Story Syndicate is a New York-based film and television production company devoted to premium nonfiction and scripted content. We provide a home for established directors to do their best work, and for up-and-coming directors to be supported as they grow.

Story Syndicate is the brainchild of Emmy and Oscar-winning filmmakers Liz Garbus and Dan Cogan, who founded the company in 2019 in the light of a new and fast-evolving media landscape. In a short time, Story Syndicate’s DUMBO-based production staff has grown to over fifty, while our core team consists of roughly ten producers, creatives, and specialists who span many projects.

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We are committed to nurturing and executing ambitious ideas and doing so with sincerity, transparency, and artistry. As expert facilitators, we provide filmmakers the creative and operational infrastructure they need, while also using our own creative pipeline to match ideas we love to filmmakers we think will take them to the moon. Rather than serve a single consumer, Story Syndicate aligns the interests of many stakeholders as part of its philosophy. We aim to serve platforms, filmmakers, partners, and our viewers themselves.
Co—Founder
Liz Garbus
Liz Garbus is a two-time Academy Award®-Nominee, two-time Emmy Winner, Peabody Winner, Grammy Nominee, DGA Nominee, BAFTA-nominated director.
LOST GIRLS (Netflix, 2020) is Garbus’ narrative feature debut, starring Amy Ryan, Gabriel Byrne, and Thomasin McKenzie. When Mari Gilbert's daughter disappears, police inaction drives her own investigation into the gated Long Island community where Shannan was last seen. Her search brings attention to over a dozen murdered sex workers Mari will not let the world forget. LOST GIRLS  premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and was released in theaters.
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Garbus’ miniseries, WHO KILLED GARRETT PHILLIPS? (HBO, 2019), examines the 2011 murder of 12 year-old Garrett Phillips and the subsequent trial of Oral “Nick” Hillary, a black man in a small rural mostly white community. The series documents Garrett’s grief-stricken family and community relentlessly seeking justice while Hillary fights to prove his innocence. The case illuminates how justice is delivered and delayed in the US criminal justice system. “[Garbus] meticulously and even masterfully brings its viewers to this very place of angry exasperation, laying out the narrative details of a botched murder investigation that some of us might have been vaguely aware of, if at all.” (Washington Post).
THE FOURTH ESTATE (Showtime, 2018) was nominated for a 2018 Emmy for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series, BAFTA TV Award, a Cinema Eye Honor for Outstanding Achievement in a Nonfiction Series, and a Humanitas Prize. “Engrossing...enthralling” (Washington Post), THE FOURTH ESTATE follows The New York Times reporters covering the first year of the Trump presidency, with unprecedented access and intimacy.
WHAT HAPPENED MISS SIMONE? (Netflix, 2016) was nominated for a 2016 Academy Award® for Best Documentary Feature, received a Peabody Award, and six Emmy nominations including Best Directing. It took home the Emmy Award for Best Documentary or Nonfiction Special. The film delves into the life of Nina Simone, drawing from more than 100 hours of never-before-heard audiotapes, rare concert footage, and archival interviews.  
Past work includes: A DANGEROUS SON (HBO), which won a 2018 Peabody Award, NOTHING LEFT UNSAID: GLORIA VANDERBILT & ANDERSON COOPER (HBO), which had its world premiere at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, LOVE, MARILYN (StudioCanal and HBO), which was a Gala Premiere at the 2012 Toronto Film. BOBBY FISCHER AGAINST THE WORLD won the 2011 UK Grierson Award for Best Cinema Documentary and earned an Emmy nomination for Best Documentary Special. Garbus’ first documentary feature film, THE FARM: ANGOLA, won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, was awarded ten other festival and critics’ awards including NY and LA film critics awards, and was nominated for an Academy Award® in 1998. Other films as director or producer include: THERE’S SOMETHING WRONG WITH AUNT DIANE (HBO, 2011), GIRLHOOD (Wellspring, 2003), and as producer STREET FIGHT (PBS, Academy Award®- Nominee, 2005), GHOSTS OF ABU GHRAIB (HBO, Emmy for Best Doc, 2007), and KILLING IN THE NAME (HBO, Academy Award®- Nominee, 2010). Upcoming 2020 releases include two series:  Netflix’s The Innocence Files and HBO’s I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, based on the bestselling book by Michelle McNamara.
Dan Cogan is one of the most prominent non-fiction producers working today. Both an Academy Award® and Emmy Award® winner, Dan founded Story Syndicate with Liz Garbus in 2019. Previously, Dan was the founding Executive Director of Impact Partners. He has produced more than 100 films and series, including ICARUS, which won the 2018 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR?, which won the 2019 Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary, THE COVE, which won the 2010 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and THE APOLLO, which won the 2020 Emmy for Outstanding Documentary.


Co—Founder
Dan Cogan
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Dan Cogan is one of the most prominent non-fiction producers working today. Both an Academy Award®- and Emmy Award®-winner, Dan founded Story Syndicate with Liz Garbus in 2019.As the founding Executive Director of Impact Partners from 2007 to 2019, Dan oversaw the financing of over 100 films, including: Icarus, which won the 2018 Academy Award® for Documentary Feature; The Apollo, which won the 2020 Emmy for Outstanding Documentary; Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, which won the 2019 Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary; Of Fathers & Sons, which was nominated for the 2019 Academy Award® for Documentary Feature and won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival; Dina, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and was named Best Feature by the International Documentary Association; The Eagle Huntress, which was nominated for the 2016 BAFTA Award for Best Documentary; How to Survive A Plague, which was nominated for the 2013 Academy Award® for Documentary Feature; The Queen of Versailles, which won the U.S. Directing Award at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival; Hell and Back Again, which was nominated for the 2011 Academy Award® for Documentary Feature and won the Grand Jury Prize and Cinematography Awards at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival; and The Cove, which won the 2010 Academy Award® for Documentary Feature. In 2013, Cogan co-founded Gamechanger Films, the first for-profit film fund dedicated exclusively to financing narrative features directed by women. Its films included The Tale and Land Ho!
Julie Gaither
Head of Production

Julie is an award-winning producer and long-time producing partner of Director and Co-President, Liz Garbus. She oversees all projects in varying stages of development and production.

Jon Bardin
Head of Development & Executive Producer

Jon oversees the project development slate at Story Syndicate and serves as an executive producer on select projects. He is responsible for developing series, feature documentaries, podcasts, and scripted projects. Prior to joining Story Syndicate, Jon served as VP of Documentaries and Specials at Discovery Channel.

Brian Douglass
Head of Post-Production & Operations

Brian supervises and manages post-production and operations at Story Syndicate.

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Kate Barry
Producer

Kate is a producer working across Story Syndicate projects in various stages of production and development.

Streeter Phillips
Director, Creative Development & Production

Streeter is a creative director and producer working across development, branding and post-production at Story Syndicate.

Zane Friedkin
Development Executive

Zane manages creative development for the company's internally developed films and series. He is responsible for conceiving, building out and writing a diverse slate of projects.


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Cheyenne Kerekes
Executive Assistant

Cheyenne is an executive assistant at Story Syndicate, handling scheduling and coordinating for Liz Garbus and Julie Gaither. She graduated from Skidmore College where she studied English with a concentration in creative writing.

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Anakha Arikara
Executive Assistant

Anakha is an executive assistant at Story Syndicate handling scheduling and coordinating for Dan Cogan, Jon Bardin and Kate Barry. She holds a Master’s degree in journalism and documentary film from Columbia University. 

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