crew
David Deal / Director
David is cofounder of MasterLink films and an award-winning commercial photographer based in Washington, D.C. A selection of his clients include ESPN Magazine, Forbes, The New York Times Magazine and Smithsonian. David’s first large-scale documentary work was Prospects (Alter Books, 2000), a book of fine art photographs of minor league baseball.
David is a lifelong cycling addict. At 19, he led a cross-country bicycle trip from Oregon to Delaware with 10 of his high school friends. Among the many highlights of the trip was watching Greg Lemond win the Tour de France on the final day of the race from a bar in rural Iowa after convincing the patrons to switch the channel from the NASCAR broadcast.
David’s documentary film influences include Ron Fricke (Baraka, Koyaanisqatsi), Jorgen Leth (A Sunday in Hell), and Werner Herzog (Lessons in Darkness).
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Dave Cooper / Director
Dave is cofounder of Masterlink Films and an award-winning graphic designer and freelance photographer. His clients range from local opera companies and associations, to large international companies like the Discovery Channel. For four years Dave worked as the Creative Director of the SILVERDOCS: AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Film Festival. His schedule varies from day to day. One day he's coordinating post-production on a film, the next he's doing a photoshoot for a children's fashion company.
Dave lives in Baltimore, Maryland with his wife and two children. In his spare time—which is in short supply—he rides one of his bikes on any route that passes a decent coffee shop.
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Patrick Reis / Cinematographer
Patrick grew up in upstate New York surrounded by the artist community of Woodstock. With an early love of movies and storytelling, he moved to New York City and studied filmmaking at Brooklyn College. Since then, Patrick has worked as a Camera Assistant and Cinematographer for feature films, short films, TV programs and commercials nationwide. His clients include ESPN, Speed Channel, Fox Sports, Canon USA and BET.
Patrick is proficient with the most current and sophisticated film and digital camera systems. Although Patrick has spent the majority of his time behind the camera, he teaches camera and DV production at IFP and DCTV in Manhattan. Patrick lives in New York but travels often in search of new and exciting projects. This is Patrick’s first project with Masterlink Films.
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Kathryn Hempel / Editor, Writer, Post-production Supervisor
With close to 100 hours of footage shot in a multitude of formats—P2, Pal, HD, Standard Def Digibeta,16mm film, and still photography—I want to thank my family (Curt, Daisy, and Lincoln) and my colleagues at Cutters for their support.
While editing Road To Roubaix, I was inspired that support cyclists such as Belgian, Dirk Demol and Australian, Stuart O'Grady can win Paris-Roubaix. Perhaps the "invisible art of editing" makes these particular cyclists so relatable to me. I have thoroughly enjoyed being part of this filmmaking team. Having no script or transcriptions, each moment captured is one take only, and so the story was written during the editing of the film.
I think biking is so cool and I need to get on my bike more—no more excuses. It is such a solution to increasing fuel costs, reducing pollution and improving overall health both individually and as a society. I have witnessed the sea of bikes parked at train stations in many European cities I have visited such as Amsterdam or Copenhagen. I'm looking forward to seeing more of that in the U.S. some day. My hope is that the audience of Road To Roubaix will not only enjoy the story in the film, but will get on their bikes as a result.
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Carl D. Schumacher / Assistant Editor
From the urban sprawl of Detroit, it is in the windy streets of Chicago that Carl has made a home and the start to a career. Since childish days gone by, he dreamt to one day become an editor and now that has come to fruition. He currently works as an Assistant Editor for the prominent post-house Cutters inc. by day, and by night freelances. He’s worked on various music videos, including the most recent for local Chicago artist, Johnny Dangerous. He has always found the bicycle’s structure fascinatingly beautiful.
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Ken Ashton / Camera Operator
Ken Ashton resides in Washington, DC, and has spent the past decade photographing neighborhoods throughout the world, with Washington as a starting point. He has undertaken an encyclopedic project of photographing communities in the Northeastern corridor of the US, from DC to Boston, entitled Megalopolis.
Ken’s work has been featured in many exhibitions including the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington Center for Photography, Anacostia Museum, and Second Street Gallery in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Ashton received a BFA from James Madison University. He currently is the Chief Technician for Works on Paper at the Corcoran Museum of Art.
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J Carrier / Camera Operator
J Carrier is an independent photographer based in Washington D.C. where he lives with his awesome and lovely fiancé Olivia.
After graduating from Penn State with a degree in biology, J recorded albums and toured throughout the United States and Europe as a drummer in a punk-blues band.
Following a tour with the Peace Corps in Ecuador, J began his career in documentary photography. Since then, J has worked as a freelance photographer for various clients including The Washington Post, The New York Times, XXL Magazine, Dazed & Confused Magazine and The Discovery and Travel Channels.
J has traveled extensively throughout the world, most recently covering the drought in East Africa for Save the Children for whom he also worked in tsunami-hit Banda Aceh, Indonesia and the Darfur and Nuba Mountain regions of Sudan.
Paul O'Brien / Composer
Paul O'Brien is an independent composer based in London. His score for Road To Roubaix evokes emotion, and accurately reveals the race for what it is—a human struggle from start to finish. The thoughtful music also sets the film apart in the genre making it more than a film about cycling. It is a true documentary that outgrows the confines of being "just another cycling film."
