Director / Producer, DESCENDANT, THE ORDER OF MYTHS

Margaret Brown’s documentary work examines the American South, from her seminal film on Townes Van Zandt BE HERE TO LOVE ME to the story of the BP oil spill’s lasting impact THE GREAT INVISIBLE, which won the Grand Jury Prize at SXSW in 2014. Her film THE ORDER OF MYTHS, which examined Brown’s native Mobile, Alabama and its still segregated Mardi Gras celebration, won numerous awards including a Peabody and the Truer Than Fiction Independent Spirit Award. Her most recent film DESCENDANT won the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Creative Vision at Sundance in 2022 and was acquired by the Obamas' Higher Ground Productions. DESCENDANT won the DOC NYC Award for Best Director, the Critics Choice Documentary Award for Best Historical Documentary, and was named to the Oscars shortlist for Best Documentary Feature. The film also received nominations for Outstanding Direction, Best Documentary Feature, and Outstanding Original Score from Cinema Eye Honors, the Producers’ Guild of America, and the NAACP Awards. It explores the story of the only known slave ship that’s ever been discovered on North American soil, the specter of its crimes both past and present, and the steadfast resilience of Africatown's descendants in the face of a century of denied history. Brown has also done short form work for The New York Times, Field of Vision, and episodic work for Netflix, including an episode of the acclaimed series DIRTY MONEY.

Writer / Director, STREET FIGHT, THE NEIGHBOR’S WINDOW

Marshall Curry is a director, writer, and editor of fiction and non-fiction films. He won the Academy Award for writing and directing the short narrative film, THE NEIGHBORS’ WINDOW. He was previously nominated three times for his documentary films: STREET FIGHT (about Cory Booker’s first run for Mayor of Newark), A NIGHT AT THE GARDEN (about a Nazi rally that filled Madison Square Garden in 1939), and IF A TREE FALLS: A STORY OF THE EARTH LIBERATION FRONT (about a group of environmental activists who committed multi-million dollar arsons).

Writer / Director, PASSAGES, KEEP THE LIGHTS ON

Ira Sachs is a filmmaker whose feature films include PASSAGES, LITTLE MEN, LOVE IS STRANGE, KEEP THE LIGHTS ON, and FORTY SHADES OF BLUE. Recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2013, Sachs is the Founding Director of Queer|Art, a national arts organization created to support LGBTQ+ artists across disciplines and generations.

Director / Producer, THE NAMESAKE, RADIUM GIRLS

Lydia Dean Pilcher is a two-time Emmy-winning, Oscar-nominated producer of over 40 feature films and founder of NYC production company Cine Mosaic. In a longstanding collaboration with acclaimed director Mira Nair, she produced twelve films, including THE NAMESAKE, QUEEN OF KATWE, and THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST. Focusing on global culture and climate storytelling, Pilcher's director credits include the WWII spy thriller, A CALL TO SPY, and the climate narratives RADIUM GIRLS and science fiction film HOMING INSTINCT. As Co-founder of the Producers Guild of America’s PGA Green and GreenProductionGuide.com, she has been an ambassador for sustainability in the entertainment industry for over 15 years. She co-leads the WGA/PGA Interguild Climate Storytelling Initiative and Co-Chairs the Directors Guild of America Sustainable Future Committee.

Writer / Director, BEN IS BACK, WHAT'S EATING GILBERT GRAPE

Peter Hedges' first novel WHAT’S EATING GILBERT GRAPE was the basis for the 1993 film, which he also wrote. Hedges’ screenplays include co-adapting Jane Hamilton’s A MAP OF THE WORLD and Nick Hornby’s ABOUT A BOY, for which he received a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar® nomination. Hedges made his feature film directorial debut with PIECES OF APRIL, starring Katie Holmes and Patricia Clarkson. In 2007, Peter directed and co-wrote DAN IN REAL LIFE for Touchstone Pictures / Focus Features. In 2012, Peter wrote and directed THE ODD LIFE OF TIMOTHY GREEN for Disney. In 2018, Hedges’ wrote and directed BEN IS BACK, which starred Julia Roberts and Lucas Hedges. Hedges' most recent film THE SAME STORM was shot virtually/remotely during the summer of 2020. Featuring a cast of 24 that includes Sandra Oh, Mary-Louise Parker, Noma Dumezweni, Moses Ingram, and Elaine May, THE SAME STORM had its World Premiere at the 2021 Telluride Film Festival. Hedges has taught at Yale University, Bennington College, and the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. He has served as a Creative Advisor at the Sundance Screenwriters' Lab and as a Mentor at the Hamptons Film Festival Screenwriting Conference.

Pamela Yates is the Senior Creative Director and Film Director and Paco de Onís is the Executive Director and Film Producer at Skylight, a not-for-profit a human rights media organization that combines cinematic arts with the quest for justice to inspire the defense of human rights.

Their current feature documentary just now launching is BORDERLAND | The Line Within which exposes the massive surveillance, militarized and carceral apparatus that has been built to capture, detain and deport millions of immigrants from the U.S. at a cost of billions of dollars.

They are best known for their trilogy of films made over 35 years about Guatemala which include WHEN THE MOUNTAINS TREMBLE, GRANITO: HOW TO NAIL A DICTATOR, and 500 YEARS , all premiered at Sundance Film Festival and have been shown all over the world in festivals, cinemas, broadcasts and streaming.

At Skylight, Pamela and Paco share their model of catalyzing collaborative networks of artists and activists through the SolidariLabs program.

BENJAMIN ECKERSLEY is a filmmaker born and raised in New York City. he received an MFA from Columbia University in 2022. Previously, he worked at a Chinese university and in economic research in Hong Kong and New York. He's dedicated to telling stories about climate change in narrative film, especially ones about how our economic needs conflict with environmental and ethical aspirations. He also loves stories about family and food. His upcoming short "It Might As Well Be Spring" received a grant from the Sloan Foundation . It tells the story of an angry ecologist worried about climate and his intractable father.

PROJECT SYNOPSIS:
When millennial Chinese-American insurance investigator Nancy is sent to Indonesian Borneo to audit the death of an ecologist on a palm oil plantation, all she cares about is finding a way to fly to Bali from there to get the frequent flyer miles on her credit card. But she, along with goofy Indonesian handler Aditya and suave British ESG expert James, are confronted with clues from the plantation and social media that force them to realize the death is no accident. They unravel a mystery that takes them across continents and forces her to question what is "sustainable".

SANFORD JENKINS is an artist and filmmaker. Born and raised in Philadelphia, he earned a BA at Morehouse College and an MFA at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. His short films have played at international festivals including BlackStar, Camerimage, and Palm Springs, and have been supported by BAMPFA, Topic Studios, and Vimeo. He is a recipient of a 2017 DGA Student Film Award for A CRAFTSMAN. JOY AND PAIN, his current narrative work, is supported by Film Independent, The Gotham, and the San Francisco Film Society.

PROJECT SYNOPSIS:
Set between the Bay Area and Philadelphia, JOY AND PAIN explores the personal histories, relationships, and things carried within two Black families, through a couple burying a parent and bearing their first child.

Artistic Director

Alex is a filmmaker & educator. He hails from Montana. He and his twin brother, Andrew, have written and directed three award-winning feature films: WALKING OUT; WINTER IN THE BLOOD, based on the landmark First Nations novel, the film that first introduced Oscar nominee Lily Gladstone; and THE SLAUGHTER RULE, starring Ryan Gosling, which, along with WALKING OUT, was a Sundance Grand Jury nominee.

The Brothers have written scripts and created television shows for, among other HBO, Disney, Columbia Pictures, Amazon, Focus, FX and Fox Searchlight. Alex is an Associate Professor of Fiction Film at the University of Utah. He is also the Artistic Director of the Woodstock Filmmaker Residency. He has taught at many universities including UT Austin, where he was the Creative Director of the University of Texas Film Institute. He is a Sundance, Rauschenberg & Michener Fellow.

Artistic Consultant at Large

Sabine Hoffman, ACE, has edited award-winning feature films for over 20 years. Her credits include Rebecca Miller’s films PERSONAL VELOCITY, THE BALLAD OF JACK AND ROSE, THE PRIVATE LIVES OF PIPPA LEE, MAGGIE'S PLAN and SHE CAME TO ME, Julie Taymor's THE GLORIAS, Rebecca Hall's PASSING, Roger Ross Williams CASSANDRO, Richard LaGravenese's musical THE LAST FIVE YEARS, A.V. Rockwell's A THOUSAND AND ONE and Tony Godlwyn's upcoming EZRA.

Sabine has also edited two episodes of PACHINKO and numerous documentary films including Academy Award-nominated FERRY TALES, Thomas Allan Harris' THE TWELVE DISCIPLES OF NELSON MANDELA, Laura Poitras' TERROR CONTAGION and is the co-producer of Shalini Kantayya's films CATCHING THE SUN and Emmy-nominated CODED BIAS.