The Team

David Vyorst
Executive Producer and Creator

David Vyorst is a communications specialist living in Washington, D.C. Previously, Mr. Vyorst directed Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide’s Internet media department. His political experience includes two presidential campaigns, work on Capitol Hill, and public opinion research. As a lifetime New York Knick fan and film enthusiast, Mr. Vyorst brings his personal enthusiasm and love of the game to The First Basket. Mr. Vyorst holds a Master’s Degree from the London School of Economics and a B.A. from UCLA.

Peter Riegert
Narrator

Peter Riegert, the renowned star of stage and screen, is also the writer, director, and star of the critically acclaimed film, King of the Corner (www.kingofthecornerfilm.com).

Mr. Riegert has appeared in more than 30 films including Animal House, Local Hero, Crossing Delancy, The Mask, and Traffic. His television credits include The Sopranos, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and the final episode of Seinfeld.

Jennifer Crescenzo
Co-Producer

Previous to The First Basket, Jennifer Crescenzo was the Senior Producer for 8 years at Video/Action, a social justice organization. Ms. Crescenzo received a Capitol Region Emmy Award for producing and directing Extraordinary Response to International Terrorism, the story of how the people of Lockerbie, Scotland reached out to the hundreds of families who lost loved ones after the terrorist attack on Pan Am Flight 103. Other award-winning work includes Kathleen’s Story, a young woman’s struggle with breast cancer; Louis Martin: Walking with Presidents, the story of a ground-breaking black journalist who used his gift for “getting the right story to the right people” to win the confidence of presidents and champion the rights of black Americans; and Through My Eyes, a look at the lasting impact of family and community violence through the eyes of children. Her work has been broadcast on Court TV, WETA, and CNN, and screened at the National Press Club and the Kennedy Center.

In the spring of 2006, Jennifer completed Ready to Play, her first feature-length documentary film, about how her father salvaged a run-down elementary school ball field in the heart of Washington DC and built a 25-year neighborhood old softball league that keeps a changing community together.

In addition to her 8 years of production experience, Jennifer is a certified yoga instructor, so when she is not driving editors crazy with her attention to detail, she is tweaking her student's downward facing dogs! Jennifer Crescenzo holds a BA summa cum laude from the University of Notre Dame.

Courtenay Singer
Co-Producer

Courtenay Singer has worked on programs for the National Geographic Channel, MSNBC, HGTV, and PBS. She recently worked as Field Producer for the PBS special Making Schools Work with Hedrick Smith. Her projects with National Geographic include Field Producer for Catastrophe: Surviving Hurricane Floyd; Booking Producer for Inside Base Camp; and Associate Producer for the Taboo series. Prior to her filmmaking career, she worked as a Communications Specialist for the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland and as Director of Communications at the National Department of Health in Pretoria, South Africa. She holds a BA from Cornell University, an MPH from the University of California at Berkeley, and a certificate in documentary filmmaking from George Washington University.

Carol Slatkin
Editor

Carol Slatkin is a highly regarded television editor, specializing in long format documentary programming. Over the past 20 years Ms. Slatkin has edited a wide variety of award winning projects broadcast on PBS, National Geographic Television, Discovery Communications, NBC, and Turner Broadcasting. Her most recent project is the critically acclaimed Frontline: Is WalMart Good For America? Last year, Ms. Slatkin co-produced and co-edited Discovery Docs With All Deliberate Speed, a feature length documentary about the Brown v. Board of Education decision. Ms. Slatkin is a co-owner of a post production facility, P&C Post, Inc., where she edits, and manages post-production on various programs.

Gary Griffin
Director of Photography

2005 has been quite a year for Gary Griffin. In January, Mr. Griffin won the Sundance Film Festival’s American Excellence in Cinematography Award for the documentary The Education of Shelby Knox. Additionally, Autism is a World, shot by Gary Griffin was nominated for an Academy Award for best documentary short film. Additionally, Mr. Griffin directed photography on the 1992 HBO documentary film Educating Peter, which won the Oscar for best documentary film. He is director of photography of NVF’s feature documentary Still Fighting. Some of his other work includes The Character of George Washington (PBS), God and the Inner City (PBS), Marachi, the Spirit of Mexico (PBS), and Fighter (First Run Features). His award-winning cinematography includes productions for A&E, PBS, ABC, HBO, NBC, CNN, and CBC. Mr. Griffin is an adjunct film professor at American University in Washington, D.C.

Roberto Juan Rodriguez
Musical Director and Composer

Roberto Juan Rodriguez (www.robertojuanrodriguez.com) is a bona fide innovator, a rare musician whose creative vision synthesizes Cuban music and Jewish music into an entirely new music that breathes joy and melancholy with tremendous emotional clarity. Before leaving Cuba for Miami with his family at age 9, Mr. Rodriguez studied violin, piano, and trumpet at music schools in Havana while also learning to play drums and trumpet. In Miami, he encountered Jewish Holocaust survivors who had re-settled there, as well as Cuban Jews from the island. Rodriguez started drumming professionally in his father’s ensembles in Miami when he was barely in his teens. For the next decade or so, he immersed himself in the culture of Miami’s vibrant Jewish community.

Moving to jazz headquarters, New York, Mr. Rodriguez soon established himself as a first-call drummer. Jazz and pop notables with whom he has worked include: Ruben Blades, Lester Bowie, T-Bone Burnett, Randy Brecker, Paquito D’Rivera, Julio Iglesias, the Miami Sound Machine, Joe Jackson, Dave Liebman, Paul Simon, Lloyd Cole, Marc Ribot and Phoebe Snow. El Danzon de Moises (The Dance of Moses) his first recording as a composer for John Zorn’s Tzadik label appeared in 2002 to critical raves. The formation of Septeto Rodriguez and a new album Baila! Gitano Baila! followed.

Dennis Boni
Cinematographer

Since 1983, Dennis Boni has established himself as one of the DC area’s foremost cinematographers. Boni was one of the few hand-picked cinematographers to be accepted and trained by Garrett Brown, the Steadicam’s inventor. He is known for his meticulous attention to lighting and production details, and has shot pieces that have been shown on all the major networks, as well as PBS, the Discovery Channel, the History Channel and the Learning Channel. Mr. Boni is well known for his award winning documentary work, as well as for commercials and high-end corporate pieces. Boni has worked with three presidents, and recent clients include Paramount Pictures, MGM/UA Home Entertainment, America Online, Microsoft, Dell, QVC, Winstar, the Washington Area Chevy Dealers Association, MCI and Fannie Mae. Boni has also worked on feature films, including Contact for Warner Brothers, and Canadian Bacon for Polygram Entertainment.

Boni has shot extensively overseas during his 19 years as a cinematographer, as well as across the United States. In the past few years, assignments have included archaeological and historical sites in Bolivia, Guatemala, Italy and Israel, coral reefs in Honduras and the Bahamas, farms and wildlife in France, India and Zimbabwe, and mega cities such as Istanbul, Mexico City and Shanghai.

Ari Sclar
Senior Research Consultant

Ari Sclar is a PhD candidate in history at Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, New York. Mr. Sclar's doctoral dissertation examines basketball's impact on American Jewish culture and identity in the first half of the 20th Century. Mr. Sclar has also directed content for the Jews in Sports web site, first at NYU and then the American Jewish Historical Society.

Katri Billard
Associate Producer

Katri Billard has worked in film and video since 1996 on long format documentaries such as The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg, Trembling Before G-d, The History Channel's April 1865, the recently released MANA: Beyond Belief as well as on shows for PBS, HGTV and the Gallery Channel. Ms. Billard has also produced many commercials, PSAs and industrials in the DC area for clients such as The White House Science & Technology Awards, Children's Hospital, Best Buy and the Smithsonian. Additionally, Ms. Billard has worked on staff with the Washington Jewish Film Festival; as director of the Shorts@Visions local film series; and on the film committees of WIFV Film Festival, Ladyfest DC and Art-o-Matic. Ms. Billard is a member of Women in Film & Video and AIVF, and recipient of a 2001 DC Arts & Humanities Artist Fellowship for comedy filmmaking as well as a 2003 Finalist of the DC Scriptwriting competition.

Anat Salomon
Associate Producer/Editor

Anat Salomon has amassed substantial experience for more than a decade as an editor and camera person. She has engaged in a broad range of productions, from sports and entertainment to news, documentaries, and commercials. One of the founders of Israel's Channel 2, her other projects include work with Fox News, ABC, CBS, and WNBC Channel 4, as well as France 2 and other international television networks. In 2000, she was awarded the "Telly Award" for Best Short, and her work has been presented at The New Museum in New York City.

Erin Essenmacher
Associate Producer

Erin Essenmacher is a Washington, DC-based writer and video producer with a strong background in television production as well as marketing and fundraising. As an Associate Producer and Research Director for Hedrick Smith Productions, Ms. Essenmacher was responsible for research, character development and field production on prime-time specials for PBS, including Critical Condition, Juggling Work and Family and Rediscovering Dave Brubeck. On the latter two programs, she also served as a Web Producer, responsible for conceptualizing each show's companion site and writing the supporting text and articles. She has since worked as writer, researcher and field producer on various broadcast projects and currently works as a writer/producer for The Discovery Channel. Essenmacher has been a fundraiser for various political and non-profit groups and for several independent films. She served as PR/Marketing Director for the post production facility Waveworks and Double R Productions, its sister production company. Ms. Essenmacher holds a B.A. in Political Science and American Culture from the University of Michigan.

David Gorodetski
Art Director

David Gorodetski is the founder and Creative Director of Sage Communications, a full service marketing and communications company in Mclean, VA. Mr. Gorodetski has been president and CEO of Missaticum Corporation, a full-service advertising agency in McLean, VA, as well as Vice-President of Interactive Services Worldwide for NY-based Ogilvy Public Relations. Prior to his experiences at Ogilvy, David worked with Stackig Advertising and PR, now one of the world’s largest interactive advertising agencies known as TMP Worldwide. Mr. Gorodetski has held design and senior art director positions with agencies in both Virginia and Israel early in his career. He has earned interactive, advertising, and print communications awards for his creative efforts, including 3 Addys and 2 EMA honors. Mr. Gorodetski received a Masters of Fine Arts in Media Studies from the Parsons School of Design at New School University in New York, as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Communications Design from the Wizo College of Design in Haifa, Israel.

1922 Philadelphia SPHAs

Consultants and Advisors

Steven A. Riess (Ph.D., University of Chicago)
Professor: Department of History, Northeastern Illinois University

Steven A. Reiss is the author of Touching Base: Professional Baseball and American Culture in the Progressive Era (1980, rev. ed., 1999), City Games: The Evolution of American Urban Society and the Rise of Sports (1989), and Sport in Industrial America, 1850-1920 (1995).

Jeffrey S. Gurock (Ph.D., Columbia University)
Libby M. Klaperman Professor of Jewish History: Yeshiva University

Jeffrey S. Gurock is considered one of the most prominent scholars in the field of American Jewish History. Professor Gurock is a widely noted lecturer, and is the author or editor of eleven books including the acclaimed Judaism’s Encounter with American Sports, published in 2005.

Peter Levine (Ph.D., Rutgers University)
Professor: Department of History, Michigan State University

Peter Levine is best known for three books: A.G. Spalding and the Rise of Baseball (l985), Idols of the Game (l995), with Robert Lipsyte, and most importantly, Ellis Island and Ebbets Field: Sport and the American Jewish Experience (l992), an award-winning, popular book about sport and the assimilation of American Jews in the 20th century.

Charley Rosen
Sports Writer, Novelist

Charley Rosen is one of the most prolific basketball journalists in the world. Mr. Rosen is a commentator on ESPN, and the author of nine books including: More Than a Game; The Cockroach Basketball League; The Wizard of Odds: How Jack Molinas Almost Destroyed the Game of Basketball; Scandals of '51: How the Gamblers Almost Killed College Basketball; Barney Polan's Game; and The House of Moses All-Stars: A Novel. Mr. Rosen is a former coach in the Continental Basketball Association, has been intimately involved with basketball for the better part of five decades -- as a writer, a player, a coach and a passionate fan.

Laurence Roth (Ph.D. University of California, Los Angeles)
Assistant Professor: Department of English, Susquehanna University

Laurence Roth is the author of Inspecting Jews: American Jewish Detective Stories (Rutgers University Press, 2004). He teaches American Jewish literature, Jewish cultural studies, 20th-century American literature and popular culture, and literary theory.

Cliff Hackel
Producer/Editor

Cliff Hackel, Producer/Editor Cliff Hackel is an Emmy-award winning documentary producer/editor with over twenty years of freelance experience working for commercial networks, cable outlets and PBS. Mr. Hackel received an Emmy for documentary editing in 1990 for ABC's The Koppel Report: Death of a Dictator, and has a strong background in creating personal profiles for television. Mr. Hackel produced and edited the award-winning PBS documentary Rediscovering Dave Brubeck, that profiled the legendary jazzman, as well as magazinelength shows for CNN about Grammy award-winning record producer Daniel Lanois and best-selling author Anne Lamott. He has also edited programs for both broadcast and cable networks including ABC, CBS, PBS, CNN, National Geographic Television, The Discovery Channel, and American Movie Classics. His body of work also includes over a dozen PBS specials, including various episodes of Frontline. Mr. Hackel's work has received several Emmy nominations, including the PBS Health Quarterly in 1991, CBS's The Kennedy Center Honors in 1994, CNN's Arkan: Wanted in 1997, CNN's Operation Teacup in 1998, and PBS's Critical Condition in 2000.

Stephen L. Rabin
Advisor

As President of the Educational Film Center (EFC), Stephen L. Rabin brings over twenty years of experience and expertise in educational filmmaking to The First Basket. During his tenure at EFC, Mr. Rabin has overseen production on all EFC projects, including the PBS primetime evening features The Marshall Plan; One Woman, One Vote; Off Limits; Harry Hopkins: At FDR’s Side; The Odyssey Of John Dos Passos; and America’s Embattled Economy. As the former Media Program Director at the National Endowment for the Humanities, Mr. Rabin was responsible for the development and funding of more than 500 hours of national primetime television and radio programming.

Neil Keller
Private Archivist/Collector

Neil Keller is one of the foremost private collectors and experts on the subject of Jews in sports. For over two decades, Mr. Keller has collected memorabilia of Jewish people in all sports, entertainment and politics among other areas. His collection may be the largest such private collection in the world with more than 12,000 items (from various countries). He has given lectures to various Jewish organizations in United States and Canada, written articles for Jewish newspapers, and been featured in articles in The Washington Post,, Sports Collectors Digest, and The Jerusalem Post, and other publications. Mr. Keller is also the subject of the documentary film, Obsessed With Jews.

Linda J. Borish (Ph.D., University of Maryland)
Associate Professor: Department of History, Western Michigan University

Linda J. Borish teaches 19th-Century American Social and Cultural History, American Sport History, Women’s History, and American Studies and Material Culture and has published articles on Jewish American women, sports, and social change.