Board Members

Darroch Greer
President

Darroch Greer is an award-winning documentary filmmaker with over thirty years’ experience researching, writing and directing historical documentaries in the fields of American and European history, Native American and Western history, the American Revolution, Lincoln and the Civil War, American movies, and popular music for PBS, Turner Classic Movies, Discovery, VH1, History and others. He co-founded Humanus Documentary Films Foundation with Ron King for which he wrote and co-directed The Millionaires’ Unit—The First U.S. Naval Aviators in WWI and co-wrote and co-directed The Lafayette Escadrille—The American Volunteers Who Flew for France in WWI. The films have played on PBS and won multiple awards.

Darroch has worked as a content developer in the museum and theme park industries. For five years, Darroch was the researcher for the design company of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois. He’s written and designed media for museums and parks in New York City, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, South Korea, China, Jordan, Dubai, Chicago, and Florida involving history and immersive guest experiences.

During Covid, Darroch co-produced with Paul Glenshaw The Seven Tones Project paring musicians and filmmakers to celebrate the music of Duke Ellington in forty short films. He and Paul have formed the French American Documentary Enterprise under the umbrella of Humanus to produce four films highlighting the fundamental tenets of democracy on which the sister republics France and the United States are based in anticipation of America’s semiquincentennial, the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026.  Two of the films are in production and one in development: En Route for Revolution, Under Siege—The American Ambassador during the Siege of Paris and the Paris Commune, and Improvising Freedom—Jazz in Paris. The completed Lafayette Escadrille is the third film in the series.

Nick Spark
Vice President

Nick Spark is a Los Angeles-based writer and documentarian with a long-standing passion for unconventional characters, including the oft-overlooked female heroine. The Legend of Pancho Barnes, which he produced and wrote, profiles gender-bending pilot Florence “Pancho” Barnes, a forgotten rival of Amelia Earhart. It won the L.A. area Emmy in 2010, screened in numerous film festivals, and continues to air on public television stations in the USA and abroad. He also wrote and directed the Cold War documentary Regulus: The First Nuclear Missile Submarines, which appeared on Discovery. An accomplished writer of non-fiction and history, Spark was the associate editor for Wings and Airpower magazines. He has also appeared on PBS’ History Detectives, Japan’s NHK and National Public Radio concerning his research projects. He is an MFA graduate of the U.S.C. School of Cinematic Arts and has an undergraduate degree in Creative Writing from the University of Arizona.

Hugh Esten
Member of Board

Hugh Esten is Director of Communications for the President of the Los Angeles City Council.  He leads the Council President’s communications team, editing the office’s communications on all platforms, and conducting relations with the news media. He was associate producer of the award-winning documentary, Your Los Angeles City Hall.

As a freelance speechwriter, he has scripted high-profile events such as American Prairie’s Ken Burns American Heritage Prize, the National Portrait Gallery’s American Portrait Gala, the Thelonious Monk International Jazz competition at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood, and the Kennedy Center Living Legends of Jazz Awards. 

He scripted host’s continuity and awards ceremonies for 20 international conferences of the Academy of Achievement, an educational foundation based in Washington, D.C., while editing the Academy’s website.    From 2005 to 2017 he was a contributing reporter to Classical KUSC’s Arts Alive program, producing and presenting radio features on the arts in Southern California. 

Mimi Freedman
Member of Board

Mimi Freedman is a documentary filmmaker and reality show producer based in Los Angeles. Her film Brando, a 2-part documentary produced for Turner Classic Movies, received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Nonfiction Special. Brando screened at Cannes, Tribeca, San Sebastian and dozens of other film festivals around the world. Other projects include the critically acclaimed Steve McQueen: The Essence of Cool, the Jewish Image Award-winning Backstory: Gentleman’s Agreement and the A&E Biography Charlie Sheen: Born To Be Wild, which received a Prism Award for its accurate portrayal of drug and alcohol addiction. Her most recent reality TV credit is as co-executive producer of ABC’s hit show The Golden Bachelor.

Mimi started her career in the opera business, working as a director and stage manager before making the transition to film and television. She is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Michigan, and she received her master’s degree in Film History, Theory and Criticism from UCLA.

Roderick Read
Member of Board

Roderick grew up in south Texas, and moved to Switzerland for almost 25 years. While living in the that country, he raised a family, spent too many hours working in the financial sector, and not nearly enough time with his three children, or flying in the Swiss and French Alps. Roderick has an MBA in finance and accounting, from Florida Tech

Roderick’s grandfather’s twin brother, Curtis S. Read, a United States naval aviator, was the first casualty of the First Yale Unit on February 27, 1918. Curtis’ story is featured in the first documentary feature produced by Humanus Documentary Films Foundation: The Millionaires’ Unit – The First U.S. Naval Aviators in World War I.

Roderick is an avid aviator and flight instructor. One of his identical twin daughters, graduated from the US Naval Academy, and is now working towards earning her Naval Aviator wings – keeping the family military aviation dream alive. His other daughter is an LAPD officer, and his son is about to finish law school in a Boston. Roderick lives in Illinois with his wife, Monika, and her two boys.