Meet the Sandokai Team
Cornelis H. Wortel, M.D., Ph.D., President & Executive Producer
As a Buddhist, Dr. Wortel is interested in how Buddhist philosophy can educate and inform the way people live. He became fascinated by the country of Bhutan in 2003 after reading an article about the small Buddhist nation. Struck by the rapid modernization that Bhutan was experiencing under the guidance of a benevolent and enigmatic young King, he wanted to produce a documentary about the profound changes effecting one of the most remote places on earth.
Dr. Wortel received his MD and PhD at the University of Amsterdam. He has been involved with the development of breakthrough new medical therapies and is currently active as CEO and Founder of Clinquest Group, which provides pharmaceutical development consulting services to biotechnology, pharmaceutical, medical device and medical diagnostics companies. Published widely, he has presented and chaired many national and international meetings and is recognized internationally for his expertise in drug development and the design and analysis of clinical trials.
Karen L. Mintz, Producer & Director
A multiple Emmy Award-winning Producer and Director, Ms. Mintz co-founded Blue Plate Productions, a Manhattan based production company, in 1996. Blue Plate's projects included broadcast and non-broadcast documentaries and educational programming, as well as national television promotional spots. Blue Plate's clients included: NBC-TV, Scholastic, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, The National Science Teachers Association, the National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, and the New Jersey and Maryland Departments of Agriculture. In recognition of her work, she has received two Emmy Awards and five Emmy Nominations from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. She has also received a Parents Choice Award and two Telly Awards.
Sabine Krayenbühl, Editor
A Swiss native, Sabine Krayenbühl, has worked in both the U.S. and Europe editing documentaries and features. Her most recent work is the critically acclaimed documentary “Mad Hot Ballroom”, distributed by Paramount Classics and the Oscar-nominated documentary, My Architect; A Son’s Journey, for which the American Cinema Editors also nominated her for an Eddie award in 2004. Other works include Eleven Friends, a feature-length documentary produced by ARTE and nominated for the Prix d’Europe; Jugodivas, which premiered at Sundance and won the Swiss Film Prize 2002; An American Love Story, an acclaimed ten part series for P.O.V., broadcast on PBS, ARTE and BBC; The Bridge, a compelling documentary about suicide on the Golden Gate Bridge.
Simon Egleton, Producer & Line Producer
For the past 22 years, Simon Egleton has worked as a Producer, Line Producer, Unit Production Manager, Associate Producer, Technical Consultant and Post-Production Supervisor. His work experience ranges across feature length documentary films, television specials for NBC, CBS, PBS, FOX, and AMC, television series for HBO, live multi-camera concert DVDs, projected film and video installations for museums and live theatrical settings. Recent projects include: "My Architect" a feature length documentary about the life and work of Philadelphia architect Louis Kahn (the film was nominated for an Academy Award in 2004 and won the Directors’ Guild of America’s Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary in 2004) and three seasons of “The Wire” a critically-acclaimed dramatic television series for HBO.