Jonathan Gray, Susan Margolin, Jennifer Tiexiera and Katie Townsend Join IDA Board of Directors

International Documentary Association (IDA) announced that Jonathan Gray, attorney and producer, Susan Margolin, producer and a pioneer of digital distribution, Jennifer Tiexiera, filmmaker and co-founder of co-founders of Lady & Bird, and Katie Townsend, litigator and previous Deputy Executive Director & Legal Director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, have joined its board of directors alongside Ina Fichman (President), Chris Albert (Secretary), Maria Agui-Carter (Treasurer), Alfred Clinton Perry, Bob Berney, Paula Ossandón Cabrera, Inti Cordera, Toni Kamau, and Orwa Nyrabia, Chris Perez, Nathalie Seaver, Joel Simon, and Luis González Zaffaroni. Learn more about the IDA Board of Directors at documentary.org/about-us/board-of-directors

Ina Fichman, Board President, said: “Jennifer, Jonathan, Katie, and Susan bring deep knowledge and a shared commitment to advocacy for documentary filmmakers. With eleven new members in the last eighteen months, spanning seven countries, our board represents more areas of expertise and experience than it has in years — better positioning us to represent the full breadth of the community we serve.”

Dominic Asmall Willsdon, Executive Director of IDA, said: “The documentary community is navigating real pressures right now — on creative freedom, on the ability to reach audiences, and the safety of filmmakers doing dangerous work. The experience and commitment of this board make IDA better equipped to defend the needs of the field.”

Meet IDA’s New Board Members

Jonathan Gray has been an attorney, producer, and advisor in the documentary film community for over 30 years. Jonathan has produced and executive produced numerous documentary films, including Anxiety Club (2024 Doc NYC); Beyond the Gaze: Jule Campbell’s Swimsuit Issue (2024 Woodstock Film Festival), Afghan Dreamers (2022 Paramount+); Truman and Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation (2020 Hamptons Film Festival); and Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel (2011 Venice International Film Festival). Jonathan has also provided counsel in connection with a multitude of documentary films including Cover Up (2025 Venice International Film Festival); All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (2023 Oscar Nominee for Best Documentary Feature); They Call Me Magic (2022 Apple TV+); American Factory (2020 Oscar Winner for Best Documentary Feature); One Child Nation (2020 Primetime Emmy Nominee for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking); and Life, Animated (2017 Oscar Nominee for Best Documentary Feature).

Susan Margolin is an award-winning documentary film producer and a pioneer of digital distribution, with over 25 years of experience in independent film and media. She co-founded New Video/Docurama Films in 1992, growing it into a leading distributor of independent films, series, and documentaries before selling the company to Cinedigm in 2012. In 2016, Margolin founded St. Marks Productions, producing critically acclaimed feature films including HBO’s A Tree of Life: The Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting and Academy Award-shortlisted Desperate Souls, Dark City, and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy. Her other producing credits include A Crime on the Bayou, The Rape of Recy Taylor, Paper Children, and Monk in Pieces. She is also an Executive Producer on Zeva Oelbaum and Sabine Krayenbühl’s Obsessed with Light, Judith Helfand’s Love & Stuff, and Cheryl Miller Houser’s Generation Startup, among others. Margolin also serves on the boards of Chicken & Egg Films and Manhattan Neighborhood Network, and on the advisory boards of NYWIFT and Documentary Producers Alliance. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, BAFTA, and the Producers Guild of America.

Jennifer Tiexiera is an award-winning filmmaker and one of the co-founders of Lady & Bird, a female-led documentary production company focused on telling stories from underrepresented voices. She is known for directing SPEAK (2025 Sundance Film Festival), Rebbeca (2025 TriBeCa Film Festival), the Emmy-nominated HBO series Unveiled: Surviving La Luz del Mundo, Subject (2022 TriBeCa Film Festival), and PS Burn This Letter Please (2020 Tribeca Film Festival and winner of the Audience Award at the 2020 OutFest Film Festival). As an editor and producer, she is known for 17 Blocks (winner of the Best Editing Award at the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival), A Suitable Girl (winner of the Albert Maysles Award at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival), and Dragonslayer ​​(2011 SXSW Documentary Grand Jury Winner). She is a proud member of BGDM, IDA, WIF, Film Fatales, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and has recently served as a mentor for the inaugural HBO Documentary Films and The Gotham Film & Media Institute’s Documentary Development Initiative, The Sundance Institute Documentary Edit and Story Lab Fellowship, and The Academy Gold Mentorship Program.

Katie Townsend is a Partner in the Los Angeles area and Washington, D.C. offices of Gibson Dunn, a member of the firm’s Litigation and Media, Entertainment & Technology Practice groups, and Co-Chair of the firm’s First Amendment and Free Expression Practice group. An accomplished litigator with extensive experience in media and First Amendment law, Katie’s practice focuses on representing and advising individual and corporate clients in the media, entertainment, and technology industries. Katie previously served as the Deputy Executive Director & Legal Director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, where she oversaw the non-profit organization’s legal services portfolio, including its amicus curiae practice and the litigation and legal advising work of Reporters Committee attorneys. In that role, she represented news organizations and individual journalists, including documentary filmmakers, in media and First Amendment litigation in state and federal courts across the country.