A panel of mental health experts will offer advice for post-production professionals on how to avoid burnout and achieve better work/life balance in the next edition of Post Break, the webinar series from Post New York Alliance (PNYA). The free event is scheduled for Thursday, December 2 at 2:00 p.m. EST.

Professionals in the film and television industry often work long hours and face deadline pressures that can adversely affect their quality of life and mental health. Productions and media companies can achieve higher rates of retention and foster cooperation by creating healthy working environments that support the wellbeing of employees while delivering high-quality content.

Please join the PNYA for a solutions-based discussion featuring Malikkah Rollins of DOC NYC, Valeria Bullo of Whole Picture Programme and Zack Arnold, ACE, of Optimize Yourself. Editor Fay Gartenberg will moderate.

Panelists:

Malikkah Rollins is Director of Industry and Education at DOC NYC, the largest documentary film festival in the U.S.  As a mental health professional for a decade, she recently co-founded DocuMentality, a new initiative designed to elevate the conversation around mental health in the documentary community. Additionally, Rollins was a mental health consultant with American Documentary’s project for women/LBGTQ first-time directors. She is a former Sundance Collab Community Leader, D Word Ambassador, and on the board of Women in Film and Video (Washington, DC). Malikkah was a 2019 Docs in Progress Fellow and has held a variety of producer roles on several feature and short documentaries.

Valeria Bullo is a freelance production consultant and independent producer. She is currently leading the production strand and developing a toolkit for mentally healthy productions for the Whole Picture Programme, a program developed to champion mental health and wellbeing in the screen industries. Previously, Bullo worked for Pathe Productions where she oversaw productions including Pride, Suffragette, Selma, Florence Foster Jenkins, Viceroy's House and Judy. With experience in commercials, corporate media and documentaries, she has focused on feature production since 2009 with credits including Inception, Sherlock Holmes, Maleficent and Mad Max: Fury Road.

Zack Arnold is the creator of the program, podcast and blog Optimize Yourself. By trade, he is a documentary director and award-winning film and television editor, whose credits include Cobra Kai, Empire, Underground and Burn Notice. Through Optimize Yourself, he helps ambitious creative professionals learn how to use movement at their workstations to ignite their energy, focus, creativity and productivity. He also helps busy professionals eat better during the day and sleep better at night. He recently completed produced and directed the documentary film GO FAR: The Christopher Rush Story. He also serves as an adjunct professor at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, teaching film editing.

Moderator:

Fay Gartenberg is a New York-based Assistant Editor and a member of the Motion Picture Editor's Guild (IATSE Local 700). Her work spans narrative film, documentary film, scripted television and finishing. Prior to entering the film industry, she worked as a video therapy specialist and producer for KidZone TV, a closed-circuit television station serving patients and families at Mount Sinai Kravis Children’s Hospital. She is passionate about the intersections of mental health and contemplative practice. She is currently pursuing studies in MindfulnessBased Stress Reduction, Embodied Meditation, and Polyvagal Theory.

  • When:  Thursday, December 2, 2021, 2:00pm EST
  • Title:  Mental Health and Well Being in Post Production

REGISTER HERE

Sound recordings of past Post Break sessions are available here: https://www.postnewyork.org/page/PNYAPodcasts

Past Post Break sessions in video blog format are available here: https://www.postnewyork.org/blogpost/1859636/Post-Break

About Post New York Alliance (PNYA)
The Post New York Alliance (PNYA) is an association of film and television post-production facilities, labor unions and post professionals operating in New York State.  The PNYA’s objective is to create jobs by: 1) extending and improving the New York State Tax Incentive Program; 2) advancing the services the New York Post Production industry provides; and 3) creating avenues for a diverse talent pool to enter into The Industry.