photo: Amanda & Jenna Vail-Abts
Dina Guttmann
Dina shifted from a love of architecture to a love of editing unscripted documentary films in 1996.
Dina specializes in working with first-time directors. She is passionate about collaborating to identify the heart of the story while creating the structure that best shares it with the audience. Among the first time filmmakers she has worked with are Matt Maxwell on Finding Home in Boomtown (premiered at Mountainfilm, Best Editing at the Gallup Film Festival), Carla Granat on Singing Bill O'Reilly (Most Original at the Eugene International Film Festival), and Melissa Donovan on Zemene (Best Documentary and Best Editing at the Boston Film Festival).
Dina brings characters to life. Whether it be the King of Nepal in National Geographic Special’s The Last Royals, the mother and son duo who hand-craft artificial eyes in POV’s A Healing Art, or the flamboyant Mexican wrestler Cassandro in The New Yorker Presents’ The Man Without a Mask, she creates emotional connections between audiences and the characters who embody these stories.
She has edited films of diverse genres and lengths, including A Self-Made Man (Margaret Mead Film Festival), How to Lose Your Virginity (DOC NYC), and Independent Spirits: Faith and John Hubley (Robert Flaherty Film Seminar).
Recently Dina edited You Don't Own Me: Lesley Gore and the Song That Said It All, Unbroken, and first time director Della Chen’s She Marches In Chinatown which premiered at the Asian American International Film Festival in New York.
Dina splits her time between New York and Seattle, where she’s worked for such clients as The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Seattle Public Schools. Dina is a member of the Digital Media Arts Advisory Committee of Bellevue College.
See more of Dina's credits at IMDb
or email her.
photo: Jonathan Oppenheim
Toby Shimin
Toby began her film career as a sound editor and switched to picture editing when she cut The Children’s Storefront, which was nominated for an Academy Award.
Since then, she has edited numerous films that have premiered at Sundance, including, Peabody Award winning How to Dance in Ohio, A Leap of Faith, Martha & Ethel, Miss America, Everything's Cool. Her Sundance Audience Award winning films include, Out of the Past, This is Home, which was also nominated for an Emmy award in editing, and Buck, which was short-listed for an Academy Award.
Toby received the prestigious Documentary Editing Award at the 2018 Woodstock Film Festival for HBO's 32 Pills: My Sister's Suicide.
Ernie & Joe won a Jury Prize at SXSW where it premiered in 2019 and an Emmy for outstanding editing. In 2020 HBO’S Baby God was selected to premiere opening night at SXSW. The Return of Tanya Tucker: Featuring Brandi Carlile won the audience award at its SXSW premiere, and opened in wide theatrical release. It also won the Documentary Editing Award at the 2022 Woodstock Film Festival.
Among the recent films that Toby has served as consultant and supervising editor are Love Gilda, Jacinta, Storm Lake, Always In Season, Pay Or Die and the 2023 Oscar nominee, The Martha Mitchel Effect.
She has served as a mentor for the Edit and Story labs at the Sundance Institute and Chicken & Egg and is on the advisory boards of Full Frame and Jacob Burns Film Center. She joined the faculty of the School of Visual Arts in 2019 and is co-curator of the documentary film series, Depot Docs.