Producer and Director JOAN KRON
People who work with Joan Kron, 88, call her a force of nature. From 1991 to 2016, she was contributing editor-at-large of Allure magazine where she covered plastic surgery and the psychology of beauty, receiving over a dozen journalism awards. A former senior editor at New York and staff reporter of The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, she is the author of four books, including: Lift: Wanting, Fearing, and Having a Face-Lift. An observation noted in that book – that comedians are the only celebrities who tell the truth about their cosmetic procedures – was the inspiration for Take My Nose . . . Please! Joan has worn many hats in the world of arts and style. After graduating from the Yale School of Drama, she was a costume designer at NBC-TV; an interior designer; a producer of limited-edition art objects by Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein; a founder and chairman of The Arts Council of the Gershman Y (bringing avant-garde arts events to Philadelphia); and, beginning in 1969, , with no previous training in the field, a journalist. Producing a documentary, she says, is a natural extension of her editorial work. To better understand the craft, she took a course in Final Cut Pro, and decided that film editing is the new needlepoint. In a 2012 New York Times profile (“Her Story, Give or Take a Few Lines”) – when asked whether she advocated plastic surgery, Joan responded: “I never want to be seen as being for it or against it.” But she admits having benefitted from it, personally.
Executive Producer ADRIANNE TOLSCH
Adrianne, a writer, artist, and stand-up comedian, is revered by women in comedy as a pioneer (one of the first female stand-ups to headline on the road) and as a mentor. She began her career in New York City at Catch a Rising Star, going on to headline at every major comedy club in the US and casinos in Las Vegas and Atlantic City. She has performed in England, Australia, and Tasmania and been the opening act for Jay Leno, Chita Rivera, and Billy Crystal. Adrianne got raves for her performance on Broadway in 3 From Brooklyn, and co-hosted the radio show, The Better Sex. Among her many honors, she received the 2004 Cabaret Hotline Award for her one-woman show, Trucks, Guns and Mayonnaise, and again in 2006 for None of Your Damn Business, a hilarious look at getting older. Her solo show, Tolschinsky, will open in 2017 in New York City. She says she's thrilled to be associated with "Take My Nose . . . Please!" – but feels compelled to admit, “To this day, no knife has touched this face . . . that I'm aware of.“
Adrianne died in December 2016 after a valiant fight with esophogeal cancer.
Executive Producer BILL SCHEFT
Bill is a novelist, columnist, and television writer, who has established himself as a singular and influential comedic voice over the last three decades. As a writer for David Letterman from 1991 to 2015, he was nominated for 16 Emmy Awards. He is the author of four novels: The Ringer and Everything Hurts, both optioned for films; Shrink Thyself; and Time Won’t Let Me -- a finalist for the 2006 Thurber Prize for American Humor. A former stand-up comic and sportswriter, Bill was a regular humor columnist for Sports Illustrated and ESPN Magazine. A collection of his columns, The Best of the Show, was published in 2005. He has also contributed humor essays to The New Yorker, The New York Times, Salon, Esquire, George, and Talk – and has written special material for the Academy Awards, Emmy's, Tony's, ESPYs, and numerous roasts. An honors graduate of Harvard College, his most enduring credit, he says, is his 26-year marriage to Adrianne Tolsch, whom he met in 1981 at Catch a Rising Star. Of his connection to this documentary, he says: “Adrianne and I encouraged Joan to make this film and she did it. Which makes her the first person in show business who ever did what she said she was going to do.“
Producer BRIAN DAVID CANGE, PGA
A member of the Producers Guild of America, Brian Cange brings two decades of production experience in documentaries, TV, and feature films to Take My Nose . . . Please! His feature film work includes Equity, a narrative film about women on Wall Street (2016 Official Selection Sundance Film Festival); Marjorie Prime, starring Jon Hamm, Tim Robbins and Geena Davis; the acclaimed documentary, Mad Hot Ballroom , which won eight awards and nine nominations in 2005/2006 competitions; Backwards; Fugly; Particle Fever; The Skeptic; and the 2008 Peabody Award-winning documentary, Billy Strayhorn: Lush Life. Most recently, Brian line produced the docudrama Roxanne, Roxanne--a 2017 release. And "I am a Rebel," the first episode in a four-part National GeographicTV miniseries, that aired in June. He also worked as a producer on .Footsteps in the Snow (A&E and Lifetime Movie Networks); The World Wars, the Emmy-nominated mini-series (History Channel); and Making Space, a feature-length documentary about five female architects with director Ultan Guilfoyle (Tribeca Architecture & Design Film Festival).
For Take My Nose, Brian created our budget and worked, as needed, in every capacity on the production side – --staffing, scouting, scheduling, negotiating, getting releases, supervising shoots, insurance issues, troubleshooting – meanwhile acting as a sounding board. ,
Producer and Legal Counsel W. WILDER KNIGHT, II
W. Wilder Knight, II, is an intellectual property attorney, who has been with the law firm of Pryor Cashman for 25 years. He has extensive experience in dramatic and documentary film, as well as television production and internet finance. His clients include US and European-based independent-film and animation production companies, film and TV-distribution companies on both coasts and abroad, and internet companies. He has served as associate producer and legal counsel to Racing Extinction (Sundance main competition) and Lambert & Stamp (2014 Sundance Premiers in Park City and London); and legal counsel to Alive Inside (2014 Sundance Audience Award winner); Keep on Keepin’ On (2014 Tribeca Film Festival, Audience Award winner); and Chasing Ice (2012 Sundance main competition entry, Academy Award short list). He was finance and legal counsel on Simon Killer (2012 Sundance); production counsel on Martha Marcy Mae Marlene; and production counsel on The Cove (2010 Academy-Award winning documentary). He was co-executive producer of Buck (a feature-length documentary, short-listed for the Academy Awards); co-producer of The Betrayal (a 2009 Academy-Award nominee and Emmy-award winner); executive producer of Youth Knows No Pain (HBO ); and associate producer of Mad Hot Ballroom. He has negotiated deals with Muhammad Ali, soccer-star Pele, and Helen Mirren.
Consulting Producer ANDREA MILLER
Andrea Miller was the first to see the promise and lend encouragement to Take My Nose . . . Please! She is an independent producer in New York City and a partner in Anthos Media LLC, specializing in feature-length documentaries. With Carla Solomon, she was a producer of the award-winning Particle Fever (a documentary about the quest for the Higgs Boson – aka, the God particle); The New Public, which debuted on the PBS series, America Reframed; and The Zionist Idea, theatrically released in 2015. Andrea was also a consulting producer on Thank You For Your Service and Letters From Baghdad. A graduate of Yale University, with an MPhil in Fine Arts from Harvard, Andrea was also a former partner in Saltmill, which produced the dramatic feature, Dark Matter, with Meryl Streep. Prior executive positions include Senior Vice President of Sales and Co-Production at Sony Wonder, the children’s arm of Sony Music; General Manager of Cartoon Network Japan and Vice President of Programming at Turner Networks International, where she managed channel launches in Asia. Andrea’s many Producer credits include: Pee Wee’s Playhouse (CBS); Shining Time Station (PBS); The A-list and Indecision ‘92 (Comedy Central); Everyday With Joan Lunden (ABC); and The Media Beat (CNBC). She is a consultant to Akili, a start-up network for children in Kenya, and to The Master, an opera in development. She serves on the board of the Flea Theater in Manhattan.
Director of Photography DAMON BUNDSCHUH
Damon Bundschuh is a second generation cinematographer. After graduating from Massachusetts College of Art and Design, and getting the requisite on-the-job training, he has filmed everything from school children learning about physics for Roller Coaster Physics: Stem In Action (WNET), to dragsters smoking their tires at the Lebanon Valley Raceway for Rise of the Continents (BBC 2). By happy coincidence, he has experience focusing on powerful women and comedians. He filmed Dame Kiri Te Kanawa giving a Master Class at The Met for What Makes a Great Soprano (BBC 2) and Jimmy Fallon in drag singing falsetto for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (NBC). But one assignment is hard to top, says Damon: filming First Lady Michelle Obama in a potato sack race in the East Room of the White House for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (NBC).
Editor NANCY NOVACK
Nancy Novack is an award-winning film editor and professor at the University of Pennsylvania. She has edited both fiction and non-fiction films, starting as an apprentice editor on Awakenings with Robert DeNiro and Robin Williams. After working on over a dozen dramatic films, including Drop Back Ten (Official Sundance selection in Dramatic Competition, 2000), Buffy and the Vampire Slayer (first assistant editor), and Spiderman 1 and 2 (assistant editor), she became known for some of the most important documentaries of the last decade. She was the editor, winning a Prime Time Emmy and sharing a Peabody Award, for her work on Act IV of Spike Lee’s When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (HBO). She was also the editor of My Lai (for which she shared a Peabody Award) and Clinton, for the American Experience series (PBS); as well as the episode covering 1980-to-the-present in the series Broadway: The American Musical. She was the supervising editor and editor of two of six episodes of The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (sharing another Emmy, Peabody, and Columbia DuPont award); and, most recently, editor of Episode Three of Ken Burns’s Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies (PBS); and of Southern Rites, a story of segregated proms and murder (HBO). To Nancy, editing is story telling. Drawn to our project after seeingtheraw footage, she felt Take My Nose. . .Please! had the potential to be “a fun – yet strangely important film” – and she wanted to help us tell its story. .
Producer Post-Production/ Assistant Editor CLAIRE ENSSLIN
Claire Ensslin is a graduate of the School of Visual Arts and an award-nominated filmmaker. She has freelanced in post-production and camera since 2010 – while producing, directing, and editing her own festival-selected short films and music videos. As an editor, Claire has cut videos for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit, People, Fortune, and Essence Music Festival. She also worked as the assistant editor on Team Toon (Cartoon Network TV); the feature films, Forged and La Soga; and the festival-selected documentary feature, Wild Home. For Take My Nose . . . Please! Claire pre-edited our footage; updated our original demo reels several times; was second camera on several scenes; set up this website; and, most importantly, assisted Nancy Novack in every aspect of the editing and post-production process.
Original Trailer Editor RACHEL SALAZAR
Rachel Salazar has worked for many years with HBO's Creative Services both on staff and freelance. An award-winning producer, she has produced and edited HBO promotional campaigns and trailers for shows, including: Sex & The City, The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Rome, John Adams, The Newsroom, Boardwalk Empire, Veep, Mildred Pierce, The Normal Heart, Behind the Candelabra, and Game Of Thrones. She is also a Producer on the Emmy-nominated documentary, Unguarded. In the early stages of Take My Nose . . . Please!, Rachel took footage we shot and clips we collected, and assembled them into an entertaining preview that left everyone begging for more.