The Team
Meet the team.
John Van Wyck
Co-Founder and Executive Director
John is a founder of Cine Fe and currently serves as its Executive Director.
Prior to Cine Fe, John was a Creative Executive at the New York-based film foundation and production company Cinereach. During John’s time there, Cinereach supported, financed, or produced over 200 films, including the Academy Award-nominated films Strong Island, I Am Not Your Negro, Cutie and the Boxer, Citizenfour, and Beasts of the Southern Wild, as well as the critically acclaimed Sorry to Bother You, The Last Black Man in San Francisco, and The Florida Project, among many others.
John began his career in electoral politics and strategic messaging and has worked for multiple political campaigns as well as for the strategic communications firm Abernathy MacGregor. He holds a B.A. in Government from Claremont McKenna College and an M.A. in American Government from Georgetown.
Photo by Zachary Gutierrez and Joseph Kolean
Lisa Kennedy
Founding Board Member & Chair
Former Denver Post film and theater critic Lisa Kennedy lives in Denver with partner Becky and their dogs. Before returning to her hometown in 2003, she held high-level editor posts at Out, Us and the Village Voice. A member of the National Society of Film Critics and the African American Film Critics Association, she has been an American Film Institute’s Top Movies, Spirit Awards and Gotham Awards juror. She was a juror for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism.
She has taught adult enrichment courses in criticism at the University of Denver and teaches non-fiction writing at Lighthouse Writers Workshop. Currently, she is a commissioner on the Denver Commission on Cultural Affairs.
Mitch Dickman
Founding Board Member
Mitch is the CEO of Listen Productions, which he founded in 2006. Since then, Mitch has been a part of hundreds of projects spanning all genres, formats, and styles. He was named one of the “Top 10 Documakers to Watch” by Variety Magazine. Recent credits include Silent Rose (Producer/Director – Topic Streaming 2020), Casting Jon Benet (Producer – Netflix – Sundance 2017), Speaking is Difficult (Cinematographer – Sundance 2016), Rolling Papers (Producer/Director – SXSW 2015), Being Evel (Line Producer – Sundance 2015) and Hanna Ranch (Producer/Director – NY Times Critics Pick 2014).
Mitch holds a BFA in Film/Television with a minor in Political Science from the University of Colorado at Denver (where he currently sits on the advisory board and teaches as adjunct faculty). On a personal note, Mitch cares deeply about his community in Denver, Colorado, and is board chair of Warm Cookies of the Revolution, the first civic health club in the world. Mitch is married and has a daughter. His wife, Karen, is also in the creative industry and is a frequent collaborator.
Photo by Brien Hollowell
Tony Garcia
Founding Board Member
Tony has been the Executive Artistic Director of El Centro Su Teatro since 1989 and has been a member of Su Teatro since 1972. He received his BA in Theatre from the University of Colorado at Denver. Tony has been recognized for his artistic work, including the 1989 University of California, Irvine Chicano Literary Award, a 2006 United States Artists Fellowship, an artist residency at the Island Institute in Sitka, Alaska; and was named the Denver Post 2010 Theatre Person of the Year. He has published 2 volumes of original plays and numerous articles. His body of written, commissioned and produced plays is more than 40, half of which are music-driven; most were written in collaboration with Composer/Musician Daniel Valdez.
He is a recipient of the prestigious Livingston Fellowship from the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation as well as the Funke Award for Community Building from the Colorado Non-Profit Association. Tony is member of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Latino Art and Culture (NALAC) Leadership Institute, was a member of the Western State Arts Federation’s (WESTAF) Board of Trustees and was Chair of the Board of Directors for the Council in Support of Tier IIIs and Co-Chair for Community ACTS Fund Directors Council. He is also a 25-year faculty member in the Department of Chicano/a Studies at Metro State University at Denver.
