Graduate of Dartmouth College and NYU Graduate Film School, winner of Film Independent Spirit’s Someone to Watch Award, New York native Rashaad Ernesto Green’s most recent feature, PREMATURE, premiered at Sundance Film Festival and was distributed by IFC Films (www.prematurefilm.com). Rashaad's first feature, GUN HILL ROAD, also premiered at Sundance and received nationwide distribution (www.gunhillroad.com).

His television directing credits include episodes for Marvel, Netflix, Showtime, Hulu, NBC, Fox, Warner Bros, VH1 and BET.

He’s been supported by the Sundance Institute, Tribeca Film Institute, Cinereach, Film Independent, IFP, HBO, NBC, Time Warner, Warner Bros, Humanitas New Voices, Jerome Foundation, NALIP and NHFA.

Rashaad’s currently in development with MGM/Amazon on a feature film entitled ’68.

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.

Multiple award-winning filmmaker Kimberly Reed’s most recent film DARK MONEY was an award-winning selection at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, was promptly named one of Vogue’s “66 Best Documentaries of All Time,” shortlisted for an Oscar, nominated for Best Documentary of the Year by IDA and for four Critics’ Choice Awards, and won the prestigious duPont Columbia Prize for Broadcast Journalism.

Her trailblazing film PRODIGAL SONS (Telluride Film Festival premiere, First Run Features, Sundance Channel), won 14 international awards and was the first documentary by a transgender filmmaker to be theatrically released in the US.

She recently directed episode 2 of the four-part non/fiction series EQUAL on HBO MAX, titled “Transgender Pioneers,” and served as Executive Producer of the award-winning HBO documentary TRANSHOOD. Ms. Reed also produced/edited/wrote PAUL GOODMAN CHANGED MY LIFE (Zeitgeist Films), and produced THE DEATH AND LIFE OF MARSHA P. JOHNSON (Netflix).

Shelby Stone is an award-winning African-American Creative Producer, Executive, and Consultant with a strong track record of successful television and film projects. Her creative collaborations with actors, writers, top show runners and directors include running production companies for Jamie Foxx, Queen Latifah and Common.

Besides her Emmy, she was awarded the Black Women’s Trailblazer Award from the Bronze Lens Festival Women’s Superstar Award in 2015 and is the recipient of more than 60 industry awards and nominations, including Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild Awards, CLIO, Humanitas, George F. Peabody, AFI, NAACP Image Awards, Women's Image Awards and Black Filmmakers Awards.

Shelby is the co-chair of the PGA’s One Guild diversity initiative and is deeply comitted to promoting diversity and inclusion behind the camera. She has taught producer’s labs, writer’s workshops and numerous panels for Film Independent (FIND), Outfest, Women in Film, Infinity Festival, UCLA, The Royal Jordanian TV Lab and Women in Media. She also previously served as the inaugural co-chair of the Producers of Color Working Group.

Roger Ross Williams is an Oscar, Emmy, Peabody, and NAACP Image award-winning director, producer, and writer –and the first African American director to win an Academy Award ®, with his film MUSIC BY PRUDENCE. Williams directed LIFE, ANIMATED, which won him the Sundance Directing Award, and was nominated for an Academy Award ® and won three Emmys. Williams is the recipient of the Career Achievement Award from the International Documentary Association, The Woodstock Film Festival Maverick Award, The NYU Alumni Achievement Award, and an honorary doctorate from Lafayette College.

His production company One Story Up produced the acclaimed food series HIGH ON THE HOG, an adaptation of Ta-Nehisi Coates's BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME, the Ben Crump documentary CIVIL, the award-winning film MASTER OF LIGHT, and the Primetime Emmy Award-winning feature documentary THE APOLLO. Williams' first scripted feature CASSANDRO from Amazon Prime Video had its World premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival to universal acclaim. He also released THE SUPERMODELS for Apple TV+, STAMPED FROM THE BEGINNING, based on the book by Ibram X. Kendi, for Netflix, and the Emmy award-winning series THE 1619 PROJECT for Disney/Hulu.

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.

David Liu is a writer/director from the San Gabriel Valley east of Los Angeles. A former journalist, he holds a BA in political economy from UC Berkeley and an MFA from the USC School of Cinematic Arts, and his television writing credits include the psychological thriller series TAIWAN CRIME STORIES for Disney+/Hulu. David is developing his debut narrative feature SANTA ANITA as a fellow of the Sundance Institute’s Feature Film Program, the SFFILM Rainin Grant, and the IFP/Gotham Week Project Market.

Project Synopsis:
Summer, 2004. Nestled in the shadow of Southern California’s San Gabriel Mountains, SANTA ANITA is a neighborhood where past and present bleed together. Over the course of one weekend, strange, interconnected events transform three generations of lives, each of them haunted by the dead.

Jazz Pitcairn is an award-winning writer, director, and producer from the Cayman Islands, best known for writing on HBO’s Emmy-winning series, A BLACK LADY SKETCH SHOW.

At 17, Jazz was nominated for Best Local Filmmaker at the Cayman International Film Festival and proceeded to continue her career at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Thereafter, Jazz worked for several major studios like A24, HBO, and Apple TV+ before landing as a Writer on A BLACK LADY SKETCH SHOW at just 23 years old. Jazz is also the first Caymanian to write for an Amerian major network television series.

Project Synopsis:
Inspired by the filmmaker’s personal experience, IVAN unfolds in 2004 Grand Cayman, charting the hurricane's impact on three resilient Caribbean women across three generations. Flora, Mia, and Callie confront personal storms amid Mia's historic bid for the Cayman Islands’ premiership against her corrupt father, Sammy. Callie navigates childhood trials, while Flora battles failing health and matriarchal duties. The hurricane's unexpected strike forces Mia to reconcile nature's fickleness with familial tensions. IVAN is an intimate political saga delving into themes of motherhood, sacrifice, and reclaiming power amidst adversity, encapsulating the enduring bond between family and nature in a tumultuous landscape.

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.