specializes in producing and executive producing documentary features and series. Motto secures financing, builds distribution strategies, and creatively develops films with an eye toward maximizing the position of each project in the domestic and international markets.
MOTTO PICTURES
5
Academy Award Nominations
12
Emmy Awards
4
Peabody Awards
OUR TEAM
​
Julie Goldman
Producer
Julie Goldman is an Oscar-nominated and Emmy Award-winning producer and executive producer of documentary feature films and series. Julie is the first documentary producer to receive the Amazon Studios Sundance Institute Producer’s Award and the Cinereach Producer’s Award. She recently produced The Return of Tanya Tucker featuring Brandi Carlile, which will have its world premiere at the 2022 SXSW Film Festival. Julie produced Nanfu Wang’s film, In The Same Breath, which premiered on opening night at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, launched on HBO and HBO Max and went on to win the DuPont Award, receive a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary and be shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Documentary. She produced The Velvet Underground, directed by Todd Haynes, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and was released on Apple TV+, received numerous award nominations, shortlisted for the Best Documentary Academy Award and included on many Best Films of 2021 lists including the New York Times’. Julie executive produced the acclaimed Academy Award and Goya Award nominated The Mole Agent, Tribeca Grand Jury Prize winner Socks on Fire, and produced Gotham and IDA Award winner A Thousand Cuts. She produced Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner and Oscar-shortlisted One Child Nation, which was acquired by Amazon Studios; Ringside, which had its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival and recently debuted on Showtime; and Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn, which premiered at the New York Film Festival and launched on HBO. Julie produced Emmy Award-winning and Academy Award-nominated Abacus: Small Enough to Jail, The Final Year, and the acclaimed series Murder in the Bayou and Humans of New York. Julie is the producer of Life, Animated, which won the Sundance Directing Award, was nominated for the 2017 Best Documentary Oscar, and won three Emmys, including the award for Best Documentary. She is executive producer of Weiner, winner of the Sundance Grand Jury Prize. Julie also produced and executive produced: Emmy Award-winning films Best of Enemies, Solitary, Manhunt; Peabody Award-winning films Inventing Tomorrow, Southwest of Salem; Emmy-nominated films and series Gideon’s Army, 1971, Humans of New York; Oscar-shortlisted films, God Loves Uganda, Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, 3 1⁄2 Minutes, Ten Bullets, Art and Craft and Buck. Julie is developing a new slate of films and producing new films with directors including Roger Ross Williams, Alison Klayman, Pernille Rose Grønkjær and Maite Alberdi.
Christopher Clements
Producer
Christopher Clements is an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning producer and partner at Motto Pictures. He recently produced The Return of Tanya Tucker featuring Brandi Carlile which will have its world premiere at the 2022 SXSW Film Festival. Christopher produced Nanfu Wang’s film, In The Same Breath, which premiered on opening night at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, launched on HBO and HBO Max and went on to win the DuPont Award, received a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary and was shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Documentary. He produced on The Velvet Underground, directed by Todd Haynes, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, was released on Apple+, received numerous award nominations, was shortlist for the Best Documentary Academy Award and was on many Best Films of 2021 lists including the New York Times. Christopher executive produced the acclaimed Academy Award and Goya Award nominated The Mole Agent, Tribeca Grand Jury Prize winner Socks on Fire, and produced Gotham and IDA Award winner A Thousand Cuts. Christopher produced Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner and Oscar-shortlisted One Child Nation, released by Amazon Studios; Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn, which premiered at the New York Film Festival and broadcast in June on HBO; Ringside, which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival, won the Silver Hugo Award at the Chicago International Film Festival and debuted on Showtime in June; and Netflix’s Take Your Pills which premiered at SXSW. Christopher executive produced Steve James’ Emmy Award-winning and Oscar-nominated Abacus: Small Enough to Jail; Weiner, which won the U.S. Documentary Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and was shortlisted for the 2017 Academy Award; two Peabody Award winners, Inventing Tomorrow and Southwest of Salem; Sundance 2018 premiere and winner of the Prix Europa The Cleaners; Emmy Award-winner Solitary; CPH:Dox Grand Jury Award and Prix Europa winner The Raft; Ric Burns’ Oliver Sacks: His Own Life; and the acclaimed Showtime series Murder in the Bayou. Christopher co-produced Life, Animated, which was nominated for the 2017 Best Documentary Feature Academy Award, and won three Emmys, including the award for Best Documentary. Christopher has a slate of films in development and is producing new films with Roger Ross Williams, Pernille Rose Grønkjær and Maite Alberdi. Christopher is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), the Producers Guild of America (PGA), British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), and the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS).
J. Daniel Torres
Producer
J. Daniel Torres is an Emmy-winning co-producer based in Brooklyn, New York. He was an associate producer on Ivy Meeropol's Emmy-nominated Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn (HBO), and Todd Haynes’ Oscar-shortlisted The Velvet Underground (Apple TV). He is the co-producer of Nancy Schwartzman's Victim/Suspect (Netflix), which premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and won the Research crafts award at the News and Documentary Emmys (2024), Patricia E. Gillespie's The Fire That Took Her (Paramount+), which premiered at the 2022 Woodstock Film Festival and won the Outstanding Crime and Justice Documentary award at the News and Documentary Emmys (2023), Kathlyn Horan’s The Return of Tanya Tucker: Featuring Brandi Carlile (Sony Pictures Classics), winner of the 2022 SXSW Film Festival Audience Award, and Roger Ross Williams and Brooklyn Sudano's Love to Love You, Donna Summer (HBO), which premiered at the 2023 Berlinale Film Festival. He is currently developing and producing a number of new films and directors including Isabel Castro.
Samantha Bloom
Producer
Samantha started at Motto Pictures as a creative assistant before becoming an associate producer, co-producer, and now producer at the company. Samantha co-produced Alison Klayman’s Unfinished Business (Tribeca 2022) and Netflix’s Take Your Pills: Xanax. Samantha was a Production Coordinator on Maite Alberdi’s Oscar-nominated The Mole Agent; a Production Associate on Nanfu Wang’s Peabody-Winning In The Same Breath, and Laura Nix’s Peabody-Winning Inventing Tomorrow; a Production Assistant on Todd Haynes’ The Velvet Underground (2020 Cannes Film Festival), Andre Hoermann’s Emmy-nominated Ringside, and Nanfu Wang’s Oscar-shortlisted One Child Nation. She is currently producing projects with directors including Pernille Rose Grønkjær.
Kendall Marianacci
Associate Producer
Before starting her documentary career, Kendall founded her own company and became a Forbes 30 under 30 exhibitor in 2018. Kendall, a NYFA Documentary Conservatory Graduate, started out as an intern at Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin's Little Monster Films. She then transitioned to a development role at Imagine Entertainment. Kendall worked as a production assistant on Imagine's Judy Blume Forever, which made its premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and Louis Armstrong’s Black and Blues. She was also a production assistant on Nikole Hannah-Jones's The 1619 Project, a six-part limited series adapted from The New York Times Magazine's landmark essay collection. She joined the team at Motto in 2021, where she won an Outstanding Research Documentary Emmy for her work on Motto Picture's Victim/Suspect, which premiered at Sundance 2023. She has also worked as an archival associate producer on Alison Klayman’s Unfinished Business and Roger Ross Williams's Love to Love You, Donna Summer. Kendall is currently the associate producer on multiple Motto projects.
Micah Frenkiel
Creative Assistant
Before joining Motto, Micah spent two years as an assistant at CAA, where she worked with directors, producers, writers, and production companies across the agency’s Unscripted and TV Lit/Comedy divisions. Prior to this, she read pilots for Coverfly, and was a Director’s Assistant at Netflix, drafting screenplays and lending creative support. She had previously worked at Stand Up NY, an iconic comedy club on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, and before that, as an editorial assistant at The Last Magazine, a biannual art and culture publication. As a college student, she was a development intern at Color Force, Pretty Matches Productions and Metalwork Pictures.