MEET THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE FILM
Ellen Bruno
Producer, Director, Editor
Christina McGhee
Educational and Training Director, Content Consultant
Elizabeth Finlayson
Editor
Ellen Kuras
Camera
Gwen Gordon
Director of Animation
Jeremiah Moore
Sound Designer and Mixer
Diane Philips
Associate Producer
Suzanne Slatcher
Animator
Chloe Xantal Gonzalez
Lead Animation Artist
Roma Edwards
Lead Animation Artist
Ellen Bruno
Producer, Director, Editor
Ellen Bruno is an award-winning documentary filmmaker based in San Francisco. With a background in international relief work, Ellen’s films have focused on issues at the forefront of human rights.
Ellen holds a master’s degree in documentary film from Stanford University. She is a recipient of Guggenheim and Rockefeller Fellowships, a Goldie Award for Outstanding Artist, an Alpert Award for the Arts, an Anonymous Was A Woman Award for the Arts, a Shenkin Fellowship from Yale University School of Art, and was an Artist-in- Residence at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.
Ellen serves on the Board of the Buddhist Film Festival, the Pacific Pioneer Fund, and Ethical Traveler.Org. She is a strategic planning consultant with the Creative Capital Foundation’s Professional Development Workshops, working throughout the country to provide artists a cohesive structure to organize, plan and sustain creative careers.
Christina McGhee
Divorce Expert, Primary Content Advisor and Outreach Specialist
Christina McGhee, MSW, is an internationally recognized divorce parenting expert, speaker, and author of the critically acclaimed book PARENTING APART: How separated, and divorced parents can raise happy and secure kids and the founder of divorceandchildren.com.
Throughout her career, Christina has educated thousands of parents and professionals about how to put children at the center, not the middle of their parent’s divorce. She has also had the privilege of working closely with leading family law organizations to expand their reach by designing initiatives/content to provide enhanced education and support for separating parents. Those combined experiences have helped her cultivate a unique perspective regarding how divorce professionals engage with clients and can become a significant point of influence.
In 2012, Christina became a SPLIT team member as a subject matter expert and consulting producer. Together she and Ellen Bruno co-authored the Split Film Guide and spoken to audiences around the country. In 2021, she took on the role of acting Educational and Training Director for the Split Outreach Project.
In addition to her involvement with SPILT, she maintains an active coaching practice where she works with co-parents worldwide.
Christina is also the creator and lead trainer of the Coparenting Specialist Certification Training (CoPS), which she offers in partnership with the Mosten Guthrie Academy. This unique virtual “child-focused” training helps divorce professionals engage with clients more effectively, deepen their understanding of how divorce impacts families, and use that knowledge to help coparents craft better agreements.
Whether training, coaching, or creating programs, Christina is passionate about disrupting the status quo, changing divorce for the better, and keeping the focus where it belongs… on kids.
She has been featured on television, radio, podcasts, and in print around the US and abroad. A few places you may have seen her are TODAY Parents, Channel 4, the BBC, The Times, and Parents Magazine. You can find out more about her at divorceandchildren.com
Elizabeth Finlayson
Editor
Elizabeth has collaborated with Ellen as an editor for over 20 years, starting when they were students together in film school. Her editing credits also include The Kids of Survival: Tim Rollins and K.O.S., Barbie Nation, The Self Made Man, and Blink.
Ellen Kuras
Camera
Ellen Kuras, (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Swoon, Heart of Gold) has won the Sundance Film Festival award for Best Dramatic Cinematography an unprecedented three times, and has been nominated for three Emmy awards.
Gwen Gordon
Director of Animation
Gwen began a life of play designing and building Muppets for Sesame Street. As a creative director Gwen draws from an eclectic background that includes the MIT Media Lab, Xerox PARC, IDEO, and a Masters degree in Philosophy and Religion. Gwen has designed programs for groups ranging from life coaches to TSA security officers and for popular films including What the Bleep Do We Know?!, The Story of Stuff, and THRIVE. She won a local Emmy Award as creative director for the PBS pilot, Kids, Cash, and Common Sense and is currently directing/producing the documentary SERIOUSLY! A movie about PLAY!
Jeremiah Moore
Sound Designer and Mixer
Jeremiah Moore crafts sound for films, exhibits, radio, and other media experiences at his studio in San Francisco. He also creates sound artworks around the human/nature/technology interface, observations of everyday beauty, human experiences of time, and transformation of commercial culture into meaningless bliss. He serves as co-chair of Bay Area Sound Ecology which hosts social experiences centered around listening. He and his partner have two young sons. His parents divorced when he was seven.
Diane Philips
Associate Producer
Diane brings a long-term interest in film and portrait photography to her work with the SPLIT team. She founded the travel and fitness company MountainFit, is an avid soccer player, and serves as president of the Golden Gate Women's Soccer League. Diane has also served on the SF Jewish Film Festival Development committee and chaired events for the Discovery Museum and Temple Emanu-El Preschool. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and two children, and their puppy Hickory.
Suzanne Slatcher
Animator
Suzanne worked at Pixar Animation Studios on such films as Toy Story 3, Ratatouille, Finding Nemo and Up (she made the flying house). Before that, Suzanne was an animation director in London, working on feature films and commercials.
Chloe Xantal Gonzalez
Lead Animation Artist
Chloe lives in San Francisco and is in college now. But she let us go through all the boxes under her bed to find some amazing art for SPLIT.
Roma Edwards
Lead Animation Artist
I am a UCLA student majoring in World Arts and Culture and minoring in Film. I love drawing and painting and am currently focusing my creative energy on making a comic, working on short films, and producing live events. With this work, I hope to push for disability justice, tell queer stories, and build community. I love hand-painted animation as well and had so much fun with it for this film!
More Animation Artists
Aedra Li
Alya Bohr
Ariane Li
Chayil Hinton
Ella Rosenblatt
Hanna Davis
Kate McClusky
Leo Fine
More Animation Artists
Lola Cleaveland
Maia Bruno-BaSaing
Makayla WInia
Max Greenberg-Eccless
Olivia Cleaveland
Serafina Eagleton
Tikloh Bruno-BaSaing
Zara Woo
Interns
Justine Armen
Lisa Calgaro
Amy Cai
Ellen Bruno
Producer, Director, Editor
Christina McGhee
Educational and Training Director, Content Consultant
Elizabeth Finlayson
Editor
Ellie McCutcheon
Camera
Roma Edwards
Lead Animation Artist
Ellen Bruno
Producer, Director, Editor
Ellen Bruno is an award-winning documentary filmmaker based in San Francisco. With a background in international relief work, Ellen’s films have focused on issues at the forefront of human rights.
Ellen holds a master’s degree in documentary film from Stanford University. She is a recipient of Guggenheim and Rockefeller Fellowships, a Goldie Award for Outstanding Artist, an Alpert Award for the Arts, an Anonymous Was A Woman Award for the Arts, a Shenkin Fellowship from Yale University School of Art, and was an Artist-in- Residence at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.
Ellen serves on the Board of the Buddhist Film Festival, the Pacific Pioneer Fund, and Ethical Traveler.Org. She is a strategic planning consultant with the Creative Capital Foundation’s Professional Development Workshops, working throughout the country to provide artists a cohesive structure to organize, plan and sustain creative careers.
Christina McGhee
Divorce Expert, Primary Content Advisor and Outreach Specialist
Christina McGhee, MSW, is an internationally recognized divorce parenting expert, speaker, and author of the critically acclaimed book PARENTING APART: How separated, and divorced parents can raise happy and secure kids and the founder of divorceandchildren.com.
Throughout her career, Christina has educated thousands of parents and professionals about how to put children at the center, not the middle of their parent’s divorce. She has also had the privilege of working closely with leading family law organizations to expand their reach by designing initiatives/content to provide enhanced education and support for separating parents. Those combined experiences have helped her cultivate a unique perspective regarding how divorce professionals engage with clients and can become a significant point of influence.
In 2012, Christina became a SPLIT team member as a subject matter expert and consulting producer. Together she and Ellen Bruno co-authored the Split Film Guide and spoken to audiences around the country. In 2021, she took on the role of acting Educational and Training Director for the Split Outreach Project.
In addition to her involvement with SPILT, she maintains an active coaching practice where she works with co-parents worldwide.
Christina is also the creator and lead trainer of the Coparenting Specialist Certification Training (CoPS), which she offers in partnership with the Mosten Guthrie Academy. This unique virtual “child-focused” training helps divorce professionals engage with clients more effectively, deepen their understanding of how divorce impacts families, and use that knowledge to help coparents craft better agreements.
Whether training, coaching, or creating programs, Christina is passionate about disrupting the status quo, changing divorce for the better, and keeping the focus where it belongs… on kids.
She has been featured on television, radio, podcasts, and in print around the US and abroad. A few places you may have seen her are TODAY Parents, Channel 4, the BBC, The Times, and Parents Magazine. You can find out more about her at divorceandchildren.com
Elizabeth Finlayson
Editor
Elizabeth has collaborated with Ellen as an editor for over 20 years, starting when they were students together in film school. Her editing credits also include The Kids of Survival: Tim Rollins and K.O.S., Barbie Nation, The Self Made Man, and Blink.
Ellie McCutcheon
Camera
Ellie is a cinematographer and drone pilot based in Nevada City, California. Her work has been shown at Sundance and on Netflix, and she also teaches drone cinematography at UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism. She loves being able to participate in thoughtful storytelling, and also really likes to play her ukulele in the woods.
Roma Edwards
Lead Animation Artist
I am a UCLA student majoring in World Arts and Culture and minoring in Film. I love drawing and painting and am currently focusing my creative energy on making a comic, working on short films, and producing live events. With this work, I hope to push for disability justice, tell queer stories, and build community. I love hand-painted animation as well and had so much fun with it for this film!
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