The Team


Susan Cohn Schulz, is the founder of Jalapeno Productions and has directed of all its documentaries. She has written several books, with her groundbreaking Green At Work on jobs and the environment going into its second edition in 1995. Susan also wrote Esteban’s Gift, about the art and wisdom of the late abstract expressionist painter Esteban Vicente. She is currently at work on Arctic Prayers, a memoir of her time spent in an Arctic Alaskan village teaching community gardening to Inuit youth.

Susan graduated from Hampshire College with a BA in Environmental Studies and received an MA in Education from New York University.

In her spare time you can find Susan and her children exploring Central Park in New York City.

Ben Wolf is a graduate of Yale College (B.A. Philosophy, 1991) and Columbia University School of the Arts (M.F.A. Film, Directing Concentration, 1999). Mr. Wolf has worked professionally in film and video since completing his M.F.A. course-work in 1996.

While a student at Columbia, Mr. Wolf wrote, directed, and edited two award-winning shorts. Prizes received include Best Student Work at the Arizona Cinema Shorts Festival; Juror's Citation Award at the Black Maria Film and Video Festival; 2nd Place, Fiction Category at the New York State Student Film/Video Festival; Best Video at the Polo Ralph Lauren New Works Festival; Best Video Narrative at the Utah Short Film & Video Festival; and, Best Video Short at the Long Island Film Expo.

In their last year of film school, Mr. Wolf and his wife/business partner Nara Garber formed Topiary Productions Inc., a boutique film and video production company capable of taking projects from screenplay through the final edit. Through Topiary, Ben has worked in many capacities on a wide variety of projects.

Nara Garber is a graduate of Harvard and also has an M.F.A. in Film from Columbia University. She has extensive experience in directing, editing and producing short films, features, television and documentaries. She also teaches digital film making with her husband Ben Wolf.

Allison Teich is a digital filmmaker who received her undergraduate degree in film from University of Michigan and has done coursework at New York University's Film school. She was the director of The Manhattan Dating Project, a funny look at the dating scene in NYC that has gotten lots of play and notoriety on the Metro Channel in New York City. She is currently working on a documentary on the New York City firemen.

Jane Ratcliffe is a graduate of the University of Michigan (B.F.A. Photography, 1986) and Columbia University (M.F.A. Creative Writing, 2002). Her first novel, The Free Fall, was published by Henry Holt in August 2001 and was selected by The New York Public Library as one of the Most Notable Books of 2002. Jane currently teaches at Rutgers University and writes about music for Interview and VH1 amongst other publications.

Jackie French Houton has been editing since 1988. During her career she has worked on a wide variety of projects including feature films, historical documentaries, verite documentaries, music/entertainment programs and children's shows. Her work has appeared on VH1, ABC, PBS, The Discovery Channel, A&E, Nickelodeon, Lifetime and Oxygen.