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Abby Sun (The DocYard/LEF Foundation)Fair Use: What Do We Need to Know
Abby Sun is an artist, film programmer, and researcher at the MIT Open Documentary Lab, where she is a graduate student in Comparative Media Studies and edits Immerse. Abby has bylines in Film Comment, Filmmaker Magazine, Film Quarterly, Hyperallergic, and other publications. She has served on juries for Palm Springs, New Orleans, CAAMfest, and DOC NYC, as well as nominating committees for the Gotham Awards, Cinema Eye, and IDA Documentary Awards. Abby has reviewed applications for the NEA, SFFILM, Center for Asian American Media, LEF Foundation, Sundance Catalyst, If/Then Shorts, and spoken on and facilitated panels at TIFF, NYFF, and other film festivals. Her latest short film, “Cuba Scalds His Hand” (co-directed with Daniel Garber), premiered at Maryland Film Festival in 2019. Most recently, Abby is the Curator of the DocYard and co-curated My Sight is Lined with Visions: 1990s Asian American Film & Video with Keisha Knight. She previously was senior editor of Nat. Brut and programm
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Alanna Francis (Three Dollar Bill Cinema)Ally or Antagonist: Presented with Queering the Cinema
Alanna Francis (she/her) is a queer Black womxn of color living in WA State. Follows her passion and greatest impact while rooted in interconnectedness and the spectrums of her identities. To evolve communities, people, and organizations past their plateau of checking diversity boxes to infiltrating with *holistic intentions integrations of systems meant to retain folx and create foundational change. Invested in uplifting our communities through authentic intentional relationships and aligned values & morals.
Regardless of societal pressures and implications maintain alignment within themselves, throughout their businesses, and lives. Our magic is always within, what narrative is preventing you from swirling in it?
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Alyx Picard Davis (deadCenter Film)What is the New Break Even? Redefining Success from an Experiential POV
"Born on a military base in Madrid, Spain, Alyx Picard Davis lived in California, Wisconsin, and New York before her ninth birthday in Oklahoma City. She started at deadCenter Film as a volunteer in 2006 and currently serves as the organization’s Executive Director following eight years on the operations and programming sides of their annual Festival.
Alyx previously worked amongst future rock stars at the Academy of Contemporary Music at the University of Central Oklahoma. She is a proud graduate of UCO, where she received her BA in English-Creative Studies and served on the Alumni Association board. A charter member and current vice president of Exchange Rotary, Alyx also regularly contributes to several community organizations that focus on art, education, journalism, and placemaking. She currently serves as vice chair on the Board of Directors for the Film Festival Alliance, an international collaborative community of festival professionals."
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Andria Wilson (Former ED of Inside Out)Ally or Antagonist: Presented with Queering the Cinema
From 2016 – 2020, Andria was the Executive Director of Inside Out, Canada’s largest LGBTQ film festival. She led Inside Out through a period of transformative growth that included establishing the world’s only LGBTQ Film Financing Forum, and the launch of two film funds – RE:Focus, which distributes more than $50,000 annually to queer women, trans and non-binary filmmakers, and the OUTtv Documentary Fund. Andria spearheaded a 4-year partnership commitment between Inside Out and Netflix that directly supports the development of LGBTQ filmmakers. Named ‘one of 15 Canadian women to watch’ by the CBC, Andria has been a featured speaker at festivals and conferences including SXSW, TIFF, Berlin’s European Film Market, Outfest, Greece’s Outview, Oslo Fusion, and the Iris Prize Producer’s Forum. She is a mentor in Soho House’s international Open House Mentorship Program and a member of Telefilm’s diversity and inclusion advisory.
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Anne Chaisson (HamptonsFilm home of Hamptons Int'l Film Festival)Looking Forward: A Hybrid World, presented with Art House Convergence
Anne Chaisson, Executive Director of HamptonsFilm (home of the Hamptons International Film Festival) since 2012, founded the Advisory Board and served as co-chair for a decade. Chaisson began her career in the independent film world as a film producer garnering awards with feature films ROGER DODGER, P.S. and DIGGERS. Chaisson is a member of New York Women in Film and Television, the IFP, a founding member of the Film Festival Alliance, and has served on film festival juries and panels all over the world.
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Aran Roche (Montclair Film)Balancing Sponsorship in the Virtual & IRL Worlds
Director of Development, Montclair Film Aran has worked with Montclair Film on grants and sponsorship since spring 2011 before stepping up as Director of Development in July 2014 where she is responsible for developing plans for and overseeing all fundraising including government and foundations grants, sponsorship, membership and fundraisers and special events. Her professional consulting business, Smart Grants Fundraising (2009-2015) specialized in securing new sources of corporate, foundation and government for arts and cultural organizations. She has 20+ years of expertise in fundraising for the arts and developing comprehensive fundraising plans for nonprofit organizations, including past posts at the Montclair Art Museum and other museums in California, as well as developing and supporting past fundraising efforts for local nonprofits including Morris Arts, Human Needs Food Pantry, and Van Vleck House and Gardens among many others.
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Ashley O’Shay (Unapologetic)Filmmaker POV presented with IFP
Ashley O’Shay is a DP and documentarian based in Chicago, IL, whose work focuses on illuminating marginalized voices. She has produced work for national brands, including Lifetime, Ford Motor Company, Boost Mobile, KQED, and Dr. Martens. Most recently, she filmed the final episode of Dr. Martens' "Tough As You" series, starring the band Phony Ppl, accruing over 65K views on social and web. In 2019, she co-produced the Chicago episode of KQED’s award-winning series “If Cities Could Dance,” which became one of their most viewed episodes to date. Her work also appeared in the critically-acclaimed Lifetime docuseries Surviving R. Kelly. She recently premiered her debut feature, Unapologetic, a deep look into the Movement for Black Lives in Chicago, through the experiences of two young, Black queer women. The film premiered at the 2020 BlackStar Film Festival, and is shortlisted for the 2020 International Documentary Association Awards.
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Ashton Campbell (Texas Theatre and Oak Cliff Film Festival)Getting Physical: The PPE Story
I am one of the partners of the Texas Theatre. In a normal year, I handle the bar operations, event coordinating and rentals. In 2020 I became more involved in the day-to-day, staff relations and pandemic survival. I am also Festival Producer for the Oak Cliff Film Festival and handle multiple admin operations.
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Bears Rebecca Fonte (Other Worlds/aGLIFF)Being A Good Neighbor to Fellow Festivals & Filmmakers
Bears Rebecca Fonté is a transgender filmmaker,
festival programmer, and journalist. She founded
Other Worlds Film Festival after two years as the
Director of Programming for Austin Film Festival. She
also programs midnighters for SF Indiefest and
consult on festivals around the country. Her short,
ROADSIDE ASSISTANCE, was selected for 70 festivals
including Fantasia International Film Festival, Dances
With Films, Sci-Fi London and Boston SciFi. Other
shorts CONVERSION THERAPIST, PRENATAL, THE
SECRET KEEPER and SMURF #47 played at a combined
100 festivals. Bears Rebecca was a producer on
Sundance Jury-Award Winning short THE
PROCEDURE and the documentaries CLOSER THAN
WE THINK and ARTIST DEPICTION. Her feature
thriller iCRIME, which they wrote and directed, was
released on DVD by Breaking Glass in 2011.
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Benjamin Wiessner (Vanishing Angle)Filmmaker POV presented with IFP
Benjamin Wiessner is a producer and distributor, serving as Vanishing Angle's VP of Sales and Distribution. He was named to Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Indie Film in 2012 as part of ornana films, where he began producing and self-distributing shorts and features with broadcast partners across the world, including Canal+ and PBS. He has produced over a dozen short films in both hand-drawn animation and live action, with awards at festivals including SxSw and Sundance. He has also worked on a dozen features, including producing THUNDER ROAD (SxSw 2018 Grand Jury Prize). He consults, mentors, and consoles numerous early career filmmakers. Raised by educators, he frequently speaks about creation, distribution, and film marketing at film schools, festivals, and conferences. In 2018, he co-founded the Short to Feature Filmmaking Lab.
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Beth Barrett (Seattle International Film Festival)Staffing Sustainability: Retention in the Age of COVID-19
Beth has been with SIFF since 2003, and is responsible for managing the artistic vision of SIFF, including all aspects of film programming, the staff of film programmers, and both the 25 day Film Festival as well as SIFF Cinema’s 5 year-round screens and the SIFF Education team. She secured SIFF’s status as an Academy Award® qualifying festival for short film in 2008. Before starting at SIFF in 2003, Beth worked with the Sydney Film Festival, as a programming assistant. In addition to her daily work in programming, Beth has served on juries and panels in Palm Springs, Park City, Cleveland, Calgary, Vancouver BC and Berlin, Germany.
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Beth Gilligan (Coolidge Corner Theatre)Building Loyalty & Audience Engagement in Virtual Spaces
Beth Gilligan relocated to Boston in 2009 to join the Coolidge Corner Corner Theatre Foundation, where she currently serves as the Director of Development & Marketing and oversees the national Science on Screen grant initiative (funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation). Prior to that, she worked for several years for the Hamptons International Film Festival. Beth has a M.A. in film studies from the University of East Anglia.
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Brian Khan (Full Spectrum Features)Meet the 2020 Leadership Lab Fellows
As Manager of Strategic Partnerships and Engagement at Full Spectrum Features, he’s charged with making sure its films are supported with powerful, attention-grabbing social impact campaigns and appearance in film festivals, educational institutions, and community organizations.
Brian earned his MFA in Creative Producing at DePaul University in Chicago and his BA in Digital Journalism and Communication, Media, and Film at the University of Windsor in Canada. He has produced educational PSAs, a horror film in VR, an episode of Land and Sea for CBC, and a documentary shot in Canada, Bosnia, and Herzegovina. He also adapted a novel into a film and produced films that played at festivals such as Cleveland International FF and HBO's NY Latino Film Festival.
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Brighid Wheeler (Indie Memphis)What is the New Break Even?: Redefining Success from An Experiential POV
Brighid Wheeler has been (willingly) held captive in the film festival world for most of her adult life. Having run the gamut from volunteer to THE ‘Queen B’ (nickname earned as Festival Coordinator), she currently serves as the Senior Programmer for the Indie Memphis Film Festival. Outside of the festival, you’ll most likely find her mentoring, guiding and encouraging the filmmakers in Memphis. She often attributes this as her main source of inspiration and what continues to drive her work at Indie Memphis. Brighid has served on countless juries and panels at festivals and conferences across the country and considers each experience an honor as it allows her the opportunity to support our current and next generation of storytellers.
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Bryan Glick (GQue Films)Ally or Antagonist: Presented with Queering the Cinema
Bryan Glick is just your typical non-binary gay agnostic Jew. They are a film sales and collaborative distributor focusing on prestige films for underserved communities via their company GQue Films. Their current lineup includes award-winning films from 2020's Tribeca ("The Last Out"), Heartland ("La Dosis") and Hot Docs Film Festivals ("Keyboard Fantasies: The Beverly Glenn-Copeland Story"). They have spoken about creative approaches to distribution at festivals/markets around the world such as Sundance, SXSW, Outfest, Hot Docs, Bogota Audiovisual Market, and Doc Edge NZ.
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Carlos Aguilar (Freelance Film Critic)Critical Thinking: Talking Indie Exhibition with Film Critics
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Carlos Corral (El Paso Film Festival)Confronting Reduced Bandwidth & Oversaturation
Carlos Corral is a Texas filmmaker with true grit. With more than 13 years of experience working on a variety of high-profile television, documentary and feature film productions, he is among the most prolific personalities in the Texas film scene. Known mostly as a location sound mixer, his credits include producer, director, and editor — just to name a few.
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Carrie Richer (International Wildlife Film Festival/The Roxy Theater)Confronting Reduced Bandwidth & Oversaturation
Carrie Richer is the Artistic Director of three film festivals at the Roxy Theater, Missoula Montana’s celebrated community cinema. Richer heads the teams for the 44-year-old International Wildlife Film Festival each Spring and manages/ programs the smaller Montana Film Festival and Kiddomatic children’s film festival in the Fall. Carrie has an MFA from San Francisco State in Cinema, a BA from Bates College in Dance and Anthropology, and continues to create dance films which have made their own festival rounds this past fifteen years. Carrie’s many years of programming experience have vacillated between film and interdisciplinary arts in theaters, performing arts centers, galleries, and through nonprofit organizations. Carrie directed operations for Jackson Hole Wild Media Awards, conference and film competition from 2007-2011 before designing and beginning the Jackson Hole Center for the Arts Creative Initiatives Residency program in 2016. Carrie moved to Missoula, MT in 2018 and was
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Caryn Coleman (The Future of Film is Female)Being A Good Neighbor to Fellow Festivals & Filmmakers
Caryn Coleman is the founder of The Future of Film is Female, an organization that amplifies all women filmmakers through its funding, exhibition, and promotional programming. For the FOFIF, Coleman guest-curates a screening series at the Museum of Modern Art and has launched FOFIF STREAMING to support womxn filmmakers during the cinema shutdown. Coleman is also the Director of Programming/Special Projects at Nitehawk Cinema where she organizes the annual Nitehawk Shorts Festival. She received her MFA at Goldsmiths College, UK.
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Cat Kim (Cinema Arts Centre)Building Organizational Transparency from the Ground Up presented with Alliance for Action
Cat Kim is a Korean-American film programmer and Associate Director at the Cinema Arts Centre in New York. When she's not watching movies, she's writing about them, or worse, trying to write one.
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Christopher Day (Northwest Film Forum)Budgeting Re-Forecasting: Adapting for Different Scenarios
Christopher Day (he/him) is a Seattle-based musician, fillmmaker and non-profit arts administrator. He currently acts as Managing Director of Northwest Film Forum, a non-profit film and arts center in Seattle, WA. He has also recorded music for years under the moniker Febrifuge, in addition to composing numerous short and feature film scores under his own name.
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Claudia Puig (NPR's KPCC)Critical Thinking: Talking Indie Exhibition with Film Critics; A Fireside Chat with NO Studios found
Claudia Puig is the president of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and a longtime critic on NPR’s Film Week. She teaches a college class on Diversity in the Media and is in demand in as a moderator and speaker on film-related panels. She is currently Senior Programmer for AFI Fest and program director for the Mendocino Film Festival. In addition, Claudia has a film consulting business specializing in cultural consulting. Previously, she was USA Today’s film critic for 15 years. During that time, she also hosted The Screening Room video series and wrote film reviews and analytical articles about the film industry. Before that, she was a staff writer at the Los Angeles Times for 11 years covering city government, courts and the entertainment industry. She has been a speechwriter and diversity consultant for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. A native Spanish speaker, Claudia has a B.A. in Communication Studies from UCLA and an M.A. in Communications Management from U
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Courtney Sheehan (Alliance for Action)Building Organizational Transparency from the Ground Up presented with Alliance for Action
Courtney Sheehan is a member and co-founder of Alliance for Action, a national collective of film professionals working to center racial equity and social justice inside film organizations.
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CR Capers (Harlem Film House | Hip Hop Film Festival)Building Loyalty & Audience Engagement in Virtual Spaces
CR Capers is the Founder and CEO of Harlem Film House, a 501(c) 3) corporation, providing filmmakers services & resources to ensure longevity in careers in film, theatre, and related entrepreneurial pursuits in underserved communities around the world.
In her role as Executive Director, CR creates and produces film & music festivals, operates year-round workshops, theatre productions, & live events, and oversees thriving streaming network, 247films.tv. The programs she produces provide an ecosystem with marketing and strategic partnerships between filmmakers, activists, businesses, entrepreneurs, and the community at large.
She is the founder and director of the award-winning Hip Hop Film Festival, named “BEST NEW FILM FESTIVAL THE UNITED STATES”. Her popular radio show and podcast “Why You Mad Son?” (which deals with the social ills plaguing the human community) generated over 3 million listeners worldwide and still boasts a legion of loyal fans raised in the global Hip Hop culture.
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Curtis Caesar John (The Luminal Theater)Reimagining Film Festivals Workshop with Full Spectrum Features
Curtis Caesar John is an arts manager, advocate, and filmmaker. He believes in cinema as one of the most powerful means of sharing life's stories and furthering our understanding of one another, even within our own cultures. He is the Founder and Executive Director of The Luminal Theater, a nomadic microcinema that brings Black independent films directly to Black communities and audiences, as well as to general audiences interested and invested in the Black cinematic voices.
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Dalila Ali Rajah (Black Queer Joy, Fyre Faerie Pictures)Dinner, Dish & Drunken Queer Trivia, presented by GQue Films
Powerhouse storyteller, Dalila Ali Rajah is a wonderful mixture of sandalwood, cinnamon, and cayenne pepper. Whether she is lighting up the stage with her critically acclaimed acting skills or her mesmerizing dance moves, she is simply a joy to watch. She is a dynamic multi-hyphenate griot; actress, writer, and producer. Ali Rajah holds a BA in Theatre from Spelman College, an MFA in Acting from California Institute of the Arts (Calarts), and was in the inaugural class of the London based Identity School of Acting’s (IDSA) LA campus. This well-known lauded activist and content creator was selected as one of The Advocate Magazine’s Entertainers of the Year. She Co-Created Cherry Bomb!, which ran 5 seasons on Canada’s OutTV, and her award winning short film Secrets and Toys which she wrote, produced, and stars in is now showing on Outfest NOW and OML (One More Lesbian).
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Daniel Kaplan (Fever Content)The Social Media Conundrum: Is it Working & Alternatives
Daniel E. Kaplan is a Digital Marketing Consultant and Social Media Director representing brands, festivals, feature films, and more. He has spent the last decade working in the film marketing, education, and service sectors. Project highlights include digital grassroots marketing campaigns for: the HBO film Notes From The Field by MacArthur Fellow and Pulitzer Prize nominee Anna Deavere Smith; the ABC News/Lincoln Square Productions Emmy-nominated documentary Let it Fall by Academy Award® winner John Ridley; Ridley’s Milwaukee-based creative space, No Studios; the first online and nationwide edition of DOC NYC’s annual documentary film festival; and the transformational documentary Free Trip To Egypt which premiered in 500 theaters across the US and went on to inspire the global #PledgeToListen initiative.
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Daniela Dale Velez (Jacob Burns Film Center)Next Level Grant Writing
Daniela Velez is a creative development and institutional giving professional with a well-honed talent for writing clearly and passionately about meaningful subjects. She works with a broad variety of individuals, from donors and legislators to filmmakers and educators, to secure vital funds for a multitude of media arts programs and the Jacob Burns Film Center. With a background in corporate sales and database management, her career spans over several industries including retail banking, healthcare, and finance. Daniela holds a BA in English, with a concentration in Creative Writing from SUNY New Paltz, as well as an AS in Accounting from Dutchess Community College.
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Danny Madden (Beast Beast)Filmmaker POV presented with IFP
Madden grew up in the southeastern United States making movies with brothers and friends under the moniker ORNANA. His freelance career was built on directing, animation, and sound design. In 2012, he was listed on Filmmaker Magazine's "25 New Faces of Independent Film" after '(Notes on) Biology' won the animation prize at SXSW. BEAST BEAST, his debut feature premiered at Sundance in 2020 (Executive produced by Alec Baldwin).
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David Ninh (Kino Lorber)Ally or Antagonist: Presented with Queering the Cinema
David Ninh is the Director of Press and Publicity at independent art house film distributor Kino Lorber, a leading North American distributor of foreign, independent, documentary, and classic films released through theatrical, digital and home video. Prior to Kino Lorber, he was the first film and arts publicity hire at global creative crowdfunding platform Kickstarter as Senior Communications Specialist, where he partnered with hundreds of creators during the initial funding stages of successful film, arts and culture projects. He has also worked on the publicity teams at Film at Lincoln Center, New York Film Festival and PMK*BNC. A former Texan, he started his career as an entertainment and style reporter for The Dallas Morning News. He also currently works as an independent documentary producer with NY-based film production company Still Point Pictures.
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David Serio (Arab American National Museum)Building Loyalty & Audience Engagement in Virtual Spaces
David Serio is an Education and Public Programming Specialist at the Arab American National Museum (AANM). He holds a M.A. in Near Eastern Studies and Arabic from Wayne State University. Mr. Serio joined the AANM in January of 2011. As an Educator and Public Programmer, Mr. Serio conducts educational presentations and workshops both in person and online. Mr. Serio also helps in the planning and implementation of youth programs and cultural events, such as the SURA Arts Academy, a youth photography program. Like many of us, he wears multiple hats, including Volunteer Coordinator and Curator of the Arab Film Festival and is in charge of all subsequent film programming at the AANM. He also proudly serves on the board of the Anton Art Center, Macomb County Pride, Friends of the Detroit Film Theatre and DAFT. On a more personal note, Dave identifies as a third-generation Arab American, whose family comes from Lebanon.
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Donald Young (Center for Asian American Media (CAAM), CAAMFest)Diversifying Decision-Makers
Donald Young is Director of Programs for the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM), and has been responsible for building CAAM’s stature as a national producer of documentaries and independent feature films. Most recently, Young was Executive Producer on the historic PBS series “Asian Americans,” a co-production with WETA and Renee Tajima-Peña. In 2020, he also produced the critically-acclaimed independent feature “Coming Home Again” by Wayne Wang, APIAVote’s 2020 Presidential Town Hall, which featured a live policy conversation with President-elect Joe Biden, and a live concert special with Tony Award winner Lea Salonga at the Sydney Opera House for PBS’s “Great Performances.” Young has been an advocate for equity and accountability in filmmaking for decades, and is a member of the Documentary branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
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Emily Beitiks (Superfest Disability Film Festival)
Emily Beitiks received a Ph.D. in American Studies with a focus in Disability Studies at the University of Minnesota. She has taught social justice at the University of Minnesota, UC Santa Cruz, and UC Davis, and is currently Adjunct Faculty at Menlo College. In her current position as Associate Director of the Longmore Institute on Disability at San Francisco State University, she continues her work as a scholar and advocate of disability to showcase how disabled people bring unique value that can benefit us all. She also serves as co-director for Superfest Disability Film Festival, the longest running disability film festival in the world.
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Emily Salmonson (FilmScene)Getting Physical: The PPE Story
Emily is a hospitality guru dedicated to creating a cozy home for cinephiles at FilmScene, a 2-location, 5-screen non-profit arts cinema in the heart of downtown Iowa City.
She enjoys the variety of tasks that goes into being the Director of Operations at FilmScene, whether it is managing memberships, poring over safety protocol or perfecting the concessions line-up. She also just plain loves people who love movies.
When she isn't at the theater or thinking about the theater, she is typically planning her next vacation... which is now set for sometime in the year 2027. She also thoroughly enjoys being a mom, can't get enough internet scrabble and will always be down for team trivia.
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Erica Thompson (Ashland Independent Film Festival)Budgeting Re-Forecasting: Adapting for Different Scenarios
Erica is the Executive Director of the Ashland Independent Film Festival in southern Oregon and also serves on the board of the FFA.
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Eugene Hernandez (Film at Lincoln Center)
Eugene Hernandez is Director of the New York Film Festival and Publisher of Film Comment at Film at Lincoln Center where he serves as Deputy Executive Director. His duties include strategic leadership, programming special events, and managing emerging artist, industry, and education initiatives. He joined Film at Lincoln Center in 2010 as Director of Digital Strategy to develop digital platforms and content. In 1996, Hernandez co-founded IndieWire, which he built over 15 years as it became the leading editorial publication for independent and international films, filmmakers, industry, and audiences. He was named on Out magazine’s OUT100 list in 2015 and has served as a juror at Sundance, SXSW, and the Film Independent Spirit Awards.
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Eugene Sun Park (Full Spectrum Features NFP)Diversifying Decision-Makers; Reimagining Film Festivals Workshop with Full Spectrum Features
Eugene is a filmmaker and producer working in narrative and experimental forms. His films have screened at over 400 festivals, micro-cinemas, museums, and alternative screening venues around the world, including SXSW, BAMcinemafest, Outfest, Frameline, Chicago International, Cleveland International, Chicago Underground, Athens International Film + Video Festival, and Antimatter. His feature-length script Michael’s Story (a fictional drama inspired by the 1982 murder of Vincent Chin) won the screenplay competition at the 37th Asian American International Film Festival in New York.
Eugene is the 2020 Community Impact Scholar of the Harvard Business School Alumni Club of Chicago, and he was the 2019 recipient of the Jan and Frank Cicero Fellowship at the Newberry Library. Described by Newcity as “essential to the film world of Chicago,” Eugene was recently inducted into the magazine’s inaugural Film 50 Hall of Fame.
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Evelyn McGee Colbert (Montclair Film Festival)Humane Resources
Evelyn McGee Colbert is a founding board member of Montclair Film and currently serves as the President of the Board of Trustees. Ms. Colbert is a member of the Board of Trustees for the Montclair Kimberley Academy and is also a board member of the International African American Museum in Charleston South Carolina. In April of 2020, Ms. Colbert was appointed to NJ Governor Phil Murphy’s Restart and Recovery Commission. She is an independent film producer and the Vice President of Spartina Productions, a production company that she co-owns with her husband, Stephen Colbert. Evelyn and Stephen are executive producers on the upcoming “Derek DelGaudio’s In & Of Itself,” which will premiere on Hulu, January 22, 2021.
Ms. Colbert was formerly the Director of Development for the Remains Theatre in Chicago and, prior to that, the Director of Development for the Drama League of New York.
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Faridah Gbadamosi (Coven Film Festival/Athena Film Festival)Rethinking Programming Categories & Barriers
Faridah is a pop culture obsessed lover of film working towards making the space more inclusive with more than ten years of experience. In particular, her interests are in changing the space of tastemakers, both in what gets curated as well as who does the curating. She is currently the Director of Programming for Coven Film Festival, a festival that showcases the work of filmmakers from marginalized genders, the Programmer at Athena Film Festival, and the US Indies Programmer at Mill Valley Film Festival.
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Gemma Gracewood (Letterboxd)Expanded Universe: 2020 As a Turning Point for Film Lovers
Gemma Gracewood is the Editor in Chief of Letterboxd, with a background in writing, producing, publicity and playing the ukulele.
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Geraud Blanks (Milwaukee Film)What is the New Break Even?: Redefining Success from An Experiential POV
Dating back to his time as a student programmer at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Geraud Blanks has been a leading advocate for Milwaukee area artists and creatives for more than 20 years. As co-founder of Milwaukee Film’s Black lens program in 2014, Blanks helped establish one of the country’s few major film series concentrated solely on the work of African American filmmakers.
In addition to his work in the arts, Blanks also has a long history in community service. A former community organizer and domestic violence caseworker, Blanks has committed much of his life to advocating for marginalized groups. Blanks utilizes such experiences in his current role as director of Cultures and Communities for Milwaukee Film.
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Gina Cuomo (Denver Film)Getting Physical: The PPE Story
Originally from Queens, Gina landed herself in Colorado in 1997. She paid her dues working for theatre chains such as Regal and Landmark before landed a spot working the Denver Film Festival in 2006. She quickly moved her way into a management position and currently sits as the Director of Operations for Denver Film. Aside from her love of the cinematic experience, Gina is an avid baseball fan and a loyalist to the hit television phenomenon LOST.
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Gina Duncan (Sundance Film Festival)Opening Conversation
As Producing Director, Gina integrates the artistic vision of the Festival with its practical elements as well as working to increase the inclusivity of the festival and manage year-round engagement among the industry and artist communities.
Duncan previously served as V.P. of Film and Strategic Programming at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and was Director of Industry Engagement and Special Programs at the Jacob Burns Film Center.
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Ira Deutchman (Deutchman Company)Critical Thinking: Talking Indie Exhibition with Film Critics
Ira Deutchman has been making, marketing and distributing films since 1975, having worked on over 150 films including some of the most successful independent films of all time. He was one of the founders of Cinecom and later created Fine Line Features—two companies that were created from scratch and, in their respective times, helped define the independent film business. He was also a co-founder of Emerging Pictures, the first digital projection network in the United States and a pioneer in delivering live cultural events into movie theaters.
Currently Deutchman is an independent producer, and a consultant in marketing and distribution of independent films. He is also a Professor of Professional Practice in the School of the Arts at Columbia University, where he was the Chair of the Film Program from 2011-2015.
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Isaac Zablocki (JCC Manhattan / ReelAbilities Film Festival)Staffing Sustainability: Retention in the Age of COVID-19
Isaac Zablocki is the Director of Film Programs at Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan and the ReelAbilities Film Festival. He attended film school at Columbia University and went on to work at Miramax Films. Previously, he produced and directed feature films and developed film educational programs for the Department of Education. Since 2004, Isaac has been developing film programs at the JCC including the Israel Film Center. Beyond ReelAbilities, he programs multiple film festivals annually, including the acclaimed Other Israel Film Festival, which focuses on Arab and underrepresented populations in Israel.
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Isabel Sandoval (Lingua Franca)Expanded Universe: 2020 As a Turning Point for Film Lovers
Recognized by the Museum of Modern Art as a “rarity among the young generation of Filipino filmmakers for her muted, serene aesthetic,” Isabel Sandoval has premiered her films at major festivals like Venice, Locarno, London, and Busan. Cahiers Du Cinéma profiled her in April 2020 upon the French release of Lingua Franca, which was then acquired in North America by Ava DuVernay’s ARRAY and premiered on Netflix. She is currently in development on her fourth feature, Tropical Gothic, a sixteenth-century colonial drama with surreal elements with shades of Hitchcock’s Vertigo. The project has been selected for the 2021 Berlinale Co-production Market.
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Jamie Webb (Milwaukee Film)Meet the 2020 Leadership Lab Fellows
After graduating with a Bachelors in Film Studies in the United Kingdom, his home country, Jamie moved to the United States and began a nomadic career working various corners of the film festival circuit. He worked seasonally for respected film festivals such as Sundance, Tribeca, Full Frame, and Cucalorus before landing a year-round position with Milwaukee Film where he is currently the Festival Manager.
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Janet McIntyre (Executive Service Corps of Southern CA)Board Diversification & Accountability
Janet McIntyre works with nonprofit organizations’ staff and board members in areas of organizational development and leadership development. She is a certified professional coach, facilitator, and trainer with nearly 25 years of professional experience in the non-profit sector. Currently she is the VP of Programs and Training at Executive Service Corps of Southern California and she also has a private practice in which she gets to work with inspiring, talented people who are working to transform the world.
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Jason Fitzroy Jeffers (Third Horizon)Diversifying Decision-Makers
Jason Fitzroy Jeffers is a filmmaker from Barbados who has produced award-winning short films such as "Papa Machete" and "T" that have screened at festivals such as Sundance, BlackStar, and Berlinale. He is also Co-Executive Director of Third Horizon, a creative collective that stages the annual Third Horizon Film Festival in Miami, a showcase of cinema from the Caribbean, its diaspora, and other underrepresented spaces in the Global South.
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Jason Matsumoto (Full Spectrum Features)Reimaging Film Festivals Workshop with Full Spectrum Features
Jason is a 4th generation Japanese American producer and musician from Chicago. He is the co-founder of Full Spectrum Features, a film company that drives equity into the independent film industry by producing and distributing the work of women, POC, and LGBTQ+ filmmakers.
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Jessica Green (The Houston Cinema Arts Society (and Festival))Being A Good Neighbor to Fellow Festivals & Filmmakers
Jessica Green is the Artistic Director of the Houston Cinema Arts Society and the Houston Cinema Arts Festival, Houston’s largest film festival, which took place virtually and at Drive-In Theaters around Houston in 2020. She was the co-founding Cinema Director of the Maysles Documentary Center in Harlem, founded by legendary documentarian Albert Maysles, from 2008-2018, and responsible for garnering the center’s status as an Oscar qualifying venue.
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Jim Cummings (Independent film!)Expanded Universe: 2020 As a Turning Point for Film Lovers
Jim Cummings is a writer/director/actor and active Letterboxd user. His films are Thunder Road, The Wolf of Snow Hollow, and The Beta Test.
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Jim Farmer (Out On Film)Dinner, Dish & Drunken Queer Trivia, presented by GQue Films
Jim Farmer has served as the festival director/executive director of Out On Film, Atlanta's LGBTQ film festival, since 2008. Under his leadership, Out On Film became an Oscar qualifying film festival last year. A jury member of several film festivals, Jim was named as one of Out Georgia Business Alliance's 100 Most Influential LGBTQ Georgians in 2020 as well as one of Atlanta Magazine's Atlanta 500 Most Powerful City Leaders. Also an arts reporter for publications throughout the Atlanta area, Jim lives in Avondale Estates (just outside Atlanta) with his husband Craig and dog Douglas.
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John Ridley (NO STUDIOS)A Fireside Chat with NO Studios founder John Ridley and COO Lisa Caesar
John Ridley is an Academy Award winning screenwriter, director, novelist, playwright and showrunner whose credits include 12 Years A Slave, Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992, “American Crime,” and All Is By My Side.
The Other History of the DC Universe, a new graphic miniseries he is writing for DC Comics, launched in November to critical acclaim.
In the fall of 2018 Ridley opened NO Studios, a space for the arts and community, in his hometown of Milwaukee.
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Judith Laster (Woods Hole Film Festival)Fair Use: What Do We Need to Know
Judy Laster is the founder and director of the Woods Hole Film Festival, now in its 30th year. She is also a filmmaker and an attorney in Massachusetts.
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Justin Cook (Justin Cook PR)Ally or Antagonist: Presented with Queering the Cinema
Justin Cook is a veteran public relations professional in the film industry, leading publicity campaigns for over 750 independent films in the past decade.
Titles include the 15th anniversary re-release of Richard Kelly’s Donnie Darko, acclaimed documentaries such as Emmy winner Matt Shepard is a Friend of Mine, GLAAD Media Award nominee Tab Hunter Confidential, Invasion of the Scream Queens, T-Rex, genre fare such as We Are the Flesh, Blood Punch, The Black String starring Frankie Muniz, The ToyBox starring Denise Richards, Havenhurst and The Fare, and indie dramas Whiskey Galore starring Eddie Izzard, Live Cargo starring Lakeith Stanfield, Around the Block starring Christina Ricci and For Those in Peril.
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Justin Timms (Nightstream/Brooklyn Horror Film Fest)Being A Good Neighbor to Fellow Festivals & Filmmakers
Justin Timms is the Creative Director of Brooklyn Horror Film Festival and one of the co-founders of North Bend Film Festival and the genre film sales company Yellow Veil Pictures.
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Kathleen McInnis (See-Through Films)Filmmaker POV presented with IFP
Drawing upon her thirty years experience in festival programming, film publicity and producing, Kathleen McInnis helps world cinema filmmakers merge their creative and business development via the film festival circuit.
As strategic publicist, Kathleen represents world cinema films premiering at Toronto, Cannes, Berlin, Sundance, and Karlovy Vary festivals.
As producer, Kathleen’s recent films include RETABLO (2019 BAFTA and Film Independent Spirit Award-nominee; Peru’s official Oscar-submission), and the Swedish feature documentary-in-production, BROADCAST (Plattform Produktions). Her documentary film, BIGvsSMALL, is currently on the festival circuit.
Kathleen currently curates the Seattle Int’l Film Festival’s New Works-in-Progress Forum, bringing together documentary and narrative filmmakers both, industry mentors, and audience at the critical creative moment before the film is locked.
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Katie McCullough (Festival Formula Ltd)Filmmaker Lounge: Audience UX
Festival Formula is a consultancy company that focuses on strategy and submissions support for filmmakers worldwide. With Katie's 16+ years experience (and counting), they are a leading light in helping filmmakers to navigate the circuit. They are an active member of the Short Film Conference and one of the few UK members of the Film Festival Alliance. Katie is also a key spokesperson on festival issues with coverage in The Hollywood Reporter and Screen Daily regarding suspect and fraudulent film festivals. She co-created the Filmmaker Lounge in partnership with Film Festival Alliance – an online space for programmers and filmmakers to discuss their roles as a regular online event, previous guests include: Tribeca, Slamdance, Heartland Film, PÖFF Shorts, and many more.
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Keith Phipps (Freelance Writer)Expanded Universe: 2020 As a Turning Point for Film Lovers
Keith Phipps is a freelance writer specializing in film, television, and other aspects of pop culture whose work has appeared in Vulture, The Ringer, Rolling Stone and other publications. Keith previously worked as the editor of The Dissolve and The A.V. Club and is currently writing a book about Nicolas Cage movies.
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Kevin Sampson (DC Black Film Festival)Critical Thinking: Talking Indie Exhibition with Film Critics
The fact that Kevin Sampson is not just a film critic, but a writer, producer, and director as well makes his understanding of cinema even better. Coming from a theoretical and hands on approach, he understands both sides of the struggle of viewing and creating great works. After receiving an MFA in Film & Electronic Media from American University in Washington, D.C in 2011, Kevin took his love for film to the next level by creating and producing Picture Lock, an entertainment website, radio show/podcast, and hour long film review TV show. He has served as the director of the Rosebud Film Festival since 2013. He created the DC Black Film Festival in 2016 in an effort to create a space to exhibit quality productions by and about people of African descent.
He is also a member of the Washington DC Area Film Critics Association, North Carolina Film Critics Association and African American Film Critics Association.
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Kiwi Lanier (Sidewalk Film Center + Cinema)Meet the 2020 Leadership Lab Fellows
Kiwi Lanier is the Education/Outreach Coordinator and Interim Marketing Coordinator for Sidewalk Film Center + Cinema. They have a B.A. in Media and Film Studies from Birmingham-Southern College and an M.A. in Media Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. They have been involved with Sidewalk since 2012. In their free time, Kiwi obsesses over their dog and is constantly trying to find their keys.
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Lana Garland (Hayti Heritage Film Festival)Programming: Building An Exhibitor Responsibility Tool Kit
Lana Garland has worked as a filmmaker, creative director, director, writer/producer, curator, and educator in television and film in the U.S., Europe, and Africa. She has created content for HBO, BET, PBS, and ESPN in America, and TV2 in Denmark. Her creative practice centers on cultural memory restoration in the lives of African Americans. She has been commissioned to make films for multimedia live performances such as Blues Women, which presents the female progenitors of blues music. Lana is a Fulbright Specialist, having taught at Makerere University in Uganda. Currently, she is a producer on a documentary about the waning presence of Black funeral homes in America, The Passing On. Lana is the festival director of the Hayti Heritage Film Festival, and a member of the North Carolina Governor’s Advisory Council on Film, Television, and Digital Streaming.
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Larry Brilliant, MD, MPH (Founder and CEO of Pandefense Advisory, epidemiologist, philanthropist)A Fireside Chat with Larry Brilliant, MD, MPH
Dr. Larry Brilliant is a physician and epidemiologist, CEO of Pandefense Advisory, and a CNN Medical Analyst. Previously, he served on the board of the Skoll Foundation, was Chair of the Advisory Board of the NGO Ending Pandemics, the president and CEO of the Skoll Global Threats Fund, vice president of Google, and the founding executive director of Google.org. He co-founded the Seva Foundation, an NGO whose programs have given back sight to more than 5 million blind people in two dozen countries. In addition, he co-founded The Well, a progenitor of today's social media platforms. Earlier in his career, Dr. Brilliant was an associate professor of epidemiology and international health planning at the University of Michigan. Dr. Brilliant lived in India for nearly a decade where he was a key member of the successful WHO Smallpox Eradication Programme for SE Asia as well as the WHO Polio Eradication Programme. He was the founding chairman of the National Biosurveillance Advisory Subcommit
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Leah Sitkoff (Atlanta Jewish Film Festival)Building Loyalty & Audience Engagement in Virtual Spaces
Leah Sitkoff is an entertainment and media professional who is currently serving as the Communications Manager for the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival. Her past work experience includes MTV, Cartoon Network/Turner, and The Georgia Lottery. And she also served as a board member for Serenbe Film.
Leah received her BFA in Theatre Performance from the University of Florida and is also a graduate of the core Sketch and Improv programs at Upright Citizens Brigade in New York City.
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Lela Meadow-Conner (Film Festival Alliance)
Lela has served as Executive Director of the Film Festival Alliance since April 2017. She comes to FFA with over 20 years of experience in the film industry, 15 of those spent in the festival world. A co-founder of the Tallgrass Film Festival, she has also served in consulting roles for the Woods Hole Film Festival and Geena Davis’ Bentonville Film Festival. She has participated in the Artist Inc. program through Mid-America Arts Alliance, and The Industry Academy, a program of Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Locarno Film Festival. She is the founder of mama.film, currently serves on the Board of the Vidiots Foundation, as co-Producer on the forthcoming documentary Chasing Chasing Amy, and Executive Producer on the web series Quarantine, I Love You. Lela possesses a deep understanding of how cinematic arts organizations can bolster a community, with an emphasis on arts advocacy, collaboration and independent storytelling.
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Leslie Raymond (Ann Arbor Film Festival)Balancing Sponsorship in the Virtual & IRL Worlds
Media artist and educator Leslie Raymond joined the Ann Arbor Film Festival as its executive director in August 2013. Prior to that, she founded a New Media Program at the University of Texas at San Antonio and served as assistant professor of art in digital video and new media art at Oakland University, where she was recognized with an Innovations in Teaching award. Raymond excels at organizing special projects that bring together practitioners to advance the conversation around contemporary cinema practice.
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Lex Sloan (Roxie Theater)Budgeting Re-Forecasting: Adapting for Different Scenarios
Lex Sloan is the Executive Director at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco. She graduated with an MFA from San Francisco State University and a BA in Social Change Media from Western Washington University. Sloan has a passion for exhibition and distribution previously working with Frameline Film Festival and the Green Film Festival. She is also an accomplished filmmaker with a passion for social justice and equity producing the award-winning web series DYKE CENTRAL and many short films. Sloan is a devoted member LGBTQ filmmaking community and is committed to ensuring that queer history is preserved and shared through the power of cinema. Lex survives on baby animals photos and snacks.
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Lisa Caesar (No Studios)
Lisa Caesar graduated with Honors in Economics from Oberlin College and holds a Masters in Business Administration from Harvard Business School. She has worked in the financial arena for various banks and investment banks both in the United States and abroad. Her previous employers include Lehman Brothers, Citigroup and JP Morgan where held the title Executive Director, Global Capital Markets. Lisa currently serves as the chief operating officer of No Studios in Milwaukee, WI. She resides in Westchester, NY with her husband, three children and a beloved labradoodle named Darcy."
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Lisa Califf (Donaldson & Califf)Fair Use: What Do We Need to Know
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Lisa Vandever (CineKink)Rethinking Programming Categories & Barriers
As co-founder and director of CineKink, an organization that recognizes and encourages the positive depiction of sexuality in film and television, Lisa Vandever curates and oversees an annual film festival and touring series, designed to promote and showcase such works. Billing itself as "the kinky film festival," with offerings drawn from both the independent cinema world and the adult, works presented at CineKink range from documentary to drama, comedy to experimental, slightly spicy to quite explicit--and everything in between.
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Logan Crow (The Frida Cinema)
Logan Crow is the founder and Executive Director of The Frida Cinema, located in Santa Ana, CA, and serving as the sole art house cinema in the county of Orange. A lifelong film lover, Crow has a particular love for avant garde, cult, and genre/horror cinema.
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Logan Taylor (Fantastic Fest)Meet the 2020 Leadership Lab Fellows
Logan Taylor is an Austin-based film professor, programmer, producer, consultant, and critic. Currently, Logan serves as Associate Director of Programming for Fantastic Fest, consults for Blood Oath, mentors projects for Frontieres, and teaches film courses at Austin Community College. She's never afraid of any movie, always afraid of every spider.
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Maggie Mackay (Vidiots Foundation)The Social Media Conundrum: Is it Working & Alternatives
Maggie Mackay developed her interest in film as a child at her hometown NYC video store (the late, great Rare Bird Video) and at her local movie theaters Film Forum, The Waverly, and the Quad. Mackay relocated to Los Angeles in 1999, and for thirteen years served as Senior Programmer of the Los Angeles Film Festival and Director of Nominations for the Independent Spirit Awards. She has also held positions at Sundance Institute, AFI Fest, Aspen Film, and numerous arts organizations, advocating for filmmakers and connecting audiences to cinema. Mackay returned to her video store roots when she joined Vidiots as its first Executive Director in 2016.
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Mark Anastasio (Coolidge Corner Theatre.)Midnight Session
Program Manager and Director of Special Programming at the Coolidge Corner Theatre.
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Mark Fishkin (California Film Institute)A Fireside Chat with Larry Brilliant, MD, MPH
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Masashi Niwano (CAAM)
Masashi Niwano is the Festival & Exhibition Director at the Center for Asian American Media. He is a Bay Area native who holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Film Production from San Francisco State University. Masashi has been associated with CAAM for almost two decades, starting as an intern, then becoming involved in theater operations and, finally, being chosen as a selected filmmaker (Falling Stars, 2006). Prior to re-joining CAAM as Festival & Exhibition Director, Masashi was the Executive Director for the Austin Asian American Film Festival.
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Melanie Addington (Oxford Film Festival)Staffing Sustainability: Retention in the Age of COVID-19
Melanie Addington has worked with the Oxford Film Festival since 2006 in various capacities and became Executive Director in August 2015. She also directs, writes, and produces films and serves on the Mississippi Film Alliance as President. In 2020 she launched a new drive-in and year round film series. She co-founded OxFilm, the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council's program to lend equipment to Oxford filmmakers.
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Melinda Morgan (The Belcourt Theatre)Getting Physical: The PPE Story
Melinda Morgan is the Operations Director for the Belcourt Theatre in Nashville, TN. Understanding your venue operations is a vital part of running a successful organization. Just as important is empowering your staff in their decision making processes to further enhance, protect and promote our institutions. Allowing out of the box thinking and the opportunity to search for solutions as issues arise is a vital component for arming our staff with opportunities to excel and make our industry successful.
Melinda graduated from the University of Alabama with a BA in Arts Administration. She has worked for over 20 years in various for profit and non-profit organizations in retail/visual merchandising, event management and operations. She loves all genres of movies and enjoys watching them at Belcourt Theatre.
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Miguel Rodriguez (Horrible Imaginings Film Festival)
Miguel Rodriguez is the founder and Executive Director of the Horrible Imaginings, a San Diego-based film festival dedicated to genre cinema, performance, and art. He is also a film curator and programmer for San Diego Latino Film Festival, The Film Geeks San Diego, and Digital Gym Cinema. By day, he helps support and train instructors for the Educational Technology Services Department of UC San Diego.
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Natalie Bullock Brown (Working Films)Programming: Building An Exhibitor Responsibility Tool Kit
Natalie Bullock Brown is an award-winning and Emmy-nominated producer, and a Teaching Assistant Professor in Interdisciplinary Studies at North Carolina State University. She is director/producer of baartman, beyoncé & me, a documentary work-in-progress that explores the impact of beauty ideals on Black women and girls; and is a producer on award-winning filmmaker Byron Hurt’s upcoming PBS documentary, HAZING. Natalie is StoryShift Strategist with Working Films, where she guides the organization’s work in ethical and accountable documentary storytelling. Natalie is a regular contributor to #BackChannel, a monthly segment on the North Carolina public radio program, The State of Things. For more than a decade, Natalie was an assistant professor of film and broadcast media in the Department of Media & Communications at Saint Augustine's University in Raleigh. She also served as co-host of Black Issues Forum, a public affairs program on UNC-TV, North Carolina’s statewide public tel
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Opal Hope Bennett (DOC NYC)Rethinking Programming Categories & Barriers
Opal has been a Programmer since 2014, joining DOC NYC in 2015 and POV in 2020. Beginning as a volunteer for the first Sundance London Film Festival, she now curates year round. Opal is on the programming teams for Athena Film Festival and DOCNYC, and is a Program Consultant for The March on Washington Film Festival. She is the Shorts Producer at American Documentary's POV. A Columbia Law grad, Opal holds a Masters in Media Studies from the LSE, and received her B.A. from New York University.
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Peter Jasso (Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission)Next Level Grant Writing
Peter Jasso is a graduate of USC’s School of Cinema-Television with a degree in Film/ Video Production and an alumnus of Film Independent’s Project Involve Mentorship program. He has worked in a variety of capacities in the entertainment industry including sound recording and designing for independent film/video projects, development for various production companies including American Zoetrope. He has produced and directed several short films and is a recipient of the Mana de Topeka media award and the KC Film Fest Karen McCarthy Outstanding Service Award. Peter has served as Director of the Kansas Film Commission since 2002 and Director of the Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission since its creation in 2012.
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Robin Robinson (Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, Mountainfilm)Meet the 2020 Leadership Lab Fellows
Robin Robinson is dedicated to independent film. She’s a programmer for Mountainfilm and the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival. She’s served as a Programming Coordinator for the SCAD Savannah Film Festival and the Nashville Film Festival, where she managed the Screenwriting Competition and worked as a Senior Programmer. In addition to her programming experience, she has served as a screener, reader, and judge for numerous film competitions and festivals. She received an M.F.A. in Film with a focus in screenwriting at the Watkins College of Film in 2018. Her works primarily focus on the exploration of identity and the pressure to conform to societal masks.
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Ryan Spahn (NORA HIGHLAND)Dinner, Dish & Drunken Queer Trivia, presented by GQue Films
Ryan Spahn is an actor and writer from Detroit. His screenwriting credits include the feature films Nora Highland (NewFest Film Festival premiere), Woven (LA Film Festival premiere, co-writer), Grantham & Rose (Cleveland International Film Festival premiere), and He's Way More Famous Than You (Slamdance Film Festival premiere, co-writer). Ryan co-created the digital series What's Your Emergency, was a producer for Logo's Cocktails & Classics, and co-created the original pilot When I Was Your Age (Warner Bros). As a playwright, his plays include Inspired By True Events, Nora Highland, Adrienne and The White Bird, Conversations with the Other Side, and Blessed and Highly Favored. Ryan is a graduate of The Juilliard School, and will appear in the upcoming seasons of Modern Love (Amazon) and The Second Wave (CBS Spectrum Originals). His work has been published by Rotten Tomatoes, American Theatre Magazine, and USA Today.
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Ryan Watt (Indie Memphis)Balancing Sponsorship in the Virtual & IRL Worlds
Ryan Watt is the Executive Director of Indie Memphis, creating community through independent film and supporting the development of filmmakers. The 24th annual Indie Memphis Film Festival is October 20 - 28, 2021.
Ryan is the producer of narrative feature films including PILGRIM SONG (Martha Stephens), FORTY YEARS FROM YESTERDAY (Robert Machoian & Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck), OPEN FIVE (Kentucker Audley) and Associate Producer of FREE IN DEED (Jake Mahaffy), Best Film Winner at Venice Film Festival Orizzonti Competition and nominated for four 2017 Film Independent Spirit Awards.
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Sabrina Aviles (Boston Latino International Film Festival)Confronting Reduced Bandwidth & Oversaturation
"Sabrina Avilés is an award-winning independent filmmaker, whose work has taken her throughout Latin America, Canada and Europe. During her 25+ year career, she has worked on many PBS programs. Currently, she is in pre-production for her first feature-length documentary on the city of Chelsea, MA and its response to the pandemic.
In 2016, Ms. Avilés became the Executive Director of the Boston Latino International Film Festival, after having served as its Associate Director from 2004 – 2007. In 2019, the Festival received a special commendation from the Boston Society of Film Critics, “for bringing to Boston audiences a varied, challenging line-up of local, national and international films by Latinx filmmakers, and for prioritizing outreach to community partners.”
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Sahar D Driver (Ford Foundation)The Future of Indie Exhibition Looks Like Us
Sahar Driver, PhD, is a documentary impact and engagement strategist. In her work she helps filmmakers, funders, and movement leaders advance their strategic use of film and media to support meaningful and sustainable change on a range of issues. Campaigns and projects that she has contributed to have gone on to influence public discourse and measurable change related to aging and eldercare, immigration, racial justice, worker advocacy and more. Sahar is also an educator and researcher and a consultant to the Hartley Media Impact Initiative at Auburn where she is piloting new impact models at the intersection of faith and film; the Ford Foundation's JustFilms for whom she recently authored the report Beyond Inclusion: The Critical Role of People of Color in the U.S. Documentary Ecosystem; and to Firelight Media where she supports grantmaking and impact.
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Samuel Thomas (Deep in the Heart Film Festival)The Social Media Conundrum: Is it Working & Alternatives
A native Texan, Samuel is the Artistic Director of the Deep in the Heart Film Festival in Waco. He is also a 20-year film & video professional based out of Dallas, and an independent filmmaker.
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Sapana Sakya (CAAMFest)Programming: Building An Exhibitor Responsibility Tool Kit
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Sarah Mosses (Together Films)Analyzing Data: Turning Data Sets into Actionable Items presented with Together Films
Sarah Mosses is the Founder & CEO of Together Films, a marketing, distribution & data company based in London & NYC. She is a leading speaker on Impact Distribution strategies and the intersection of film and technology. Sarah hosted the Digital Perspectives webinar series to support the transition to virtual screenings during lockdown, and continued with Digital Power alongside the Center for Media and Social Impact. Clients include Human Rights Watch FF, DOC NYC, Athena Film Festival, and films including Unrest, The Tale, Coded Bias and The 8th.
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Shane Kelly (A4A)Building Organizational Transparency from the Ground Up presented with Alliance for Action
Shane believes that technology and storytelling inspire the imagination -- and imagination will inspire a more equitable economy.
?As a film finance executive in New York, Shane helped realize visionary pictures such as Robert Altman’s A Prairie Home Companion and John Turturro’s Romance & Cigarettes. As a tech investor in California, he backed founders including Rachel Payne (FEM, Acquired by Nielsen Gracenote), Shane Hegde (Air), and Ramses Alcaide (Neurable). In total, Shane has participated in financing over 20 feature films and over 20 startups.
He has discussed bias in tech and venture capital with Forbes and Female Founders Alliance. Shane holds an MBA with distinction from University of Michigan where he was a Consortium for Graduate Study in Management Fellow. He earned a BS cum laude from Morehouse College where he studied Math and Physics. During school he circumnavigated Earth by boat for 100 days through Semester at Sea.
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Skye McLennan (San Luis Obispo International Film Festival)Meet the 2020 Leadership Lab Fellows; Humane Resources
Skye McLennan grew up in Templeton, CA and went on to receive her degree in Cinema from San Francisco State University. She also studied TV Documentary in Denmark at the Danish School of Media and Journalism. A dual citizen of Australia and the United States, postgrad she moved to Sydney, Australia and worked extensively in film production design on short films, features, advertisements, music videos and documentaries. She became involved in film festivals as a teenager starting out as a volunteer. Over the next ten years she went on to work in major film festivals including the Sydney, Sundance, Tribeca and San Francisco International Film Festivals. In 2019 she moved back to her hometown and became the Associate Director for the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival. In June of 2020, Skye was named Festival Director. Skye believes in the power and impact of cinema and bringing diverse voices to the screen and engaging her local community.
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Solomon Onita Jr. (Tazmanian Devil)Filmmaker POV presented with IFP
Solomon Onita, Jr’s films have garnered national awards and global acclaim. His first short film Joy, a story that deals with the complicated position of female genital mutilation, screened in over 60 film festivals and was subsequently distributed on all of HBO platforms, including Cinemax. His second short film Witch Hunt, a story that depicts an African folktale, won at the African International Film Festival and currently runs on Issa Rae’s Short Film Sunday channel. Solomon completed his debut feature film Tazmanian Devil in 2020. Starring Abraham Attah, Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine, Tazmanian Devil won the first ever John Singleton Award for Best First Feature, presented by Netflix, at the 2020 ABFF and is scheduled for release in February 2021, through 1091 Pictures. Solomon is an MFA graduate of Loyola Marymount University and is a fellowship recipient of the 2020 Warner Bros. Television Directors’ Workshop.
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Stephen Sloan (Ashland Independent Film Festival)Humane Resources
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Taylour Chang (Honolulu Museum of Art/Doris Duke Theater)Building Organizational Transparency from the Ground Up presented with Alliance for Action
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Tori A. Baker (Salt Lake Film Society)Confronting Reduced Bandwidth & Oversaturation
Tori is a celebrated nonprofit CEO devoted to exhibiting, creating, and preserving the big-screen experience. Tori currently serves as CEO/President of Salt Lake Film Society (SLFS). A leading voice in the nonprofit cinema space, Tori launched nationwide projects such as the National PSA Project and the AMC Networks and Sundance Channel in theaters project. She is Founder of MASTstudio.org, an accelerator filmmaking program in technology and animation production. Most recently she founded the nationwide project @homeArts, to protect art house theaters through Covid. She is a University of Utah Distinguished Alumna, Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Alumna, and Sego Awards Female CEO Finalist. A spirited collaborator, Tori honed entrepreneurial and innovation skills through leadership roles at Sundance Film Festival, Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (SLOC), and Muscular Dystrophy Association. Tori devotes her passion to film and nonprofit in
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Vera Bianchini (MSP Film Society)What is the New Break Even?: Redefining Success from An Experiential POV
Membership and Development Manager for the MSP Film Society. Worked with the MSP Film Society for 4 years.
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Vivian Hua (Northwest Film Forum)Reimagining Film Festivals Workshop with Full Spectrum Features
{\rtf1{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil Calibri;}{\f1\fnil PingFang SC;}{\f2\fnil Helvetica Neue;}}{\colortbl \red0\green0\blue0;\red0\green0\blue0;}\pard\cf0\f0\fs22 Vivian Hua (\cf1\fs20\f1 \u33775 ?\u23159 ?\u23159 ?\f2 ) is a writer, filmmaker, and organizer with semi-nomadic tendencies. As the Executive Director of Northwest Film Forum in Seattle, a Co-Founder of the civil rights film series, The Seventh Art Stand, and Editor-in-Chief of the interdisciplinary arts publication, REDEFINE, much of her work unifies her metaphysical interests with her belief that art can positively transform the self and society. In 2018, she released her narrative short film, Searching Skies\u8211 ?which touches on the controversial topic of Syrian refugee resettlement in the United States\u8211 ?and in 2021, she hopes to begin production on a comedic Asian-American series entitled Reckless Spirits. She is passionate about researching efforts to preserve cultural space and finding ways to covertly and overtly disrup
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Woody Smith (Avenue ISR)Opening: Festival Operations Survey; Presentation & Analysis of FFA Filmmaker & Audience Survey pres
Woody Smith is the President and Founder of Avenue ISR, a market research and strategy consultancy based in Traverse City, MI. In his 20 years of professional experience, Smith has partnered with clients to guide brand strategy, innovation, customer loyalty and solutions to complex community challenges. Woody has led all of Avenue ISR’s cinema and arts-related studies, including projects for the Art House Convergence, Film Festival Alliance, Cinereach and Bryn Mawr Film Institute. Other past and current clients include the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Great Lakes Commission and Interlochen Center for the Arts, among others. Woody holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a BA from Williams College.
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