the PRODUCERS

Meet the Team Behind
Voices Over the Water.

Guy and Jane were inspired to create Voices Over the Water to help shed light on what it means to be American where there is also pride in ethnic roots. The filmmakers are driven to dispel the stereotypical ideas of ethnic origins and instead explore a more complete history and cause of why our ancestors made the decisions that they did. By investigating the indigenous culture and language of the Scots Gaelic people, we can understand and appreciate their legacy in a multi-cultural society.

Guy Perrotta
Guy PerrottaCo-Producer, Co-Director, Co-Writer

Guy has acted as producer and has developed and researched works airing on PBS and elsewhere. He is a member of the Directors Guild of America (DGA), the National Television Academy (EMMY®), and Fellow Member of the Explorers Club (Fellow 16). He has aided in developing film festivals and educational programs, as well as managing crew members for film and television. He has received EMMY® awards for producing and writing, and has presented at conferences on the impact of media on intercultural relationships, most recently on Celtic and Indigenous cultures.
Guy has also consulted for documentary subjects ranging from cinema history to shark and organized crime subject matters. For his own work he usually creates a new LLC or loan-out for other productions.
Guy has said that his favorite endeavor has been as part-time visiting Instructor of cinema and media at the university level, helping to expand critical thinking of students, and working to further their own career and academic pursuits. He takes great pride in having introduced former students to some of their first jobs in the film and television industry, and helping them to gain access to not only film studios and locations, but also graduate work.

Jane Ferguson
Jane FergusonCo-Producer, Co-Director, Co-Writer

Jane is a graduate of the Director’s Guild of America Assistant Director Training Program and has worked in film and television on such varied projects as A Call to Spy, Archive 81, Manifest, A Beautiful Mind, War Of The Worlds, National Treasure, Law & Order, In Treatment and 30 Rock. In addition, she served many years as a theatre stage manager in Britain and in the U.S.A. She is a product of the Scottish diaspora with Caledonian relatives in Argentina, the United States, and England.

Sonja Henrici
Sonja HenriciAssociate Producer

Sonja is a writer / producer with twenty years of experience in the Film and TV industry. She worked in the administration of Edinburgh International Film Festival between 1999-2003, and joined Scottish Documentary Institute (SDI) at its inception in 2004. She founded its production arm, SDI Productions, in 2007 and produced and exec-produced multiple award-winning feature documentaries, including the acclaimed Future My Love, Pablo’s Winter, I Am Breathing, Donkeyote, Becoming Animal and Time Trial. She was Co-Director/Exec Producer of the institute from 2013 until 2020. She’s proud to have played a big role in SDI’s international success and bringing new Scottish documentary on the map. She led SDI to its charitable status in 2019 and oversaw the birth of its 50:50+ Women Direct Campaign in the same year, advocating for more women directors in documentary. Her films have screened on all continents, in top festivals, cinema, TV, VOD, DVD, in over 60 countries. In 2021 she founded Sonja Henrici Creates Ltd for all her future creative and production work. Most recent credits include Merkel and The Oil Machine. Sonja is an RSA Fellow and member of AMPAS, BAFTA and PACT.

June Skinner Sawyers
June Skinner SawyersAssociate Producer

June is the author or editor of more than twenty-five books, many with a Celtic theme, including Bearing the People Away: The Portable Highland Clearances Companion. Her work has appeared in Scottish Tradition, the Chicago Tribune, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Times Literary Supplement and the Common Review, among other publications. In addition, she is the founder of the Phantom Collective, a small arts group that presents theatre works and music programs, for which she has written or adapted numerous theatre pieces, including Black Dogs and Melancholy, a solo play on the life of Samuel Johnson and his journey with James Boswell to the Hebrides; a two-person play, The Hermit of Skerryvore, based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s writing of Jekyll and Hyde; Last Thoughts of Mary Stuart, about the final hours of Mary, Queen of Scots before her execution at Fotheringay Castle; and The Road to Barnhill, about Orwell writing 1984 on the Isle of Jura. In addition, she is the author of an unproduced screenplay on the Highland Clearances, The World Is Not Empty without Reason. In 2013, she was the recipient of the Flora Macdonald Award from St. Andrews University in Laurinburg, North Carolina, which is given to a woman of Scots birth or descent who has made an outstanding contribution to the human community.
(Photo by Theresa Albini)

Guy Perrotta

Guy Perrotta

Co-Producer, Co-Director, Co-Writer

Guy has acted as producer and has developed and researched works airing on PBS and elsewhere. He is a member of the Directors Guild of America (DGA), the National Television Academy (EMMY®), and Fellow Member of the Explorers Club (Fellow 16). He has aided in developing film festivals and educational programs, as well as managing crew members for film and television. He has received EMMY® awards for producing and writing, and has presented at conferences on the impact of media on intercultural relationships, most recently on Celtic and Indigenous cultures.

Guy has also consulted for documentary subjects ranging from cinema history to shark and organized crime subject matters. For his own work he usually creates a new LLC or loan-out for other productions.

Guy has said that his favorite endeavor has been as part-time visiting Instructor of cinema and media at the university level, helping to expand critical thinking of students, and working to further their own career and academic pursuits. He takes great pride in having introduced former students to some of their first jobs in the film and television industry, and helping them to gain access to not only film studios and locations, but also graduate work.

Jane Ferguson

Co-Producer, Co-Director, Co-Writer

Jane is a graduate of the Director’s Guild of America Assistant Director Training Program and has worked in film and television on such varied projects as A Call to Spy, Archive 81, Manifest, A Beautiful Mind, War Of The Worlds, National Treasure, Law & Order, In Treatment and 30 Rock. In addition, she served many years as a theatre stage manager in Britain and in the U.S.A. She is a product of the Scottish diaspora with Caledonian relatives in Argentina, the United States, and England.

Jane Ferguson
Sonja Henrici

Sonja Henrici

Associate Producer

Sonja is a writer / producer with twenty years of experience in the Film and TV industry. She worked in the administration of Edinburgh International Film Festival between 1999-2003, and joined Scottish Documentary Institute (SDI) at its inception in 2004. She founded its production arm, SDI Productions, in 2007 and produced and exec-produced multiple award-winning feature documentaries, including the acclaimed Future My Love, Pablo’s Winter, I Am Breathing, Donkeyote, Becoming Animal, and Time Trial. She was Co-Director/Exec Producer of the institute from 2013 until 2020. She’s proud to have played a big role in SDI’s international success and bringing new Scottish documentary on the map. She led SDI to its charitable status in 2019 and oversaw the birth of its 50:50+ Women Direct Campaign in the same year, advocating for more women directors in documentary. Her films have screened on all continents, in top festivals, cinema, TV, VOD, DVD, in over 60 countries. In 2021 she founded Sonja Henrici Creates Ltd for all her future creative and production work. Most recent credits include Merkel and The Oil Machine. Sonja is an RSA Fellow and member of AMPAS, BAFTA and PACT.

June Skinner Sawyers

Associate Producer

June is the author or editor of more than twenty-five books, many with a Celtic theme, including Bearing the People Away: The Portable Highland Clearances Companion. Her work has appeared in Scottish Tradition, the Chicago Tribune, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Times Literary Supplement and the Common Review, among other publications. In addition, she is the founder of the Phantom Collective, a small arts group that presents theatre works and music programs, for which she has written or adapted numerous theatre pieces, including Black Dogs and Melancholy, a solo play on the life of Samuel Johnson and his journey with James Boswell to the Hebrides; a two-person play, The Hermit of Skerryvore, based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s writing of Jekyll and Hyde; Last Thoughts of Mary Stuart, about the final hours of Mary, Queen of Scots before her execution at Fotheringay Castle; and The Road to Barnhill, about Orwell writing 1984 on the Isle of Jura. In addition, she is the author of an unproduced screenplay on the Highland Clearances, The World Is Not Empty without Reason. In 2013, she was the recipient of the Flora Macdonald Award from St. Andrews University in Laurinburg, North Carolina, which is given to a woman of Scots birth or descent who has made an outstanding contribution to the human community.

(Photo by Theresa Albini)

June Sawyers