About the Filmmakers

Linda Goldstein Knowlton

photo: Leanna Creel

Linda Goldstein Knowlton (Director/Producer)

Linda Goldstein Knowlton co-directed and co-produced the feature-length documentary, THE WORLD ACCORDING TO SESAME STREET. The film examines Sesame Street's international co-productions, made primarily in some of the world's political hotspots, including Kosovo, Bangladesh, and South Africa. The film made its World Premiere in competition at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival as an Official Selection in the U.S. Documentary category. The film was selected and screened at the Hot Docs Film Festival in Toronto, the Seattle Film Festival, and other festivals including Boston, Dubrovnik, New Zealand, Melbourne, and Zurich. Previously, Goldstein Knowlton produced the New Zealand film WHALE RIDER (2002), directed by Niki Caro, which was the winner of the Audience Awards at Toronto, Sundance, Rotterdam, Seattle, San Francisco, and Maui film festivals. Goldstein Knowlton became involved with WHALE RIDER in 1992, a decade before its theatrical release, after reading the novella upon which the film is based. Prior to that, she initiated the development of THE SHIPPING NEWS after reading the novel in galley form in 1993, and then produced the 2001-released film, directed by Lasse Hallstrom. She made her feature-film producing debut in 1999 with both MUMFORD, written and directed by Lawrence Kasdan, and CRAZY IN ALABAMA, directed by Antonio Banderas. She is currently developing both fiction and documentary films.

Born and raised in Chicago, Goldstein Knowlton studied neuroscience at Brown University. Following college, she remained in Providence to serve the governor of Rhode Island in the Office of Intergovernmental Relations. She subsequently worked raising funds for film preservation at The American Film Institute, in Washington, D.C., and, later, in Los Angeles. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and daughter.

Katie FlintKatie Flint (Editor)

Flint has worked as a freelance editor on a wide range of projects from weekly webisodes to feature film documentaries. In 2004 she worked as assistant editor on the documentary THE WORLD ACCORDING TO SESAME STREET, directed by Linda Goldstein Knowlton and Linda Hawkins Costigan. Since then she has worked as an associate editor on Michéle Ohayon's, STEAL A PENCIL FOR ME and Jonathan Demme's JIMMY CARTER: MAN FROM PLAINS.

She has cut over 40 episodes for Daryl Hannah's personal environmental website, Dhlovelife.com, and edited several short documentaries on the Arctic for the Annenberg Foundation. She is currently living in New York City and is directing her first documentary.

Nelson HumeNelson Hume (Director of Photography)

Hume's credits include MY KID COULD PAINT THAT, for Sony Pictures Classics, and THE WORLD ACCORDING TO SESAME STREET, both of which were official selections at the Sundance Film Festival. Recently Nelson shot the music documentary RE:GENERATION and episodes for the PBS series Arab American Stories.  TV documentary credits include PBS' American Experience, Al Jazerra's Fault Lines, Channel 4 UK, The History Channel, The Sundance Channel and many more. He attended New York University's Graduate School of Film and Television, and currently lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Christine BurrillChristine Burrill, (Director of Photography)

Burrill's credits include SHUT UP AND SING, the feature-length documentary on controversial country singers the Dixie Chicks; AMERICAN IDOL GIVES BACK; and THE WORLD ACCORDING TO SESAME STREET.  She has shot footage for the BBC, Barbara Kopple, Bill Moyers, and photographed more than a dozen programs for NOVA, tackling such subjects as female explorers, arson, and ice geology.  Burrill got her B.A. from U.S.C. and attended the School of Cinema's M.F.A. program.  She lives in Los Angeles.

Pat VerducciPatricia Verducci (Co-Producer)

Verducci is a writer/director whose credits include fiction and non-fiction projects.  She wrote and directed the feature film TRUE CRIME, and has been a segment producer on documentary shorts for Showtime and HBO.  She has written screenplays for Touchstone Pictures, FX, and Disney's animation division.  She recently worked as a story consultant for Disney/Pixar, and currently teaches screenwriting in UCLA Extension's creative writing program.

Lili Haydn

Lili Haydn (Composer)

Haydn has released four critically acclaimed major label recordings as a solo artist and has opened for critically acclaimed talent, such as Roger Waters, Herbie Hancock, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Josh Groban, Seal, Matchbox 20, Cyndi Lauper, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, and George Clinton's P-Funk All Stars, among many others. George Clinton calls her "the Jimi Hendrix of the violin," and Rolling Stone has called her music "fiery and virtuosic." Her latest album is "Place Between Places."