We are an independent film company that specializes in visually rich, socially minded content. Founded in 2004 by Margaret Byrne, Beti Films has worked on countless projects across the globe.

"Telling the stories of others is a privilege. In documentary filmmaking, the most remarkable part is the unique relationships you make because you are often there to witness their darkest and most triumphant moments."

Award-winning filmmaker Margaret Byrne, directed and produced Raising Bertie (POV 2017), a feature documentary following the lives of three African American boys growing up in rural North Carolina. Her 2021 HotDocs premiere, Any Given Day, is an ITVS co-production that follows three people that were incarcerated for crimes related to their illness and released into the care of a mental health court. Some of her previous credits include The Big Payback (2022), Surge (2020), Waging Change (2019), Generation Wealth (2018), All the Queen’s Horses (2017), and American Promise* (2014). She was previously a creative director at Universal Music and directed live concerts and music videos for artists such as Jay-Z and Mary J. Blige. Byrne is an adjunt professor at Columbia College.

Leslie Norville is an award-winning producer who champions diverse voices and underrepresented stories through work that pushes boundaries, challenges limited beliefs, demands creative excellence and inspires humanity. Leslie Norville’s projects include: Oscar-nominated and Emmy-Award- winning director Matthew Heineman's The First Wave for National Geographic, Margaret Byrne's Any Given Day, A Ballerina’s Tale, a documentary about Misty Copeland, the first African American female principal dancer at New York’s American Ballet Theatre (Best Documentary by the African American Film Critics Association and released by Sundance Selects), Walk Good for the CBC, Finding the Funk for VH1 (official at the 2013 SXSW Film Festival), Disdain the Mundane (ESPN 30 FOR 30 documentary short featuring legendary NY Knick, Walt 'Clyde’ Frazier), Brooklyn Boheme (starring Spike Lee, Chris Rock, Rosie Perez), and Minustah Vole Kabrit (premiered at IDFA). Leslie is a 2017 Sundance Creative Documentary Producing Fellow and 2018 Telefilm Talent to Watch recipient.

Latesha is an independent filmmaker currently working on her first documentary project Teaching While Black which explores the lives of Black teachers in Chicago’s public schools. She is a 2017 Kartemquin Films Diverse Voices in Docs Fellow and a 2019 recipient of Kartemquin Films’ Accelerator Fund grant. She served as an impact coordinator for the short documentary ‘63 Boycott (Kartemquin Films). Latesha is a former educator with over twenty years of experience working in and with Chicago’s public schools. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Chicago State University and a Masters of Education in Education Policy and Management from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Fabiola left the corporate world to pursue her dream of working independently. She is a financial consultant and loves to empower strong women to make great financial decisions. Fabi loves to work with people just as much as she loves to work with numbers. She earned a Masters degree from Dominican University as a single mother working full-time and knows the struggles of motherhood. She mentors young women to push through adversity and finish their studies. On a fun day you can find Fabi twirling on the dance floor. Bailamos?

Liz Kaar has worked closely with Kartemquin Films, Chicago’s documentary powerhouse, for over a decade. She has been honored with a variety of award recognition, including short-listed for an Academy Award®, nominated for Emmy® and IDA awards, and winner of the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Journalism Award. She recently edited ‘63 Boycott, directed by Gordon Quinn, about the forgotten story of one of the largest civil rights demonstrations in the 1960s and how it connects to contemporary issues around race, education, and youth activism. She co-directed and edited Hard Earned, Kartemquin's six-part television series about people living on low wages across the US, airing on Al Jazeera America. She is also editing Kartemquin's Dilemma of Desire.

Rory McFadden is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame’s film program and has worked with Kartemquin Films and Meridian Hill Pictures. She served as outreach coordinator for Raising Bertie (2017) and Minding the Gap (2018), and co-edited the award winning documentary short, Life in Strides (2017). Formerly, she worked as a nurse in critical care and community health, and later in research where she interviewed patients’ family members and healthcare providers about their experiences of stress and trauma in Intensive Care Units. Inspired by their powerful stories, she now works to impact social change through documentaries. She was previously an intern at Beti Films.

Karyn has held support staff roles in writers' rooms at AMC, Showtime, and YouTube Premium. She worked with the Department of State to implement sustainability education programs at Lithuanian universities as part of the VSFS program. She made a guerilla-style documentary that established a legal charter and severed a university's relationship with a corrupt psychiatric hospital in Chicago, and she’s been interviewed by Ronan Farrow for an story on forced leaves of absence and mental health policy. She is also a published short story writer. She studied English (and briefly mathematics) at University of Chicago and British film at Oxford University on scholarship. She began her career as an intern at Beti Films.

Shuling Yong is a Singapore-born, Chicago-based documentary filmmaker, sound mixer and cinematographer with a passion for social change. She has worked on films like Becoming (2020, dir. Nadia Hallgren), Radical Grace (2015, dir. Rebecca Parrish), In The Game (2015, dir. Maria Finitzo), The Feeling of Being Watched (dir. Assia Boundaoui), America To Me (2018, dir. Steve James), and In Time To Come (2017, dir. Tan Pin Pin). Her first feature-length documentary, Unteachable, won the Audience Choice Award at Singapore International Film Festival.

Baili is a production sound mixer in Chicago and a former student of Margaret. She works in all areas of audio recording, from full length features, to documentary, corporate/commercial, and short films. Her recent sound work includes SoulPancake’s, “Four Hands One Question” short, and an upcoming segment for PBS’s Art in the 21st Century series. She has worked with Steve James on the upcoming City So Real documentary series and with Bing Liu (dir. Minding the Gap) on his upcoming documentary, Until the Lion Speaks.