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Film Workshops
Who We Are
Resources
- Press
- Clinical Research
Contact Us

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Our Team

Chris Ungco

Workshop Supervisor

Chris Ungco

Workshop Supervisor

After graduating from the School of Visual Arts with a Master’s in Film, Chris spent the next decade working with some of the most progressive filmmakers in New York and LA on commercial content and series episodes for agencies and studios including Billboard, Universal McCann, Comedy Central, NBC, HBO, Amazon, Netflix, and Sesame Street. In 2014, his sense of public urgency and cultural curiosity led him to the Patton Veterans Project where he relearned definitions of valor, service, and community through both active duty and transitioning veterans, and their families. “We may all feel a sense of otherness at times, but honest expression in safe spaces can often help us find peace and self-fulfillment as well as broaden our understanding of community.” chrisungco.com/cinematography

Jon Olson

Senior Instructor

Jon Olson

Senior Instructor

Jon Olson has been working in film since 2009, and has been a film educator since 2016. He spent his early years in film working in a variety of roles on set, but predominantly in the sound department, mostly on independent shorts in and around New York City. In 2015, he co-founded J Squared Productions, which has served clients predominantly in the non-profit sector, including Kids Against Cancer, the Long Island EDC and the Actuary of New York. The following year, he started teaching at the New York Film Academy and began working with the Patton Veterans Project (PVP). Jon was drawn to PVP not just as a film educator, but also because of his numerous family ties to the military, including both parents, who met in the Air Force, and his older brother, an Army veteran of both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Chelsey Rogers

Senior Instructor

Chelsey Rogers

Senior Instructor

Chelsey is an Experienced Filmmaker with a demonstrated history of working in commercial media industry. Skilled in Adobe Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Video Production, and Social Media. Strong arts and design professional with a Bachelor of Science (BS) Photography, Bachelor of Science (BS) Digital Media Arts - Digital Editing and Cinema from John Brown University. Currently working as Head of Production and Producer for Meatier Productions, a production house for youtubers.

Traven Rice

Senior Instructor

Traven Rice

Senior Instructor

Writer-director Traven Rice is devoted to telling stories about the magical moments in our everyday lives. Her work leans towards social action and champions underrepresented voices. Traven’s most recent project,”Division Street,” a digital series pilot about a mixed-race young girl sent to live with her cranky Jewish grandmother in a magical neighborhood in New York City, screened at Slamdance, Raindance and SeriesFest, among others, and won national and international awards. Her first short film, “The Night Tram," was nominated for a Student Academy Award. Rice was a New York Stage & Film Filmmakers' Workshop Fellow, where she developed the feature film script for “Red Rock Falls," a psychological thriller based in a small mountain town in Colorado. She is a certified Zen Sensei and has taught meditation for more than 15 years.

Yonatan Weinstein

Senior Instructor

Yonatan Weinstein

Senior Instructor

Yonatan Weinstein is a two-time Israeli Academy Award-nominated editor based in New York. His credits include: 'Waiting for Godot' – a 3-hour long experimental film starring Ethan Hawke & John Leguizamo; 'Valley of Tears' (HBO Max/KAN) – a limited-series war drama and Israel's biggest budget TV production to date; and 'Incitement' – a feature film that won Best Picture at the Israeli Academy Awards and was Israel's submission for the 2020 Oscars. Most recently, he worked on 'Angels', a documentary feature about survivors of sexual assault in childhood.
Aside from editing, Yonatan has a rich background in production and development: he has served as Director of Development for Yaron Zilberman’s ('A Late Quartet') production company; worked in development for Protozoa Pictures (Darren Aronofsky); crewed on feature film & TV sets internationally; and helmed narrative shorts that garnered exposure at festivals and online. As a writer, he has been collaborating on developing original scripted TV series and concepts, working hand in hand with some of Israel's leading production companies. His debut film, the feature documentary 'My Grandma - Frau Masha' (which he completed at age 14), was showcased in international festivals, screened theatrically and sold for broadcast on Israeli National Television.
Yonatan is a veteran of the Israeli Air Force. He is also a proud alum of NYU Tisch's Film & TV program, where he currently teaches Editing as an Adjunct Professor.

Kurt Sensenbrenner

Instructor

Kurt Sensenbrenner

Instructor

Kurt Sensenbrenner is an award winning documentary media maker. He began his career as an Assistant Camera and Camera Operator working on various fiction and nonfiction projects for clients ranging from Comedy Central to the New York Times. After his directorial debut, "From Mass to the Mountain,” a feature documentary chronicling drought and deforestation in unstable eastern Panama which aired nationwide on PBS ,Kurt turned his focus to documentary full-time. Currently, he's directing and producing two projects: One, is an animated documentary-comedy series about living with a rare disorder entitled “The Low-Phe Life.” The other is a live-action doc short that tells the story of two young women fighting to protect rainforest using butterflies as bioindicators to determine the health of their local rainforest.

Juan Castilla

Instructor

Juan Castilla

Instructor

Juan David Castilla is a Colombian writer, director, editor and videographer based in NYC. In “El Amanecer,” his first narrative feature, an exiled colombian coronel living in the U.S tries to return home. (Winner of the Golden Palm Award at the 2010 Mexico International Film Festival). In 2016, he directed the documentary, “Viaje a la Semilla,” about the role of the shaman in the tribe and how technology has affected the lives of tribes in Columbia, Peru and Brazil. He also produced the feature, “Overexposed,” about a woman who overcomes her trauma using Overexposure Therapy (2019 Los Angeles Awards, Festigious Film Festival, Film Con and the Italian Hermetic Film Festival).

Erin Sanger

Instructor

Erin Sanger

Instructor

Erin Sanger is an award-winning filmmaker who began working with the Veteran community in 2014. A Colorado native, her films have screened at festivals including SXSW, Tribeca, and Aspen Shortsfest. She is a Wasserman Award winner, Webby Award honoree, Student Academy Award nominee, Academy Nicholl Fellowship Semi Finalist, and American Film Showcase Envoy. Her directorial work has been featured on ESPN's 30 for 30 series, ABC, PBS, The Atlantic, National Geographic, and Topic. She has directed for brands including Infiniti, Häagen-Dazs, Travelers, 23&Me, Logitech, Bai, Complex, Condé Nast, Vox, and Tribeca Studios. She is a graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.

Francesca Galazzi

Operations Director

Francesca Galazzi

Operations Director

Francesca Galazzi recently graduated with Honors from the University of Massachusetts. She has been collaborating closely with Ben Patton on his forthcoming book on military fellowship, community and posttraumatic stress. Born and raised on Cape Cod, Francesca is an avid sportsman, sailor and the granddaughter of a Viet Nam era Navy veteran.

To inquire or register for veterans film workshop in your area,
email us at workshops@pattonveteransproject.org or call (970) 657-5500.

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