Seyi Adebanjo, MFA, is a Queer Gender-Non-Conforming Nigerian artist who raises awareness around social issues through video. Seyi’s work exists at the intersection of art, imagination, ritual, and politics. Seyi is a 2024 Sundance Documentary Film Program Awardee, a 2023 Sundance Institute Trans Possibilities Intensive Fellow and serves on the faculty of New York University. Seyi has received a Fatales Forward: Trans Stories Fellowship, an NYSCA Individual Artist Grant, and residency with The Laundromat Project. Seyi’s award winning documentary Justice for Islan Nettles screened on PBS Channel 13, and Ọya: Something Happened On The Way To West Africa screens globally.
Afromystic is a groundbreaking documentary that follows LGBTQ Yorùbá practitioners across Nigeria, Brazil, and the U.S. in their quest for post-colonial liberation through indigenous religion. Directed by Seyi Adebanjo, the film centers on four protagonists: Afro-Puerto Rican artist Tenjin Falase Ikeda, lesbian priestess Sojourner McCauley, transgender Candomblé priestess Iya Thiffany, and Seyi, a gender-nonconforming Nigerian. Through a blend of interviews, ritual footage, and animation, Afromystic highlights Yorùbá stories such as deities that change gender or are born from same-sex couples, affirming the historical existence of LGBTQ people; and revealing the vibrant spiritual lives of Yoruba’s Queer practitioners.
Afromystic is presented as a ritualistic journey with narrator/griot Seyi guiding viewers across the ocean between countries and characters. It challenges colonial erasure of LGBTQ traditions, showcasing resilience and leadership of those marginalized. It outlines how colonialism has fostered transphobic and homophobic beliefs in Yorùbáland, the current rise of anti-LGBTQ legislation, and how attitudes across The Americas, West Africa and Europe are interconnected.
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Kali Baker-Johnson is a Brooklyn-based, New Jersey-born filmmaker, college professor, and comic book writer. His feature film debut, Feel Like Ghosts, won the Best Director and Best Screenplay awards at the 2022 American Black Film Festival. He was a Directing Fellow at Chapman University’s graduate film program in Orange, CA and during his time on the West Coast he collaborated with Oscar-winning producer Cathy Schulman as one of Chapman’s O.L. Halsell Scholars, worked in development for Oscar-nominated producing duo Ron Yerxa and Albert Berger, and shadowed Emmy-winning director Millicent Shelton. His short films have screened internationally in film festivals, as well as in programs for domestic abuse education, in centers for at-risk youth, and in New York’s Time Square. As a freelance videographer and editor, Kali has over 15 years of experience creating media across multiple genres and formats and has worked with brands such as NBC, VH1, Foot Locker, EbonyJet, and Avalon Television. He used to be able to dunk and, every once in a while, he still has a good day on the basketball court.
A Black pastor with a dark past slides back into a life of violence when his rural California church allies itself with a Hebrew Israelite street gang.
Erika Bolstad is a journalist and documentary filmmaker and the author of Windfall, a narrative nonfiction finalist for the 2024 Oregon Book Award. She spent a decade in Washington, D.C., covering politics and environmental issues for Climatewire and the McClatchy Washington Bureau. In 2008, she was a Pulitzer finalist for work at the Idaho Statesman. Before that, she was a reporter at the Miami Herald, where she covered local and state government and hurricanes — including Katrina from New Orleans. Erika has a master’s degree in multimedia journalism from the University of Oregon. She works in multiple mediums, and in 2022, was awarded an inaugural environmental arts grant from the Anonymous Was a Woman Foundation to complete To Be Rich, a short companion documentary to Windfall. Her first feature-length documentary film, Monumental, is currently in production. She was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and raised in Willamina and Salem, Oregon. She lives in Portland, Oregon.
During the summer and fall of 2020 across the American West, protesters pulled down hundreds of monuments. Among the overturned artworks were pioneer monuments commemorating the nation’s westward expansion. In Portland, Oregon, protesters on the eve of Columbus Day toppled monuments to Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. The film unfolds in the aftermath of those events, as the pedestals remain empty and the community remains divided about their future. Monumental documents an American city’s reckoning with its toppled monuments to westward expansion. The unfolding fate of the sculptures pits artists and Indigenous activists against preservationists, all set in a nation divided over who—if anyone—to elevate on pedestals. The plot follows the unfolding fate of “Rough Rider,” the sculpture of Roosevelt, and other artworks. Their fate drives the plot. Will “Rough Rider” return to its pedestal? If not, why not? And if so, for how long will it remain standing? Set at a time when autocratic national leadership threatens to purge truth from history, the film addresses the urgent question of who determines narratives of public memory and why it matters in a democracy.
Victoria (Ngāi Tahu) is an indigenous 27-year-old writer and director best known for her debut series n00b (2024), which she wrote, co-created and co-directed. Commissioned by Warner Bros. Discovery ANZ, n00b has been picked up by NETFLIX Australia, CANAL+, Berlinale Series Market and nominated for Best Short Form Series at Cannes Series. n00b is the first scripted series in the world based on a viral TikTok series.
Victoria is Head Writer on Child of Pop (in development with Warner Bros. International), has written for Ahikāroa, and storylined on projects such as Queenstown (Runaway Unicorn, 2025) and Spinal Destination (2024). In her role as the Development Executive at Great Southern Television, Victoria developed AMC’s One Lane Bridge, Fifth Season’s Friends Like Her and BBC’s The Ridge. Victoria directed web series Literally Dead and will direct a block of A Remarkable Place to Die Season 2 (NINE, TVNZ).
Victoria was selected for the Cannes Writer’s Club (2025), DEGANZ Emerging Female Filmmaker Incubator (2023), the Show Me Shorts Development Lab (2023), and Screen Canberra’s POD program (2023). Victoria’s short film Invisible Dragons (NZFC) was selected for BEND 2025.
“Are you there, Father?” Those were the final words of Victor Spencer. He was one of five New Zealand men shot for desertion during WWI.
VICTOR – a young Māori man – was buried in a collapsed trench for four days during the Gallipoli offensive. He spent two weeks in hospital, before he was sent back to the front. Suffering from PTSD, Victor deserted and found refuge in a village in France, where a widow hid him for four months. During that time, they fell in love.
Then, on New Year’s Day in 1918, Victor was discovered by the NZ military and arrested. During his trial, Victor cried on the stand. The jury deliberated for 14 minutes, before he was sentenced to death. Facing the firing squad, a blindfolded VICTOR called out to the nearby priest – my Great Uncle – “are you there, father?”. Before my Uncle could reply, Victor was shot. He was 19.
Victor’s medals were never returned home, his name never added to the town war memorial. Are You There, Father asks why we are willing to honour those who gave their lives, but not those who gave their sanity. It champions our indigenous soldiers, lost in a white-washed history. Our film remembers Victor not as a coward – but as a hero.
Beatriz has produced a few films for the Academy Award®-winning company Breakwater Studios, including: The Last Repair Shop (96th Academy Award® winner), and Mink! (Executive Produced by Naomi Osaka with her media company Hana Kuma). She is currently helping produce 3 feature documentaries with Kennedy/Marshall, Bad Robot, and Sutter Road Picture Company.
Alex Bush (they/them) writes and directs for screen that make complex conversations around identity and society accessible and thrilling. Their work engages archetype, melodrama, gothic, social performance, and the American psyche—shaped by a childhood spent worshipping The Wizard of Oz while living in haunted houses.
Their award-winning short films have screened at Tribeca, Outfest LA, Hollyshorts, and Sidewalk. Their debut feature Thaw (Writer/Director) is in development with Antigravity Academy and Unapologetic Projects. The script was selected for the 2023 WeScreenplay Feature Lab and Eastern Oregon Filmmaker’s Residency, with additional recognition from Nashville Screenplay Competition, Stowe Story Labs, and Outfest Screenwriting Lab. Coverfly’s Best Unrepped Talent 2023 honoree.
Producing credits include branded content and events for Disney, Amazon, YSL Beauty, and Max. They’ve directed music videos and staged theatrical work at Ars Nova, The PUBLIC, Judson Theater, and more. St. Louis-born; LA-based. BFA: NYU Tisch. MFA: AFI Conservatory, recipient of inaugural Canva Fellowship.
In a bid to gain control of her family’s farm, a tomboy agrees to let her estranged childhood friend join for an isolated winter preparing the crops for spring, work previously completed by her late-father.
When the boy and girl discover a mutual envy in the other’s gender, they enter into a reversed role-play game of house. What starts as a playful exploration becomes vivid, as the two find deeper fulfillment and sense of self in their new realities. But as the winter progresses and spring comes along, the two are forced to decide who they truly are meant to be: to themselves, to each other, and to the world beyond the one they’ve built.
What emerges is an urgent story about the universal desire to find our authenticity, wrapped in a timeless love story about the ways that love can surprise us, reveal us, and invite us to become something even more true.
Reverend Jared Callahan is an award-winning, Emmy-nominated documentary director/producer. He founded and runs People People Media Foundation, a non-profit arts community and production company birthed on a 95-acre farm in the San Francisco East Bay that specializes in unique stories that amplify voices and increase empathy. His work has been released through The New York Times, PBS, GQ Magazine, The Atlantic, ALTER, NoBudge, Short of the Week & Vimeo Staff Picks. His projects have premiered at the best film festivals in the world, including Sundance, SXSW, Tribeca, and over 200 more. Jared served as an Atlanta Film Society’s Filmmakers in Residence, a 2024 Likewise Fellow, and has directed three feature documentaries, including Clean Slate. He is currently directing a docuseries focusing on the national conflict over wolves.
This film is an immersive, vérité-driven portrait of a radical collective that uses art and connection to support queer and trans (Q/T) people surviving incarceration. At its heart, the story follows Casper and Ollie, exhausted, driven, and deeply compassionate, as they juggle the daily chaos of running a grassroots abolitionist project. The phone rings nonstop. Letters flood in. Legal crises erupt. They teach classes, sign up new penpals, and scramble to protect their incarcerated friends, many of whom are in grave, imminent danger. The threat of violence or death looms constantly for Q/T people behind bars, and the weight of that truth drives their urgency.
Woven throughout are animated sequences inspired by the comic-style art and words of Coco and Milly, two incarcerated artists whose deeply personal stories reveal the brutality of prison life and the enduring power of imagination. In an era of intensifying anti-trans violence, this film doesn’t just document resistance, it embodies it, creating space for empathy, outrage, and collective action.
Matt Campanella – actor, writer, director – crafts films that live at the intersection of emotional truth and stylistic edge. His work draws inspiration from filmmakers like Yorgos Lanthimos, Guillermo del Toro, and Jean Marc Valle: grounded, character-driven stories with bold visuals, layered themes, and unexpected humor.
His films have premiered at Tribeca, HollyShorts, Flickers RIIFF, Outfest, NewFest, Frameline, Dances with Films and more.
Every family dinner is a war disguised as a feast. On Christmas Eve in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, the Migliore family gathers for their annual seafood feast: an uproar of gossip, chain-smoking matriarchs, and clashing generations. At the head of it all is Gino, a rugged fishmonger fighting to keep his father’s shop alive while caring for a comatose wife and a pregnant daughter. But when a mysterious guest arrives, a young man who carries an uncanny link to Gino’s secret online life, the family’s carefully rehearsed rituals begin to unravel.
What starts as a raucous Italian American holiday spirals into a pressure cooker of betrayal, repression, and surreal visions that blur the line between tradition and truth. Moonstruck meets Black Swan, Sunday Sauce is a darkly comedic, operatic chamber piece where food, faith, and family collide. By the time the last plate is cleared, the dinner table has transformed into a battleground and Gino must face who he really is, or risk losing everything he’s sworn to protect.
Charlene A. Carruthers (she/her) is an author, filmmaker, community organizer, and Black Studies PhD Candidate at Northwestern University. Her work spans more than 20 years of community organizing across racial, gender and economic justice movements. As an artist, Charlene honors ancestors across the diaspora and explores collective work towards liberation. She wrote, directed and co-produced The Funnel, a short film, which received the Queer Black Voices Award at the 35th Annual aGLIFF Prism Film Festival. Charlene also directed La Salida, a short film co-written by Deivid Rojas and produced by Full Spectrum Features. She is a 2025 recipient of the OTV Atlas Grant in support of PLENUM, an experimental short film that follows the journey of two siblings from Chicago as they navigate the AIDS crisis during a historic Black queer conference in New York City. She is an enthusiastic global traveler and believes that food is the best way to learn about people and culture.
Almost everyone in Stone Bayou loves the thriving all-Black town they believe is safely tucked away in rural Mississippi. With its doctors who heal all wounds, schools that educate the brightest pupils, and wise council of governors – Stone Bayou is built to be a haven away from Jim Crow. Only the locals know that their source of power is the rare Mississippi Opal gemstone, which is guarded by hoodoo women known as The Protectors.
Lily Rose, a formidable Protector, struggles with her responsibility to keep the town and her child safe. Despite the tradition to pass on The Protector’s role to girl-children, Lily Rose trains up Lu who was designated a boy at birth. Unable to protect Lu from her husband’s physical and emotional abuse, Lily Rose pours herself into keeping the town safe while Lu learns to self-protect. Lu forms a friendship with Tate, a co-conspirator as they both come of age.
One day, during The Protectors’ naming ceremony, Lu speaks her chosen name – Lucy Opal. After accepting that Stone Bayou will never allow Lucy to be her true self, she decides to escape to Chicago alone. Years later, Lucy receives a call from to return home to save the town from infiltrators.
Jahmil Eady is a writer-director from Charleston, SC, and NYC who blends genre with social impact storytelling. In 2025, Eady completed the American Film Institute’s Directing Workshop for Women Plus where she wrote and directed her magical realism film, Hatchlings.
Eady earned her BA in Media Studies from Pomona College and holds an MFA in Directing from UCLA where she was the Inaugural Graduate Class Artist, representing over 14,000 Bruins for the class of 2023. She is also the Princess Grace Foundation’s Inaugural Sir Roger Moore Honoree in Filmmaking. Eady began her career in unscripted film and television and was an associate producer on documentary projects for the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), Viceland and Discovery Networks.Her award-winning short films have screened at film festivals worldwide, including several Academy Award® and BAFTA-qualifying film festivals. Her work has also been supported by Tribeca Chanel Through Her Lens, Film Independent, NFMLA NewNarratives and Indeed and Hillman Grad’s Rising Voices Season 5. Most recently, her Gullah Geechee horror short, Haint premiered at the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival.
When gentrifiers suddenly begin dying of supernatural causes, a Gullah Geechee woman must decide whether to use her ancestral knowledge to save them or leave the newcomers to their fate. Haint follows ANNABELLE, a resentful woman who recently lost her home to tax foreclosure. Annabelle’s daughter, KASSIE, a Deputy Sheriff, helped to enforce her mother’s removal from their home, and now mother and daughter are estranged. The film begins with a misdirect as the audience is made to believe that Annabelle is behind the murders. Eventually, it is revealed that the culprit is actually a Haint (sleep paralysis demon) disguised as a real estate developer. When the SHERIFF tries to pin the murders on Annabelle, Annabelle reluctantly teams up with Kassie to track down the Haint. However, the Haint’s ability to shapeshift and steal its victim’s skin makes their job difficult. Haint feature will showcase the beautiful yet haunting low-country landscape and bring the Gullah Geechee culture and language to audiences around the world.
Ime N. Etuk is a Director and Producer whose path began in journalism, producing for ABC’s World News Tonight and 20/20 before shifting to narrative film. A finalist in the Directors Guild of America’s highly selective training program, he trained under acclaimed directors including the Coen Brothers, Antoine Fuqua, and David Lynch. His latest feature, Outdoor School—based on a true story featured by The Moth and the NYT bestselling book How to Tell a Story—premiered at the 2025 American Black Film Festival and is currently on the festival circuit. Set in 1990s Portland, the film explores themes of resilience, identity, and transformation. Ime is also the founder of Lion Speaks, a nonprofit dedicated to mentoring historically excluded Black and BIPOC creatives in film and television. His work bridges craft and community, using story as a tool for impact and inclusion.
We No Dey Carry Last is a deeply personal documentary that explores the hidden emotional toll of cultural expectations within the Nigerian and Nigerian-American community. Through the lens of a high-achieving first-generation filmmaker, the film journeys into the lives of Nigerian professionals who have “made it” by traditional standards—doctors, engineers, and lawyers—yet quietly grapple with isolation, estrangement, and suppressed passions. Interwoven with candid interviews and intimate reflections, the story reveals how generational sacrifice, immigrant ambition, and the fear of “carrying last” have shaped an identity rooted in excellence but often lacking in self-fulfillment. As subjects confront the costs of success, a larger narrative emerges—one that challenges rigid definitions of achievement and calls for a more expansive, emotionally honest vision of what it means to thrive. We No Dey Carry Last is both an unflinching cultural reckoning and a love letter to those who dare to redefine what success truly means
Bryan E. Glover has been an avid supporter of the arts for over 35 years. He is an Obie award-winning theater producer, as well as a producer of music, film and performance art who is especially interested in enhancing and promoting the voices of LGBTQ artists of color. Glover served as a founding board member of Freedom Train Productions, the groundbreaking Black LGBTQ theater company based in Brooklyn, NY, and is a founding member of the Black theater producing collaborative, Harlem9. He is a team lead at Leading ChangeMakers, which seeks to achieve racial equity in nonprofit arts leadership, and currently serves on the board of the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, which supports creative work in all disciplines that are empowering to women, Latinos and people of color, and the LGBTQ+ community. Glover also has a professional coaching practice that supports people to manifest their personal vision.
Afromystic is a groundbreaking documentary that follows LGBTQ Yorùbá practitioners across Nigeria, Brazil, and the U.S. in their quest for post-colonial liberation through indigenous religion. Directed by Seyi Adebanjo, the film centers on four protagonists: Afro-Puerto Rican artist Tenjin Falase Ikeda, lesbian priestess Sojourner McCauley, transgender Candomblé priestess Iya Thiffany, and Seyi, a gender-nonconforming Nigerian. Through a blend of interviews, ritual footage, and animation, Afromystic highlights Yorùbá stories such as deities that change gender or are born from same-sex couples, affirming the historical existence of LGBTQ people; and revealing the vibrant spiritual lives of Yoruba’s Queer practitioners.
Afromystic is presented as a ritualistic journey with narrator/griot Seyi guiding viewers across the ocean between countries and characters. It challenges colonial erasure of LGBTQ traditions, showcasing resilience and leadership of those marginalized. It outlines how colonialism has fostered transphobic and homophobic beliefs in Yorùbáland, the current rise of anti-LGBTQ legislation, and how attitudes across The Americas, West Africa and Europe are interconnected.
I’m Diné (Navajo), born in Shiprock, NM and raised between there and Kirtland, NM—places that gave me roots, independence, and a deep connection to my people and the land. I was raised by a half-blind single mom, a lifelong educator who created the Braille code for the Navajo language. She taught me to honor who we are, to stay curious, be educated, and to find strength in our stories.
I studied Film and Media Arts with a minor in Native American Studies at Brigham Young University, where I deepened my love for storytelling, film history & theory, and Native American history.
I’m a filmmaker, artist, and thinker, but more than anything, I’m someone who believes in the power of stories to create empathy, spark thought, and shift the way we see each other.
Outside of work, I’m a dad, a drawer of little things, a fan of good food, heavy metal and other genres, and having engaging conversations with people. Everything I do—whether it’s a short film, a YouTube video, or just spewing my thoughts on film history with friends—is part of a bigger goal: to amplify Native voices, make my family proud, and seek truth.
At the turn of the 19th century in the American Southwest, a Navajo family begins to experience a series of illnesses, unexplained events, and personal hauntings. As these problems grow, they suspect they may be caused by Skinwalkers—shapeshifting witches from Navajo lore. In search of help, the family turns to several sources of spiritual knowledge: traditional Navajo ceremonies, local Christian beliefs, and a Mormon missionary known for his strange success in dealing with evil forces. Many have claimed the man has the power to cast out spirits. Others question whether his presence will help or bring more trouble. As the family’s situation worsens, they must decide who they can trust and what they are willing to do to protect themselves. In this clash of belief systems and personal histories, the boundaries between tradition, fear, and faith begin to blur.
Marisa Woo Grattan is a documentary filmmaker and visual storyteller based in Portland, Oregon. Raised in Honolulu, Hawai‘i, her work is deeply rooted in diasporic identity and questions of cross-cultural belonging.
Marisa studied Political Science at UC Berkeley, and later completed an MA in International Affairs with a focus on Media and Culture from The New School in New York City. She served in the Peace Corps in Niger, an experience that deepened her commitment to cross-cultural storytelling and laid the foundation for a career grounded in documentary practice.
A self-taught producer, shooter, and editor, Marisa’s New York Emmy-nominated films have aired nationally on PBS. While leading the global video portfolio at UN Women, her work centered the lives of women and girls around the world and reached global audiences, including through screenings in the United Nations General Assembly Hall.
Marisa’s creative practice continues to evolve through independent projects that explore intergenerational narratives, place, and identity. She is currently developing work in Oregon that reflects her ongoing commitment to intimate, social impact storytelling.
Told through poetic narration and cinematic, collaged verite, “hoʻokaʻawale / 疏离 (shūlí)“, meaning “to be separated” in Hawaiian and Mandarin, is a tender excavation of family rupture, distance, and cultural belonging. The short documentary follows a Chinese American filmmaker based in Portland, Oregon, as she journeys back to the landscapes of her childhood in Honolulu to trace the emotional divide between herself and her estranged father, and the evolving contours of identity within her family’s history in Hawaiʻi.
Rooted in quiet confrontation and lyrical reflection, the film moves between the lush intimacy of island memory and the forested landscapes of the Pacific Northwest— two worlds through which she weaves a path toward belonging. Hoʻokaʻawale / 疏离 (shūlí) is a deeply personal story that expands the tapestry of Asian American and Pacific Islander experiences in Oregon. In doing so, the film challenges dominant narratives and opens space for more complex, place-based expressions of identity, diaspora, and intergenerational healing.
Yael Grunseit is a writer and director originally from Sydney, now living in New York. This year her short films have screened at Oscar qualifying festivals including Palm Springs ShortFest and Cinequest. She was a finalist for the 2025 Sundance Ignite Fellowship and was nominated for the National Board of Review Student Awards. She holds her MFA in film from the Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema, Brooklyn College.
A lot of Daddy’s Little Meatball is inspired by a trip to Hong Kong I took with my dad as a teenager—the first time I saw him drunk, the first time I saw him schmooze with colleagues, and the first time I got my period. It was also the first time I realized my father was a flawed, trying person.
I want to capture that realization: the embarrassment, the absurdity, the heartbreak, and the love that exists in a fracturing father-daughter relationship.
As a queer Australian living in New York, I’ve always dreamed of making a New York movie—a film with equal parts grit and heart. Daddy’s Little Meatball is about that moment when your view of a parent shifts, and how coming of age often means seeing those we love most in a new, uncomfortable light. It’s messy, tender, and true to the emotional chaos of growing up.
Alexandra Hsu is a Chinese American director/producer whose work explores identity, intergenerational relationships, and often the inner lives of Asian and Asian American women. Her films—including Sophie 籠中雀, Our Way Home 归程, Rencontres Paysannes–Farmers Dating, Unwavering, and POP! starring Emmy-nominated Michelle Ang—have screened at Oscar-qualifying festivals such as Austin, HollyShorts, and BendFilm. An alum of the SFFILM FilmHouse Residency and a finalist for the Westridge Grant, Alexandra has also been supported by Cine Qua Non Lab, Unlock Her Potential, Women in Film, and the Gold House Futures Network. She holds an MFA from NYU Tisch and a BA from Scripps College. Her passion lies in crafting emotionally resonant stories that cross cultural boundaries and spark dialogue. Alexandra is currently developing Beach House, a psychological coming-of-age drama selected for CQNL’s Storylines Lab. She creates with intentionality and care, building collaborative spaces where artists can take risks and thrive.
She awakens ten years older, back in her suburban home, with no memory of how she got there. Her parents deny the beach house ever existed, their controlling tendencies resurfacing as Olivia struggles to recover. Speaking only Chinese at first, disoriented in her own body, she is haunted by fragments of the past. Beneath these echoes lies the silence and expectation of her family—the very patterns that left her voiceless.
Drawn back to the coast, Olivia relives her younger self’s final night and discovers the only way forward is through the wound itself.
Beach House is an atmospheric psychological drama about trauma, memory, and rebirth. Olivia’s journey is a meditation on the courage to look back and the strength to move forward.
Yihui Hu is a narrative director based between Chicago and Los Angeles, originally from China. With a background in fine arts and an MFA in Film Directing from DePaul University, she crafts emotionally charged stories through visually poetic language. Her award-winning short films—including He, Secret Garden, and Beach House—have screened at numerous international festivals and explore themes of identity, grief, and familial conflict across cultures. As an immigrant and woman filmmaker, Yihui often centers female perspectives and underrepresented voices in genre-blending, emotionally layered narratives. She is passionate about using her voice to represent women and marginalized communities in the cinematic world, aiming to build bridges across cultures and generations through haunting, lyrical films grounded in personal truth.
The Proof of Your Existence is a magical realist drama about Athanasia, a cursed immortal who wakes up in a different dying body every day, until she meets Ying, another immortal who longs to die. One was granted eternal life out of love, the other out of hate. As they unravel buried traumas and forbidden memories, the two women slowly find solace in each other’s loneliness. The film explores survival, queer love, and the erased histories of women, asking what it means to be remembered or forgotten. Inspired by Portrait of a Lady on Fire and The Time Traveler’s Wife, this story blends poetic tone and emotional urgency to explore the metaphysical cost of existence. Currently in development with a completed feature script, the project seeks guidance on how to refine its lyrical vision while navigating market realities.
Tobi Iverson is a Native American screenwriter based in Washington State. She is Tsimshian and
Turtle Mountain Chippewa and holds a degree in Native American Studies and Anthropology
from the University of Washington. She has studied screenwriting through UW and the
Northwest Screenwriters Guild. Adopted outside her culture and later reunited with her Native
family, her creative work is both personal and a form of cultural reclamation.
Her debut feature screenplay, Wild Woman of the Woods, is a historical epic set in the 1800s,
during the collision of tribal nations with British, Spanish, and American colonial powers. The
story follows Indigenous heroines and villains in a supernatural survival journey rooted in oral
tradition, myth, and spiritual belief.
Since May 2025, the screenplay has been recognized by the Austin Film Festival (Second
Rounder), the Oscar qualifying Rhode Island International Film Festival (Semi-Finalist), the
Santa Barbara International Screenplay Awards (Best Diverse Writer), and the Cambridge Script
Festival (Finalist). She was recently awarded a 2025 Artist Trust GAP grant to support
development.
Tobi’s work blends genre storytelling with Indigenous perspective to illuminate the real history
of Pacific Northwest tribes, drawn from both Native and settler accounts. It’s a world of totems,
war canoes, and spirit power, rich with story, but rarely seen on the big screen. She is currently
expanding the project into a limited series and developing new works exploring identity, adoption, and belonging.
Set in the 1840s along the Northern Pacific Coast, Wild Woman of the Woods is a mythic
Indigenous action-thriller that follows Neshekai, a young shaman girl raised in exile, who
discovers she is the daughter of Rel, a ruthless chieftainess, determined to turn ancestral magic
into a weapon of vengeance. As colonial disease and religious conquest spread, Neshekai must
reclaim her identity and spiritual power to stop her mother from damning their people’s souls
forever.
Inspired by Indigenous oral traditions and settler records, the story blends supernatural survival,
matriarchal power, and cultural reclamation into a heroine’s journey rarely seen on screen. This
visually rich world of totem poles, soul catchers, clan houses, fog-shrouded forests, and mythic
spirit forces is brought to life through an Indigenous lens with authenticity and awe.
The film explores themes of legacy, spiritual sovereignty, and breaking cycles of generational
trauma. Wild Woman of the Woods is currently in development as both a feature and limited
series.
Tara Johnson-Medinger is a film director, producer, educator and champion of gender equality in the entertainment industry. An active member of the Producers Guild of America, her producing credits include the documentary The Winding Stream and feature films City Baby, and Mother of Color Her feature film directorial debut My Summer as a Goth released in 2020. She is currently in development on her second feature, Us – You = Me and post production on She Flies with Her Own Wings and This is Fine.
An advocate for women in film, Johnson-Medinger honors groundbreaking female and non-binary filmmakers as the ED of the Power of Women Film Festival (POW Film Fest), while developing the next generation of media makers through the youth education forum she founded, POWGirls.
She served on the founding board of directors of the Women in Film Portland and currently serves on the board of the Oregon Media Production Association. Before moving to Portland, she was a manager of affiliate promotion at the FOX Broadcasting Company in Los Angeles.
Through all of her work, Tara aims to promote and create new opportunities for women and underrepresented filmmakers.
Small-town Colorado, 1990’s. When teen, Reena, finds younger sister, Juhi, being abused by neighborhood boys, despite anger, she agrees to hold on telling anyone out of regard for Juhi’s feelings. But bullying is not unusual for them.
Then they’re both presented with opportunities: Juhi to write a story for a class contest; and Reena to direct a one-act play with new friends she and Juhi can trust. Juhi wins her contest and joins the judging panel for the next round, where she also finds new friends. Reena faces opposition from her mother, Mala, as her friends and the play pull her away.
Navigating between the play, the bullying, and Mala leads to a blowout when Reena tries to tell Mala about Juhi’s abuse. Meanwhile, Juhi is bullied, again by the neighborhood boys, into revealing the winner. She is kicked off the panel, unable to speak out.
Navigating pressures with help from her friends, Reena’s play goes triumphantly. It seems she’s finally accepted, until a bully pulls a rifle on them at an after party.
Decades later, Reena looks back on their growing up amidst bullying and abuse, inside and outside the home, and how it programmed them to be the broken adults they are now.
I’m a queer, Mexican American writer/director based in Portland, Oregon, whose films center women of color and explore emotional disconnection, identity, and quiet resistance. A self-taught filmmaker, I came to directing after years as a union carpenter, often the only queer brown woman on-site, and brings a grounded, hands-on approach to storytelling. My award-winning debut feature, Mother of Color, is now streaming on major platforms, and my short Sista in the Brotherhood was recognized by the Governor of Oregon and the U.S. Department of Labor and is distributed by Collective Eye. My next feature, Appliance of Science, a sci-fi dramedy about reconnecting with emotion in an overwhelmed world, is currently in the second round of the Sundance Development Track and was selected for the Stowe Story Labs. I also serve as a mentor with Women in Film and works as a freelance director and part time creative director. I believe deeply in inclusive hiring and building community through film. My work is supported by the Regional Arts and Culture Council, Portland Art Museum, Oregon Futures Lab, and more. dawnjonesredstone.com
After a breakup leaves her broken and numb, puzzle-obsessed Nina joins an experimental study that uses modified household appliances to help people learn to feel again. Assigned a vacuum that activates with emotional triggers, Nina struggles to reconnect with her feelings while navigating the absurd and intimate dynamics of the group. As she begins to finally let loose, Nina finds herself on a strange and tender journey toward vulnerability, connection, and emotional reawakening. Set against a world in quiet collapse, Appliance of Science is a surreal dramedy about what it means to stay human when feeling has become the hardest thing to do.
Emily is an award winning writer and director with a background in visual art and theater. Her short film IN THE FLESH (2025) serves as a stylistic foundation for her debut feature V IS FOR VICTORIA, a 2023 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Nicholl Fellowship semi-finalist and 2025 Gotham Week Feature Film project. Her short films, including THE AGENT (2022) and SPARE PARTS (2019), have screened at Academy Award qualifying festivals across the country including Austin, Atlanta, NewFest, Bend and many more, and been named Vimeo Staff Picks. She began her career as a designer, collaborating with acclaimed filmmakers including Gaspar Noé, and companies like Google, Vogue, Netflix, and The National Council for Mental Wellbeing. She is also a trained actor, appearing in over 15 film and television titles and off-Broadway theater.
Victoria, an unemployed Victorian literature PhD turned housewife, always tries to put family first. If only she could cure herself of a few bad habits: insomnia, and the Victorian Gothic BDSM fantasy her mind turns to during “conjugal duties.” She knows it’s wrong, so she keeps it private: between her journal and God. But the facade isn’t as good as she thinks, something seems “off.”
To cure her malaise, her husband gets her a “gig” teaching a creative writing class. In class, Victoria discovers surprising talent in a senior, OWEN, whose intimidating exterior contradicts his stories about a vulnerable kid in a dangerous world. When she discovers she’s pregnant against her wishes, her fascination deepens, becoming a welcome escape from her reality.
Victoria approaches Owen off campus and the chemistry between them is undeniable. He makes a move, and she faces her fears, asking him to “force” her. Owen tries to rise to the occasion, but he’s nervous. So Victoria flips the script and demonstrates what she wants. The experience intoxicates her, igniting a sub/dom affair in which Victoria is master.
But Owen is a young man falling in love, and his tough guy persona conflicts with Victoria’s desires. As their dynamic spins out of control, Owen and Victoria both seek to re-assert dominance over one another – both in and out of the classroom.
V IS FOR VICTORIA website (password: VICTORIA)
After a breakup abroad, thirty-year-old tattoo artist Kui “Rosie” Wu returns to her childhood home in New York City. Moving back with her single mother, Kim, Rosie learns she is withholding information about her younger sister, Amy, and her newborn. As Rosie settles back, memories of Amy and her rebellious days as a tween skateboarder surface, intertwining Rosie’s past and present lives.
Young Rosie discovers skating while seeking approval from her crush, Skylar Colton, and best friend Cooper Gomez. As young Rosie neglects her responsibilities to Amy, a rift forms in their sisterhood. Now back home, Rosie (30) struggles with family and career pressures. When she finds her old skateboard, she attempts to reconnect with Skylar, but their brief fling ends when he enacts revenge on an ex.
When a demolition notice arrives for their building, Rosie and Kim must grapple with the upheaval. While packing, a heated argument erupts that exposes Rosie’s career and Amy’s choice to cut ties with Rosie. After encountering Cooper, Rosie reflects on her guilt for abandoning young Amy on the subway. With Cooper’s help, Rosie finds Amy’s house and leaves a sunflower at her doorstep before moving.
Summer Luu (she/they) is a Vietnamese-American film director, producer, cinematographer, and film editor based in Portland, Oregon. Born to an immigrant refugee family in San Jose, California and raised in Oregon with a background in photojournalism; they draw creative inertia from personal experiences with a passion to amplify the narratives of underprivileged communities, artists, women and people of color. Past work with advertising and creative agencies, brands, Fortune 500 companies, production studios, state and government, public broadcasting, nonprofits and small businesses. In 2019, Summer founded SUM SUM, a production studio focusing on commercial, documentary and narrative film projects and also a photography/film studio and collaborative space. Summer seeks to bring joy, equality and authenticity to all. Inspired by the truth and obsessed with documenting real life and the human condition.
A documentary exploring migrant labor, global consumption and environmental ethics. Through the entry point lens of Southeast Asian immigrant refugees who worked inside of a disenfranchised sewing factory, the film features the intimate stories of their working conditions endured in order to sustain the growing spread of global consumerism and mass consumption. We follow the threads of immigrants in the system of exploitation within global fashion and consumerism culture. From fast fashion’s impossible standards to the far-reaching consequences of cheap, mass-produced clothing to the recent slow fashion trends we see on the rise. These are stories we seek to tell and the questions we dare to answer, to unfold the narratives of those working inside of interwoven industries and the impacts of where it will take us in the future and our role in the world’s ever-changing sustainability game. From seed to seam, this documentary ultimately explores the relationship between people and nature
Gerardo “Gerry” Maravilla is a Mexican-American writer/director based in Los Angeles. Born and raised in the San Fernando Valley, he escaped his suburban Catholic upbringing through punk rock and horror movies. A bicultural lovechild of Tim Burton and Guillermo del Toro, he crafts supernatural horror stories with heart.
He’s been a Film Independent Project Involve Writing Fellow, a New York Film Festival Artist Academy Fellow, and a Latino Film Institute Inclusion Fellow. He also developed his work through Cine Qua Non’s Storylines Lab, Hola Mexico’s Tomorrow’s Filmmakers Today, and Stowe Story Labs.
His films have screened at Palm Springs ShortFest, the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival (LALIFF), and Bogo Shorts, among others.
His feature script, Niño de Vidrio (Child of Glass), was developed at Cine Qua Non’s Storylines Lab, and the short version won the 2023 Roadmap Writers Short Script Competition.
As a Latino Inclusion Fellow, he completed his latest short, the surreal drama Enseñame Como Morir (Show Me How to Die).
After the death of his grandmother, a lonely Mexican-American boy runs away in search of his mother and forms an unlikely bond with a grieving vampire. Together, they embark on a dangerous journey through rural Mexico, pursued by a fanatical vampire hunter.
Dr. Anaïs Webster Mennuti, PharmD, is a filmmaker and producer with a background in narrative storytelling, documentary filmmaking, and advocacy. A Docs in Progress Legacy Fellow, she has built expertise in funding strategy, production, and distribution, combining creative and operational leadership. With a deep commitment to ethical documentary practices, Anaïs focuses on securing resources that allow the film to remain artist-driven while reaching broad audiences. She met Kenji and Blake through a shared passion for underrepresented histories, and her work as producer ensures that the film not only gets made but is positioned for maximum impact, visibility, and longevity.
Kenji Shimizu, a Japanese-born photographer, never learned of the U.S. internment camps until moving to America. In Oregon, he met Blake Robertshaw, a U.S. veteran from a town shaped by former internees. Together, they uncover stories buried on both sides of the Pacific—testimonies from survivors in the U.S. and Japan, where silence has long prevailed. Silenced follows individuals shaped by incarceration and its aftermath, as they confront memories of captivity, forced repatriation, and the silence inherited across generations. Some return to the sites of their imprisonment. Others never will. The film bears witness before these stories vanish—because what isn’t remembered is still not gone.
Julia Morizawa (she/her) is a writer/producer/actor with over 20 years of experience in film, television, new media, theater, and fiction podcasting. Produced projects include JESUSCAT (OR HOW I ACCIDENTALLY JOINED A CULT) (feature film), SIN & LYLE (short film), FIVE YEARS (short film), TWENTY-TWO (play), and AMERICAN COMEDY HORROR STORY: ORPHANAGE (fiction podcast). Her most recent project, DRAGONFLY (animated short film), premiered at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival in May 2023. It was awarded Best Animation at the Maryland Int’l Film Festival, Best AAPI-Directed Film at the Phoenix Film Festival, and the Audience Award for Best Animation at DisOrient in 2024. Julia is currently developing a feature, SOMETHING ABOUT THE TIDE, which was one of five finalists invited to pitch at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival as part of AT&T’s Untold Stories. Julia started her career as an actor with credits including JUDAS KISS (feature film), SCANDAL (TV), SEAL TEAM (TV), MASHA NO HOME (stage), and THE BRIGHT SESSIONS (fiction podcast). Julia is also a freelance script analyst, the Short Film Fund Manager at Shore Scripts, and the proud mom of two tiny superheroes.
JEN is a Type-A recovering addict celebrating ten years of sobriety. She juggles three jobs while single-parenting her 9-year-old son and caregiving for her mother FUMIKO who is in palliative care for cancer. When Fumiko’s condition suddenly deteriorates, she confesses that she had a previous baby whom she gave up for adoption named MASARU. As her dying wish, Fumiko asks Jen to find him so they can reunite before she passes. But there’s one problem: Masaru is the picture of perfection—an award-winning investigative journalist turned Booker Prize-winning novelist and out-and-proud gay advocate. He’s everything that Jen should have been. Jen’s 12-step sponsor advises against contacting Masaru, but Jen’s curiosity is insatiable. Torn between fulfilling her mother’s dying wish and the fear of being replaced by her perfect half-brother, Jen fails to tell Masaru who she really is while developing an unexpected friendship with him, sending her down an insidious spiral toward relapse.
Claudia Myers is an independent screenwriter and director, named one of “10 Filmmakers to Watch” by Independent Magazine in 2015. She has been recognized for her exploration of complex social issues while highlighting people’s capacity for resilience. Claudia wrote and directed the drama FORT BLISS starring Michelle Monaghan as an Army medic and single mom. The Washington Post and Philadelphia Inquirer named it one of the best films of 2014, and Monaghan was shortlisted by Variety as an Oscar contender for Best Actress. Claudia also wrote and directed ABOVE THE SHADOWS, a supernatural drama about the isolation of grief, starring Olivia Thirlby and Alan Ritchson. Recently, Claudia directed THE BAD GUARDIAN, a thriller about guardianship abuse among the elderly. Outside of narrative fiction, Claudia directed three TV documentaries, and co-directed the immigration-themed documentary short, THE TEST, which qualified for the 2025 Oscars. The film screened at nearly 30 film festivals and won multiple awards. As a screenwriter, Claudia was a Sundance Lab finalist and is an alumna of the Hamptons Screenwriters Lab. She has a BA from Yale University, and an MFA from Columbia University.
Based on a true story, a nihilistic death row inmate finds an unlikely path to redemption even as he helps organize the largest prison escape in U.S. history.
In 1983, Joe Giarratano is on death row for a double-murder he confessed to, but can’t remember due to heavy drug use. Initially bitter and with nothing to lose, Joe joins an escape plan indifferent to the consequences. He then meets Marie Deans, a volunteer paralegal, and through her develops a sense of empathy and purpose. Joe begins advocating for fellow inmates’ legal rights, and soon tries to ensure that the breakout plan avoids bloodshed. On the day of the escape, despite his efforts things turn violent. Ultimately Joe sacrifices his chance at freedom to protect the prison staff, and stays behind. Once considered beyond salvation, Joe redeems himself and discovers his humanity. Then in a stunning twist, Marie uncovers evidence of innocence in Joe’s criminal case.
Estevan Padilla (he/him) is a Mexican-American filmmaker and photographer from Eagle River, Alaska. He is 1/2 of LvL Films, a production company based in San Francisco that focuses on branded content and feature films. He started his career working on major motion pictures for Marvel, Warner Brothers, HBO, and Skydance. From there, he turned his attention to the commercials where he worked as a commercial producer and director for many of the world’s largest brands. He then shifted his focus towards the documentary world to tell stories that align with his values, including projects worldwide in Palestine, Somalia, China, and Cameroon. As a producer, his first film, The 50, debuted and screened at over 20 festivals and was acquired by Grasshopper Films and is now available on Apple TV and Prime. Estevan has since transitioned into narrative storytelling to focus on themes that resonate with him around mental health, alternative medicine, intergenerational trauma, identity, and radical forgiveness. He is currently a Ranin Fellow supported by SFFILM, UFO, Berkeley Film Foundation and Peace is Loud. He is in development of his debut feature.
Maribel Zavala, a 40-year-old therapist, faces career ruin after an illicit patient relationship. Ostracized, she moves in with her twin, Marwin, a reclusive Mixed Reality designer. Their codependent, resentful relationship deteriorates until Maribel suggests returning to their childhood home in Alaska. After Marwin’s violent work outburst, they journey north. In Alaska, the twins reunite with old friends at a local bar, triggering unsettling memories. After heavy drinking, they surprise their estranged mother Elisa, leading to a tense confrontation that leaves her unresponsive. They hide at their family’s abandoned cabin, discovering their father, Fernando, living there. Through force and coercion, Maribel assumes control. Envisioning family healing, Maribel doses everyone with psychedelics while integrating Marwin’s AR technology. Despite initial terror, they gradually submit as reality shifts. Through hunting, foraging, art, trauma re-enactment, and continuous medicine sessions across many seasons, the Zavalas finally overcome their collective trauma through psychedelic work, virtual reality manipulation, and forced therapy, becoming the family they always deep down wanted.
Sylvia Ray is an award-winning Chicana/Korean-American director based in Los Angeles and a 2025 Film Independent Project Involve Fellow. Known for her unique voice, her work explores themes of empowerment, morality, and grief, with a focus on elevating women and BIPOC voices both on and off screen. Her feature script The Middle was a quarterfinalist at the HollyShorts Film Festival and selected for the FICMonterrey Pro-Meetings Program in 2024. The proof of concept was nominated for Best LatinX Film at HollyShorts and won Best In Festival at the 2025 Sundial Film Festival. Sylvia was named a Latino Film Institute Inclusion Fellow in 2024 and directed the short The Vote. Her work spans narrative films, commercials, and music videos for clients like Sony, Pixar, Disney, and Red Bull. Sylvia’s directorial credits include Preggers, Our Late Father, and LEN(N)Y, which streamed globally on Pantaya and DISH! Latino. Drawing from her desert-town roots, Sylvia crafts heartfelt stories that reflect complex relationships and communities.
After an accidental killing during a reckless night, Joanna Baca, a desert-town teenager, is forced to confront a devastating choice: protect her family by covering up the crime or face the truth and risk everything she’s ever known.
Synopsis:
The Middle is a coming-of-age crime drama set in Barstow, California. Joanna Baca, a Chicana teenager grieving the recent loss of her mother, becomes entangled in her older brother’s reckless world. When her secret crush is killed in a tragic accident, Joanna is forced to confront her own morality and the cost of loyalty. As guilt consumes her and relationships fall apart, she must choose between protecting the people she loves and telling the truth. The film explores themes of grief, identity, moral ambiguity, and the complexity of female friendships in a small desert town.
Ryan RedCorn (Osage) was born in Tahlequah, Oklahoma into a family of preachers, politicians and salesmen. He graduated from the University of Kansas with a BFA in Visual Communications. Ryan co-founded the Indigenous comedy troupe, the 1491s, and started a full services ad agency in the middle of nowhere Pawhuska, Oklahoma called Buffalo Nickel Creative. He recently woke one morning and realized he has three daughters. He remarked, “I live a crazy life” and promptly enrolled in an MFA in screenwriting program to test his capacity for stress. He graduated in the Spring of 2020, built his own home, and is presently alive, living on the Osage Reservation. Ryan received a 2023-24 Obie Award for co-writing Between Two Knees. In 2024 he returned to the Sundance Film Festival for the second time as an actor in Apple’s Fancy Dance alongside Lily Gladstone. He received a Peabody for his writing work on Reservation Dogs and named a top ten Rising Stars for the ImagiNative Film Festival in 2022.
Indian Outlawz is a narrative feature about an Osage man who was adopted out his community and grows up to be a Professional Wrestler. He returns home looking for his parents, he is immediately saddled with two rugged kids on the verge of being taken away from their mother. It’s Uncle Buck meets Nacho Libre through an Indigenous lens. When our hero Roscoe gets cast out of the wrestling world for his uncontrolled anger, he goes looking for his roots. Having grown up outside his culture, he is comedically inept and at first and is the laughing stock of the community. But as he settles in his heart softens for these two youths that remind him of his younger self. Despite the trappings of his pro-wrestling background, the kids realize they need Roscoe as much as he needs them. And through it all they reconstitute a family. Not a family of circumstance but a family of choice.
Marlene Emilia Rios is an award-winning Los Angeles based director, writer and creative producer with a proven track record in creating engaging short form content. She holds an MA from the London Film School in Filmmaking as well as a BFA in Film & Digital Media Production from the University of New Mexico. Her 16mm horror short ‘SANGRE,’ premiered at the San Pedro International Film Festival in 2017 as her directorial debut.
In addition to writing and directing her capstone film, We Choose To Go she successfully ran the Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign, raising 190% of their campaign goal with over 100 backers behind the project. We Choose To Go screened at over 15 international film festivals, and was picked up for distribution by DUST, where it’s accumulated 150,000 views. Marlene was also awarded the 2020 UFVF/Kodak Excellence in Filmmaking Grant for her work on We Choose To Go.
Nema is the story of Tyler and Nema. Nema is a sex robot in a robot brothel, and Tyler is the kind of guy you’d consider a “nice guy” on the straight & narrow path. After finding himself unlucky on dating apps and striking out meeting women at bars, he finally meets Alice and starts a relationship with her. While also imitating and perfecting their relationship with Nema in the brothel, fulfilling every fantasy, re-writing every date into his version of perfect. Until he can finally live out his darkest fantasy on his final night with Nema. And return home to Alice without consequence.
Karina Lomelin Ripper is a Mexican-American writer and director whose films focus on the
rebels, misfits, and rule-breakers, characters who push against society and institutions, in order to
stay true to themselves.
She was selected for a coveted spot in the AFI Directing Workshop for Women+ class of 2025. In
the program, she directed her coming-of-age short, There’s a Devil Inside Me. The film won Best
U.S. Latina Director at its world premiere at LALIFF 2025. Her previous short, a gothic horror
film, Chispa, was supported by Fujifilm and won Best Oregon Filmmaker at the McMinnville
Film Fest.
She is a 2025 Princess Grace Honoraria recipient and a fellow of the 2024 Hola Mexico’s:
Tomorrow’s Filmmakers Today. Her films have received a Vimeo Staff Pick, premiered on PBS
and No Budge and screened at festivals all over the globe.
Karina is in development on a feature film, Silver Blankets, which was a finalist for the inaugural Sundance Cultural Impact Residency 2025. She currently splits her time between Los Angeles,
California and Portland, Oregon, where she enjoys growing flowers and camping with her
partner.
Silver Blankets blends drama with fantastical elements that emerge from two sister’s
imaginations, as they escape from an immigrant child detention center.
It centers Mexican sisters, MIA (13) and MAT (9). One day, the girls come home from school to
find ICE and their mom gone. The sisters are taken to a center called the Dog House. Mia learns
that their mother actually escaped capture but if ICE doesn’t find her soon, the girls will be
deported without her.
Mia tells Mat that this is a “field trip”. She distracts Mat by transforming a silver blanket into a
costume. The two act like musicians, letting their imaginations run wild as they sing and play. An
authoritarian guard, MISS X (30s) interrupts and scolds them. She confiscates their stuff but Mia
manages to hide Mat’s beloved toy tetradactyl, Terri.
Mia uses a spoon to make a hole in the gate. Soon after, she meets a girl who had escaped from
another prison but was recaptured. Mia gains some tips but her friend gets caught trying to flee.
One night, Mia manages to sneak out of the cell. She sees more of the prison. When she returns,
she tells Mat about a new game called ESCAPE. Mat likes the sound of this new game. The two
secretly take steps towards their liberation.
The girls have enough supplies to pull off their heist but things get complicated when two
Colombian sisters are assigned to their cell. The clock is ticking on their deportation. In the end
the girls must learn to work together in order to sneak past Miss X and achieve freedom.
Filmmaker/photographer Alicia J. Rose has directed over 3 dozen music videos for artists like First Aid Kit, Cake and Bob Mould as well as visually branding popular bands like The Decemberists and many others with her imaginative portraiture. Her unique sense of visual style, grounded humor and snappy storytelling enables her to deliver authentic narratives that resonate deeply with viewers. Hit web series The Benefits of Gusbandry was her first foray into episodic storytelling, and over its two seasons received wide acclaim from press outlets like The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, OUT and others. Her feature directorial debut – hybrid doc/narrative/musical A Kaddish For Bernie Madoff won both the Narrative Audience Award at the 2021 Ashland Independent Film Festival and the Best New Directors Award at the 2021 Port Townsend Film Festival. She is currently helming Jewish feminist discovery show Girls in Trouble: The Series which was recently awarded a 2025 Signature Grant from the Covenant Foundation, and is in production on her second feature film, Menopunks, an explosive documentary about peri/menopause and the creative process.
Twenty-three years ago, intentionally skewed results from the billion dollar Women’s Health Initiative study falsely linked the use of hormone replacement therapy to an increased risk of breast cancer, stroke, and heart disease. Headlines erupted. Prescriptions of HRT stopped, and an industry built on exploiting the suffering of people with ovaries exploded, leaving entire generations stripped of choice, silenced in their symptoms, and denied access to the very gender affirming care that could have relieved their suffering during perimenopause and menopause.
This film is our reckoning.
Menopunks is a bold, unapologetic documentary that exposes the truth behind the science and the silence. Backed by a fierce lineup of iconic Portland musicians, hormonally radicalized medical practitioners, and celebrity powerhouses, we’re cranking up the volume on a conversation long overdue. Menopunks isn’t just about hormones – it’s about power, autonomy, and the right to thrive through midlife and beyond.
Talena Sanders is deeply engaged in historical analysis, materiality, and lives lived – their works ask critical questions of privilege and power in who gets to tell the stories of lived realities. Her first feature script in development, Milkmaid/Soldier, was awarded an Honorable Mention fellowship by Film Fatales to participate in the Stowe Story Lab Writers’ Retreat and placed in the top 10% of over 6,000 scripts in the Academy Nicholl Fellowship competition.
Talena’s documentary and experimental films have been screened, exhibited, and collected internationally, including at the Museum of the Moving Image, Museum of Modern Art, BFI London Film Festival, BFI Flare, New York Film Festival, Frameline, and many others. Talena directs the undergraduate degree program she developed in Cinematic Arts and Technology as an Associate Professor at Sonoma State University.
In 1944 Amsterdam, Verena—a gender-nonconforming courier in the resistance—meets Jo, a magnetic femme resistance worker. Together they work undercover to seduce and kill Nazi men. As their shared mission intensifies, their connection grows into a transformative relationship. In stolen moments between missions, they discover joy and tenderness, even as violence closes in around them. Milkmaid/Soldier reimagines the World War II thriller through a queer lens, centering a defiant romance between two women who risk everything—not just to fight fascism, but to live and love authentically. A story of self-discovery, chosen family, and resistance in every sense of the word.
Nimco Sheikhaden is a Bronx-based filmmaker. Most recently, Nimco directed Exodus, a documentary chronicling the journey of two women returning to their families and communities following decades of incarceration, executive produced by Geeta Gandbhir, Blair Foster, and Rudy Valdez, which premiered at the 2025 SXSW Film Festival and is officially Oscar-qualified. She produced a six-part documentary series as a followup to the landmark series Eyes on the Prize for HBO which spotlights the ongoing struggle for civil rights in America. She produced an additional HBO series entitled Black and Missing executive produced by Soledad O’Brien that won a Cinema Eye Honors Award for Outstanding Achievement, the Television Academy Honors Award, and an Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary Series.
Nimco directed the Lincoln Center short film, profiling poet and artist Carl Hancock Rux for an experiential, site-specific event celebrating the Juneteenth emancipation holiday. Nimco has been working in documentary film extensively on projects that she hopes will help spark critical conversations. Her work spans major platforms such as HBO, Netflix, Hulu, A&E, and Peacock.
The Angriest Black Man in America is an intimate, urgent exploration of rage, resistance, and resilience within the Black experience in America. The film follows Philadelphia-based defense attorney and activist Michael Coard often defiant defense work and his tireless fight to save clients from death row. Coard’s searing critiques of systemic racism—both in the courtroom and on the airwaves—have earned him the provocative title at the heart of this film. Through his work, Coard channels a righteous anger into action, advocating for those disproportionately impacted by mass incarceration, police violence, and judicial bias.
At its core, The Angriest Black Man in America explores the contradictions within this: What does it mean to hold space for both anger and hope? How do systemic injustices justify and fuel this rage? And how does one sustain themselves in a fight that often feels unwinnable?
This project seeks to illuminate the dual burden carried by defenders: the emotional labor of saving lives within a dehumanizing system and the broader imperative to envision justice that repairs and restores, rather than condemns and destroys.
Writer/director Josalynn Smith is a graduate of Columbia University’s Film MFA program. They just completed work on their debut feature, an anti-romance/thriller, Ride or Die (Tribeca 2025), with Foxxhole Productions. Smith has been recognized by Sundance, SFFILM, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Additional recognition includes the Catwalk Institute Residency, shorts screened at Bentonville and Inside Out Toronto Film Festivals, and participation in the Athena Lab and Stowe Story Lab. Their work consistently centers authentic LGBTQ+ experiences within genre frameworks, exploring racial identity, power dynamics, and systemic oppression through provocative narratives that embrace moral ambiguity. Smith pushes cinematic boundaries around sexuality and violence while avoiding the exploitation of marginalized communities.
Ann Sun is a Beijing-born, LA-based director and an alumna of USC film school. She is the founder of Fuzzy Feelings, a film and new media company, and a member of 2025 Activate Impact Initiative by Women In Media. She was mentored by two-time Emmy Award-winning TV director Mary Lou Belli.
Ann directed 2018 narrative short film Sweet and Sour, which screened at 14 different festivals around the world, including Frameline and Outfest. Her 2024 documentary short Growing Up premiered at Academy Award-qualifying Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival.
Her most recent narrative short Adult Sitters is currently in the festival circuit. The film is produced by Salon de Paprika, with fiscal sponsorship provided by FiLM iNDEPENDENT, and Executive Produced by Jane Zheng (The Farewell, Dead Pigs) and James Shin (Dave, Baby Driver).
Ann has also directed branded content for clients such as Blackmagic Design, NutriVsta, and Dynamite Starfish.
Before transitioning to directing full-time, Ann worked at Anita Gou’s production company Kindred Spirit, where she worked on films that premiered at prestigious festivals such as Cannes, Sundance, TIFF, and Tribeca.
A fantastical thriller exploring faith, grief, and the cost of obsessive love. In a quiet American town, Mary, a religious Korean single mother, is devastated when her young son Elijah is kidnapped and later found dead. In her despair, a church pastor offers her a golden syringe rumored to bring back the dead, at the cost of another life. Desperate, Mary kills her alcoholic neighbor, and miraculously, the syringe lets her travel to alternate universes, each with a different version of Elijah. But none satisfy her longing, and her descent continues until she returns to the moment of the original Elijah’s abduction and saves him. Choosing love over obsession, she destroys the syringe. Years later, Elijah, now an adult, faces the possibility of adopting a child. Haunted by the complicated past with his estranged mother, he visits Mary. Their bittersweet reunion closes the story on a hopeful note about healing, growth, and breaking cycles of generational trauma.
As an Indian American girl raised in small-town Colorado, writer-director Shilpa Sunthankar learned everything she knows from a diet of eighties Hollywood, Hindi musicals, and a hefty side of world cinema.
After years of acting as a youth, she recognized the lack of roles for Indian Americans. So, she attended N.Y.U.’s Tisch School of Arts to dive into the craft of making them.
Shilpa enjoys embedding relevant social issues in dynamic, compelling formats. Her award-winning screenplay Continental Divide, a thriller about Indian American backpackers taken captive by drug traffickers on the U.S.- Mexico border, also asks the urgent question of today about who gets to be American and live in the safety of our borders. Her short film Working Lunch, a snackable dramatic comedy, addresses the proliferation of hate directly after the 2016 U.S. Presidential election.
With over twenty years’ experience creating content, including live action, animation, award-winning short films, and screenplays, she is ready to direct her first feature.
Shilpa is owner of PushStart Productions in Portland, Oregon, and currently the Interim Executive Director of the Oregon Media Production Association.
Small-town Colorado, 1990’s. When teen, Reena, finds younger sister, Juhi, being abused by neighborhood boys, despite anger, she agrees to hold on telling anyone out of regard for Juhi’s feelings. But bullying is not unusual for them.
Then they’re both presented with opportunities: Juhi to write a story for a class contest; and Reena to direct a one-act play with new friends she and Juhi can trust.
Juhi wins her contest and joins the judging panel for the next round, where she also finds new friends. Reena faces opposition from her mother, Mala, as her friends and the play pull her away.
Navigating between the play, the bullying, and Mala leads to a blowout when Reena tries to tell Mala about Juhi’s abuse. Meanwhile, Juhi is bullied, again by the neighborhood boys, into revealing the winner. She is kicked off the panel, unable to speak out.
Navigating pressures with help from her friends, Reena’s play goes triumphantly. It seems she’s finally accepted, until a bully pulls a rifle on them at an after party.
Decades later, Reena looks back on their growing up amidst bullying and abuse, inside and outside the home, and how it programmed them to be the broken adults they are now.
Emilio Miguel Torres is an award-winning Latino filmmaker based in Phoenix. An NYU Tisch School of the Arts film school graduate, he has written and directed multiple award-winning short films that have screened in over 35 international film festivals. His debut feature film, The Ladder, is a sci-fi, drama film about aging, technology, and family shot in his hometown of Ketchikan, Alaska. This fiercely independent movie is currently on the festival circuit, with selections from Fargo Film Festival, West Sound Film Festival, Worldfest-Houston, Wyoming International Film Festival, Golden Door International Film Festival, and the OKCine Latino Film Festival, where it won Best First Feature Film and Best Editing. After screening at the Phoenix Film Festival as part of the U.S. Feature Competition, Torres took home the Copper Wing Award for 2025 Arizona Filmmaker of the Year. With his work, Torres seeks to entertain, educate, and inspire by focusing on community-driven stories with depth. A fierce public school advocate, he’s worked within Arizona Public Schools for 3 years as a digital storyteller.
Teachable Moments is a sharp yet hopeful dramedy that sheds a light on the crisis of American public school funding. Lilly Harper, a second-year public school teacher, is determined to revive school spirit on her campus and stop a looming closure caused by plummeting enrollment. When an adversarial parent twists a mundane classroom decoration into proof of political indoctrination, the school becomes the latest culture-war target. Refusing to back down, Lilly rallies an unlikely ensemble who believe community-building efforts can save their school. Slowly, their efforts win over parents and keeps Lilly’s school from closing completely, but district leaders are forced to fire Lilly to satisfy the outrage cycle and make budget cuts. Filmed inside real Arizona public schools, Teachable Moments blends wit and urgency, prompting conversations on who gets to decide what the next generation can believe in.
Isaac Trimble is a world music artist, actor, and digital media producer dedicated to amplifying Indigenous/Native American voices in media. His creative journey began in childhood and has since earned him numerous accolades, including a lifetime achievement award in music and several film honors. After the passing of his mother, Norma, in 2015, Isaac vowed to pursue higher education and become a producer. He kept that promise by entering film festivals, taking courses, and refining his craft. His work has led him to serve as a juror for festivals such as the Bend Film Festival’s Indigenous shorts and features. A recent graduate of USC’s prestigious Peter Stark Producing Program, Isaac continues to develop award-winning short films and is now preparing his first feature-length projects. His work remains rooted in cultural advocacy, artistic excellence, and community impact.
When disgraced elder Iris Owl Capture is banned from the Native American Resource Center (NARC) by the no-nonsense Director Byron Gatewood for intending to harm another elder, she seeks revenge by summoning a vengeful spirit rooted in generational trauma. As Byron works late into the night to finish a critical report that could keep the center open, he begins receiving ominous signs—a cursed box, haunting visions, and an attack by a monstrous entity born from Iris’ dark medicine.
With chaos overtaking the NARC, Byron must turn to elder Helena, his estranged wife Regina, a trusted Police Officer Tony, and community members to confront the supernatural force that feeds on fear and division—all while racing to complete the report before the night is over.
Set in a modern intercity cultural hub, The Party’s Downstairs is a chilling, Indigenous-led folk horror that merges spiritual warfare, ancestral healing, and psychological terror. With the atmospheric dread of Hereditary and the emotional stakes of The Babadook, this is the horror film audiences have been waiting for—culturally rooted, deeply human, and utterly unforgettable.
Max is a California State Arts Scholar who received his BA from Sarah Lawrence College in anthropology and an MFA at Columbia University, where he was awarded the Faculty Selects prize for dramatic writing and nominated for a BAFTA Student Award.
His work often spotlights outcasts and outsiders that revel in the fringes of society. Selected screenings include the Palm Springs International ShortFest, Nashville Film Festival, Frameline International Film Festival, Rhode Island International Film Festival, NoBudge, and PBS. He is a Reykjavík Talent Lab alum.
His fiction has been published in Forever Magazine, Animal Blood, and Speakeasy Mag, among others.
His debut feature film Eating the Ocean is currently in development.
Set in suburban California in 2013, Eating the Ocean follows Isaac Tanner, a self-conscious,
obese teenager, and his charismatic yet toxic best friend, Diego. Together, they drift through late-
night escapades, reckless dares, and moments of existential questioning.
Isaac harbors a deep, unspoken attraction to Diego, though he suppresses it beneath layers of
self-deprecation and bravado. Meanwhile, Diego pursues Laine, a new girl at their high school,
who, desperate for connection, falls into his manipulative grasp. Their interactions turn
increasingly unsettling, exposing the toxic dynamics of power, desire, and insecurity within their
friendships.
At home, Isaac struggles with his strained relationship with his single mother, Heather, who is
obsessed with self-help mantras and wellness culture to mask her own loneliness and
dissatisfaction. As Isaac numbs himself with food, Heather seeks meaning in empty platitudes
and coffee table books to explain a world that often leaves her feeling just as lost.
Raina Yang is a Chinese writer and director based in New York and Guangzhou. A recent MFA graduate in Film Directing from Columbia University, her work explores transcultural and collective narratives through close collaborations with diverse communities. Her short films have screened internationally, including the Hamptons International Film Festival and Asian American International Film Festival. She has received support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Panavision New Filmmaker Program, the NYC Women’s Fund and so on. A 2024 fellow of the Athena Writers Lab and 2025 fellow of Bendfilm Basecamp, she is currently developing her first feature, Live Catch. Raina graduated from UC Berkeley with BAs in Film and Cognitive Science.
Welcomed by Everett, a conservative rancher, and Isabelle, his Chinese Canadian wife and mother of five, Lilly is disarmed by their warmth. She joins farm chores, family meals, and ecstatic sky-watching rituals. But as her satirical videos gain traction, guilt rises, and the performance seeps inward. The belonging she craves as an immigrant begins to feel real among this community—until she realizes their acceptance hinges on her conversion and her role as a vessel for alien-aided salvation. To break free, she must confront the cost of belonging when it demands assimilation and self-erasure.
A psychologically unsettling drama laced with sarcastic humor, Live Catch is inspired by my own experience on a conservative Texas farm. The film explores diasporic displacement, polarized beliefs, and the fragile limits of empathy across deep divides.
Amir Zargara is an award-winning Iranian-Canadian writer and director, whose unique perspective is shaped by the cultural mosaic of Iran and Canada. His journey, characterized by the resilience of an immigrant and the challenges of living with a stutter, deeply influences his approach to filmmaking. An alumnus of prestigious programs at Berlinale, TIFF, Busan, Zurich, and Reykjavik, he explores the moral complexities individuals face in his films.
His short film A GOOD DAY WILL COME qualified for the Oscars and received over 70 awards and mentions across more than 100 film festivals worldwide. Amir’s screenplays have garnered praise from top industry competitions, including the Academy’s Nicholl Fellowship, The Black List, Austin Film Festival, and Slamdance.
Amir has worked with acclaimed talents such as Oscar nominee Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips) and multiple Cannes and Berlinale alumni including Mehdi Bajestani (Holy Spider – Palme d’Or Nominee 2022), Mahtab Servati (There Is No Evil – Berlinale Golden Bear 2020), Reza Akhlagshirad (The Seed of the Sacred Fig – Cannes Jury Special Prize 2024), and Hossein Soleimani (Terrestrial Verses – Cannes Un Certain Regard Nominee 2023).
Kambiz, a young Iranian wrestler, grows up idolizing his father Cyrus, a revered athlete who chose integrity over Olympic gold and vanished after joining the Iran-Iraq war. Years later, Kambiz pursues his own Olympic dream under the weight of that legacy, guided by his uncle Mansour, a war veteran with a more pragmatic outlook. As government oppression intensifies and protests sweep the country, Kambiz tries to stay silent and focused, even as his younger brother Bardia becomes increasingly involved in activism. When Bardia is killed and Kambiz’s former love is gravely injured by the regime, he can no longer ignore the cost of silence. He publicly joins the resistance, becoming a symbol of defiance and a target of the state. Presumed dead for over a decade, Cyrus is released from an Iraqi prison and returns to find his family broken. Father and son reunite for one day, confronting the weight of sacrifice and the meaning of honor.
MEET THE MENTORS
Effie Brown (she/her) - Gamechanger Films
Effie Brown is a Los‑Angeles‑born producer who studied film production and theatre at Loyola Marymount University and quickly rose to become director of development for Tim Burton’s company in 1995. Through Film Independent’s Project Involve fellowship she established herself as a champion of diverse storytelling and line‑produced early features like Desert Blue, But I’m a Cheerleader and Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her. Her producing credits span HBO’s Stranger Inside, Sundance‑winning Real Women Have Curves, Rocket Science and the satirical hit Dear White People. Brown launched her own company, Duly Noted Inc., to nurture independent voices and has produced more than 130 episodes for the digital channel WIGS while mentoring on HBO’s Project Greenlight and executive‑producing series like Fox’s Star and Disney Channel’s Zombies. In 2020 she became CEO and majority owner of Gamechanger Films, continuing to champion under‑represented filmmakers and producing projects while serving on the Academy’s inclusion advisory committee.
Cullen Conly (he/him) - Manager at Anonymous Content
Cullen Conly is a literary manager and producer at Anonymous Content, based in New York. Recently, he executive produced the critically-acclaimed films Griffin in Summer and The Plague. Among his current clients are Sian Heder, Cory Finley, Andrew Ahn, Charlie Polinger, Kat Candler and Nash Edgerton, among others. He began his career in the mailroom at WME and as an assistant at Paramount Vantage, before spending five years at the Sundance Institute in the Screenwriters and Directors Labs.
Heidi Ewing (she/her) - Narrative & Documentary Filmmaker
Heidi Ewing, a Detroit native, discovered filmmaking as a child and later studied at Mercy High School and Georgetown University before co‑founding New York’s documentary company Loki Films in 2001 with Rachel Grady. Their first feature, The Boys of Baraka, followed Baltimore boys attending a school in Kenya. They gained international notice with Jesus Camp (2006), an Academy‑Award‑nominated documentary, and the HBO film 12th & Delaware, which received a Peabody Award. Ewing returned to her home town for the impressionistic Detroit chronicle Detropia, winner of the Sundance editing award. She later explored television pioneers in Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You and made her narrative debut with the hybrid romance I Carry You With Me, which won jury and audience awards at the 2020 Sundance festival. Recent work includes the true‑crime series Love Fraud, HBO’s Endangered and the 2025 observational feature Folktales, for which Ewing and Grady spent months in Norway following students at a dog‑sledding folk high school.
Max Geschwind (he/him) - Creative Artists Agency
Max Geschwind works in the Media Finance department, which focuses on packaging, sourcing financing for, and/or selling the distribution rights to independently financed films, at leading entertainment and sports agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA). Geschwind, who joined the agency in 2021, is a member of CAA Elevate, a state-of-the-art program for agents and executives in training. He graduated from the University of Southern California with degrees in Cinema and Media Studies and Political Science. Geschwind is based in Los Angeles.
Brian Kendig (he/him/any/all) - Film Acquisitions
Brian’s professional career began at the earliest days of digital entertainment, as a founding member of Paramount’s Digital Distribution division, where he led strategy for the first major studio deals with newcomers like iTunes and Netflix.
He then made the move to acquisitions, joining Netflix at the start of their international expansion. His role made him a frequent presence at film festivals, where he worked closely with independent distributors to reshape film releases for the digital era. He spearheaded the earliest global streaming deals and launched some of the first Netflix Originals in both documentary and stand-up comedy.
With this background, Brian was tapped by Hulu to bring feature films to the service, building and leading a brand-new film division, which he grew from key early partnerships with studios like NEON and Blumhouse to the robust film offering it is today, featuring a broad library of licensed film and a vibrant slate of originals.
Whitaker Lader (she/her) - Development Executive & Producer
Whitaker Lader, a Brown University graduate with an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business, began her career at the Sundance Institute, launching the Catalyst program that connects investors with projects by Sundance alumni. She went on to head production and development at Casey Affleck’s Sea Change Media, where she executive‑produced Affleck’s survival drama Light of My Life and produced the 19th‑century romance The World to Come. In 2020 she signed an exclusive producing pact with Ron Howard and Brian Grazer’s Imagine Entertainment before Nicholas Hoult tapped her to lead his production company, Dead Duck Films. Lader now develops bold, character‑driven projects under that banner and executive‑produces the first‑look television series Wildfire Johnny. She continues to co‑host Renaissance Weekends, her family’s non‑profit leadership retreat, and is respected for identifying unique voices and championing female‑led narratives in film and television.
Bing Liu (he/him) - Narrative & Documentary Filmmaker
Bing Liu is a China-born, Midwest-raised filmmaker best known for directing the feature documentary Minding the Gap, which was nominated for an Oscar, an Independent Spirit, an Emmy and won a Sundance Special Jury and Peabody Award. He was a segment director on America to Me, which premiered on Starz and was nominated for a Critics Choice Award for Best Limited Documentary Series. He co-directed his second feature documentary All These Sona with Josh Altman, which won Best Cinematography at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival and the Maysles Award at the Denver International Film Festival. His short documentary What the Hands Do had its world premiere at the 2023 Camden International Film Festival. Since 2021 he has also been working on Empathy Mirrors, a museum exhibit in partnership with Actual Films and Futures Without Violence. His latest film, Preparation for the Next Life, is a narrative feature produced by Plan B and Pastel for Orion Pictures and hit theaters September 5th, 2025. He was previously a member of the International Cinematographer’s Guild and holds a degree in English Literature from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Peter Nicks (he/him) - Documentary Filmmaker
Peter Nicks is an Emmy-winning filmmaker acclaimed for his immersive vérité style. His trilogy — The Waiting Room (Oscar Shortlist), The Force (Sundance Directing Prize), and Homeroom (Sundance Editing Award) — captures Oakland’s public institutions at pivotal moments in recent American history. He co-founded Proximity Media with Ryan Coogler and directed its first films: the music-driven road trip movie Anthem and Stephen Curry: Underrated. A United States Artists Fellow and recipient of the SFFS/KRF screenwriting grant, Nicks serves on the Sundance Institute board. He holds degrees from Howard University and UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, and lives in the Bay Area with his family.
Mary Jane Skalski (she/her) - Producer
Mary Jane Skalski’s career spans over 25 years as a producer specializing in taking projects from inception thru release. Credits include American Animals, The Station Agent, The Visitor, Win Win, The Cobbler, Mysterious Skin, Wilson, Hello I Must Be Going, Dare, Against the Current, The Hawk is Dying, Chain and Very Good Girls. Mary Jane was an executive producer on Pariah, Trick, Putzel, Before You Know It and My Salinger Year. Mary Jane started her career at Good Machine where she was able to work on the early films of Ang Lee, Nicole Holofcener and Ed Burns, among others. She teaches at Columbia University and is a member of AMPAS, serving on the Producers Branch Executive Committee and Producers United.
Projects currently in development include a limited series with Robin Swicord and feature films with directors Miguel Arteta, Anya Epstein, Moon Molson, Frank Whaley and So Yong Kim.
Guinevere Turner (she/her) - Screenwriter, Director & Actor
Guinevere Turner is a writer, director and actor who has been working in film and TV since her 1994 debut film Go Fish. She teamed up with director Mary Harron to write the films American Psycho, The Notorious Bettie Page and Charlie Says. She was a writer and story editor on Showtime’s The L Word, and she played a recurring character on that show. She has written and directed seven short films, two of which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. She can be seen in film roles that include The Watermelon Woman, Chasing Amy, American Psycho and The L Word. She published an essay in The New Yorker in April of 2019, and expanded on that essay in a 2023 memoir, When The World Didn’t End, currently in development as a feature film. Her fourth film with Mary Harron, The Highway that Eats People, is in pre-production.
MEET THE STAFF
John Cooper (he/him) - Artistic Director
John Cooper has been a pivotal figure in the world of independent cinema, particularly through his leadership at the Sundance Film Festival. Starting with Sundance in 1989, he rose to become Festival Director in 2010, a role he held for over a decade. Cooper is credited with expanding Sundance’s global reach by launching satellite festivals in New York, London and Hong Kong. He also introduced key sections like Short Film and New Frontier, nurturing emerging filmmakers. In 2020, he transitioned to the role of Emeritus Director, continuing to support special projects. His legacy remains influential in independent film – serving as a consultant for BendFilm since 2023 and co-creator of Basecamp. Most recently he was enlisted as Artistic Director of True West Film Center, a new cinema opening this October in Healdsburg CA as well as co-hosts the popular Podcast THE FILM THAT BLEW MY MIND.
Clay Pruitt (he/him) - Director of Education
Born and raised in Southwest Colorado, Clay studied Film Production and Theatre at the University of Colorado, Boulder before moving to Los Angeles. He’s worked with the Sundance Institute, WME, Outfest, Palm Springs International Film Festival and ShortFest, AFM, Film Independent, Seed&Spark, and SAVEarth Studios. He was a 2018 Film Independent Producing Lab Fellow and recipient of the Sloan Producing Lab Grant. His production credits include United Skates (HBO), Above and Beyond: NASA’s Journey to Tomorrow (Discovery), American Epic (PBS), and I’m Fine (Dekkoo). He’s passionate about the power film has to drive impact and lasting change.
Giancarlo Gatto (he/him) - Executive Director
Born and raised in Philadelphia, PA and Southern New Jersey, Giancarlo studied mass media communications and digital art at La Salle University. After initially working as a creative director for an early web startup, Giancarlo transitioned into what would become 20 year career as a finance and business professional before joining BendFilm as Executive Director. Throughout his career he has maintained his life long passion for film by serving on the BendFilm Board for 7 years, 5 of those as board president. He has also performed as a DJ for over 25 years and has recently started producing and releasing electronic music.
Emma Kaisner (she/her) - Program Coordinator
Emma is a recent graduate of the University of Oregon ‘s Clark Honors College, holding degrees in English and Economics. Growing up in Oregon, Emma developed a love for the Bend Film Festival, and she joined the team last summer as an Operations Intern. In and out of school, Emma has pursued creative writing projects and has written and directed her own short films. She is passionate about film’s ability to educate and spark essential conversations, and she plans to pursue opportunities in producing.