Creating a more inclusive and equitable documentary field through intentional community building, offering filmmaker support and creative collaboration. Emily Abi-Kheirs is a documentary professional with a background in programming and distribution. Currently the Manager of Filmmaker Services for Women Make Movies, she supports and connects nonfiction femme-identifying filmmakers to industry leaders, opportunities, and resources. […]
Amplifying nuanced approaches to race, gender, and decoloniality in non-iction, experimental film and beyond. Dessane Lopez Cassell is a New York-based editor, writer, and curator. Her work centers nuanced approaches to race, gender, and decoloniality in non-fiction, experimental film, and artist’s moving image. As Editor-in-Chief of BlackStar’s journal, Seen, Cassell platforms film, art, and visual […]
Cultivating greater access to a myriad of makers, stories and styles in documentary exhibition. Dara Messinger is the longtime Director of Programming at DCTV where she oversees the honored organization’s screenings and events. Her curatorial work continues and deepens as she programs the long-awaited Firehouse: DCTV’s Cinema for Documentary Film, a dedicated home to […]
Bridging content producers and decision makers with community stakeholders and tastemakers to drive everyday social change around real issues and for real people. Brian Walker, CEO of Picture Motion, is a versatile change agent with over a decade of experience working at the intersection of culture, digital media, social enterprise, and social justice. Formerly, […]
Supporting production teams to create thoroughly researched and designed projects that are accurate and affirming. Ann Bennett is an Emmy-nominated, Peabody-nominated, NAACP Image Award-winning documentary filmmaker, multimedia producer and nonfiction storyteller creating a diversity of media for exhibitions, digital platforms and television networks like PBS, the World Channel, HBO and Showtime. Bennett’s multiplatform projects explore […]
Supporting filmmakers and building community through programming initiatives and creative collaboration. Amir George is an award winning filmmaker based in Chicago. George is a film programmer at True/False Film Fest and Chicago International Film Festival. George is the co-founder of the touring film series Black Radical Imagination. As an artist, George creates spiritual stories, […]
Advocating for disabled filmmakers and creating new systems to increase opportunities, accessibility and improve representation of disability in the industry. Amanda Upson left legal practice to produce, most recently producing the feature documentary A Long March, a Better Angels Lavine Fellowship awardee. She produced pilot Renegades: Kitty O’Neil and currently serves as series producer for […]
Zach is a Los Angeles based director and the co-founder of Optimist. His recent films include The Undocumented Lawyer (Tribeca 2020, HBO) and Five Years North (Grand Jury award DOCNYC 2020, Finalist duPont-Columbia Awards, PBS). Zach just completed a feature documentary with XTR called This Is Not Financial Advice—a character driven exploration of the psychology […]
Willow O’Feral is an award-winning filmmaker and co-founder of Haptic Pictures. Her documentary Sisters Rising premiered at Big Sky and broadcast on America ReFramed PBS. Her first documentary Break The Silence: Reproductive & Sexual Health Storieswas collaboratively created using a reproductive justice praxis. Willow lives in Vermont and is a proud member of New Day […]
Tyshun Wardlaw is a director and producer. Her feature documentary, Growing Up Milwaukee, is streaming exclusively on HBO Max and premiered at the American Black Film Festival in 2020. She is currently directing and producing a sports docuseries about an NBA team. She’s the owner of Wardlaw Productions, a Midwest-based production company in Chicago and Milwaukee.