MEET THE TEAM
Zachary Stauffer – Director/Producer/DP
Zachary Stauffer is a staff producer at UC Berkeley’s Investigative Reporting Program and its primary director of photography. “Who Killed Lt. Van Dorn?" is his first feature documentary. Since 2009, he has been involved with all of the IRP’s work for PBS Frontline, films that explored organized crime, death investigation, college sports, and sexual assault, including the DuPont award-winning “Rape In The Fields.” He has also served as a director of photography on independent documentaries and projects distributed in the U.S. and internationally. His short documentary, “A Day Late In Oakland” (2008), about the murder of Oakland journalist Chauncey Bailey, was nominated for two IDA Awards, screened at film festivals across the country, and broadcast on KQED in San Francisco. He is a graduate of Boston College and the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, where he is a lecturer.
Eli Olson – Editor
Eli Olson is an award-winning film editor with a unique storytelling ability. Her extensive experience reaches into the feature film, documentary, non-fiction broadcast and commercial realms. She won an Emmy for her work on “My Flesh and Blood” for HBO Films, which also won an Emmy for Best Documentary and the Audience Award and Best Director Prizes at Sundance Film Festival. Olson co-directed the documentary “Stories from Tohoku” about the courage and strength of the survivors of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan. “Tohoku” won a Jury Prize at the 2014 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival and was featured on PBS. Other editing projects include “Heaven Adores You”, a documentary on singer Elliott Smith that was featured at the San Francisco International Film Festival, “The Nine”, a film by acclaimed photographer Katy Grannan, and “Saving Eden”, a documentary by Oscar-winning director Bill Couturie.
Jason Paladino – Associate Producer
Jason Paladino was a student at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism when he began researching the story that became “Who Killed Lt. Van Dorn?” His high school friend, Petty Officer Brian Collins, was an aircrewman who died on Van Dorn’s flight. After graduating, Paladino became a fellow at the Investigative Reporting Program and together with Virginian-Pilot reporter Mike Hixenbaugh produced a series of newspaper reports about the 53E helicopter. He also assisted in a NBC Nightly News investigation of the aircraft. After his fellowship, Paladino began working with Zachary Stauffer on the film. He was instrumental in gathering public records, data, archival materials and furthering research for the film.
Investigative Reporting Program at THE UC BERKELEY Graduate School of Journalism
The Investigative Reporting Program (IRP) is a professional newsroom and teaching institute at the University of California, Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. It is committed to telling stories that expose injustice and abuse of power while training the next generation of reporters in the highest standards of our craft.
“Who Killed Lt. Van Dorn?” is the first independent feature documentary produced with the support of the IRP, whose work has appeared on PBS Frontline, Frontline/WORLD, NPR, NBC News and PBS NewsHour and in prominent publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and Time magazine.
The IRP was established in 2006 by veteran journalist Lowell Bergman, the Reva and David Logan Distinguished Chair in Investigative Reporting.
Major Support for the IRP is provided by the Reva and David Logan Foundation, the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation, the Sandler Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the Heising-Simons Foundation, and the Knight Foundation. Additional support is provided by a wide range of individuals.
Investigative Studios
Investigative Studios was established by investigative journalists, alumni of the Graduate School of Journalism and other media professionals to aid and assist the long term viability of the Investigative Reporting Program and the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley. We aim to create new revenue streams that will support and promote the work of the IRP, while maintaining intellectual property rights that benefit the university—creating a new, self-sustaining model for in-depth journalism in the public interest.
CREDITS
Written, Directed and Produced by
Zachary Stauffer
Executive Producers
Lowell Bergman
John Temple
Editor
Eli Olson
Director of Photography
Zachary Stauffer
Associate Producer
Jason Paladino
Consulting Producer
David Schneider
Composer
William Ryan Fritch
Graphics and Animation
Igor Latukhin
Camera
Andres Cediel
Elie Khadra
Bruce Liffiton
Jason Paladino
Mark Stoddard
Sound
Jim Choi
Michael Coleman
Nick Greiner
Rich Jacobs
Brooks Lester
Reporters
Mike Hixenbaugh
Jason Paladino
Zachary Stauffer
Legal
Susan E. Seager
Assistant Producers
Loi Ameera Almeron
Kathleen Seccombe
Archival Consultant
Bonnie Rowan
Illustrator
Nikka Singh
Additional Graphics
Brian Dawson
Drone Photography
Jason Blalock
Scott Heptinstall
Narrator
Zachary Stauffer
Digital Intermediate Studio
Color A Go-Go/ San Francisco
DI Colorist
Kent Pritchett
DI Producer
Kim Salyer
DI Online Editor
Loren Sorensen
Archival Conversions
Kirk Goldberg
Post Production Sound
Berkeley Sound Artists & IMRSV Sound
Dialogue Editor
Kim Foscato
Sound Designer
Bijan Sharifi
William Sammons
Rerecording Mixer
James LeBrecht
Dan Olmsted
Sound Supervisor
Jacob Bloomfield-Misrach
Sample Reel Editing
Angela Reginato
Production Assistants
Angeline Bernabe
Joseph Bush
Leslie Cory
Maya Craig
Isabella Fabiani
Gemma Givens
Bo Kovitz
Atia Musazay
Susie Neilson
Charlotte Silver
Josh Slowiczek
Erin Stone
Reis Thebault
Archival Footage Courtesy of
ABCNEWS VIDEOSOURCE
AP Images
BBC Motion Gallery / Getty Images
William Bieckert Jr.
Dylan Boone
Tyler Boye Photography
Tony Bullard
CBS News Archives
Crystal Collins
CriticalPast
Tracy Diaz
Justin Godfrey
Rochelle Hogan
Chris Humme
Jack Johnson
Caitlin Kennedy
David Hume Kennerly
National Archives and Records Administration
NATO Channel
NBCUniversal Archives
Nextar Broadcasting, Inc./WAVY-TV
The Prince George Journal
Suzanne Simmons Photography
James Skelton
Amy Snyder
Chuck Spinney
Nicole Van Dorn
Susan Van Dorn
The Virginian-Pilot
Wazee Digital
WTKR-TV
Defense Visual Information Distribution Service
GySgt. Kristin Bagley
Cpl. Samantha Braun
LCpl. Samantha Bray
LCpl. Tylor Camfield
LCpl. Hailey Clay
LCpl. Victoria Decker
Kevin Denter
SSgt. Jason Fudge
LCpl. Jodson Graves
Sgt. Daniel Kujanpaa
Cpl. Abraham Lopez
LCpl. René Lucerobonilla
LCpl. Jake McClung
MGySgt. Chad McMeen
SrA. Sarah Mitchell
Cpl. Annika Moody
LCpl. Jeremiah Naranjo
Sgt. Juanenrique Owings
Sgt. Brandon L. Ponyah
LCpl. Jacob Pruitt
Sgt. Conner Robbins
LCpl. Justin Roux
Cpl. Warren Smith
LCpl. Timothy Smithers
LCpl. Luisa Torres
LCpl. Daphne Trevino
Sgt. Amaia Unanue
Cpl. AaronJames Vinculado
PO2 Daniel Young
Special Thanks
The Virginian-Pilot
William Houp
Leo Kim
Jeff Reece
Kate Wiltrout
NBC News Investigative Unit
Robert Dembo
Richard Esposito
Anna Schecter
Daffodil Altan
John Antonelli
Sean Aronson
Robert Bishop
Maggie Bowman
Chater Camera
Jack Carson
Bestor Cram
Bill Cran
Rebecca Darby-Williams
Patti Epler
R. Alden Feldon
Susan Gray
Honolulu Civil Beat
Julie Hwang
Lana Garland
Andrew Gersh
Dan Grazier
Edgar Lara
Jonathan Logan
Carrie Lozano
Amy Marash
Dave Marash
Tim McGirk
Stephanie Mechura
Cherokee Melton
Chris O’Dea
Old Lahaina Luau
Barbara Raab
Dina Rasor
Camille Servan-Schreiber
Matthew Smith
Mandy Smithberger
Amy Snyder
Amy Marie Stauffer
Anne Marie Stein
Daniel Steiner
Cheyenne Strauser (Collins)
Garrett Therolf
Abbie VanSickle
Naomi Walker
Elliot Webb
James Wheaton
Max Wolitzky
Special thanks to all who shared their stories
Fiscal Sponsor
Southern Documentary Fund
INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING PROGRAM
Operations Director
Chris Bush
Former Managing Director
Janice Hui
Former Office Administrator
Mila MacBain
Administrative Assistant
Patricia Lavow-Davis
Office Assistants
Samantha Devan Chee-A-Tow
Sofia Guo
Nicole Youssef
INVESTIGATIVE STUDIOS
Business Manager
Rajal Pitroda
Legal
Richard Lee
Justine Jacobs
Accounting
Danica Nungaray
YH Bookkeeping
Tom Andres
Assistant to Mr. Bergman
Natalie Gutierrez
“Who Killed Lt. Van Dorn?” is a production of Investigative Studios in association with the Investigative Reporting Program at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Investigative Studios is solely responsible for its content.