JAKE BORITT director/cinematographer

Jake Boritt is a documentary filmmaker. "Boy Scouts of Harlem: 759" is his second feature documentary. In 2010 he completed the "Gettysburg Battlefield Auto Tour." It is performed by actor Stephen Lang (Avatar, Tombstone, Gettysburg), and based on the works of his father Gabor Boritt. As visitors travel through the actual battlefield the Auto Tour tells the captivating story of the Battle of Gettysburg and Lincoln's Address. Jake is currently in post-post production on the doc "Harlem 11/4," a cinema verite portrait of Harlem on the day Barack Obama was elected as the first black president. It screened as a work-in-progress at the Maysles Cinema. In 2009 he completed "Cooking to Live," for Project Gaia, filmed in Ethiopia's Ogaden Desert at a United Nations' refugee camp on the Somali border. Jake's first feature, "Budapest to Gettysburg, was selected for the 2007 IFP Independent Film Week in New York and screened at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston as part of the Boston Jewish Film Festival, the Gilder-Lehrman Institute, the U.S. Embassy in Hungary, numerous other locations and was a finalist for PBS' POV series.

Jake was Associate Producer on Rory Kennedy's Moxie-Firecracker production "The Homestead Strike", part of the Emmy winning History Channel series "10 Days That Changed America." Jake worked with Sarah Teale on productions for HBO, A&E, AMC and CourtTV and on David Grubin's "Young Doctor Freud" and "Kofi Annan: Center of the Storm" (PBS). Ken Burns called Boritt's documentary "Adams County USA," which aired on public television, “a really good film.” He graduated from Johns Hopkins University. He has received a NEH Younger Scholars history grant and was raised on a historic farm in Gettysburg. He lives in Harlem, New York City. Learn more at: www.boritt.com.

JUSTIN SZLASA director/producer/editor

759: Boy Scouts of Harlem is Justin’s first film. Like his brother and his father, Justin is an Eagle Scout. He was a member of Troop 42 in Big Flats, New York and went to Camp Barton and Camp Seneca on the Finger Lakes. Justin failed his first dock test. Before starting Troop 759 Justin and his wife spent sixteen months backpacking around the world. Previously he sold websites to lawyers. He received a bachelor's degree in international relations from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, a master's degree in international economic policy from Columbia and has studied film at New York University, German at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet in Munich, improv at the Upright Citizen's Brigade in Chelsea and Photoshop at DCTV. Nothing makes Justin happier than spending time with his wife and daughter.