and trust. Joe has edited six feature films, including Robinson Devor’s Police Beat, a Sundance Dramatic Competition official selection, and Zoo, an official selection for both the Sundance Documentary Competition and Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.