The studio

Austin, Texas

Alder Tree Studios develops a small number of films, series and documentaries each year, from the idea to a fully realized treatment, and places them with the partners who should make them. We do not finance production. We are not a fund. We are not an agency.

We do not chase trends: not content reverse-engineered from viewing data, not background noise, not message-first work from any direction, including our own.

Owner-led, with the money and the taste in the same room. A decision at Alder Tree is one conversation.

Leadership

Nelda Buckman

Chair

Nelda Buckman is a Tony Award-winning Broadway producer and the co-founder of Nelda Studios, an Austin production house for stage, film and public media. With her husband Karl she founded the Buckman Center for media research at the University of Texas at Austin. She chairs Alder Tree and green-lights the slate.

Selected work
Sunset BoulevardBroadway, 2024. Tony Award, Best Revival of a Musical
Much Ado About NothingWest End, 2025. Jamie Lloyd Company, with Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell
The TempestWest End, 2024. Jamie Lloyd Company, with Sigourney Weaver
The PromBroadway, 2018. Tony nominee, Best Musical. Drama Desk Award
Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True StoryTribeca, 2024

Jef Sewell

President and chief creative officer

Jef Sewell is a filmmaker and designer. He produces, co-directs and designs documentaries with Laura Dunn, and his films have played Sundance, Berlinale and SXSW. Before film he built and ran companies in satire, fulfillment and specialty logistics. At Alder Tree he runs the studio and its visualization practice.

Selected work
All Illusions Must Be Broken2024, co-director. World premiere, Palm Springs
Look & See: A Portrait of Wendell Berry2016, producer, co-director, design. Sundance, Berlinale, SXSW. SXSW Special Jury Award, Visual Design
The Unforeseen2007, design. Sundance. Cinema Eye Honors nominee, Graphics and Animation
Despair, Inc.®Co-founder. Co-creator of the viral meme Demotivators®
Who is Charles Ponzi?Author, © 2008

Jason Pamer

Head of distribution and development

Jason Pamer is a producer and the co-founder of Sypher Studios. He has raised more than $20 million in private capital for film, technology and hospitality, and has produced documentary, scripted and branded work with Academy Award and Golden Globe winners. At Alder Tree he takes finished projects to market and brings new ones in.

Selected work
The Story of EverythingFathom, 2026
After DeathAngel Studios, 2023. Highest-grossing faith-based documentary
By Any MeansExecutive producer
Please Don't Feed the ChildrenExecutive producer

Laura Dunn

Director of documentary

Laura Dunn directs, produces and edits her own films: a trilogy on how culture has overtaken nature, executive produced by Robert Redford and Terrence Malick, with premieres at Sundance, Berlinale, SXSW and Palm Springs. A Yale graduate with an MFA in film production from the University of Texas at Austin, she is a tenure-track professor of film at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and has held Rockefeller, Fulbright, Sundance and Yale Poynter fellowships. At Alder Tree she leads the documentary slate.

Selected work
All Illusions Must Be Broken2024, co-director. World premiere, Palm Springs
Look & See: A Portrait of Wendell Berry2016. Sundance, Berlinale, SXSW. DC Environmental Film Festival Beautiful Swimmers Award. PBS Independent Lens, Netflix
The Unforeseen2007. Sundance. Independent Spirit Award, Truer Than Fiction
Green2000. Student Academy Award
AlsoIDA Pare Lorentz Award. MoMA Documentary Fortnight

Staff

Justin SewellWriter

Contact

Generalcontact@aldertree.com
Acquisitions and partnershipscontact@aldertree.com
Presscontact@aldertree.com
SubmissionsThe slate is closed to unsolicited submissions.