Production Team
Augusta Palmer, Director
Augusta Palmer is a filmmaker and scholar who has created award-winning fiction, experimental, and documentary films. Her debut feature, The Hand of Fatima (2009), a feature documentary about music, mysticism, and family history which premiered at London’s Raindance Film Festival and was a New York Magazine Critic’s Pick during its NYC theatrical run. Her fiction short for children, “A is for Aye-Aye: An Abecedarian Adventure” (2015) played in festivals from New Zealand to New York. She is at work on a new documentary, The Blues Society, about the transformative power of the Memphis Country Blues Festivals (1966-1970). Her father, Robert Palmer, was one of the founding members of the Memphis Country Blues Society. Palmer earned a Ph. D. in Cinema Studies from New York University and is Chair and Associate Professor in the Media & Communication department at St. Francis College in Brooklyn, New York. Palmer’s media work has been funded by the New York Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the arts and the national Endowment for the Humanities.
Sarah Enid Hagey, Editor & Sound Designer
Sarah Enid Hagey is a film director, film editor and sound designer living in New York City. She is a recipient of the San Francisco Bay Guardian Goldie Award for Best Emerging Filmmaker and a grant from the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures. Her directorial work has screened internationally at institutions including The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the New Museum, The Berlinale, and the Museum of Modern Art. Her editing work can be seen in feature length documentaries including Mr. Angel (2013), Grit & Grind (2014 Berlinale premiere), Here After (2018), the Emmy nominated PBS feature Landscapes of Enchantment (2010). Her sound design work is featured in the award winning narrative short film, Assisted Living (2017). She has worked as a documentary editor for PBS and CNN, and her editorial work for Anthony Bourdain, Explore Parts Unknown (2018), has garnered her two Webby Awards, a James Beard Award for Technical Excellence, and an Emmy Award. hagey is also the co-director, with Cecilia Aldarondo, of You Were My First Boyfriend (2023).
Laura Jean Hocking, Editor
Laura Jean Hocking is a Memphis filmmaker best known for editing and directing documentary features, experimental shorts, and music videos. Her films have screened at Indie Memphis Film Festival, Cinequest, The Metrograph, Sidewalk Film Festival, TCL Chinese Theatres, and Kino Lumiere in Sofia, Bulgaria. In 2023, she completed editing on 3 feature films,Scent of Linden, The Blues Society, and Juvenile:Five Stories and screened her fiction short “Hot Singles” at multiple festivals.
Juan Carlos Borrero, Director of Photography
Juan Carlos Borrero Is a professional cinematographer born and raised in Colombia. His thesis documentary Ananeko integrated graphics, photography and film was invited to the Havana and Toronto Film Festivals and named Best Documentary at the Bogota Film Festival. In his native Colombia, Borrero worked on numerous music videos and documentary projects for the European Human Rights Office and on the award-winning TV series En Contravia participated in projects for the UN and shot a documentary series in war zones about civilians in the middle of the Colombian conflict. After relocating to the New York area, Borrero has served as cinematographer on documentary films for PBS, Discovery and European networks like Canal Plus, and TV5, shooting in the US and around the world. Borrero served as a cinematographer on the Emmy-nominated web documentary Casualties of the Gridiron series for GQ Magazine and Kings of the Underground for VICE.