Daniel Prypchan, Manuel R Mota
Award-Winning Filmmakers
The founder of Australian production company Human Productions, Daniel Prypchan is a directing graduate of the Sydney Film School, a recipient of the NSW Government Multi-Platform Screen Producer Scholarship - and a highly experienced Production Accountant (CPA) with years of experience on feature films, documentaries, television series and independent TV channels.
Daniel has produced over 20 films, making his directing debut with the self-penned, highly acclaimed short, 'Analysis.' Awards for short film include: 2012 Best Short Short (Harlem International Film Festival, US), 2012 Best International Short Film (Screen Stockport Film Festival, UK), 2013 Digital Film Award (San Francisco Frozen Film Festival, US) and more.
Of Ukrainian, Spanish and Venezuelan descent, Daniel is also a gifted and bilingual singer working across multiple music genres. He has featured in 15 self-produced, award-winning music videos - often stepping into the director's role - filmed across the globe in Sydney, Los Angeles, Venezuela, Mexico, the Philippines, Venice and Zaragoza, Spain. Awards include: 2020 Best Solo Artist Award (California Music Video & Film Awards, USA), 2020 Best Music Video (Asian Cinematography Awards, Philippines), 2018 Best Music Video (Mexico International Film Festival, Mexico), 2018 Best Music Video (Los Angeles Independent Film Festival Awards, USA), 2017 Best Español Music Video (Hollywood Hills Awards, USA) - and many more.
In addition to music, Daniel is a trained actor. He graduated from the Screenwise School of Acting, under Denise Roberts, and has studied privately with Lynette Sheldon and Annie Swan. Roles include the lead in CA-CHI-PUN (Prize Winner Tropfest, the World's Largest Short Film Festival) and principal parts in 'Dead Man Walking The Opera' (Andrew McManus Presents), 'RENT The Musical' and 'Sweeney Todd' in Sydney, Australia.
Olivia Chen
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Olivia Chen is a Chinese nature and wildlife documentary film producer and director. She is dedicating in making non-fictional factual films about rare species and wildlife stories in China. Her works includes A Song For Love - An Ape with An App, Rare Survivors—China’s Iconic Wildlife, Men Chasing Snow-leopard. A Song For Love - An Ape with An App wins NatureVision Film Festival 2020 (Ludwigsburg, Germany): Best Story, Cannes Corporate Media & TV Awards 2020 (Cannes, France): Silver Dolphin (Category: Nature & Wildlife)，US International Film & Video Festival 2020 (Redondo Beach, USA): Silver Screen (Category: Nature, Wildlife.
Edward C. Bartel II
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Edward C. Bartel II has been passionate about filmmaking for over 40 years. Originally from Detroit, Michigan, Edward was bitten by the filmmaking bug at the age of 12. After getting his associate’s degree in Mass Media while still in high school, Edward relocated to Hollywood to continue his filmmaking career. In 2015, the documentary film entitled, “From Watts to Senegal”, which Edward produced and directed, was screened at the Pan African Film Festival. In 2018, Bartel’s Christian docu-series “Transformed” won numerous awards including best documentary, best director, and best writer. Today, Edward continues to develop marketing videos, documentaries, web series, and non-profit videos for his company EB Films, which just completed the feature-length documentary “Just the Beginning: A Century of Political Power and the League of Women Voters”.
Vihang Suryavanshi
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Have a formal background in design, classical animation, filmmaking, computer graphics, visual effects, science and philosophy.
In the end we are all going to be stories, Lets create more.
Montse Bertran Arqué
Award-Winning Filmmaker
-2018. Co-Director Short Film: “TRAZOS”
-2018. Ambient Sound Effects Performance “LOS OLVIDADOS”
-2019. Director of Photography, video “COOKING WITH IVAN”
-2019. Co-direction Video presentation "D'ONES", by the artist Sergi González
-2019. NEOVITALHEALT Corporate Video Direction.
-2019. Camera Music video clip "QUERIDOS VAMPIROS", from the group Tren de Sombras
-2019. Production and editing Video-Art SPECTRO, of the work of the artist Pepe Jiménez
-2019. Production and editing of Video-Art VERTEDERO, of the work of the artist Pepe Jiménez
-2019. Production and editing of Video-Art CAÍDAS, of the work of the artist Pepe Jiménez
-2019. Production and editing of Video-Art FLOTACIÓN, of the work of the artist Pepe Jiménez
-2020. Directing Short film "WORMS' NEST"
-2020. Co-director of Video-Art "K.", with Pepe Jiménez Espejo
-2020. Co-director of the Video-Art "Metàllien", with Pepe Jiménez Espejo
-2020. Edition of the video-documentary “FLOWERS CARPETS, THE EPHERAL ART”
(Unesco Candidacy)
-2021. Assistant Director of the Short Film "THE TAXIDERMIST IN THE MUSEUM"
-2021. TMB filming of the short film "LO QUE LOS MAPAS NO CUENTAN".
-2021. Filming of the video clip "BODIES IN TRANSITION", by Pepe Jiménez Espejo
-2022. Director of the Documentary "I AM, I STAY, I SMILE".
Lawrence Alan Klein
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Larry Klein is a documentary film and television writer, producer, and director who is responsible for many hours of national primetime TV programming and scores of shorter films for corporate, non-profit and museum clients. Klein has won three National Emmy Awards, two George Foster Peabody Awards and has received a special citation from President Jimmy Carter for his Emmy Award-winning PBS global health series RX for Survival, for which he served as Series Executive Producer.
During his career, Klein has maintained a special focus on science, engineering, health, medicine, and technology. He was the principal creator and producer of multi-award-winning PBS specials based on the acclaimed books of author/illustrator David Macaulay, including the Peabody Award-winning series Building Big. He has written and produced many NOVA specials including the Emmy Award winning Why the Towers Fell. His NOVA productions range from the origins of once mysterious diseases to the origins of the universe.
Klein has created original programming for Lifetime Television and the Smithsonian Institution and has produced multiple videos for the web on highly complex topics including nanotechnology, neuroscience and quantum physics.
He is currently president of Lawrence Klein Productions LLC and Unicorn Projects, Inc.See More
Hui Huanzhang
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Writer, screenwriter, director. Was born in August 1962, Weinan city, Shaanxi Province, Huazhou District. He graduated from Xi'an Army Academy and served in the army for 10 years. After his rehabilitation, he served as a civil servant in a government office, an editor-in-chief of a newspaper and a director of a TV program. He is now a director of Shaanxi Popular Science Writers Association, a member of Shaanxi Writers Association and a member of Shaanxi Film Artists Association.
Kylie Procita
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Kylie Procita is a director and cinematographer for documentary films. She values capturing a truthful observation of stories which allow the subject matter’s emotions to reveal themselves through how they are visually depicted. Through documentaries, she strives to tell stories which are small in scope, but at their core, reveal universal truths.
Jon Tracy
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Jon Tracy works internationally as a director, playwright, designer, educator and facilitator. He is the recipient of awards from the Kennedy Center Meritorious Achievement Award, North Bay Artys, Marquee Journalists, Ellys, Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, and Theatre Bay Area, and has also been honored with the Solano College Theatre Alumni Award. He is a grant recipient from Theatre Bay Area, Shotgun Players’ Bridging the Gap, SUI Generis, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He is the Artistic Facilitator for TheatreFirst, Co-Artistic Director of Groundswell: The International Theatre Intensive, Company Member of both Shotgun Players and PlayGround, as well as a proud member of SDC, the union for stage directors and choreographers. www.jontracyplays.com
2022 AWARD-WINNING documentary
FILMMAKERS in the spotlight
Lennart Neumann, Wilhelm Schulz
Award-Winning Filmmakers
Wilhelm Schulz and Lennart Neumann met while studying together at the University of Applied Sciences in Düsseldorf. Through their shared passion for moving images, they founded a joint advertising film production while still studying in 2013, which became "salt & pictures GmbH" in 2019. They worked as a director / DOP / producer duo for various smaller and larger brands. Since last year, they increasingly devoted themselves to the field of free, documentary works. As the first release of this division, the short documentary "Coffee for Life" was created during a stay abroad in early 2020.
Jed Terrence Lee
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Jed Terrence Lee 李家誠 is a Taiwanese and Chinese-Filipino American activist, artist, and filmmaker from the Bay Area in California. Jed organizes for the Student Environmental Resource Center at UC Berkeley, their alma mater, as a Wellness and Environmental Justice Coordinator to continue pursuing environmental, climate, and development justice. Jed strongly believes that we can always look to nature to find inspiration for our interpersonal relationships, collective movements, and personal healing, and that there is always love, life and hope in this world.
Jed is a first time filmmaker and directed and produced the “Greenway” feature documentary, which recently screened at the 20th Oakland International Film Festival.
Jess Mountfield
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Jess Mountfield is an animated filmmaker specialising in documentary and the human experience. She worked in children's TV for the BBC and Sky, before moving into filmmaking - taking a hand drawn and stop motion approach to many projects. She focuses on creating projects with a tactile quality, and lifting individual stories through visuals and sound. She works with researchers across the globe to bring their research to light.
Christian Betti
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Master's degree in agricultural science and technology at the University of Florence
Agricultural entrepreneur - Project manager - Photographer - Videomaker
Yiannis Markakis
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Studied Law & Cinema History and has a M.Α. in Cultural Management. Director of the Cretan Open – Air Museum “LYCHNOSTATIS” since 1992. He has published the poetry books ''Image subscriber" (2005, Gavrielidis editions) and ''Too much, too less" (2019, Govostis editions), and has directed 4 short-length films, and has been the producer in a few more.
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Holly Morris
Award-Winning Filmmaker
For two decades Holly Morris has told, and championed, pro-woman stories on the global stage. She is an internationally-known filmmaker, author, and presenter (Adventure Divas, Globe Trekker). Her most recent film, The Babushkas of Chernobyl ("Beautiful, affectionate and stirring"– NYT) premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival, where it won the Jury Award for Directing, the first of nearly two dozen awards received before being broadcast world-wide. The film’s story, based on her print journalism, is about a defiant community of women who live inside Ukraine’s radioactive “Exclusion Zone,” also forms the basis of her popular TED Talk.
Logan Lambert
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Cleveland Native, Logan is a Director and Photographer based in New York City. His adventurous spirit has taken him around the world working with some of the most respected brands in travel, lifestyle, and natural history filmmaking. Previously, Logan has worked alongside Oceanx and National Geographic, and the BBC natural history unit onboard oceanxplorer for an up-coming series "Mission OceanX".
While realizing extraordinary visuals are essential, he believes that storytelling is the driving force. With a clear and meaningful approach, Logan aims to create films that both educate and inspire.
Graeme Benson
Award-Winning Filmmaker
I trained as a documentary film-maker and editor at the Northern Media School, Sheffield Hallam University, U.K, where I gained a Masters degree in film production in 2009. Thus, as well as studying cinematography, and post-production techniques, I was also grounded in the political and social history of the British documentary movement. In particular, I researched the work of John Grierson, in the 1930’s, whose work was characterized by actuality-based films outside the commercial industry, with a mission to show the value of the working man as hero.
After graduation, unable to find work, I formed my own production company, Blackbird North Films, and earnt commissions from local businesses to produce online promotional films. Relating to my influence from Grierson, I produced a short promo for a local pewterware manufacturer. Consequently, I featured the working men and women who produced the cutlery, ‘heroically.’
I also made promotional films for professionally sporting organisations including a short documentary about the Sheffield Wednesday F.C Football academy. I spent a year following the academy players to see which player would succeed in gaining a professional contract. The film focused thematically on the journey from juvenile to adult.
My other credits include a promotional film for the Sheffield Sharks basketball team, Pure Gym, a national gym company, Roundabout, a project for homeless young people, and Sheffield Boxing Centre.
Olivia Elise Chaney
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Olivia Chaney is a 17-year-old aspiring filmmaker from Atlanta. Her focus is on horror/comedy films, and she has directed multiple short films, as well as written several screenplays. Knights on 3! is her first documentary to see the silver screen. She is planning to produce a second documentary this summer, as well as write and direct short films to enter in festivals.
D. Stokes Piercy
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Stokes Piercy is a filmmaker, professor, and media arts scholar from East Tennessee.
Nicholas Mullins
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Since I was a kid I loved to tell stories of all types. Through the years this developed into my passion of using documentary style film-making to share beautiful narratives of creation and people.
It is a privilege to exist on such a wonderful planet, and I live to embrace that privilege through exploring the intimate and unseen details that have long gone overlooked.
Olivia Hoover
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Olivia currently resides in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania after living in Los Angeles, California for the past three years, where she worked in the film/TV industry. She hails from Michigan, where she attended Michigan State University for Film Production focusing on documentary filmmaking. Olivia is presenting producing a documentary-styled podcast, as well as interviewing for Producer jobs at video agencies in Philly. She dreams to one day open her own production company focusing on social justice-oriented documentaries, musical films, and other stories focusing on marginalized folks.
Patricia Nazario
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Patricia Nazario is an international journalist with 18 distinguished recognitions, including two Congressional Awards. Her career spans from hurricane coverage in Central/South Florida and New York during the 9/11 terrorist attacks, to Argentina's financial, social, and political crisis in 2001. Nazario's outstanding coverage of Miami's Cuban community won South Florida's WLRN (NPR affiliate) its first award and prestigious statewide recognition.
Partially raised in a blue-collar neighborhood in Los Angeles, Nazario was aware of the Mexican mom-and-pop food truck that parked in the same spot every night a few blocks from home, and that they didn't exist in more expensive parts of town. When food trucks became a pop-culture phenomenon in 2008, Nazario suddenly noticed them parked in areas where they had never been before, which led her to question stereotypes, perceptions, and social justice.
Vance Crofoot
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Vance Crofoot embraced filmmaking as a musician in the 90's when he started directing music videos in Portland, Oregon. He moved to Los Angeles in 2006 to hone his skills as a cinematographer, editor and colorist. He became a full-time filmmaker in 2007 and since then has filmed, edited and color corrected countless music videos, commercials, shorts and feature films that have sold to notable distribution companies and achieved world-wide distribution. His passion and lifelong goal is to write and direct feature films.
Gustav Cavallin, Jens Nilsson
Award-Winning Filmmakers
Gustav Cavallin & Jens Nilsson have collaborated on film projects since they were in highschool studying space engineering. They started out making ski edits that became appreciated around the world.
Brands recognised their talent and enabled them to travel the world and keep creating their films. India Kash, Interpretation, Is There Time For Matching Socks and now their most ambitious project - Longing for Áhkká.
Today they are based in Stockholm working with their own production company The Bunch. In 2021 Sweden's most praised film director and twice Palme d'Or winner Ruben Östlund saw their potential and are now their personal mentor.
Sarah Jayne Portelli
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Sarah Jayne started her film and television career as an art department all-rounder in 1996. She has worked on many short films in various art department roles and with Australian industry heavyweights on several feature films.
In 2013 Sarah Jayne became a Nexus Production Group member and simultaneously moved into writing and directing her first short film Dusk under the company. Since Dusk, Sarah Jayne has been predominately working as a writer, director and producer on her own films, including Anniversary and Daughter - the latter an educational/awareness project addressing victim-blaming and gendered violence starring Katherine Langford.
In 2017 Sarah Jayne directed two completely improvised feature films; Friends, Foes & Fireworks — shot in 24 hours with a skeleton crew over New Year's Eve, and in late 2017- 2018 In Corpore — shot in Berlin, Malta, Australia and New York with four separate local crews.
Sarah Jayne directed the documentary Cats of Malta in 2020 and in the same year she co-directed Machination, a psychological thriller. Machination was released on Tubi TV and AppleTV in 2022 and is also available for purchase on DVD and Blu-ray through Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Walmart across North America. Cats of Malta has a PBS broadcast set for October 2023 and will be released the same year.
Aside from writing NPG's feature film concepts, Sarah Jayne writes outlines for and directs NPG's ongoing micro-short series Life Improvised, while teaching improvised and traditional filmmaking classes online across multiple platforms.
Taimoor Choudhry
Award-Winning Filmmaker
For years, Taimoor Choudhry led a life of glamour and extravagance, rubbing elbows with celebrities, fashionistas and the elite as he grew his family’s fine jewellery empire in Pakistan. His passions and priorities took a dramatic turn after witnessing animal cruelty in a market. That moment changed him and it became his mission to raise awareness through the art of documentary film. After moving to Canada to pursue a film degree, he was shocked to learn that the animal exploitation he thought he’d left behind in Pakistan was very much present in his new home! In response to this, Taimoor founded Arise Productions and has dedicated the past five years to activism and animal rights through film.
Eli Edwards
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Eli Edwards is a photographer, videographer, producer and director.
Born in Los Angeles, Edwards currently resides in New York City shooting photos and creating videos. Working on an Emmy-Award winning NBAonTNT team as a social media editor to doing production work with various musical artists, Eli knows his way around the sports and music industries.
He has done freelance video/photo work for music artists that include Boyish, Wallice, Ella Jane, Cece Coakley, Michael Incognito and The Misters + is the StankFaceComedy group’s in house photographer .
Nell Wang
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Wang graduated from the Department of Motion Picture of the National Taiwan University of Arts. During their sophomore year, Wang shot their first short subject film, “Birthday”, which was selected for the New Territories section of the 60th Venice Film Festival’s and Berlin Film Festival’s Forum. In the same year, Wang completed the short subject documentary “Plane Maker” as part of the Public Television Service (PTS Viewpoint Project), which was awarded the third prize for Taipei Awards and Audience’s Choice at the Taipei Film Festival. Wang later won the Best Short Film at the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival, Best Feature Film at the Taipei Film Festival, and Best Director at Tel-Aviv Student Film Festival with their graduation project “The Secret in the Wind.” Wang has continued to engage in making features, documentaries, TV commercials, and music videos.
Maria Luskay, Lou Guarneri
Award-Winning Filmmakers
Dr. Maria T. Luskay: Professor Luskay leads the Media and Communication Arts travel documentary course at Pace University in Pleasantville, New York. The Producing the Documentary course is a well-regarded, award-winning program at Pace. It has provided opportunities for many undergraduate and graduate students to broaden their knowledge and skill set in the areas of communications, research, and production. Dr. Luskay has been teaching this course for over 20 years
Lou Guarneri: Professor Guarneri is a Pace alum and video production professor within the Media Communications and Visual Arts department in Pleasantville, New York.
Christopher Riley
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Christopher Riley is a writer and filmmaker specialising in science, engineering and history. He has directed and produced more than thirty documentary films for the BBC, Film4, Netflix, National Geographic, The Discovery Channel and the Smithsonian, and has written and directed commercial shorts and branded content for HSBC, Vodafone and architects Foster + Partners.
He is best known for his BBC film The Girl who talked to Dolphins – nominated for every major UK documentary award, and his innovative experiential documentary First Orbit – recreating Yuri Gagarin's pioneering space flight, screened on over 1600 screens in more than 130 countries, including UNESCO HQ in Paris.
He conceived and co-produced the Sundance-winning Ron Howard documentary In the Shadow of the Moon, and produced the Netflix/BBC Storyville true-crime thriller The Fear of 13, which premiered at the London Film Festival and was nominated for a Grierson. He wrote, produced and directed across the hit National Geographic Will Smith series One Strange Rock, and the BBC/PBS Patrick Stewart series Revolutions.
His VR show of astronaut Tim Peake’s Soyuz Capsule return to Earth has been seen by over 50,000 people across the UK and his novel video installations, using found footage, have been screened around the world. His Apollo 11 fiftieth anniversary collaboration with 59Productions - a commission from the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum - Go for the Moon - projected animations and footage onto the Washington Monument, attracting half a million people to the National Mall in Washington D.C. for America’s celebrations.
Ian Phillips
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Ian Phillips was born and raised in New York City. His first Feature Documentary “Coach Jake” premiered at the Urbanworld Film Festival in September of 2017 and was distributed by First Fun Features.
His latest feature narrative film, “A New York Christmas Wedding” which he Produced and Edited, is distributed by Netflix.
Anthony Scalia
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Anthony Scalia is an independent filmmaker and video editor in the greater NYC area. In addition to editing for pharmaceutical clients, he recently received the lead editor credit on the PBS specials, "All Creatures Great & Small: Between the Pages" and "Endeavour: The Evolution" which were nationally syndicated in 2022. Scalia has also worked as a camera operator for several corporate and promotional production companies, whose clients include Deutsche Bank, Billboard and The Criterion Collection.See More
Ebony Marie Bailey
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Ebony Bailey is a filmmaker and video producer from Central California whose work explores cultural intersections, diaspora and social movements. Her documentaries have been screened at film festivals and forums in the US, Mexico, South America, and Europe. She has produced videos and visual content for organizations such as Mijente, LA Times, NPR, and Africa is a Country.
Ebony has been awarded the Samuel L. Coleman Scholarship for emerging filmmakers at the Haitian International Film Festival, and she was selected for the Tomorrow's Filmmakers Today program by HBO and Hola Mexico Film Festival. Her latest film “Jamaica y Tamarindo” won the Audience Award for Best Documentary Short at the San Diego Latino Film Festival and the Audience Award for i-d-e-n-t-i-t-i-e-s at the South Social Film Festival. She is a recipient of the Fondo Miradas with Ambulante and Netflix.
As a “Blaxican,” Ebony tells stories with the intention of representing her communities and building spaces of empowerment between diverse populations. She completed coursework for her Master’s in Documentary Film at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
Patricia A. Bradley,
Michelle S. Mullen
Award-Winning Filmmakers
Patricia Bradley studied at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, has a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design, and attended The New York Film Academy. As a design director, she learned the craft of positioning and telling product stories and was an integral part of directing commercials and photo shoots. As a child, she requested a tape recorder and binoculars for her 8th birthday in order to observe birds, record their songs, and keep sketches in her sketchbook. Patricia became fascinated by the tiny tattered photographs of her ancestors secured by their corner tabs in both her Grandmother’s scrapbooks. She loved sitting on their laps to hear the stories and histories of her family who were part of a faraway past. With a passion in documenting history and studying folklore, rituals and heritage, Patricia delights in preserving the past and creating new ways to tell and share stories. Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and after 10 years in New England and 20 years in New York, Patricia is finally home in North Carolina.
A native Texan, Michelle Mullen has a BA in Theatre Arts and English from Texas Tech University. During her 20 years in New York, she led creative marketing and product development for global consumer product and entertainment companies. She has researched and written content for everything from marketing pitches and brand messaging to Disney character scripts for worldwide brands. As a film and theatre lover, she especially enjoyed writing and directing product sizzle videos, bringing a toy or brand's message to life through entertainment. Michelle is a graduate of The Children’s Institute of Literature in Connecticut and studied Art History and Literature at The New School in New York City. These interests and her love of remembering the past continue in her film work by scouting for archival materials and historical research to craft a compelling story in film. Cinematic soundtracks are also a personal passion for Michelle, and for her, the highly emotional partner to a film’s visuals. She studies film composers and plays her own original piano music reflective of the genre. Since 2013, Michelle’s home and heart has been in the majestic mountains of Flat Rock, Western North Carolina.
James McGovern
Award-Winning Filmmaker
James C. McGovern, born and raised on the outskirts of Detroit, moved to Los Angeles in his early twenties to pursue a career in music. An English major and aspiring singer-songwriter, he invariably gravitated to the endless sonic possibilities of lyrical and visual storytelling. He had spent his high school and college years in theatre and on film sets shadowing his older sister, an assistant director for high-budget features but never saw himself working in film production. All of that changed as he became immersed in the L.A. music scene, surrounded and inspired by the spirit of the struggling American artist. He began to capture their stories on and off stage, learned his way around camera and audio equipment, and taught himself how to cut thirty-minute documentary episodes. Three years later, the result was a 5 part docu-series that garnered him an Emmy nomination. His filmmaking career was in motion.
James was on the ground floor of the PBS TV series Start-Up as a post-production producer, a series that spotlights up and coming entrepreneurs around the country. He attributes his time on Start-Up as an invaluable learning experience: the most compelling narratives aren’t championed by one individual but nurtured by a team of like-minded artists. As a feature-length documentary filmmaker, he has helped shape stories about Boogie Woogie music, urban gardening, Detroit musical history, suicide, education (and many more) into successfully recognized films placed at festivals around the country internationally.
Gradually then, Suddenly is the first feature-length film where James is working as a director and producer in partnership. The film tells the story of Detroit’s financial crisis in 2013 using interviews, re-enactments, a wide array of visual treatments, and a lush, relentless musical score. For James, the real challenge (and ultimately the payoff) was shaping the film’s human element, making a complex financial process a coherent and compelling narrative about the winners and losers inextricably linked to the bankruptcy outcome. As a rough cut in 2021, the film won the Ken Burns Library of Congress finishing grant.
James currently runs his production company of 15 years in his Detroit studio, working on national broadcast and Internet marketing content for clients like Apple, American Express, Pulte Homes, Baker College, Comcast, and many regional small businesses across Michigan. James has written and recorded two albums and still finds the time to gig out with his band when he isn’t playing for his wife, Megan, and their two children, Dylan and Miles, 3 and 7.
Moises Linares
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Moises Linares is a Mexican-American musician, multimedia producer and filmmaker based in South Florida. His work embodies various media techniques founded on mixing live music performances and storytelling.
For the past 6+ years, he has produced thoughtful media content for top music technology brands helping them reach diverse audiences worldwide. In 2020, he founded 4Beat Media, a collective production space and artist collective that documents video stories of talented musicians/artists as they go on their journey to develop their craft as performers and messengers of art.
Dr. Henrietta Mann
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Dr. HENRIETTA MANN (Executive Producer, Co-Writer/Director) is a Cheyenne enrolled with the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes located in Oklahoma. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Southwestern Oklahoma State University in 1954, and a Master of Arts Degree from Oklahoma State University in 1970. In 1982, she earned her Doctor of Philosophy Degree in American Studies from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. She is Professor Emeritus in Native American Studies, Montana State University where she served as special assistant to MSU’s president until 2016. On leave from Montana State University she is the founding president of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribal College temporarily located on the campus of Southwestern Oklahoma State University, Weatherford. Dr. Mann has been a professor/administrator at: The University of California, Berkeley; University of Montana, Missoula; Graduate School of Education, Harvard University; and Haskell Indian Nations University, Lawrence, Kansas. She was the first person to fill the Katz Endowed Chair in Native American Studies at Montana State University, Bozeman. In 1991 Rolling Stone Magazine named her as one of the ten top professors in the nation. Southwestern Oklahoma State University inducted her into its Hall of Fame in 1997. The University of New Mexico Alumni Association honored her as its 2008 recipient of the Bernard S. Rodey Award for her leadership in education. She also received the 2008 National Indian Education Association Lifetime Achievement Award. As a scholar of American Indian Studies, as a direct descendant of the Sand Creek and Washita Massacres, and as a grandmother of Mah-hi-vist Red Bird Goodblanket she narrates our story from her heart, from "the historical genealogy of her blood.”
Abigail Brannon
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Abigail Brannon is an independent filmmaker from Atlanta Georgia, studying Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies at the University of Kentucky. She has always had a passion for storytelling and expressing art in a visual way. She has made three short films and four documentaries so far but currently working on new ideas. She also uses her creativity at a student-run radio station at the University of Kentucky called WRFL. She is the Production II director and makes video and audio content for the station.
James Hu
Award-Winning Filmmaker
A writer, director, and producer, James was also a martial arts choreographer and trainer - his work includes features training lead talents in martial arts action sequences for Hong Kong action director Corey Yuen. He’s trained talents such as Jason Statham in TRANSPORTER 3 and Gianna Jun in the live-action adaptation of Blood: The Last Vampire. He is currently in Los Angeles and collaborates on Chinese and American filmmakers in Hollywood and China. Some of his credits include CON MAN with James Caan & Mark Hamill and THE NFT REVOLUTION. James is a well-versed and artistic storyteller. His screenplay, KIMONOS was selected for the semifinals by Screen Craft & the Nichol’s Fellowship, and Missing, a crime thriller is based on a true story and personal experiences within the sub-culture of LA’s Chinese elites. James is a fanatical advocate of the creative process and a firm supporter of indie films featuring diversity in Hollywood.
Jason Harney
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Jason Harney is a Gulf War Veteran and retired Las Vegas Police Sergeant turned Award Winning Documentary Filmmaker. He is the producer, director, editor, & writer of five feature documentary films - “Wrist Lock” (2022) - “The Making of a Cheer Team” (2021), “Repeat Offender” (2019), “The Wounded Blue” (2019), & “The Basketball Family” (2017) as well as the six part docuseries “Voices of the Blue” (2020), producing under his Lightning Digital Entertainment banner.
Joshua Britt, Neilson Hubbard
Award-Winning Filmmakers
Award winning directing duo Joshua Britt and Neilson Hubbard, Neighborhoods Apart is a Nashville based boutique production studio. Clients include The Killers, John Prine, Jason Isbell, guitar legend Tommy Emmanuel, Billy Idol, Carl Broemel of My Morning Jacket, Sam Baker, Mary Gauthier, Justin Townes Earle, The Blind Boys of Alabama, and many more. Their feature length documentary The Orphan Brigade - Soundtrack To A Ghost Story was Official Selection as well as "Best Documentary" and nominated for "Best Original Song" in several film festivals.
Emily Branham
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Emily is a filmmaker captivated by artists, performance, and identity. She directs short documentaries for arts and corporate organizations including Lincoln Center, AT&T, and JP Morgan. Emily also produces visual effects for commercial, music video and broadcast clients.
Her short film, “Legend: a film about Greg Garing” won the Grand Jury Prize of the International Doc Challenge, and screened at IDFA, Sheffield Doc/Fest, Rooftop Films, and on the Documentary Channel. Originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota and a SAG-AFTRA member since age 5, Emily studied Radio/TV/Film at Northwestern University. She now lives in New York City. BEING BEBE is her first feature documentary.
Michael Lynch
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Michael Lynch has worked in the Toronto film production industry for almost 20 years. Performing different jobs on set and learning the technical and management styles of television, movies and commercials. In 2014 he formed the company Portage Entertainment. The first major project is a feature length documentary titled: Yes I Can and I Will
Sumio Fujita
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Fujita is an experienced director who has high respect of the Japanese documentary industry. He graduated from the Economics Department of Central University of Japan and worked for TBS TV station for a long time. At the beginning of Fujita's creation of documentary, he was appreciated and supported by Japanese documentary master Kushiko. In 2001, Fujita officially resigned from TBS TV station and became a professional documentary director.
Savva Svet
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Savva is a documentary filmmaker from Brooklyn who is dedicated to creating inspiring, entertaining, and thought-provoking films. His clients include Nike, Universal Records, The Home Depot, Under Armour, and NatGeo.
Over the past decade, Savva has toured with Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, Florence + The Machine, and Lemmy, trailed deep into the jungles of Peru with Werner Herzog, lived with indigenous tribes in Brazil and filmed inside refugee camps in Jordan. His travels and experiences have led him to believe strongly in giving back and empowering communities to take action and make a difference in their world.
Marcell L. Pickens
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Marcell L. Pickens, Jr. aka "TheFilmMarketer" is an international photographer, filmmaker, and small business advocate. He uses his passion for photography and filmmaking to help small businesses in minority communities gain a competitive edge through photo campaigns, commercials and films. After earning a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Tennessee State University in Nashville, TN, he worked 14 years as an engineer and stockbroker. Marcell ultimately decided to leave engineering and finance, after working for companies like NASA, GM, PSEG, and Merrill Lynch to pursue a career in photography, marketing, production and filmmaking. Marcell often shares that after educating himself about Black Wall Street, he felt compelled to find a way to do his part in helping the minority community return to a place of business prominence. In 2015, Marcell established Blachwood LLC, a company whose sole purpose was to help provide "Big Business" high-quality commercials and photography campaigns for "Small Businesses" at small business prices. To further his mission, he created the Small Business Marketing Tour where he and a team travel to select cities to work with small businesses in creating marketing campaigns for their business. In 2019 Marcell was selected as one of Black Enterprises 100 Modern Men because of his commitment to small business. In the last 7 years, Marcell and his team have produced content for some amazing brands including L'Oreal, Macy's, Target, Hulu, Jordan.com, Belk, Year Up, and has also produced a variety of short films and documentaries.
Xenia Tsilochristou
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Xenia is an Athens-based director and photographer. After having completed her studies at Direction on Cinema and Television, she works as a freelance filmmaker. Her aim is to pursue a challenging, innovative and inspiring career in the art field that will utilize her team spirit, individual excellence and knowledge base.
Retji Dakum
Award-Winning Filmmaker
"Retji was born and raised in Jos, Nigeria until he was 15 years old. He got his undergraduate degree in Digital Art at The College of New Jersey in 2015, after which he went back to Nigeria to complete his National Youth Service Corps program. He currently resides in Baltimore, MD where he recently completed his Masters degree in Filmmaking at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Retji is a storyteller that uses photography, film and sound as mediums of expression. As a visual artist his core mediums are documentary photography and non-fiction cinema. Retji's artistic practice explores ethnographic storytelling that is rooted in heritage and identity. When he is not creating art, he enjoys travelling and exploring new places, playing soccer and doing community service.”
Lyndsay Nicole, Benjamin Jordan
Award-Winning Filmmakers
Lyndsay and Benjamin met while each was volunteering time in Malawi, Africa. Both paraglider pilots, they begun hiking and flying together and filming each other, never once imagining the professional form this would eventually take on.
It was 2018, after Jordan's solo Endless Chain expedition, that he and Nicole set out to create additional B-roll material. Working together, they surprised themselves by both, producing a level of air-to-air shots never before seen in a paragliding adventure film and ultimately, falling in love.
Two years later, the two found themselves at the US/Mexico border about to execute (Benjamin) and document (Lyndsay) a world record and their greatest achievement to date, a documentary inspired by the migration of the great monarch butterfly, Fly Monarca.
Mike Mihail
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Mike Mihail, a Los Angeles native, got his start editing demo reels for iconic directors like, David Fincher, Antoine Fuqua, Gore Verbinski and Alejandro González Iñárritu. It was there at anonymous content that Mike received his first blessing from legendary producer, the late Steve Golin, when Steve donated Michael, David Finchers 35mm camera to shoot his first spec. commercial. That became the spark of Guerilla Hollywood.
Steve Golin would continue to groom and push Michael to grow Guerilla out of the media vault at anonymous. Since then Michael has gone on to direct videos and content for artists like Pharrell Williams, Kendrick Lamar, Swae Lee, Pit Bull, Mary J. Blige, Yelawolf, Schoolboy Q and many more, as well as concert series for Apple Music, Juice Wrld, Lenny Kravitz, Bon Jovi and many others.
Guerilla Hollywood is a world-wide production company based in Los Angeles, California spanning across the mid-west, the south and east coast. Guerilla has production partners and services in Toronto, The UK, Milan and Japan. Guerilla Hollywood and it’s stable of directors is actively producing content for Apple Music, Interscope Records, Capitol Records, Sony/Columbia Records, The NFL, The NBA, Proctor and Gamble, BET Networks, Univision Networks and many other media giants.
In 2013 Michael's work was nominated for Best Video, at the BET Hip Hop awards for Kendrick Lamar’s “Don’t Kill My Vibe”. Most recently he received his first award win for best video with a social message at the Telly Awards for Da Baby’s massive hit “Rockstar”
Campbell Dalglish
Award-Winning Filmmaker
CAMPBELL DALGLISH (Writer, Director, Producer)– Founding Director of D’Arc Productions, award winning playwright, screenwriter and director. His short narrative DANCE OF THE QUANTUM CATS won international awards and was selected by CINE to represent USA at the 12th International Film Festival of Peace, Hiroshima, JAPAN. It was broadcast on PBS/CPTV in a series on emerging directors. Another short film, ROAD KILL, has screened in over two dozen international film festivals winning top awards in six of them. His award winning screenplays include the features BRUISES and DEER WOMAN and the short CHARADE OF A FLY. His award winning plays include GREEN FIRE, SPLIT, THE LIST, and WIGGER. He has written and produced two musicals: BLUE MASS and SKINS OF THE MONEY DRUM presented at the Yale University Theater. In documentary he has co-produced over twelve segments for broadcast on The New Morning Show (the Hallmark Channel), including multiple segments on American Indian reservations (Navajo, Apache, and Havasupai). He also co-produced ECO ACTION, and the short film AHALANI: LIVING IN HARMONY WITH THE SUN. Over the years Dalglish has developed a technique of making films without scripts in marginal communities (A HARD WAY OUT 1992 Hartford gangs, THE COMMUNITY ROOM 1990 Jericho Homeless Shelter, and THE SHOOTING GALLERY 1989 Bridgeport Prison). He founded the IMPROFILM FESTIVAL in its sixth year at the IFP Screening room sponsored by CCNY Film Program screening films that were produced without a screenplay through structured improvisations. He is a Film Commissioner for Suffolk County and President of the Plaza Cinema and Media Arts Center in Patchogue (www.plazamac.org) that houses the George Stony School of Documentary Filmmaking. SAVAGE LAND is his first feature film in the making for the last eight years spending time with the Goodblanket family and the Cheyenne and Arapaho people of Oklahoma.
Harri Romppainen
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Harri Romppainen was born in 1972 in Paltamo, Finland. He holds currently a VP position in a medium-sized technology company, but filmmaking is his dear hobby, and he loves to create visual stories and to learn all aspects of the craft.
Karel Candi
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Karel Candi, born 1995, is an independent film maker from Iceland. Karel has studied practical film making as well as film theory, completed a number of short films and taught film making courses for children and teenagers. Karel has finished his BA in film studies from the University of Iceland and an MA in film practice from the Arts University Bournemouth.
Matthew L Lenz
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Matthew graduated with a B.A with honors from Ithaca College in 2009 and has had a successful career running a production company based out of Brooklyn, NY. While he specializes in filming scientific research, Matthew has dedicated his life to producing various creative pieces focusing on topics ranging from sustainable technology, entrepreneurship, and recently directed a film called Replay, on the resurgence of pinball.
Devin Olson
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Devin's passions for destination- / experience-related brands and storytelling collided straight out of high school.
At the dawn of YouTube's popularity, he started making short documentaries for a unique niche — theme parks and travel destinations — while founding a creative agency, Devin Olson Media, in Virginia.He relocated to his favorite city — Savannah, Georgia — around the time the film industry in Georgia started booming in the early 2010s, and the next decade consisted of building the creative agency and its focus on brand storytelling for increasingly larger brands, from Dolly Parton's entertainment brands to the Harlem Globetrotters. Devin Olson Media's work has been featured on BBC, Discovery Channel, Fox News, Huffington Post, NBC, and the Travel Channel.In addition to the bronze award from the Spotlight Documentary Film Awards for "Small Town Threads," Devin's team has won a silver ADDY Award from the American Advertising Awards for a brand-related documentary in 2021.
Jonathan Moore
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Jonathan Moore is an independent filmmaker, writer and professor. He works in both documentary and scripted genres and is the producer of the popular indie feature sports documentary "Coaches' Wives." He is married to long-time film/TV editor Karen Moore. They live in Los Angeles with their son.
Mariclare Carey-Jones
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Mariclare Carey-Jones is a talented Presenter and Broadcast Journalist, who has travelled the world filming for television and radio. Her great passions are wildlife and rural affairs, and she can currently be heard presenting Radio 4’s ‘Farming Today’ programme and for ‘Country Focus’ on BBC Radio Wales. She has also produced several documentary films, including her latest production about elephant conservation, called ‘Saving Gentle Giants’, which has won several independent film festival awards.
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Cole Sheerin
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Cole Sheerin was born in Florida in 2001, but has lived in the Boston/Worcester area for most of his life. He is currently attending Wheaton College pursuing a degree in Film & New Media. His career goal is to become a professional editor with the ability to pursue personal filmmaking. He will graduate and begin pursuing his MFA in Editing in 2023.
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Cara Consilvio
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Cara Consilvio is a director and producer of opera, film and theater. Cara is a co-founder of Hup! Productions. For the Love of Friends is her feature film directing debut. Her other film directing projects include her debut narrative short film C.I.T., and her short film Dry. Cara is executive producer and co-story writer of the horror-comedy feature film Camp Wedding, which is distributed by Gravitas Pictures. She has also produced and directed tribute videos, promotional videos, and behind-the-scenes mini-docs for the NEA Opera Honors, NEA Jazz Masters videos, OPERA America and the American Composers Orchestra.
Cara is currently in post-production on her opera film "I Give You My Home" for Guerrilla Opera.
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Louis Holder
Award-Winning Filmmaker
A graduate from the world-renowned Film BA (Hons) course at University of Westminster, Louis is an RTS Award-Winning Filmmaker, whose work has featured at numerous film festivals including BFI Future Film Festival, London Short Film Festival (LSFF), Raindance and UCL Festival of the Moving Image (FoMI). In 2021, he graduated from the MA Editing & Post-Production Course at London South Bank University and is an upcoming Assistant Editor entrant within Film. He has also volunteered for a wide-range of youth screening collectives and community cinemas including award-winning organisations - Westminster Film Society, which he was president of, and Deptford Cinema. Louis is also the Creative Director of Studio Holder, an independent film company integrating post-production, independent film distribution and media education with a focus on contemporary & emergent media. He is a DaVinci Resolve 17 Certified User and is currently taking the Avid Media Composer Certified User (101 & 110) qualifications. Alongside work and many hobbies - he is working towards realising his feature-length documentary debut; Old Suffolk Boy and is directing a spiritual follow-up to the Cinema Now project - 'centred around theatres, their individual and collective interiority and the horror that lies beneath'.
Ron Davis
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Ron Davis has produced and directed seven films including, Pageant (2008, Sundance Channel),Miss You Can Do It (2013, HBO Original), Harry & Snowman, (2016, Netflix), Life in the Doghouse (2018, Netflix), I am We (2022), ParaGold (2022) and Dawn (2022)
Alan Winston King
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Alan King is a Caribbean American poet, videographer, motion graphics and 3D artist. His parents emigrated to the U.S. from Trinidad and Tobago in the early '70s. He's a father, husband, and author of two collections of poetry: Point Blank (Silver Birch Press, 2016) and DRIFT (Aquarius Press, 2012). Plan B Press published his chapbook, Crooked Smiling Light, in 2021.
King’s poetry caught the attention of U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo who said: “Alan King is one of my favorite up-and- coming poets of his generation. His poems are not pop and flash, rather more like a slow dance with someone you’re going to love forever.”
The video he produced for his poem, “Gluttony,” was an “Official Selection” of the 2021 International Video Poetry Festival in Athens, Greece. A Cave Canem graduate fellow, King is a graduate of the Stonecoast MFA Program at the University of Southern Maine. He lives with his wife, children, and mother-in-law in Bowie, MD.
Greg Di Roma
Award-Winning FilmmakerGreg is a filmmaker, photographer and video editor from Peekskill, NY. Greg’s interest in film began in his third year in college when he took a screenwriting class at SUNY Purchase. After that he would intern that summer at the Digital Arts Experience where a lot of production was conducted. It was from that experience he realized he wanted to go into Film and Video.
Greg would ultimately study Digital Cinema and Filmmaking at Pace University. It was at Pace where he took a course, Producing the Documentary in which he was part of a 15-person crew going into Cuba making a documentary about the U.S. and Cuba opening relations and how the times were changing in the island. Greg was a cinematographer and lead editor on the project titled, Cuba’s Crossroads: Hope, Rock and [R]Evolution (2016). The short documentary would screen in multiple film festivals and go on to win many awards including the Gold Award in the Spotlight Documentary Film Awards in 2016.
Our Triumphant Holy Day is Greg’s feature film directorial debut. Greg frequently collaborates with Amato Peace making his content including music videos, promos and highlight videos.
Greg has also worked with Double G Sports/In the Zone.io on their web series, Overtime documenting sporting events hosted by many professional teams, athletes and celebrities in the Tri-State Area including, the New York Yankees, Derek Jeter, David Wells, Mariano Rivera, Kyle Palmieri and CC Sabathia.
Greg’s other credits include, An Undocumented Immigrant Story: Immigrant Data and 1986 Amnesty -- LifeUNdocumented.org (2018), The Null Hypothesis Prequel Episode 5: Cease and Desist (2019) and Super Team at Maria Fareri Children's Hospital - Super Bowl Ad (2017).
Oliver Hamilton
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Oliver is a commercial and documentary filmmaker based in San Francisco and New York City. Oliver grew up as a hobbyist photographer in San Francisco, graduated from film school in the Midwest, and has since moved closer to directing and away from cinematography because his appetite for telling gripping and meaningful human-centered stories has brought him closer and closer to the heart of his projects. He uses profits from parts of his commercial career to fund purposeful projects like documentaries and short films. Oliver co-owns Roller Studios in NYC.
Krishnan Vasudevan
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Krishnan Vasudevan is assistant professor at the University of Maryland. He is a 2021 Docs in Progress fellow, a 2015 recipient of the Austin Film Society Award (for a forthcoming project) and the co-recipient of numerous national journalism awards for his contribution to the investigative journalism project, Code Red. As a multimedia journalist, Krishnan published extensively with the New York Times and Slate. His first documentary, The Wrong Bin (2011) about NYC's recycling program, was licensed for screenings by the EPA and GrowNYC. He has published several academic articles and book chapters based on his research about capitalism, labor practices and journalism. Krishnan received his PhD from the University of Texas at Austin and his MA in News and Documentary from New York University.
tim eric wilson
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Professor Tim Wilson unexpectedly participated in and won the people's vote in series 2 of the Channel 4 hit show "the Circle" in 2019. He has a background in University and school teaching but is also an animator ("How to be Boss") , former politician and human rights' activist. He has travelled extensively and his work inspired by Edward Lear features in the Albanian Encyclopedia of Art.
Robert Kinlaw
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Robert is the founder of Robert Kinlaw Productions. His first feature documentary, White Lake: Remembering the Nation's Safest Beach, released in 2014. Since then, he has directed several award-winning short documentaries including Princess Warrior, We Drive It, and Anchored in Tarboro. Robert's goal as a filmmaker is to give viewers an authentic, ground-level view of human culture, with real stories told by the people who experienced them.
Anna Cottrill
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Anna Cottrill has always been a story teller. When watching the shows she created with her cousins in the family living room everyone assumed she would be a performer. But while exploring acting as a teenager she realised it wasn’t being on stage that she loved but it was creating the shows and helping her peers build up their performances that sparked her creativity.
So she started to pick up a camera and drag any friends and family she could convince into making her first short films. Eventually in 2018 her A-level film “Irreversible” won the ISA Film competition.
Currently studying at Met Film School while working as a director and editor on independent projects she has learnt the stories she likes to tell are about real people. Be this through fiction or documentary she is always looking to find a creative way to represent the unique perspectives the world is full of.
Loren A Roberts, Roberto San Luis
Award-Winning Filmmakers
A director of photography on "The Day the World Series Stopped" & “Purple State of Mind” and associate producer for the feature film "Not That Funny" (with Tony Hale and Bridgid Brannagh), Loren A. Roberts' decade-long collaboration with director Lauralee Farrer included the award-winning documentaries "The Fair Trade" (2008) and "Laundry and Tosca" (2005). His documentary filmmaking has taken him across Asia with multiple filming partners. Roberto San Luis is an award-winning art director for HumanGood who has worked with Filipino culture and advocacy groups in Southern California for the past three decades. His love of story and Filipino culture guided our journey.
Michael Eric Hurtig
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Michael Eric Hurtig is a New York based film director and producer. In 2017 he launched FLX Entertainment, focused on the production of immersive documentary and reality programming. Michael has a varied background in film and new media, having developed and produced short and long form projects for television, streaming and VR.
Beyond FLX Entertainment, Michael most recently completed work on SACRED (PBS) (Post-Production Supervisor, Associate Editor, Associate Producer), a feature-length, global documentary on the daily use of faith and spiritual practice in over 40 countries.
His work has appeared in documentaries and news programming on Public Television (Pioneers of Thirteen, PBS Newshour, Metrofocus). He is a Slifka Fellow at the Bernard L. Schwartz Center for Media, Public Policy and Education at Fordham University, and is the Managing Director of The Coterie, a music theater company based in New York City.
Andrea Ureno
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Andrea Ureno is a Director/Producer/Writer based in Burbank, CA. She got her Bachelor of Arts degree in Film from California State University Long Beach when she turned 40. That is where she discovered her calling in life – Documentary with Focus on Women and Girls. Andrea is an ongoing editor for the Art Director Awards Show. She also worked as a Newsroom Coordinator for PBS award winning show, SoCal Connected, which developed her documentary/news chops. Being the daughter of a writer, she just needed a place to develop her talents.
She was editing her unfinished Documentary Feature, “An American Housewife” when she realized that “a girl can change the world” needed to be created. She was inspired by her own footage and that of her daughter’s 8th grade project, Feminism. Instead of making an educational documentary about Women’s Equality by passing the Equal Rights Amendment, she realized the power it would bring in a girl’s life by having your average American girl be in front of the camera and discussing her place in America. Andrea is taking the documentary on the festival circuit. Her team is creating a website where the film is the beginning conversation piece and girls and women have a safe space of their own. Once this is underway, she is then looking forward to returning to her passion project, “An American Housewife”.
Andrea received a Certificate of Recognition from California State Legislature Assembly for her successful completion of the Women’s Action Training Network sponsored by National Council Of Jewish Women. At her premiere at the City of Angels Women’s Film Festival, she was honoured with Best New Filmmaker award and she and her film got a mention in Variety Magazine.
Soren Sorensen
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Soren Sorensen is an award-winning filmmaker specializing in documentary film and television with an emphasis on social and cultural issues. His first feature-length documentary, MY FATHER'S VIETNAM (2016), combines interviews and never-before-seen photographs and 8mm footage of the era, to tell the story of three soldiers, only one of whom returned home from the Vietnam War alive. The film premiered at the 2015 Rhode Island International Film Festival, where it won the Soldiers and Sacrifice Grand Prize. MY FATHER'S VIETNAM is currently available on streaming video-on-demand platforms, and on Blu-ray and DVD.
Sorensen followed MY FATHER'S VIETNAM with the short documentary, WITH DAD. Based on the book of the same name by photographer and Clark University Studio Art professor Stephen DiRado, WITH DAD features DiRado’s still photography, specifically during the painful 20-year period of his father’s decline and eventual death from Alzheimer’s disease. The film premiered at the 2020 Rhode Island International Film Festival, where it won the Youth Jury First Prize for Best Short Documentary. The film also won awards in 2020 at the Houston International Film Festival, the Massachusetts Independent Film Festival, and the Mystic Film Festival. In 2021, WITH DAD won two awards, for Best Short Documentary and Best Editing, at the Red Dirt Film Festival in Stillwater, OK and won Best Short Documentary at the NYC Independent Film Festival. WITH DAD had its broadcast premiere in September of 2021 on WGBH.
Cédrick-Isham Calvados
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Cédrick-Isham Calvados took his first steps in photography in 2004 and decided to really start in 2009 with the acquisition of his first digital reflex camera.
His photographic work took a real turn in 2013, through a project launched on social networks entitled: "Guadeloupe, my face". He chooses to approach subjects through close-up portraits, which are for him a way to overcome the rejection of oneself, one's own image and the fear of others' gaze.
Interested in touching subjects and above all in human nature, he seeks in all things to highlight the dignity of men and women whatever their conditions. Convinced that his camera is an extension of his personality, it is as an attentive observer that he casts a glance mixing poetry, softness and realism on the souls as well as the identities which surround him.
Christopher Nostrand
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Christopher Nostrand owns and operates the film and video production company Nostrand Productions LLC. Chris is also an independent filmmaker and teaches Lighting & Cinematography at Marist College. Chris’ films total over fifty official selections including Woodstock Film Festival, DOC NYC, GI Film Festival and NewFilmmakers New York. His twenty awards include a CINE Golden Eagle, x5 Tellys, x3 Communicators, Director’s Choice at Black Maria Film Festival and Best Documentary and Best Cinematography at CUNY Film Festival. Chris earned a Master’s of Fine Arts in Integrated Media Arts at Hunter College in 2016.
Tayo Giwa
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Tayo Giwa is a filmmaker and co-creator of Black-Owned Brooklyn, a publication and Instagram account documenting local Black business, history and culture. His first film, the 2020 documentary short Soul Summit: Doin’ It in the Park, examined Soul Summit, a beloved open-air house music party based in Fort Greene Park. He lives in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
Olivia M. Pfaff
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Canadian Film maker living in Paris. Firm believer of diversity and inclusiveness in the film industry. Olivia is champion for women's rights, the rights of children , and other human rights causes. She was university educated in Canada and in The UK. Currently she is branching out , seeking a Journalism credential from the London School of Journalism, to further her work as a documentary filmmaker. Her script " Heavenly Brunch" received recognition as a quarter finalist for The international Faith in Film Screen writing competition.
Koki Homma
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Born in 1991. Chitose City, Hokkaido.
2019 Started working as a freelance video creator.
Directed the documentary film "Voice ~The world that finds you~".
The film was critically acclaimed at many film festivals in Japan and
abroad.
Specializes in interviews and documentary production.
I also plan and organize educational activities for hyperhidrosis.
Yunhong Pu
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Yunhong Pu is an NYC-based independent filmmaker. Born and raised in China, she received her MFA Degree from SVA Social Documentary Film in 2019. Go Through the Dark is her first documentary feature film.
Justin Krook, Luke Mazzaferro
Award-Winning Filmmakers
Justin Krook is a Grammy-Nominated documentary filmmaker, based between Los Angeles and Sydney.
Drawing from his extensive directing, editing and visual effects experience in the music video world, Justin brought his unique style of story telling to the screen in his Grammy-Nominated debut feature, I’LL SLEEP WHEN I’M DEAD which premiered at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival. The NETFLIX Original documentary is a meditation on family, work ethic, and ambition, as told through the eyes of dance music’s most capricious character, Steve Aoki.
Justin’s 2nd feature documentary, MACHINE, was released by ICON & GRAVITAS Entertainment. The film profiles the ethical dilemmas humanity faces with the rise of Artificial Intelligence, and premiered at the Melbourne International Film Festival in 2019. Justin has two upcoming features in post production - one chronicling the traumatic life of drumming icon Travis Barker and the other following the unsung heroes who stepped up to the call during the Black Summer bushfires in Australia.
James Hsieh Bylinsky
Award-Winning Filmmaker
James Bylinsky is a 15 year old filmmaker from Brooklyn, New York. He is relatively new to filmmaking, but strives for perfection.
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Elijah Stephens
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Elijah Stephens is the Director and Executive Producer of Send Proof, his first full-length documentary. Elijah completed his undergraduate studies at Covenant College where he earned degrees in Psychology and Philosophy. He went on to earn graduate degrees in both Apologetics and Science and Religion from Biola University. Elijah served as an executive pastor for seven years, is a published author, and continues to teach on the subject of religion, science, and the supernatural. In 2015, Elijah founded Star Gazer Media Group, a film house focused on creating media which bridges the gap between the intellectual and the spiritual.
Simon Bang
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Simon Bang is an active visual artist and filmmaker and has developed storyboards for directors such as Bille August, Susanne Bier, Lars Von Trier, Thomas Vinterberg and Lone Scherfig. Simon Bang is self-educated and has exhibited paintings and drawings in galleries and museums in Denmark, the USA, Sweden and the Czech Republic, among other places. He has also done graphic work for record covers, book cover and posters for Miles Davis, among others. Has taught at the Danish Film School and debuts as a director with the film "The Captain's Heart".
Reilly Dowd
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Reilly is the director and producer of the upcoming feature documentary film, DREAMS OF DARAA. The film is a co-production with ITVS, the leading provider of independently produced programs for PBS. It is executive produced by Academy Award nominated and Peabody and Emmy-winning filmmaker Joe Berlinger.
In bringing this project to life, Reilly was a fellow in the Studios Program of the Halcyon Arts Lab in Washington, D.C. and the Fledgling Engagement Lab, a highly selective program which supports projects that are focused on issues affecting vulnerable populations that are poised for action. During the one-year lab, she worked alongside a handful of other social issue documentary film teams to design a social impact campaign focused on Syrian women and girls.
Reilly is a graduate of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, where she focused her studies on investigative journalism and international politics. She has worked at SnagFilms (indieWIRE), CNN, ABC News, Al Jazeera America, The Fiscal Times as well as for former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Obama White House Office of Presidential Correspondence.
In 2020, Reilly received an MBA from Oxford University's Said Business School. She was recently named one of Poets&Quants' Best & Brightest MBAs of 2020.
Reilly was 1 of 24 selected for the prestigious Peter Stark Producing Program of USC's School of Cinematic Arts. During her first year, she was awarded the Peter Stark Filmmaker Award for her role as director of a short film, THE LAST RIDE. In May 2021, Reilly received her MFA degree in producing for film, television and new media.
Carolyn Wilson
Award-Winning Filmmaker
A first time award winning film-maker, best selling author, and international motivational speaker Carolyn Wilson, is the Fearless Magnified Educator. A survivor of Sexual Child Abuse and Domestic Violence who intentionally created a new narrative for her life. She demonstrates to others how to tap into the power of positive thinking to live and create their best life (especially after trauma & abuse). Carolyn is the creator of Magnify Your Essence, the Celebrating YOU Women’s Conference & Expo, Beacon's Light Retreat and is the author of Magnified Thoughts.
Michael Tiranoff
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Michael Tiranoff has been a filmmaker/editor of documentary films for over 45 years. His work includes the 1976 film Arabbin' (Director) about street vendors who sell produce from horse drawn wagons in Baltimore, newly restored by IndieCollect, Memories (Director), about the value of collecting oral histories in Hampden, a neighborhood of Baltimore, and Milt and Honi (Assistant Director), a point of view feature documentary with Honi Coles, tap dancer and Milt Hinton, bass player describing their 60 year friendship after they met while working and touring with the Cab Calloway Orchestra. Narrated by Gregory Hines, their stories span the history of jazz music and dance.
Recently, he directed and edited the film, Portrait of a Weaver, about his Mom, Ruth Tiranoff, who left Nazi Germany in 1936 as a refugee for England where she was first introduced to weaving, and her arrival in New York on July 4th, 1938, where she was greeted by the sight of the Statue of Liberty. Woven in is her story as a professional weaver. After her years in Alabama and DC and the threat of McCarthyism, she joins up with the Raging Grannies anti-war singing group in New York while continuing her life as a weaver.
Haotian Liu
Award-Winning Filmmaker
A young director, independent filmmaker who's living in the northeast of China. Haotian started making short films since 2015. Haotian has years of film-learning experience and the documentary film Kiss the Wind is his first feature film.
Kenneth Thomas
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Kenneth Thomas is a teacher and filmmaker from Arcata, the far reaches of Northern California. From the age of 22, he has consistently worked in some aspect of news or documentary production. After graduating with his Bachelor’s Degree in 16mm Film Production from Boston University, he moved back to his hometown, to work at the local CBS television station, where he quickly became the Technical Director, and then the Live News Director for both the 6pm and 11pm newscasts. Before he left, he also served as their News Videographer, documenting stories on the front lines, like Earth First’s controversial fight to save the old-growth redwood forests.
He then spent 4 years in Seattle, helping to start a dot-com that specialized in shooting multi-camera productions of rock concerts for the internet. Kenneth co-produced, shot, and directed about a dozen concerts for the company, for bands like Queens of the Stone Age, The Dandy Warhols and King Crimson. This was a few years before YouTube, so the company was a little ahead of its time — but, before they went out of business, Kenneth purchased a slew of equipment from the company to bring to Los Angeles.
The next ten years were spent as a freelance camera operator and editor, shooting red carpet events for Marvel, co-directing and shooting a cross-country car race in Mexico, shooting and editing for Shout Factory on their television nostalgia DVD’s, and becoming part of Yanni’s camera crew for his PBS specials in Florida, Mexico and Egypt.
After receiving his MFA in Film at San Francisco Art Institute, Kenneth completed his 5-year long film project, a feature-length music documentary called Blood, Sweat + Vinyl: DIY in the 21st Century. Featuring over a dozen multi-camera live concert shoots and 20 interviews about independent heavy metal music culture, the film has screened in over two dozen film and music festivals on every continent (except Antarctica) and is currently being independently distributed. This documentary led to him directing two music videos for bands in the film, one of which aired on MTV’s Headbanger’s Ball. He recently completed his third feature-length music documentary, which is about the rise and fall of the fiercely independent, SF-based record store, Aquarius Records.
Kenneth currently teaches Live TV Production and Audio Production at Los Angeles City College, with occasional freelance stints as a key camera operator for live multi-camera streams of LA Philharmonic concerts, directing live multi-camera streams of heavy metal concerts in Boston and Los Angeles, and studying to become a Certified Cicerone — which is a fancy way of saying “beer expert.”
Alex Leff
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Alex Leff (director, co-editor, co-producer) earned a Bachelor of Arts studying documentary film at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. In addition to his studies, Alex directed and produced two feature films on the climate justice movement. His 2013 Students & Goliath: How The Youth Took On The Fossil Fuel Industry was hailed by eminent environmentalist Bill McKibben and screened at dozens of colleges and universities nationwide. For his 2015 feature, In The Path of Resistance, Alex followed three front-line communities living along the proposed Keystone XL pipeline to highlight their struggle and resiliency. In The Path of Resistance was picked up by RT for international broadcast and translated into Spanish, Arabic, and Russian.
Mark Albertin
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Mark Albertin comes from a strong photography background and since 2000 has been creating feature-length documentaries around the south. He takes extreme care in connecting the viewer with the film. Making every effort to preserve history, the environment and our way of life for others in the future.
Boštjan Slatenšek
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Born 23rd December 1971 in Maribor, Slovenia, he studied history and sociology at the University of Ljubljana.
From 1998 till 2005 he worked as a freelance reporter and photojournalist. He was a war and crisis reporter (Kosovo, Eritrea, Chechnya, Macedonia, West Bank, Afghanistan, Iraq, Kashmir) and was published in numerous national and international newspapers and magazines ( Mladina, Delo – Slovenia; Jutarnji list – Croatia; Diario - Italy; The Sunday Times - UK; Zeri – Kosovo; Time, Boston Globe –
USA; Tages Zaitung Berlin, Fokus – Germany, Dagbladet - Norway...)
In 2002 Študentska založba publishing house / Ljubljana, Slovenia / published his
book Kosovo footprints – on the war in Kosovo, which was translated into English.
In 2018 Založba FDV / Ljubljana, Slovenia / published the book he is co-authoring
Theocracy – Taliban rule in Afghanistan 1996 – 2001
Boštjan Slatenšek is working as a script developer and tutor for scriptwriting in
connection with the Slovenian MEDIA programme and various private film producing
companies.
Drew Tank Garrett
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Drew was born in Tucson Arizona to Wil and Espanola. They moved to Los Angeles Shortly after his birth. He studied acting at Van Nuys Performing Arts Magnet School. He watched his Father Wil Garret also an actor for years work in Hollywood and inspired to follow in his dads footsteps. In 2015 Drew started his own independent film company, Black Moses Entertainment. Drew is currently writing, acting and directing short films music videos and other projects He has a 24 years old daughter Alexandria Garrett and a 10 year old son Andrew DeVaughn Garrett who also inspires to be an actor.
Mark Maynard
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Mark Maynard's written work has appeared in magazines and anthologies, including Baobab Press’s This Side of the Divide, Tahoe Blues (Bona Fide Books), and The Films of Clint Eastwood (University of New Mexico Press). His 2012 collection of short stories Grind (Torrey House Press) was selected as the 2016-17 Nevada Reads Book by the Nevada State Library. In 2015, Mark was awarded the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame Silver Pen Award. He is currently enrolled in the graduate journalism program at the University of Nevada, Reno. Piconland is his first film.
He teaches English and creative writing at Truckee Meadows Community College (TMCC) in Reno, NV.
Isaac Deitz
Award-Winning Filmmaker
In 1998 Isaac Bought his first camera at the age of 10 and has been hooked ever since. Since then he's directed a web series, nationally televised documentaries and music videos for Grammy winning artists.
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Yutong Liu, Yuluan Gong, Shiyun Liu
Award-Winning Filmmakers
Yutong Liu (she/her/hers) is a director, producer, and art leader based in Boston. She pursued her Bachelor's degrees in Film/TV and Sociology at Boston University. She has worked at Boston University ArtsLab, Panopticon Gallery, Tencent Video, China Central Television, etc. Being a bilingual Asian woman living in the US, Yutong aims to produce cross-cultural realism films focusing on social justice and human life.
Carletta S. Hurt
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Carletta S. Hurt is an educator, producer, and youth advocate, with over two decades of experience in education and supporting girls of color. She is an award-winning film producer and the former board president for Women in Film and Video - DC. A self-proclaimed SUDOKU champion, wordsmith at Scrabble and Words with Friends, she has worked as a teacher, administrator, and currently works as a school counselor in Washington, DC. Carletta is pursuing her doctoral degree; premiering her documentary, Clothed Minds (www.clothedminds.com); and facilitating social justice conversations with teens as a 2021 Vocal Justice Fellow. You can see her online at www.carlettashurt.com.
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SPOTLIGHT
DOCUMENTARY
FILM AWARDS
Benjamin Marsh Hilton
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Benjamin is a director and cinematographer with a passion for heart moving stories and artistic excellence. Over his eleven year carrier he has produced award winning short films, music videos, promotional content, and over 30 episodes of an international TV series the Joshua and Caleb Report.See More
Celine Parreñas Shimizu
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Celine Parreñas Shimizu, film scholar and filmmaker, is Dean of the Division of the Arts and Distinguished Professor of Film and Media at the University of California at Santa Cruz. She is formerly Professor and Director of the School of Cinema at San Francisco State University and Professor of Asian American, Feminist and Film and Media Studies at UC Santa Barbara.
She wrote The Proximity of Other Skins (2020), Straitjacket Sexualities (2012), and The Hypersexuality of Race (2007) and co-edited The Feminist Porn Book (2013) and The Unwatchability of Whiteness (2018). Her new book The Movies of Racial Childhoods: Screening Self-Sovereignty in Asian / America, is forthcoming from Duke University Press.
Her numerous peer-reviewed articles appear in top journals in the fields of cinema, performance, ethnic, feminist, sexuality studies, and transnational popular culture in Asia and Asian America. She is formerly Associate Editor of Gay and Lesbian Quarterly (GLQ), founding USA editor of Asian Diasporas and Visual Cultures of the Americas and Associate Editor of Women Studies International Forum.
Her latest film The Celine Archive (2020) won several festival awards and is distributed by Women Make Movies. She has served as a reviewer for the Ford Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
She received her Ph.D. in Modern Thought and Literature from Stanford University, her M.F.A. in Film Directing and Production from UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television and her B.A. in Ethnic Studies from UC Berkeley.
Silenn Thomas
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Silenn is a graduate of the UCLA film school directing program. Since leaving she has worked alongside a number of industry heavyweights including Luc Besson, George Romero, Zack Snyder, Kathleen Kennedy, Marc Canton, Mike Figgis and Robert Rodriguez. An established producer, this documentary marks her directorial debut.
Giorgis Fotopoulos
Award-Winning Filmmaker
G. Fotopoulos was born in East Berlin and grew up in Athens. Studies in Visual Communication at the School of Arts and Master of Arts, and in Philosophy and Film at the Free University in West Berlin (1984-1990). Producing, directing and screenplay of about a dozen short films since 1986, and 2008 of the full-length feature film "Horch". Publications of reviews and essays, especially on Turkish and Greek films notably in Der Tagesspiegel and Die Welt (1989-1999). Assistant director and production director of several film productions including two with Theo Angelopoulos (1988-2008). Dramaturgy and theater directing at Berlin off stages including the Orphtheater and the Nostos Theatre (1992-1996). Teaching and lectures on film and cinema at the Humboldt University, the Free University and the University of Arts in Berlin (1997-1999). Numerous translations of Greek poetry into German since 1991. Documentaries for Arte and other television stations since 1998.
Dolapo Adeleke, Deji Akinpelu
Award-Winning Filmmakers
Dolapo Adeleke (LowlaDee), born in Kano Nigeria, is an award-winning Nigerian filmmaker, Showrunner, and Founder of LowlaDee Productions Co - an independent company committed to telling heartfelt stories from Africa, to a global audience.
She is a screenwriter, director, producer, and editor, some of her notable works include This Is It, a Nigerian TV series that aired on LowlaDeeTV YouTube and Television networks across Africa and abroad. It won the prestigious African Magic Viewers Choice awards for ‘Best Television Series’ in 2018. Plan B, a Kenyan digital film special for Valentine’s Day which aired on YouTube and Television won ‘Best Film East Africa’ at the prestigious African Magic Viewers Choice awards in 2019 and Just In Time Kenyan family movie which premiered globally on Netflix in 2020.
She was nominated for the prize of New Media by the ‘Future Awards Africa’, in March 2018 listed in Leading Ladies Africa’s ‘100 Most Inspiring Women In Nigeria’ and ‘Film Director Of The Year’ by EbonyLifeTV Sisterhood Awards Africa.
She has also produced and directed narrative projects for prominent corporate brands such as RenMoney Nigeria, GE Garage Nigeria (General Electric), First City Monument Bank (FCMB) etc under her production service company, Doreen Media Communications.
FRANÇOIS LEGRAND, MARC-ANTOINE BOYER, LUDOVIC BOLLETTE
Award-Winning Filmmakers
François begins his first movie projects with video recorders during childhood.
In 2009, he started his first short films. Riding with his passion for music, François continues to produce films during and after his studies in Multimedia Writing.
Then in 2017, François took a militant turn and got involved in associations. He created the media "Permavenir TV" and with Félicien Bogaerts, they founded the "J-Terre" (sponsored by Elise Lucet).
In 2019 with Ludovic Bollette, they created the Tandem Local project, a human and committed documentary feature film on local food in Belgium. During the production of this one, François engages in another documentary of 52 minutes entitled The Truth of the Soil.
In a nearly future, François wants to go back to fiction and also keep making documentaries but on completly different subjects. We'll see !
Spenser Watson Spratlin
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Spenser Spratlin is a filmmaker and documentarian based in Philadelphia, PA. Coming from a background in education, much of his documentary work focuses on the world of academia. Spenser’s experience with the bureaucratic systems of education have pushed him to pursue stories and topics that would otherwise be lost to the public.
In his creative practice, he mainly concentrates on post production editing, and processing sound design. Spenser is currently studying Film and Media Arts in the MFA program at Temple University.
Gabriella Garcia-Pardo
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Gabriella is a Colombian-American documentary filmmaker drawn to stories of home, migration, and climate justice.
A 2020 Sundance Creative Producing Fellow and 2020 Impact Partners Producers Fellow, Gabriella has been supported by Catapult Films, ITVS, IWMF, BAVC, and New Orleans Film Society, among others. Her work as a cinematographer has screened at festivals including Sundance, SXSW, Full Frame, Hot Docs, and Tribeca. She’s currently producing two features and directing two short films between Colombia, Morocco, and the US.
Previously, Gabriella produced short-form documentaries at National Geographic, filmed Tiny Desk Concerts at NPR, designed an intensive summer film program for high school students at Yale, and led horse treks through Chile. She is a graduate of SCAD and is the founder of the DC chapter of the Video Consortium where she organizes events for filmmakers and journalists and leads a mentorship program for emerging mediamakers.
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Lorenzo Moscia
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Lorenzo lives between Rome and Santiago de Chile,
1999 Law Degree University La Sapianza, Rome
In 2022/2012 he worked on assigments for several NGO´s such as World University Service of Canada (WUSC), Infinithium Humanitharian Systems (IHS) Roddenberry Found (U.S.A) Greenpeace Italy and Greenpeace Chile, in Philippines, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Kenya, Mexico, Marshall islands and Italy.
He has made both video documentaries and photographic reportages for the aforementioned companies.
His works have been widely published in magazines and newspapers: Mclean´s, Der Spiegel, Sunday Times, Venerdí di Repubblica,Io Donna Corriere della sera, Internazionale, Bloomberg, Chicago Tribune,British Journal of Photography among others and several chilean magazines where he writes as well.
2002-2012, Greenpeace Chile. In 1999 he graduated as a lawyer at the La Sapienza University (Rome) and after a one-year training, he decided to settle in Chile, to give up law and to devote to photography. He has won different prizes during the last decade, ranging from the United Nations (2002) to a recognition on part of the Asociación de Reporteros Gráficos de Chile (2006/2008/2013/2014/2015). He publishes his first book of photographies, called “Luces de Rapa Nui” (“Lights of Rapa Nui) , about the inhabitants of Easter Island, in 2002.
In 2009 he publishes his second work, “Lota”, in which he portrays the hard life of the ex coal miners.
In 2010 he publishes, Campamento Esperanza, about the rescue of 33 chilean miners.
His works have been widely published.
Nowadays he is correspondent of different international agencies, Redux, Rea and Archivolatino, has specialized in investigative reporting, espeially in Latin America. During these last years, he has developed audiovisual projects, as for instance “Arroz con Mango” , an intimate look at the Cuban reality, for which he was awarded prizes in festivals and “By the shade of the Moai” , a video to everyday life on Easter Island, for which he was also awarded prizes in national and international competitions, Hayan aftermath about the effect of the strongest typhoon ever register on earth.
His works have been exhibited in Chile, Italy and Japan.
Mark Solomon
Award-Winning Filmmaker
I am a clinical neuropsychologist and an innovator of a conversational technique known as Street Epistemology (SE). This technique, which is basically the Socratic method, is designed to help people better reflect on the reasons for their deeply-held beliefs. The projects I create are very timely and use SE to both capture the nature of how entrenched beliefs risk damaging our way of life and hopefully offer tangible solutions.
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Greg Jeschke
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Greg Jeschke is an award-winning documentary producer and journalist who has had a life-long career in broadcast news. He was raised on a farm near Poynette, Wisconsin and his experience includes anchoring and reporting the news on TV in several cities, including San Francisco, Portland, Oregon, and Madison, Wisconsin. In addition to his regular duties he created, produced and hosted two documentary series, “Our West” and “Our Wisconsin”. His programs have focused on giving a voice to marginalized groups in the community. His documentaries on racial disparities and climate change earned Edward R. Murrow Awards and his documentary on the origins of the environmental movement was recognized with an Emmy. In 2018, he became an independent documentary producer and started his company, JDog Productions, LLC. In the spring of 2020, JDog released two new documentaries, INterDEPENDENCE and Justified Journey, which have earned multiple international film festival awards. JDog's third release came in 2022, with Stage Presents. Greg and his wife live in Madison.
Jordan Shankman
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Jordan Shankman is an Atlanta-based photographer, cinematographer and independent filmmaker with technical expertise for analog processes and a passion for storytelling.
He was born in Atlanta, Ga and graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2012 with a B.F.A in Film and Television and a Minor in Cinema Studies.
His work has garnered recognition from The Telluride Film Festival, Rhode Island International Film Festival, The Nottingham International Film Festival, Kodak, Hasselblad and Ilford Photo. His knowledge and dedication, methodical execution and loyalty to his collaborators is the foundation and driving force behind his work.
Monique Jeter-Holley
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Monique Jeter-Holley was introduced to the art of television and film at the age of 15, through a summer employment opportunity funded by the District of Columbia government. She immediately knew she was destined to work in the media industry. Monique has worked in all facets of production, from management, producing, directing, casting, post-production, and training. She has worked on commercial, blockbuster, non-profit, and independent productions throughout the Washington, DC Metropolitan area, as well as Los Angeles and New York.
Monique’s credits include OWN Network’s Super Soul Sunday, The MoMedia Blog, MoMedia Presents, BBQ Pitmasters, The Rachel Zoe Project, Sprint, Breach, NY Ink, Ink Masters, as well as additional countless film and television projects.
Monique holds a master’s degree in Technology Management from Georgetown University, and a bachelor’s degree in Mass Communications from Norfolk State University. She serves on the advising committee for RizeUp Technology Training; providing television and film production consultation services, and resides in Washington, DC with her husband and son.
Monique is committed to creating media that motivates, educates and invokes positive action within audiences around the globe.
Rachel M. Payne
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Rachel directed, produced, and co-wrote the documentary "Norm Geisler: Not Qualified," for the international nonprofit NGIM. She has served as Vice-President of the nonprofit Carolina Film Community since 2019. Having lived and studied internationally, she brings a global, intercultural, and historical perspective to her creative work. Rachel has studied theatre, film, marketing and business, and has worked in the media industry since 2010.
Steven Sawalich
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Steven Sawalich, President & CEO of Articulus Entertainment, merges a devotion to humanitarian aid with artistic determination, to capture on film emotionally compelling and thought-provoking human experiences from around the globe. Since its inception, Articulus has been dedicated to bringing commercially successful and critically acclaimed movies, television, and original programming events to audiences worldwide.
Sawalich made his directorial debut in the 2007 film drama Music Within starring Ron Livingston, Melissa George and Michael Sheen. He won the Audience Award at the 1st annual AFI Dallas International Film Festival for best narrative feature film. Music Within was distributed by MGM.
Operation Change is an original series created by Sawalich and Articulus Entertainment. The 10-part documentary series about one family’s quest to make the world a better place for everyone, premiered on OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network in 2015. Operation Change showcases what’s possible when celebrities, philanthropists, charities, and individuals join forces to affect community change everywhere. The series features a compilation of life-changing stories and never-before- seen images and footage detailing the valiant humanitarian efforts of some of the world’s greatest unsung heroes.
The stories chronicled in Operation Change will not only be able to be experienced through this riveting documentary series, which features President Bill Clinton, Sir Richard Branson, Sir Elton John, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Donna Karan, and Harry Connick, Jr. among many others, but also through an innovative second screen web platform. The overall goal of Operation Change is to engage the masses to start creating the change they want to see in the world.
In 2019, Sawalich released the documentary, Where the Light Shines, which follows two young Afghanistan Snow skiers as they go from Novice skiers to Olympic hopefuls. Filmed over four years, this beautiful film paints an uplifting and refreshing portrait of Afghanistan as you haven’t seen it before.
Currently, he has Directed and Produced a new feature documentary, A Case for Kindness. Through cutting edge science, on the ground interviews and inspiring real-life stories, this Documentary Feature leads viewers to a deeper understanding of Kindness and the proven changes it can bring to yourself, your family and the world. With the help of global thought leaders like The Dalai Lama, Ben Affleck, Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood to name a few, A Case for Kindness will take you on a journey across the globe to understand the true nature of Kindness and make the case for why it is our best way forward as a society.
Sawalich’s family foundation, Starkey Hearing Foundation, gives away hearing aids to people in need worldwide having program in 65 countries. He has traveled the globe on hearing missions countless times. The Foundation fits upwards of 300,000 children and adults a year with free hearing devices and provides one-to-one hearing education.
He has raised the visibility of the Foundation dramatically, both domestically and worldwide. His leadership provides directs efforts in film, global partnerships, humanitarian initiatives, social web strategies and the exponential growth of the So The World May Hear Awards Gala which he produces. The Gala has become the largest fundraising event in the Midwest and the 3rd largest in the US having raised over $100 million.
He has sat on the advisory board for numerous organizations such as Eastern Congo Initiative, Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Program, X-Prize, THORN, Delta, Virgin Unite, Special Olympics and Clinton Global Initiative. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Pepperdine University and currently resides in Manhattan Beach, CA with his two children.
Chris Frieswijk
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Chris (33) started making films after studying Arts, Culture and Media in Groningen and Film Studies in Amsterdam. He picked up directing, and researching once he started working with Bureau Beeldtaal Filmmakers in Deventer (NL). In his work he looks to portray the interaction between different cultures through personal stories. These are often stories of resilience and community. In his latest projects he has also started to investigate his own explicit role in the narrative, in search of ways to make authentic and more personal work.
Tasos Gkinosatis
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Born in Athens in 1979. BA in Philosophy (University of Patras, Greece and Dublin City University,Ireland), MA in Creative Documentary (Autonomous University of Barcelona) and Diploma in Cinematografic editing (Cecc, Barcelona).
I work as a video creator and video editor cooperating with public organizations and individuals. I've directed the web interactive documentary "A long adventure. The recognition of the national Resistance. 1944-2006", the medium length documentary "Voutes" and also co directed as a member of Colectivo el Paramo the short documentary " Vamos a quemar".See More
Keisha L Jordan
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Keisha Jordan, born and raised in Chicago and now reside in Kansas City, Missouri. At her core, Keisha Jordan is an artist. She uses her art to inspire thought and creativity in the world around her under the moniker Ayo Keeesh.
She works with interior designers to create gorgeous and culturally inspired textiles through her company Complex Flavors when she's not designing campaigns for her clients. Complex Flavors is a brand that celebrates the Black experience via beautiful design. Creating settings that proudly express the real grit and grandeur of Black brilliance, which is frequently disregarded and undervalued by the mainstream.
Keisha also partners with non-profit groups including the Lupus Foundation of America, while teaching aspiring young creative directors, and participating in art displays and contests. She is the originator and curator of the ULTRAVIOLET Art Show Fundraiser, which features the one-of-a-kind and original works of local and national artists while also raising money for the Walk To End Lupus NowTM. Keisha uses the world as her canvas, painting with color strokes that highlight the good and beautiful in it.
The Lupus Diaries: Wolves + Butterflies, Keisha's newest upcoming project, a documentary that explores the complex reality of living with lupus, exposing the emotional journeys of not only lupus warriors, but also their caregivers, loved ones, and friends who are fighting the disease.
Gina Cunningham
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Gina Cunningham is a novice director and visual artist who is also a disabled mom and grandmother. After various careers as a restaurateur, social activist, and educator, she felt compelled to make a documentary film on her iPhone recounting the history of her great Aunt Pasqualina. Gina felt she needed to tell the true story of her Italian immigrant family following a familiar path to pursuing the American Dream. In Pasqualina of Springfield, the mafia anti-hero is a powerful, complex woman. The gangster movie genre has never featured a female central character. Pasqualina of Springfield couldn’t be timelier.
Ross Bolidai
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Ross' first documentary short won a Royal Television Society Award in 2012. He went on to win a scholarship to study Documentary Directing at the National Film and Television School, under the mentorships of Sean McAllister and Kim Longinotto. His graduation film Coalville Gold was nominated for Grierson & BIFA awards.
Ross won the Channel 4 First Cut Pitch at Sheffield Doc/Fest in 2016. He has developed and directed documentaries for production companies and broadcasters including AMOS Pictures, Passion Pictures, VICE, STV, BBC, and Channel 4, and directed commerical work for brands including 5 Gum, Zurich, Hello Fresh & SoftBank.
His documentaries have been recognised at the Sheffield Doc/Fest, Grierson & BIFA Awards. His work in advertising has won over 30 international awards, including 3x Kinsale Sharks, 2x D&AD Pencils and the Shots Award for Branded Entertainment Series of the Year.
Carter Rostron
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Carter Rostron has been making short films since second grade, including documentaries, comedies, and stop-motion animation. He is 17 years old and he is a senior at Pembroke Hill School.
Shingo Ota
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Born in 1985. Born in Nagano Prefecture. Majored in philosophy at Waseda University. His film "Graduation," won the Excellence Award and Audience Award at IFF 2010. "The End of the Special Time We Were Allowed", a film about a friend's suicide, was released at YIDFF 2013 and distributed in 12 other countries. His fiction film "Fragile" had theatrical release in 2019. As an actor, he has appeared in stage and film too.
Kim and Steve Holmes
Award-Winning Filmmakers
Kim and Steve Holmes are a wife-husband production team based in Park City, Utah. Documentary is their favorite kind of media content to create and consume. They strive to empower their on-camera subjects to be storytellers. Kim and Steve have run a successful video production company, Main Frame Digital, for over 30 years and continue to work in broadcast, corporate, and educational video production.
Steve and Kim first vacationed in Jamaica in 2002. From the first trip they were fascinated by the integration of ganja into Jamaica's culture. Ganja (marijuana) is part of every day life in Jamaica. They didn't see signs of the "stoner culture" that's prevalent in North America, or the stereotyping of ganja use. They wanted to share their experience of Jamaica’s vibrant ganja culture with a broad audience and the seeds of Healing of the Nation: Ganja in Jamaica were planted.
Other documentary projects from the Holmes can be found on their YouTube Channel.
William Michael Barbee
Award-Winning Filmmaker
William Michael Barbee is a Newark native and was educated in the Newark Public School System. He attended Arts High School: America’s First High School of Performing Arts; Jersey City State College, majoring in Biology with a minor in Fine Arts; Rutgers University, graduating with a Degree in Business Management; McAllister/American Academy of Mortuary Science, graduating with a Diploma in Mortuary Science and Funeral Services. During the summer of 1980 and upon entering Arts High School, the Barbee family was the victim of an arson fire. Consequently, William Michael’s family was permanently displaced and separated. The toll of those and other events would forever change his life. He attended his first two years of high school as a homeless teen with donated clothing from friends, strangers, and with vouchers from The Salvation Army and the Goodwill Missions. As a direct result of the fire; watching childhood friends die due to street violence; drug abuse; disease and depression; William Michael suffered many levels of posttraumatic stress.
In addition to being a Serial Entrepreneur, William Michael is a Philanthropist, Business Leader, Fine Artist, Published Author, as well as a Writer, Director & Producer of films and documentaries. One of his therapeutic techniques, as taught by Dr. Neiderbach was to express himself through his writing while experiencing his emotional lows and highs. After battling depression for many years, William Michael was able to reflect on the notes that he retained while in counseling with Shelly Neiderbach PhD. Those same writings became essential for giving depth to the main character in his first fictional novel entitled “Clipped Wings They Do Fly.” The novel was written as a tribute to his parents, (late) Otha Donald and Josephine P. Barbee. He believes that in spite of his mother’s disabilities, her teachings are forever reminders of how to stay strong in the face of all adversities. He wrote “Clipped Wings They Do Fly” as a semi-autobiographical sketch of his life, to which has now been turned into a full feature film entitled “Beyond The Silence.” This 2016 film brings to the forefront the crisis of mental illness within our communities. This film has also been selected to be screened in the Marketplace at the prestigious 2019 Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France. He is proud of his sophomore book entitled, “What’s In Your Bag – Unpacking One Item At A Time.” There, he encourages the reader to be more introspective and transparent about their fears. Through many of his personal stories and experiences, he tackles the subjects of Love, Fear, Masking, A Letter To Him, Embracing Change, and Forgiveness to name a few. William Michael continues to write books and produce documentaries and films. His latest documentary series and book entitled, “HEAR MY VOICE – Born Black In America” is in production. This series will display African American culture and its correlation to the history of America. Towards the end of this year, William Michael will also be releasing his documentary entitled, “THE SPIN ON VINYL.” This documentary highlights the influence music has played over the decades.
William Michael other directing/producing/writing film and video credits include: Beyond The Silence, The Art of the Journey - The Ben Jones Story, The Spin On Vinyl, "Your Body" by Josh Milan, "I Can Wait" by Vicky Martin, and "I Remember" by Wincey Terry-Bryant to name a few.
Susanne Aichele
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Susanne Aichele is a filmmaker interested in future potentialities and the emotional and psychological transformations that accompany change.
She was born in the GDR, encountering the identity-shaping quality of systems and narratives - and how these can transfigure. She has previously worked as Creative Director for the Global Goals and a range of future-oriented brands and organizations and has written a couple of sci-fi features.
Sam Katz
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Sam Katz is a lifelong Philadelphian who has experienced a diverse and unique career in public and project finance, venture capital, civic activism, development, politics and documentary filmmaking. Sam spent 20 years as CEO of Public Financial Management (now The PFM Group) where he advised city and state governments and their agencies and authorities on budgetary and fiscal policy and capital formation. His work involved financing major urban transit systems in Washington, D.C., Atlanta and Los Angeles, municipal utility systems including power and water, convention centers, highways and other public infrastructure. Sam was a national innovator in designing and executing financings for numerous major league sports facilities including for the Philadelphia Flyers, the Portland Trailblazers, the Baltimore Orioles, the Miami Dolphins, the St. Louis Blues and numerous others.
Sam established and managed a venture capital fund, Wynnefield Private Equity Partners L.P., served as the CEO of Greater Philadelphia First, and chaired PICA, the fiscal oversight agency established by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to monitor the finances of the City of Philadelphia. Sam has been a three-time candidate for Mayor of Philadelphia and for Governor of Pennsylvania.
Over the past fourteen years, Sam has been producing documentary films on the history of Philadelphia including the 13-part Emmy award winning series, Philadelphia: The Great Experiment; Urban Trinity: The Story of Catholic Philadelphia; Before Hollywood: Philadelphia and the Birth of the Movies; and Sisters in Freedom, among others. Sam also produced Beethoven in Beijing, the story of the rise in popularity of western classical music in China and the cultural bridges built there by the Philadelphia Orchestra. The film was a finalist for the 2020 Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film. His latest documentary, Gradually, Then Suddenly: The Bankruptcy of Detroit, was the winner of 2021 Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film. Sam received his B.A. from Johns Hopkins University (1971) in urban affairs and political science and an M.A. degree from the Department of Urban Policy Analysis at the New School for Social Research (1974).
Mazen Hamed Alhaj Salem
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Mazen AlHaj Salem is an aspiring filmmaker, screenwriter & editor who also owns and runs his own freelance advertising brand. He's been working professionally in the advertising industry for the past few years, creating ads and commercials for a number of brands and stores. Mazen believes that the only way to never work a day in your life is to do something you love.
Magnus Christoffersen
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Magnus Christoffersen is an actor, director and producer, known for "Mother Ballerina Producer (2022)", "The Dancer (2019)", "I Wish I Could Dance (2021)" and "Dr. Antonio (2022)".
Dave Davidson
Award-Winning Filmmaker
For over 37 years, filmmaker and media educator Dave Davidson has been making award-winning documentaries with Hudson West Productions, many in partnership with Amber Edwards. Dave’s awards and honors include an AFI Independent Filmmaker Grant, NEA Artworks, Emmy Awards, The NEA Mid-Atlantic Artist Fellowship, The NEH, Pioneer of The Arts from The Black Experimental Theatre and Outstanding Artist Award from The New Jersey Arts Council, as well as numerous awards at international film festivals. He founded Hudson West Productions in 1985 and currently serves as president. Dave is also Professor Emeritus at The City College of New York (CUNY), where he was the Founding Director of MFA Program in Film Production – the first of its kind at an affordable public university.
Karen Kramer
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Karen Kramer is an award-winning documentary filmmaker whose work has received wide distribution both domestically and internationally. Her films have been televised on NBC, WNET, The Oprah Show, CNN, WLIW, and dozens of museums and venues overseas. In addition to winning awards at festivals worldwide, they have been screened at such prestigious showcases as the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum, the Smithsonian Institution, the Field Museum, and hundreds of others. More than 150 universities show her films on a continual basis. She has lectured and toured extensively with her work - from Europe to Africa to South America.- She lives and works in Greenwich Village, New York. See More
Renee Brack
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Renée Brack is an acclaimed storyteller, journalist, writer and screen professional with 20+ years experience in film TV, print and digital creating content from concept through the production process to transmission. She’s written, produced and directed short films, scripted and directed plays produced on stage, pioneered research into a scripting template for immersive content and scripted the award-winning short film Red Handed. A highlight was ghost-writer of Lorraine Wood’s autobiography. Her recent feature documentary Ticketyboo: a Secret in Plain Sight is the most personal and most challenging production of her career as a writer / director. A common response to her writing is, “I’ve never looked at it that way before” – testament to her creative and fresh approach to the stories she crafts.
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Jeff Blyth
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Jeff Blyth has been making films all his life, from documentaries during his years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in West Africa, through his extensive travels to every corner of China for Disney’s EPCOT Center. In addition to directing, writing, and producing six Circle-Vision productions for Disney over the past 35 years, Jeff directed the challenging feature film, “Cheetah” on location in Kenya as well as several TV productions for Nickelodeon. He lives in Glendale with his wife Kathy and is a proud member the WGA, DGA, and AMPAS. He has written a book, “Polishing the Dragons: the making of EPCOT’s Wonders of China” published by Bamboo Forest and available on Amazon.
Gary Null, Roland Marconi
Award-Winning Filmmakers
For more than 35 years Gary Null has been one of the foremost voices of the health movement. He has produced over 70 documentaries. Gary, along with some of the world's leading experts, has examined a wide range of topics from food production, alternative healing, politics and our economic system. Gary has continued to be a strong voice for the consumer, standing up against big corporations and big government. He has exposed the massive drugging of children in our schools, investigated important health issues such as pesticides, herbicides, artificial sweeteners, food irradiation, water fluoridation, unsafe ingredients in vaccines, nuclear power, the FDA, GMO's and Gulf War Syndrome.
Paul Scheuring, Chris Ward
Award-Winning Filmmakers
Paul Scheuring has over twenty years of professional experience working as a writer, producer, and director, with credits such as the FOX smash TV hit Prison Break, which he created, and the Discovery miniseries Klondike, produced in winter high-country Banff.
Chris Ward is a middle school science teacher and first time director. Over the past six years he has produced over 300 episodes of his adventure sports podcast Like a Bigfoot, interviewing a wide variety of adventure athletes.
Paul and Chris met in 2018 on the Kokopelli Trail as participants in the Des
Raed Truett Gilliam
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Raed is a dedicated storyteller with a global outlook. Born and raised in Beirut, Lebanon, his life has been one long cross-cultural experience, sparking in him a desire to tell stories that build empathy and understanding.
He is graduating in May 2022 with a Foreign Affairs degree from the University of Virginia, where he was privileged to direct, film, and edit the first ever student-produced documentary for Dr. Larry Sabato’s UVA Center for Politics, “Common Grounds?” Produced during the pandemic, the documentary that investigates the political climate among students at UVA and brings into dialogue students from across the political spectrum.
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Chris Franklin
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Chris Franklin has been in multimedia for the past 30 years. Chris’ documentary stills and film work have covered projects such as; Educating the Poor in Vietnam, Mental Health in Kenya, Reindeer Herders in Mongolia, Traditional Dancers of PNG and Female Labour of Indonesia. Locally, in his hometown of Melbourne Australia, Chris has created a niche body of work of short music documentaries, highlighting the incredible talent from the pubs and clubs of this iconic music city.
Dr. Sohan Roy
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Award Winning Hollywood Film Director, Founder Chairman & CEO - Aries Group of Companies, Naval Architect, Writer, Poet with Guinness Book and Oscar Entries
Alec Morgan, Tiriki Onus
Award-Winning Filmmakers
Co-director Alec Morgan is a multi-award-winning filmmaker with productions that have screened at over 50 film festivals, in cinemas and on television in many countries. His documentary credits include the landmark production Lousy Little Sixpence, that first exposed the story of the Stolen Generations and Admission Impossible that exposed the secret history of the White Australia Policy. He directed End of the Earth a history of human impact on Antarctica. He was Creative Head of channel 9s hit history series Our Century and scripted the series Raising the Curtain about Australian theatre. His innovative feature Hunt Angels won 8 awards including 3 AACTA Awards and the prestigious Joan Long Award for contribution to Australian film history. He recently wrote and directed episodes of the ground-breaking factual series Australia In Colour, one of SBS’s highest rating productions. His latest feature documentary Ablaze was made in collaboration with first-time director Tiriki Onus. It won the 2021 Victorian Premier’s History Award.
Co-director Tiriki Onus is an opera singer, playwright, educator and filmmaker. He picked-up filmmaking skills by assisting on the production of, and appearing in, a number of documentaries including Lin Onus: Bridge Between Cultures, Moomba: What’s in a name? and Kwaya’s Uganda Music Project. He also worked with award-winning Indigenous filmmaker Richard Frankland on Yinga-Bul: Stories of a Song Man. He wrote and acted in the critically acclaimed musical drama, William and Mary, about the love affair between his grandparents, William and Mary Onus. He also studied to be an opera singer. For Deborah Cheetham’s Indigenous opera, Pecan Summer, he created the character of ‘Uncle Bill’ based on his grandfather and played that role. He has also appeared in theatre works Der Vampyr and The Tenderland. Tiriki’s directing debut on the feature documentary Ablaze, announces a career move from theatre to film on a subject close to his heart - the true story of his charismatic activist grandfather Bill, Aboriginal rights activist and possibly the first Indigenous filmmaker William Bill Onus.
Ethan Gill, Haley Semian, Dr. Tyron Cooper
Award-Winning Filmmakers
Haley Semian and Ethan Gill are part of the communications staff of the Office of the Provost of Indiana University Bloomington. Through the Provost office and with the help of their student multimedia team, they create documentary shorts that celebrate campus diversity, departments' achievements, and student excellence.See More
Dana Melaver & Tom Claudon
Award-Winning Filmmakers
Dana Melaver:
Dana Melaver is a filmmaker visual artist. Her most recent project, prior to Sleepless Birds, is an experimental documentary that explores sustainable aquaculture practices as a way to reconsider our sense of self. Dana’s work has been exhibited internationally, including in New York City, China, Berlin, and, most recently, online.
Tom Claudon:
Tom Claudon works primarily as a musician, audio designer, and sound technician. Outside of his personal projects, Tom has worked as a sound-man, camera assistant, and drone operator for channels including ARD, ZDF, Arté, and France Télévision. Originally from Alsace, France, Tom currently lives and works in Berlin.
Nathan Cunningham
Award-Winning Filmmaker
First time Director Nathan is a born and bred Mancunian. He got to know Gaz Stanley (founder of The Piccadilly Rats) while selling newspapers on the streets of Manchester. Gaz used to collect his rubbish and they would chat on a daily basis. He saw Gaz’s busking band “The Piccadilly Rats” squabbling it out on Judge Rinder. It was TV gold. At that time he was looking for a subject to make a documentary on and, well, the rest is history. He became very close with the band and they trusted him to tell their story as they told it themselves. This was a real up close and personal relationship.
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Jean-Francois Rodrigues
Award-Winning Filmmaker
My name is Jean-François Rodrigues. I'm an award-winning documentary filmmaker whose aim is to make films that have a positive influence on society and future generations.
In 2020, we have seen the world plunge into turmoil over both the Covid19 global pandemic and the realization that climate change is real. Through this enduring year, I have come to understand that leaving our future in the hands of those who place profit before people and the well being of this planet, appears to be a lost cause. Nevertheless, in a planet with over 7 billion people, the potential of the individual is immense and En-masse they have the ability to influence markets towards less harmful and more environmentally friendly buying trends that can positively assist and benefit the planet. As a filmmaker, my hope is that my work goes in some way to bring about the necessary change required to leave the planet in a good place for future generations.
Roger Paradiso
Award-Winning Filmmaker
ROGER PARADISO is currently the Producer/Director of Searching for Camelot a three-part feature doc examining the fascinating lives of JFK, RFK and Jackie and the world they inhabited called Camelot. His last film, "The Lost Village" is distributed by First Run Features. THE LOST Village a story about the decline and fall of the bohemian Greenwich Village. A recent film, I WANT MY NAME BACK is the unknown story of the Sugarhill Gang who broke Hip Hop around the world with their landmark song called “Rapper’s Delight”. Toronto Film Scene said: “ I Want My Name Back will stand as a classic piece of musical history.”
Past Film credits include Producer/Director/Writer of “Tony ‘N’ Tina’s Wedding” starring Mila Kunis and Adrien Grenier. He was Executive Producer for “City By The Sea”, starring ROBERT DeNIRO, FRANCES MCDORMAND and JAMES FRANCO. Mr. Paradiso was the Co- Producer on “The Thomas Crown Affair", starring PIERCE BROSNAN and RENE RUSSO as well as Co-Producer on “At First Sight”, starring VAL KILMER and MIRA SORVINO.
Jake Isaacs
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Jake Isaacs is a filmmaker and social worker from Los Angeles, CA. After 10 years in the entertainment industry, including animation, stand-up comedy, sketch comedy, independent producing, writing, and directing, he went back to school to pursue a Masters in Social Work & Gerontology. He now makes culturally conscious entertainment, leveraging story-telling and production skills for social good.
Michael Magee
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Michael Magee graduated in film at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena California in 1982. Throughout his career he has worked in the US and Europe as a freelance director of documentaries and corporate films. In1993 he founded the company Michael Magee Productions in Switzerland, specializing in films for international clients such as Swissair, IWC Watch Co., Swiss Tourism, Holcim and others. During this time he has won several awards to give an example for the Swiss Tourism in Carlsbad, Czech Republic.
Since 2011 the filmmaker has mainly focused on the production of documentaries especially people portraits, which is his true passion. 2017 his documentary portrait of artist Christian Peltenburg Brechneff "Like notes of music" won several awards.
Sonali Devnani
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Sonali was born and raised in Bombay, India. She has been a professional photographer for 5 years and has obtained a Master’s Degree in Journalism from the University of Hong Kong. She is passionate in sharing stories from some of the poorer and neglected regions of India, as well as showing the more intimate side of locals from other countries.
Daxton Dubach
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Freelance filmmaker located in Orange County, California. With experience producing, directing, writing, lighting, filming and editing.
His first passion is always writing but with time and practice he has become a well rounded professional in the film industry.
Getting his start by touring his first feature scripts on the film festival circuit he would build his network and become a great resource connecting authors and fellow writers with producers and directors.