The Crew

Film makers

Michael Potter Director, and Executive Producer
First time documentary filmmaker Michael Potter, who is one degree of separation from most of the key players in this remarkable and historic epic, is an expert on international technology and business. Potter has published extensively on technology policy issues. He worked together with key figure in “Orphans of Apollo” Walt Anderson in creating a publicly traded pan-European telecommunications company. Potter previously worked on the 13 part WGBH Series, “War & Peace in the Nuclear Age.” He is a graduate of the London School of Economics.

Becky Neiman Co- Director, and Producer
Becky Neiman began her career as a creative professional in the advertising department of Sony Music. She went on to be the producer and writer of advertising at Polygram Records. From there, Neiman started producing, directing and editing short-form documentaries and music videos for the major record labels for a range of popular recording artists. In 1997, Neiman started work on her own small independently produced and directed projects that have appeared in festivals and on television. She has just completed work on her first independently produced documentary feature, “Anne Stewart: A Most Successful Failure.”

Cathy Arreguin- Associate Producer
Cathy Arreguin worked many years on stage and in commercials, Arreguin stepped behind the camera on this project. She is passionate about the subject matter having grown up listening to the stories of America’s ventures into space from the viewpoint of her aerospace engineer father, who worked on the Minute Man Missile, the B1 Bomber and the Space Shuttle. Arreguin was educated at UCLA and brings years of experience in business planning to this project.

Todd Jones Producer / Editor
Todd Jones started making movies in his hometown of Denver, Colorado and moved to Los Angeles in 1998 to work on productions for MTV, ABC, and Sony Studios. Jones has a passion for storytelling and found editing to be a challenging and rewarding craft. In 2005 he opened a post production company called 303 Post and has been editing shorts, documentaries, and independent films that he finds unique and engaging.

Ryan Franks, Composer
Ryan Franks began composing songs for his own amusement at 10 years old. This continued through the end of high school when he enrolled in the music college at the University of Colorado at Boulder. In 2005, he moved to Los Angeles and began composing in a wide range of popular genres, with a focus on thematic film/television writing. Having received a multitude of film and television song placements, Franks has begun to focus specifically on scoring. Since last winter, he has written 33 orchestral trailer cues for Position Music, 2 feature-length film scores and the feature documentary score for Orphans of Apollo.

First time documentary filmmaker Michael, has created the award winning film, "Orphans of Apollo." Potter previously worked on the 13 part WGBH Series, "War & Peace in the Nuclear Age." Michael is a former member of the Board of the Trustees of the International Space University and was one of the founders of the ISU fund which has raised scholarships fund for over 10 scholars. Michael is on the Board of Directors the Manna Energy Foundation, a non-profit foundation that is installing clean water solutions in high schools in Rwanda. Michael is a founder of Odyssey Moon, the first entrant into the Google Lunar Xprize. Michael is a Senior Fellow at the International Institute of Space Commerce. Potter is a member of the expert roundtable part of the best selling education and science Iphone application, “Buzz Aldrin Portal to Science and Space Exploration.”  He is a director of Global Connect. His articles on high technology business and policy have been widely published. Michael received his MS degree from the London School of Economics and his BA from California State University at Sacramento, and a certificate in Space Studies from the International Space University.  

Michael Potter serves as Director, of Paradigm Ventures a family investment firm focused on high technology ventures. Previously Potter was Vice Chairman, founder and President of Esprit Telecom plc., a pan-European competitive telecommunications services provider. During his 8 years at Esprit, the team grew the company to 1,000 employees in over 9 European countries and a market capitalization of a billion US dollars. He was formerly an international telecommunications analyst at the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C. Potter was also Vice Chairman of the founding Board of the European Competitive Telecommunications Association (ECTA).