CAST & CREW

Bethany Hamilton

Bethany Hamilton is an American professional surfer who began her surfing career at age 11. By age 13, she was an accomplished surfer and well-respected in the surfing world. She came to national attention after her left arm was bitten off by a tiger shark on October 31, 2003. She has since made a full recovery and has returned to surfing. MTV Books published Hamilton’s Book, ‘Soul Surfer’ from which the major motion picture is based. Hamilton is a Hawaii native and currently resides there with her husband and two sons, and she continues to touch and inspire lives globally as a professional surfer, author, and motivational speaker. She currently has her own blog on helping others become unstoppable. Visit BethanyHamilton.com

Aaron Lieber

Aaron Lieber is a director, cinematographer, and producer born in Southern California. Lieber released his first film “The Pursuit” through Studio 411 in 2008, the same year he graduated with a BA from CSU Long Beach. “The Pursuit” premiered in the USA and internationally and was the first surf film to be released on Blu-Ray. In late 2009, Nike Surfing hired Lieber to produce surf content and he had the opportunity to work on the Nike Chosen – Just Do It commercial, as well as the filming and editing of the all women’s surf film “Leave A Message”. His most recent documentary was “Zero to 100 – The Lakey Peterson Story”, and it was #1 on iTunes and featured on Netflix. Today, Lieber is traveling the globe filming the world’s best surfers and cutting national ads, full-length films, and digital shorts. Aside from Bethany Hamilton, Lieber has worked with world’s best athletes including Kelly Slater, John John Florence, Kolohe Andino, Carissa Moore, and others.

Producer: Penny Edmiston

Penny Edmiston is an award-winning filmmaker with a successful career of producing commercials, stills, and documentaries such as Bones Brigade, directed by Stacy Peralta which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2012. She wrote and co-directed the award-winning documentary film Unfit: Ward vs. Ward. Her first produced narrative film Beauty Mark world premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival 2017 and sold to The Orchard. She recently produced the documentary Bethany Hamilton: Unstoppable which screened at the Tribeca Film Festival 2018 and will be released in theaters domestically July 12th 2019. She recently completed the narrative film Epiphany and her self-directed documentary short film The Hiraeth. Both films are currently on the film festival circuit. Working with her producing partner Jane Kelly Kosek at Meritage Pictures they have a TV series set in the world of car racing titled Speedway currently in development with Jason Priestley.

Producer: Jane Kelly Kosek

Jane Kelly Kosek is a storyteller. She develops, writes, and produces narrative and documentary feature films and TV shows. Her passion for telling stories about amazing women brought her to producing Bethany Hamilton: Unstoppable and contributing to two companion books with Harper Collins: Unstoppable Me and Be Unstoppable. Most recently, she has also produced the award-winning feature drama Epiphany, the teen comedy Pitching Tents, starring comedian Jim Norton, and the critically acclaimed romantic drama 20 Weeks, starring Amir Arison and Anna Margaret Hollyman. Jane has also produced the features Not Since You, Take Me Home, The Diary of Preston Plummer and Straight Line, along with a number of documentaries, including Citizen Hearst and Industrial Light & Magic: Creating the Impossible. The short documentary she produced on the Keystone XL Pipeline titled Pipe Dreams was shortlisted for an Oscar.

Associate Producer: Becky Hamilton

Becky Hamilton produced and directed the documentary Heart of a Soul Surfer, the first major project sharing Bethany’s story with the world. She also co-produced the Sony Pictures 2011 biopic, Soul Surfer, and co-founder of the non-profit organization, Friends of Bethany Hamilton. Her unique position in Bethany’s life as a sister-in-law, friend and Chief Operations Officer gives her amazing insight and ability to support the creation of Bethany Hamilton: Unstoppable.

Editor / Writer: Carol Martori

In her more than fifteen years as a documentary editor, Carol specializes in instilling cultural and emotional context into each narrative she touches. Her documentary credits include Unstoppable, the recent bio-doc on famed surfer Bethany Hamilton, Instagram-driven Social Animals, Waiting for Lightning, about Danny Way and his unrelenting drive to push the sport of professional skateboarding to its limits by jumping the Great Wall of China, The King of Luck, an adoring portrait of country music legend Willie Nelson directed by Billy Bob Thornton, and as an additional editor on Dave Grohl’s Sound City, chronicling how the rise of digital music-making led to the fall of the fabled Sound City music studio, where Nirvana’s Nevermind was recorded. Carol’s work has appeared in a number of film festivals including Sundance, SXSW, Tribeca and HotDocs.

Composer: Kris Bowers

Emmy Award-winning composer and pianist Kris Bowers creates genre-defying music that pays homage to his jazz roots with inflections of alternative and R&B influences. From scoring documentaries like Kobe Bryant’s Muse (SHOWTIME, 2015) and Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You (2016), to scripted series including For The People (ABC), Netflix’s Dear White People, and SHOWTIME’S Black Monday, Bowers’ work as a film and television composer is a testament to his versatility as an artist. In 2018, Bowers collaborated with Emmy and Academy Award-winning director Peter Farrelly and Academy Award-winning actor Mahershala Ali on their critically acclaimed Green Book (Academy Award Winner, ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Original Screenplay,’ 2019). In addition to scoring the film, Bowers served as Ali’s on-screen hand-double, providing the fingering for close up piano shots, as well as spending months working with Ali as his piano instructor—Ali won ‘Best Supporting Actor’ for the role. Bowers’ work on Green Book landed him a nomination for ‘Best Score’ at the 2019 Critic’s Choice Awards.

Music Supervisor: Liza Richardson

Anchoring Saturday nights from 8 to 10pm, Liza Richardson has hosted and produced a radio show on NPR’s Santa Monica, CA flagship 89.9 KCRW since 1991. Liza is known for her diverse musical vocabulary. A busy independent music supervisor for television, ads and films, Liza’s credits include the first handful of iPod silhouette spots, films A Dog’s Purpose, Lords of Dogtown, Surf’s Up, The Kids Are All Right, Hotel Transylvania, and the Grammy nominated quintessential Mexican gem Y Tu Mama Tambien. Liza has music supervised small screen classics like Friday Night Lights, Parenthood and The Leftovers. Currently she helms Narcos, Hawaii Five-O, Bull, Queen Sugar and Scorpion with HBO’s Barry, NBC’s Rise, and YouTube Red’s Youth & Consequences. She was named one of 2010’s Women of Impact by Variety and was recognized by her peers, The Guild of Music Supervisors, as 2012’s TV Music Supervisor of The Year and in 2016, Best Music Supervision for TV Drama.