Califa Witsch, Media Producer + Educator

Califa is a Sonoma County native who grew up in the Healdsburg countryside. She is resourceful, inspired, curious, and ambitious. In her teen years she learned video fundamentals and loved acting in the Healdsburg High School drama department. Califa majored in “Social Documentary” at UC Santa Cruz, where she studied documentary film in theory and practice. During this time she got her feet wet as a post-production assistant for the harrowing Peabody winning HBO documentary ‘Baghdad ER’ (Alpert 2006). Califa worked for Access Healdsburg TV teaching the community how to use cameras to create their own media, programming and creating local content, including sports events, as well as managing the station for a time. She produced and edited the feature documentary ‘Straight White Male’ (Erlendson 2012) which tells the story of two young transgender men and their journey across the gender spectrum. She is currently working on an archival documentary telling the stories of Holocaust survivors. She enjoys teaching filmmaking to Sonoma County youth with AVFilm. Califa loves the collaborative aspect of media-making and thrives in team environments. She specializes in creating meaningful content that educates, inspires and entertains. Additionally, Califa is a licensed real estate agent in California who specializes in helping people in Sonoma County buy and sell their homes.

Jacob Witsch, Filmmaker

Jake has a passion for movies and media. As a kid he was fortunate enough to have a neighbor who owned a video store and would constantly borrow VHS screeners. He devoured all the 80’s movies and TV that he could and grew to have a deep affection for horror and kitsch. Jake and his friends would make homemade movies as kids and screen them for the neighborhood. Jake focused on art history and film studies as an undergraduate at Sonoma State University and post-graduation moved onto an intensive digital film production program at The Berkeley Digital Film Institute in Berkeley, California, where he learned all the tools needed to make independent film. Since then Jake has been involved in various film and media projects, and had projects screened nationally and internationally. Jake has worn many hats ranging from directing music videos, commercial set design, lighting, and sound, to cinematography and acting. Digital Filmmaking has taken Jake all over California and as far as Tibet for projects.

“Working with Witsch Digital is like hiring a creative and production team in one. I always bring ideas to our shoots, Califa and Jake always enhance the ideas with perspectives I never even would have considered. They are professional and tireless, always willing to do whatever it takes for the best material. Post-production work is a dream, as they provide timely edits and multiple versions for consideration, and they never scoff or balk when I ask them to tweak the work. Perhaps most important – and this matters to me – Califa and Jake are wonderful human beings. They’re kind. They’re compassionate. They’re incredibly deep and thoughtful. They give a shit about the world. I intend to make many more videos for my content project, and won’t even consider working with another company. I recommend them without reservation.”

-Matt Villano

Califa + Jacob’s films have screened at Film Festivals internationally.