Beyond Inclusion is a BIPOC-led collective of non-fiction makers, executives, and field builders. We organize for a more racially just and equitable media landscape and hold an unapologetically large vision for ecosystem-wide change. In the new normal, every staff room, C-Suite and boardroom will reflect the diverse makeup of the audiences they serve. There will be more BIPOC decision-makers, equitable funding and support for more BIPOC makers, and more stories will be told informed by principles of authorship and accountability. As a result, more perspectives will be seen, more BIPOC makers will thrive, and more communities will see their authentic stories reflected on screens big and small.


A letter to PBS from Viewers Like Us

March 29, 2021

To: Paula Kerger, President PBS

Cc: Michael Getler, PBS Ombudsman

Dear Ms. Kerger,

We are writing in response to recent conversations sparked by Grace Lee’s essay for the Ford Foundation’s Creative Futures series and your public response to it.

We are filmmakers, producers, directors, executives and programmers. Many of us have had our work funded, commissioned and distributed by PBS and we greatly value public broadcasting. In that spirit, we feel compelled to express our disappointment with your remarks which fail to acknowledge efforts across the field that not only diversify voices on major platforms, but also attempt to repair past injustices. Keeping this collective vision in mind, when Lee questions the network’s over-reliance on one white male filmmaker you “respectfully disagree” with her argument. We respectfully ask to understand the basis of your disagreement. Specifically, is there data to support it?

A simple accounting from kenburns.com shows about 211 hours of programming on PBS spanning 40 years. This is reflected in 38 cumulative films, mini series and television series titles. Burns has 108 Director credits and 119 Executive Producer/Producer credits. As you know, PBS has an exclusive relationship with Burns until at least 2022, exclusive home video and audio visual rights to existing and new films through 2025, and the Amazon Prime channel boasts the entire catalogue of Burns’ films. How many other “independent” filmmakers have a decades-long exclusive relationship with a publicly-funded entity? Public television supporting this level of uninvestigated privilege is troubling not just for us as filmmakers but as tax-paying Americans.

In your remarks at the February 2, 2021 TCA, you point to Stanley Nelson and Henry Louis Gates, Jr, as filmmakers who diversify the PBS catalog. You call Lee a “talented filmmaker,” and suggest that “we will continue to work with her in the future.” Please note that Lee’s provocation was not about her storytelling skills or her career trajectory, but whether PBS is fulfilling its mission of expressing a diversity of perspectives and whether it can continue attracting storytellers that will keep public television relevant. Using the example of three individual BIPOC filmmakers is an inadequate leadership response to a systemic failure to fulfill a mandate for a diversity of voices.

Your commitment to diversity at PBS is not borne out by the evidence. When you program an 8-part series on Muhammad Ali by Ken Burns, what opportunity is there for a series or even a one-off film to be told by a Black storyteller who may have a decidedly different view? Your chief programming executive recently announced an initiative to fund “the next generation” of BIPOC makers but where does that leave the current generation? This is about equitable support for BIPOC filmmakers to author their own narratives at all stages of their careers that rival the access and support seen by their white peers. Emerging filmmaker initiatives enforce the false narrative that BIPOC artists are predominantly first timers, lacking in experience.

As the leader of the public broadcasting system, you are responsible to commit to an open and sustained public dialogue. Questioning whether PBS could be doing better should not be seen as an attack, but as an opportunity for meaningful dialogue and action, and to engage BIPOC filmmakers as we chart a course forward.

In the spirit of open, constructive and honest fact-based communication, we invite you to share the following data with us as a starting point.

  1. How many HOURS of PBS non-fiction television have been directed or produced by BIPOC filmmakers vs. by white filmmakers over the past ten years?
  2. Of all SPENDING on PBS non-fiction television over the past ten years, what percentage has been directed or produced by BIPOC filmmakers?
  3. Of the top 25 production companies that have produced the most content for PBS over the past ten years when measured according to budget, how many of them are BIPOC-led vs. white-led?
  4. How many PBS management staff (including individual stations and major strands) are BIPOC vs. white? How do these numbers compare to the numbers from ten years ago?

We also encourage PBS to publicly provide the above answers along lines of gender identity, ability and sexual orientation.

We look forward to discussing these issues with you in person. We are a coalition of BIPOC-led filmmakers and executives who care about the future of public television. You need not look far to find us. We are right here.

(Note: The original wording in this letter was: “We also welcome the above answers along lines of gender identity, ability and sexual orientation and look forward to discussing these issues with you in person.” We have revised this wording to clarify our meaning as follows: that we look forward to discussing issues of race with PBS, and we wish to also stand in solidarity with the need for PBS to address the underrepresentation of other marginalized communities.)

Signed,
Beyond Inclusion (Institutional affiliations for identification only)

  • Dawn Porter, Filmmaker (Trapped, Gideon’s Army)
  • Don Young, Center for Asian American Media
  • Farihah Zaman, Filmmaker, Critic
  • Geeta Gandbhir, Filmmaker (Asian Americans, Armed With Faith)
  • Grace Lee, Filmmaker (Asian Americans, And She Could be Next)
  • Iyabo Boyd, Brown Girls Doc Mafia
  • Jihan Robinson, Filmmaker & Executive
  • Kristi Jacobson, Filmmaker (I’m Not Going to Change 400 Years in Four, Colonial House)
  • Lisa Valencia-Svensson, Producer (Herman’s House, Call Her Ganda)
  • Marjan Safinia, Filmmaker (And She Could Be Next)
  • Michèle Stephenson, Filmmaker (American Portrait, Stateless, American Promise)
  • Poh Si Teng, Producer (St. Louis Superman)
  • Roger Ross Williams, Filmmaker (God Loves Uganda)
  • Sabrina Schmidt Gordon, Filmmaker (Quest, BaddDDD Sonia Sanchez)
  • Sonya Childress, Senior Fellow, Perspective Fund

Co-signers

  • Aldo Velasco, Editor (Asian Americans, And She Could Be Next)
  • Alex Rivera (The Infiltrators, The Sixth Section)
  • Alicia Sams (Arab American Stories)
  • Almudena Carracedo (Made in L.A, The Silence of Others)
  • Amber Fares, Cinematographer (And She Could Be Next, The Judge)
  • Amir Soltani (Dogtown Redemption)
  • Anayansi Prado (Maid in America, Children in No Man’s Land, The Unafraid)
  • Andres Caballero (The Interpreters, Gaucho del Norte)
  • Anya Rous, Producer (The Feeling of Being Watched, Always in Season)
  • Asako Gladsjo (Black America Since MLK, Many Rivers to Cross, Finding Your Roots)
  • Assia Boundaoui (The Feeling of Being Watched)
  • Bao Nguyen (We Gon’ Be Alright, Employed Identity)
  • Beth Aala (Made In Boise)
  • Bernardo Ruiz (Roberto Clemente, Reportero, Kingdom of Shadows, Latino Vote)
  • Bhawin Suchak, Youth FX | NeXT Doc
  • Billy Luther (Miss Navajo, GRAB, alter-NATIVE)
  • Blair Foster (Park Avenue: Money, Power and the American Dream)
  • Byron Hurt (I Am A Man: Black Masculinity in America, Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, Soul Food Junkies)
  • Carrie Lozano (The Weather Underground, The Interpreters, Belly of the Beast)
  • Cecilia Aldarondo (Landfall, Memories of a Penitent Heart)
  • Christopher Clements, Producer (The Mole Agent, A Thousand Cuts, One Child Nation + more)
  • Christina D. King (Warrior Women, Up Heartbreak Hill, We Shall Remain)
  • Cristina Ibarra (The Infiltrators, Las Marthas, The Last Conquistador)
  • Crystal R. Emery (Black Women in Medicine)
  • Daniel Chalfen Producer (The Infiltrators), Executive Producer (Always in Season, The Feeling of Being Watched)
  • Danielle Beverly (Old South, Learning to Swallow)
  • David Felix Sutcliffe ((T)ERROR, Adama)
  • David Osit (Thank You For Playing, No Man’s Land, Mayor)
  • Deann Borshay Liem (First Person Plural, In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee)
  • Debbie Lum (Seeking Asian Female, Try Harder!)
  • Deborah S. Esquenazi (Southwest of Salem: The Story of the San Antonio Four)
  • Diane Quon (Minding the Gap)
  • Eric Daniel Metzgar (The Chances of the World Changing, Life. Support. Music)
  • Flávia de Souza, Editor (Armed with Faith, Naila and the Uprising)
  • Garrett Bradley (Time)
  • Gina Duncan, Sundance Film Festival
  • Hao Wu (People’s Republic of Desire)
  • Hemal Trivedi (Battleground, Among the Believers)
  • Iliana Sosa, Co-Producer (Building the American Dream) 
  • Jamila Wignot (Ailey, African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross, Triangle Fire)
  • Jason Fitzroy Jeffers, Filmmaker, Third Horizon
  • Jean Tsien, Executive Producer (Asian Americans, Our Time Machine)
  • Jeff Reichert, Filmmaker, Critic
  • Jenni Wolfson, Chicken & Egg Pictures
  • Jennifer MacArthur (Whose Streets?)
  • Jennifer Steinman Sternin, Filmmaker, Founder of Bay Area Women Directors’ Collective
  • Jessica Devaney, Multitude Films
  • Jonathan Olshefski (QUEST)
  • JT Takagi, Filmmaker, Third World Newsreel
  • Juanita Anderson (State of Black America, Who Killed Vincent Chin?)
  • Julie Goldman, Producer (The Mole Agent, A Thousand Cuts, One Child Nation + more)
  • Juli Vizza, Editor (And She Could Be Next)
  • Julia Meltzer (The Light in Her Eyes, Dalya’s Other Country)
  • Julianna Brannum (Native America, LaDonna Harris: Indian 101, We Shall Remain: Wounded Knee)
  • June Cross, Columbia Journalism School
  • Kelly Anderson (Every Mother’s Son, My Brooklyn)
  • Kenneth Eng (Kokoyakyu: High School Baseball, My Life In China)
  • Lana Wilson (The Departure)
  • Laura Nix (Inventing Tomorrow, The Light In Her Eyes)
  • Laura Poitras (Flag Wars; My Country, My Country; The Oath)
  • Lauren Domino, Producer (Time)
  • Leslie Fields-Cruz, Black Public Media 
  • Linda Goldstein Knowlton (We Are The Radical Monarchs, The World According to Sesame Street)
  • Loira Limbal (Through the Night, Estilo Hip Hop)
  • Lucila Moctezuma, Program Director, Chicken & Egg Pictures 
  • Malika Zouhali-Worrall (Thank You For Playing)
  • Marcia Smith, Firelight Media
  • Marco Williams (In Search of Our Fathers, Two Towns of Jasper, Banished, The Undocumented)
  • Margaret L Brown (The Order of Myths, The Great Invisible)
  • Maria Agui Carter (REBEL, Latina SciGirls)
  • Marilyn Ness (Cameraperson, Charm City, Trapped, 1971)
  • Michelle Materre (Black Women in Medicine, Chisholm ’72: Unbought and Unbossed)
  • Mohammad Asad Faruqi (Armed With Faith)
  • Monika Navarro, Firelight Media, (Latino Americans)
  • Natalie Bullock Brown (Hazing, Associate Producer, JAZZ)
  • Nausheen Dadabhoy, Cinematographer (Not Done: Women Remaking America, Conscience Point)
  • Nels Bangerter, Editor (Let the Fire Burn, Kumu Hina, Cameraperson, The Hottest August)
  • Nicole Tsien, POV 
  • Paco de Onís, Executive Director, Skylight (The Reckoning, Granito: How to Nail a Dictator, 500 Years)
  • Pamela Yates, Senior Creative Director, Skylight (When the Mountains Tremble, Granito: How to Nail a Dictator, 500 Years)
  • PJ Raval (Call Her Ganda, Before You Know It)
  • Rachel Lears (The Hand That Feeds)
  • Rabab Haj Yahya, Editor (The Feeling of Being Watched)
  • RaMell Ross (Hale County This Morning, This Evening)
  • Ramona Emerson (The Mayors of Shiprock)
  • Ramona S. Diaz (A Thousand Cuts, Motherland, Imelda)
  • Ray Santisteban (The First Rainbow Coalition)
  • Renee Tajima-Peña (Asian Americans, No Más Bebés)
  • Richard Ray Perez (Cesar’s Last Fast)
  • Rita Baghdadi (My Country No More)
  • Robert Bahar (Made in L.A., The Silence of Others)
  • Robert Winn (Saigon, USA, Grassroots Rising)
  • Robin Blotnick (The Hand That Feeds)
  • S. Leo Chiang (A Village Called Versailles, Our Time Machine)
  • Sabaah Folayan (Whose Streets?)
  • Sam Pollard (MLK/FBI)
  • Sami Khan (St. Louis Superman, The Last Out)
  • Sandi DuBowski (Trembling Before G-d, A Jihad for Love)
  • Sapana Sakya (Daughters of Everest, Searching for Asian America)
  • Sara Nodjoumi (When God Sleeps)
  • Sarita Khurana (A Suitable Girl)
  • Senain Kheshgi (Project Kashmir, Divas of Karachi)
  • Shaleece Haas (Real Boy)
  • Shalini Kantayya (Coded Bias)
  • Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy (Saving Face, A Girl in the River, A Journey of a Thousand Miles)
  • Simon Kilmurry, International Documentary Association 
  • Smriti Mundhra (St. Louis Superman, A Suitable Girl)
  • Sofian Khan (Gaucho del Norte, The Interpreters)
  • Stacey L. Holman (The Black Church, Reconstruction (HR3), Tell Them We Are Rising)
  • Stanley Nelson (Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool; Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution)
  • Stephanie Wang-Breal (Wo Ai Ni Mommy, Tough Love and Blowin’ Up)
  • Stephen Maing (High Tech, Low Life)
  • Thomas Allen Harris (Family Pictures USA, Through A Lens Darkly, Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela)
  • Tim Tsai (Seadrift)
  • Tracy Heather Strain (Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart)
  • Ursula Liang (9-Man, Down a Dark Stairwell)
  • Victoria Chalk, Editor (Call Her Ganda, A Woman’s Work, Asian Americans)
  • Violeta Ayala (The Fight)
  • Yance Ford, Filmmaker, Former Series Producer, POV (2002-2012)
  • Yoruba Richen (How it Feels to Be Free, The New Black, Promised Land)
  • Yu Gu (Who is Arthur Chu?, A Woman’s Work: The NFL’s Cheerleader Problem)
  • Yung Chang (Up the Yangtze, Pandemic19)

  • Charles Cabell, Associate Professor, Toyo University
  • Alfredowag AlfredowagSB
  • Luisa Betancur, Cinematographer (Prom Time! , Sempiterno, A Beautiful Presence)
  • John Haas, Siklab Media (Liwanag)
  • Tien Nguyen, Journalist, Writer, Producer (Historian's Take)
  • Jayson Johnson, Director, Strike Five Films (Redress, All Who Are Weary, T.H.O.T?)
  • Giona Jefferson, Producer (Harry and Meghan, Children of the Underground, The Innocence Files )
  • Fred Wong
  • Andrea Meller, Filmmaker (Now En Español, Hotel USA)
  • Andre Perez, Producer & Social Impact Producer (America in Transition, A Run for More, and Desire Lines)
  • Sonali Gulati, Director (I Am, Nalini by Day Nancy by Night)
  • ALISON SOTOMAYOR, Independent documentary filmmaker (The Rise and Fall of the Brown Buffalo, PBS; Bridging the Divide: Tom Bradley and the Politics of Race, PBS; The New Los Angeles, PBS.)
  • Jasmine Szympruch, Filmmaker (Black & Blues: The Colorful Ballad of Louis Armstrong ; The Irregulars Collective)
  • Judy Korin, Producer (The Great Hack, Rebel Hearts)
  • Catherine Herrera, Director (Transition, Witness the Healing, Bridge Walkers)
  • Lisa Remington, Producer (The Price of Everything, Foster, Feminists: What Were They Thinking? )
  • Elease Stemp, Producer (Asian Americans (PBS))
  • Soumyaa Behrens, SFSU/DocFilm Institute
  • Erica Køhn, Filmaker, Artistic Director ((Goonda, Family Stones))
  • Mamta Trivedi, Co-Executive Producer, Producer (People Vs. The Klan (CNN), Why We Fight, with Cat Zingano (ESPN), TRVLR (YouTube, Discovery))
  • Yuta Yamaguchi, Filmmaker (Until We Could, Maude, Jazz Abroad)
  • Bryan Chang, Meerkat Media (Brasslands, Island Soldier, Narco Cultura)
  • Ira Mckinley, Social Change in Mind Productions (The Throwaways, Outta the Muck)
  • Tammy Chu, Filmmaker ((Asian Americans, Resilience))
  • Karin Lowenthal, Physician Assistant Neurosurgery
  • C. A. Griffith, Filmmaker (Mountains That Take Wing—Angela Davis & Yuri Kochiyama/Del Otro Lado)
  • C.A. Griffith, Filmmaker
  • Ellen Guettler, Independent Communications Strategist
  • Kristina Dugan, Associate Director of Major and Planned Giving
  • Tim J. Lim, Director / Editor (JERKY, STUCK, Proud in the Pandemic (Assistant Editor))
  • June Nho Ivers, Producer (Since I Been Down)
  • Adam Taub, Distortions Filmmaker (Juana y Cande, La Quinceañera, El Duque de la Bachata)
  • Paul Mailman, cinematographer (Diana Kennedy: Nothing Fancy, The Rachel Divide, Easy Riders Raging Bulls)
  • Gita Saedi Kiely, Director, FilmAid (The New Americans, Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, ITVS Board)
  • Elizabeth Ai, Director/Producer (New Wave, A Woman's Work: The NFL's Cheerleader Problem, Dirty Hands: The Art & Crimes of David Choe)
  • Ken Jacobson, Documentary Programmer
  • Connie Lim, Singer / Songwriter
  • Lourdes Portillo, Filmaker (The mothers of Plaza de Mayo, the devil never sleeps, Señorita extraviada)
  • Karen Rodriguez, WIND-UP PICTURES LLC (Elizabeth Bishop and the Art of Losing)
  • Samantha Guzman, Editor
  • Franc Gabriel Contreras
  • Matt Liang, Harvard TH CHan School of Public Health
  • Nasreen Alkhateeb, Director (Heartbeat of a Movement, Touching Fire, Star Climbing)
  • Fay Darmawi, SF Urban Film Fest
  • Angela Carroll, Producer (The Free World, Beneath the Blue and Toymakerz)
  • Milton Liu, Writer/Producer/Director (Awesome Asian Bad Guys, I Hate Big Phony, Lucky Grandma)
  • Julie Ha
  • Eugene Yi
  • Collette Watson, Director, Black River Life Studios
  • Collette Watson, Director
  • Hannah Ayers, Field Studio (An Outrage, How the Monuments Came Down)
  • Timothy Wilson, FILM DIRECTOR, PARADIGM 3I SOLUTIONS (LEFT EYE RIGHT FINGER (TM))
  • Andrea Leoncavallo, Producer, Director, Photographer
  • Alyce Myatt, Consultant, Media + Philanthropy
  • Denae Peters, Perspective Fund
  • John Webb, Producer/Direoctor (halflifeofgenius.com - "The Half-Life of Genius")
  • Cal Roberts
  • Helen Redmond, Filmmaker ((Liquid Handcuffs: A Documentary to Free Methadone))
  • C’vonzell Dondrico, Executive Impact Producer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0u142RjbAw)
  • Mobolaji Olambiwonnu, Producer/Director (Ferguson Rises)
  • Clare Nolan, shake media
  • Jason Osder, Filmmaker and Educator (Let the Fire Burn )
  • Lydia Hsu
  • Emi Jackson
  • Carly Sharp
  • Shanida Scotland, Doc Society
  • Dean Eaton
  • Anna Roy, Labor (N/A)
  • Innbo Shim, Producer, Executive Producer (AMEND: The Fight for America (Netflix), When Lambs Become Lions, )
  • Corey Ohama, Editor
  • Michael Kinomoto
  • Christin Meador, Lexicon Media Productions
  • Ivan Jaigirdar, Executive Director (3rd i South Asian Films)
  • Arthur Balder, Filmmaker, producer, screenwriter ("American Mirror: Intimations of Immortality" "Little Spain: A Century of History")
  • May Ying Welsh, Filmmaker
  • Cyrille Phipps, Phipps
  • Paul Marszalek, Global Media Executive
  • Cindy (Sang Yi) Choung, Chicken & Egg Pictures
  • Zoe Stahl, ITVS
  • Courtney Cook, POV/American Documentary
  • Rachel Friedland, American Documentary
  • Justine Nagan, American Documentary/POV & America ReFramed
  • Chris White, American Documentary | POV
  • Marcia Jarmel, PatchWorks Films (Speaking in Tongues, Los Hermanos/The Brothers)
  • Emily Cohen Ibañez, Director/Producer/Cinematographer/Writer (Fruits of Labor)
  • Cassandra Herrman, Filmmaker
  • Najma Nuriddin, Filmmaker (Not in My Neighbourhood)
  • Mason Merritt, Publicist
  • Robin Hayes, Filmmaker (Black and Cuba)
  • Tamara Perkins, Apple of Discord Productions, LLC (Life After Life)
  • Lance Kramer, Producer, Meridian Hill Pictures (City of Trees)
  • Ian Kibbe, Producer, Creative Director
  • Mark Kitchell, Producer/director/writer (Berkeley in the Sixties; A Fierce Green Fire; Evolution of Organic)
  • Annie Roney, CEO (Picture a Scientist, Human Nature, Never Too Late:the Doc Severinsen Story)
  • Erica Taylor, Filmmaker, Producer (The Invisible Vegan, Unsung Hollywood)
  • Lindsey Megrue, Producer (This is Home, Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies, American Experience )
  • Risa Morimoto, Filmmaker (Wings of Defeat)
  • Mina T. Son, Director/Producer (Top Spin)
  • Andrea Mather
  • Rebecca Sosa, Distribution & Impact Strategist
  • Alessandra Pasquino, Producer - GroundStormMedia.com (Bad Reputation -Superpower Dogs - Comandante )
  • Rebecca Blumhagen, Producer/Director
  • Steffie van Rhee, Producer
  • Hyun Mi Oh, Writer
  • Helen Lee, Producer/Writer (Intervention, Warriors of Liberty City)
  • Steven Fischler, Pacific Street Films (partner -- Joel Sucher -- wrote this about Ken Burns.https://observer.com/2016/08/chronically-overrated-the-ken-burns-effect/)
  • Joel Sucher, Pacific Street Films (From Swastika to Jim Crow (PBS))
  • Shara Lange, Professor & Filmmaker (Banjo Romantika, The Way North)
  • Andrea Bloom, Senior Creative Producer
  • Amy Geller, Producer/Director, AG Films (The Rabbi Goest West, The Guys Next Door, For the Love of Movies)
  • Laj P.Waghray, Red Crane Films (Together, alone, On Hands )
  • Kim Eldon, Filmmaker
  • Ryon Lane, Filmmaker (Homeless Talent, The Wisdom of Trauma, Bleeding Audio)
  • Elise Jaffe, Executive Producer and Director (UnScarred)
  • Veronique Bernard, Producer (The People vs. Agent Orange)
  • Richard Kaplan, video engineer (The Sidewalk Sector, Little Speckled Bird, Brother Red)
  • Donald Osgood Sr , Senior Program Manager
  • Rayna Wang, Social worker
  • Veronique Doumbe, Director-editor (Denis A. Charles " : an interrupted conversation )
  • Chantal Danh
  • Margaret Byrne (Any Given Day, Raising Bertie)
  • Dana Forsberg
  • J. Antonio Vincenty, Lawyer
  • Julie Rosenberg
  • Dan Albright, Producer
  • Harold Sealls, Announcer (Amistad)
  • ABBY SHUMAN, Producer
  • Patricia OBrien
  • allison monro, Marketing
  • Carly Nelson Marcoe, ITVS (In Football We Trust, The Judge, Belly of the Beast)
  • Rea Tajiri, Director/Producer (History and Memory; Strawberry Fields; Wisdom Gone wild)
  • Jin Yoo-Kim, Documentary Producer/Impact Producer (Manzanar, Diverted: When Water Becomes Dust, A Woman's Work: The NFL's Cheerleader Problem)
  • Daniel Mayeda, Assoc Director, UCLA DocFilmLegalClinic
  • Jyoti Sarda, Producer (And She Could Be Next)
  • Amy Martinez, Documentary Filmmaker
  • Ani Mercedes, Looky Looky Pictures
  • Abby Ginzberg, Documentary Filmmaker (Barbara Lee: Speaking Truth to Power; Waging Change; Soft Vengeance:Albie Sachs and the New South Africa)
  • Erica Moriconi, Animator
  • Silvia Reveles-Scheller, Viewer discussed with PBS Ken Bern's White Story-teller Infatuation
  • Nick Paleveda, CEO (IBMTV)
  • Jennifer Boles, Filmmaker
  • Renee Ya, Product Manager
  • Lydia Green
  • Anne U Jackson, research associate
  • Tymberly Canale, Arts Administrator
  • Grace Wu
  • Maria Fortiz-Morse, Director, Producer, DP
  • Lisa Simmons, ROXFILM (Roxbury International Film Festival)
  • James Rutenbeck, Direc (A Reckoning in Boston)
  • Christie Herring, Filmmaker (The Campaign)
  • Sarah Adina Smith, Everything is Everything (Buster's Mal Heart, Birds of Paradise, The Midnight Swim)
  • Jared Lorenz, Camera Person & Filmmaker
  • Lauren Kinsler, Filmmaker
  • Gen Carmel, LEF Foundation
  • Kristy Salsbury
  • Luchina Fisher, Filmmaker (Mama Gloria)
  • Pascal DuBois
  • lillian benson, Editor (Eyes on the Prize II, We Shall Remain-Wounded Knee, And Still I Rise-Maya Angelou,)
  • Sandra Christie, Editor (Twenty Pearls)
  • Jennifer Huang, Director of Treeclimber Media (This Adventure Called California, The Long Rescue, Standing on Sacred Ground)
  • Kate Losey
  • Sabine Krayenbuhl Saunders, Director/Editor (Letters From Baghdad, My Architect, Mad Hot Ballroom, The Price of Everything, The Bridge)
  • Sue Williams, Ambrica Productions (Eleanor Roosevelt, Death by Design, Denise Ho- Becoming the Song)
  • Alina Hsu, small business owner
  • Aryana Alexis Anderson, Producer
  • Joel Neville Anderson, Visiting Assistant Professor of Cinema Studies and Film, Purchase College, SUNY
  • Prudence Arndt, Archive Producer (I Am Not Your Negro; Jay Myself; American Kings)
  • Alaina McManus, Camera Assistant (Better Things, Grays Anatomy, crank Yankers)
  • Sara Archambault, Producer (Street Fighting Men, Truth or Consequences)
  • Mimi Phan, Camera Assistant
  • Bryce Renninger, Producer
  • Sue Ding, Director
  • Sandrine Isambert, Editor
  • Raquel Chapa, Dallas VideoFest
  • Kristen Nutile, Filmmaker, Editor (Pleasure of Stillness)
  • Suzannah Herbert, --None-- (Wrestle)
  • Stephen Robert Morse, Managing Director/Producer/Director (Amanda Knox, In The Cold Dark Night, Bad Hombres)
  • Taylor Hom, Producer
  • Meredith Chin, Producer
  • Sarah Khan
  • Faye Ginsburg, Director, NYU Center for Media, Culture and History
  • Pegi Vail, filmmaker, anthropologist NYU
  • Kate Hurwitz, Manager
  • Anthony Galloway, Art teacher
  • Colette Sandstedt, Producer (Walk Run Cha-Cha)
  • Perla de Leom, Photographer/video Editor (The National Memorial for Peace and Justice (short))
  • Josh Welsh, Film Independent
  • Lauren Kushner, Early Bird Films
  • Lisa Hasko, Director, Artist Development, Film Independent
  • Jenny Slattery, Early Bird Films
  • Maria Raquel Bozzi, Senior Director of Education and International Initiatives
  • Xan Aranda (My Love, Andrew Bird: Fever Year, Milking the Rhino)
  • Colin Nusbaum, Editor (Two Gods, The Unafraid, Tough Love)
  • Florencia Varela, Senior Film Campaigns Manager (Knock Down the House, Women War & Peace II)
  • Sean Weiner, Jacob Burns Film Center
  • Calvin Skaggs, Filmmaker (With God on Our Side, Democracy on Deadline, A Road to Home)
  • Martha Shane, Filmmaker
  • Alyssa Soetebier, Creative producer
  • Kaitlyn Hamby, Peace is Loud (Women, War & Peace)
  • Ben-Alex Dupris, Filmmaker (Sweetheart Dancers, Bunky Echo-Hawk: The Resistance)
  • Laura Varela, Producer/Director (As Long as I Remember: American Veteranos. American Sons)
  • Michael Taylor, Editor (The Farewell, The Order of Myths)
  • Krishan Arora, Producer
  • Zachary Miller, Filmmaker (Jazz Life; American Jazz Musicians in Europe, A Cry From Within, Fade to Black)
  • May Yam, Director / Editor May Yam Studios, LLC (Xmas Cake, Headwind)
  • Chiemi Karasawa, Producer (Amazing Grace, AKA Jane Roe, The Betrayal: Nerakhoon)
  • Lindy Leong, Film & Media Educator, Programmer, Academic-Archivist
  • Terri Freedman , Craft Services Business Owner
  • Mark Becker, Director/ Editor (Romántico, Art and Craft)
  • Leah Meyerhoff, Founder, Film Fatales
  • Char Ghivaan, HUMAN RELATIONS EDUCATOR
  • Kristin Feeley, Sundance Institute
  • Cheryl Furjanic, Director/Producer (Stonewall: The Making of a Monument, Back on Board: Greg Louganis, Sync or Swim)
  • Jessica Kingdon, filmmaker (Ascension, Commodity City)
  • Jasmin Mara López, Filmmaker (Silent Beauty)
  • Emma Miller, Filmmaker & Creative Executive
  • Todd Chandler, filmmaker (Bulletproof)
  • Stephanie Palumbo, Director of Film Campaigns, Peace is Loud (Knock Down the House, The Hunting Ground)
  • Charlie Olsky, Cinetic Marketing
  • Hollis Meminger, CINEMATOGRAPHER
  • Irene Yadao, Co-producer, director, editor
  • Brad Lichtenstein, 371 Productions
  • Olivia Cucinotta, Associate Producer (PBS American Portrait)
  • Myrton Running Wolf, Sacinaw Films & Assistant Professor of Race and Media ("The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", "The New World", "Into the West")
  • Sara Terry, Documentary film director (A Decent Home, Fambul Tok, FOLK)
  • Mridu Chandra (Ask the Sexpert, Cured)
  • Karin Chien, Producer
  • Gordon Quinn, Kartemquin Films
  • Cionin Lorenzo, Director/Producer (On Three Wheels)
  • Jamie Meltzer, Filmmaker/ Professor (True Conviction, Huntsville Station)
  • Lana Garland, Insibah Media (The Passing On documentary. Hayti Heritage Film Festival.)
  • Bobbi Jo Hart, Documentary filmmaker (Fanny: The Right To Rock, Rebels On Pointe, I Am Not A Rock Star)
  • Michelle Ngo, Producer Editor (American Portrait, The Betrayal-Nerakhoon, End of America)
  • Katia Maguire, Filmmaker (Home Truth)
  • Kavery Kaul, Filmmaker (The Bengali, Cuban Canvas)
  • Nathan Truesdell, Director/DP/Editor
  • Howard Gertler, Producer (How to Survive a Plague, Crip Camp)
  • Morgan Hulquist
  • Adam Forrester (Eat White Dirt, Some Million Miles)
  • john edginton, Producer/Director (Joe Cocker: Mad Dof With Soul , Mumia Abu-Jamal:A Case for Reasonable Doubt, Chappaquiddick)
  • Daresha Kyi, Writer/Producer/DIrecto (CHAVELA, TRANS IN AMERICA, MAMA BEARS)
  • Tiffany Williams , Librarian
  • DEBORAH RILEY DRAPER, filmmaker
  • Anjanette Levert, Filmmaker (The Documentary Forum@CCNY, Spelman College Documentary Film Program)
  • Sarah Cummings
  • Maria Soccor, Filmmaker (Lords of BSV, Kicks)
  • Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, Kanaka Pakipika (A Place in the Middle, The Rogers, Kapaemahu)
  • Connor Seitchik, Filmmaker (PBS American Portrait)
  • Sylva Menard
  • Emily Chapman, Director / Producer (Oklahoma City, who killed Malcolm x, FIASCO)
  • Stacy Goldate, Editor (Disclosure, hillbilly)
  • Rose Tang, journalist, event curator
  • Nichole Sutherland
  • Austin Basis, Actor
  • Ailsa and Kate Hermann-Wu
  • Greg Pak, Writer and filmmaker
  • Matthew O. Henderson, Producer
  • Susie Pak, Associate professor
  • Sunita Prasad, Editor (93Queen, Women in Blue, Korea: The Never-Ending War)
  • Michele D'Acosta, Documentary Filmmaker/Producer (Biggie and Tupac, Kurt & Courtney, Fetishes )
  • Sue Kim, Director & Producer (The Speed Cubers)
  • Neyda Martinez, Producer + Associate Professor, The School of Media Studies (Decade of Fire; LUCKY; Acuitzeramo)
  • Mabel Valdiviezo, Filmmaker, Haiku Films
  • Kateri Lirio, Music Teaching Artist
  • Ja’Tovia Gary, Filmmaker (An Ecstatic Experience, The Giverny Document)
  • Susan Margolin, St. Marks Productions (The Rape of Recy Taylor, A Crime On The Bayou, Paper Children)
  • Christina Suh, Management consultant
  • Da Hee Kim, Filmmaker (Big Happiness)
  • Lisa Durden, Filmmaker (Soul Food Junkies, Brick City 5 Part Docuseries, AfroPoP Series Season 8)
  • Antonio Rossi, Director of Photography (Reconstruction, The Clinton Affair, Before the Flood)
  • Yuki Aizawa, Editor (Bending the Arc)
  • Asadullah Muhammad, POV
  • Dr. Arcelia Gutierrez, Assistant Professor of Latinx Studies
  • Endia Jones, Educator
  • Alex Keipper, Editor (Asian Americans, Totally Under Control)
  • Vincent Taylor , Producer director owner of the VRTmedia (Eye on diversity )
  • Nico Opper, Filmmaker (Off and Running, The F Word, Try Harder!)
  • Sean Flynn, Points North Institute
  • rea tajiri, director, producer, educator (history and memory, strawberry fields ( itvs 1993 funded) , Wisdom Gone Wild- (itvs ddf, CAAM funded))
  • Jennie Amias, Head of Production (Unscripted) (No End In Sight, The Armstrong Lie, Basketball: A Love Story )
  • Emmanuelle Wiecha, Series Producer
  • Martha Spanninger , Producer (America by the Numbers, Family Pictures USA, Now on PBS)
  • Robin Washington , Executive Producer; Trains Planes & Automobiles LLC (You Don’t Have to Ride Jim Crow! (American Public Television); Vermont: The Whitest State in the Union (GBH))
  • Dean Hamer, Qwaves (Kumu Hina, Leitis in Waiting, Kapaemahu)
  • asha stuart, Freelance
  • Mitch McCabe , Filmmaker, professor (Civil War Surveillance Poems, Youth Knows No Pain)
  • Alice Quinlan, Red Owl
  • Mark Carreno, Executive Producer (Vistas, Latino's in Hollywood & Interview with...Rita Moreno )
  • Joan Churchill (Lily Tomlin, Sodier Girls, Tattooed Tears, Bedlam)
  • Deborah Shaffer, Director/Producer (Queen of Hearts: Audrey Flack; Witness to War; The Wobblies)
  • Margaret Chin, Professor
  • Jean Kawahara, Editor (Belly of the Beast; T-Rex: Her Fight for Gold; Of Civil Wrongs and Rights)
  • Pamela Tom, filmmaker (Tyrus, Finding Home: A Foster Youth Story)
  • Shipra Shukla, documentary filmmaker (Life Before the Lifeboat, San Francisco's Courageous Response to the AIDS Outbreak)
  • Alysa Nahmias, Ajna Films, FWD-Doc (Unfinished Spaces, Unrest)
  • Shanna Kiesz
  • Joe Wilson, Filmmaker (Kumu Hina, Leitis in Waiting, Kapaemahu)
  • Indira Somani, Howard University, UCLA (Life on the Ganges, Crossing Lines)
  • Patrick Shen, Filmmaker (In Pursuit of Silence, The Philosopher Kings)
  • Nina Gilden Seavey, Director (A Paralyzing Fear, The Ballad of Bering Strait, Parables of War )
  • Lagueria Davis, Filmmaker (Black Barbie: A Documentary)
  • Tim Horsburgh, Director of Film Strategy, Kartemquin Films
  • Kyle Henry, Filmmaker, Editor, Professor (Editor, Before You Know It; Director, Fourplay and Rogers Park)
  • Kira Simon-Kennedy, Nonprofit Director, China Residencies ( )
  • Meghan O'Hara, Documentary Filmmaker, Film Professor (In Country, The Field Trip)
  • Jim LeBrecht, Filmmaker, FWD-Doc (Crip Camp)
  • Alison Sotomayor , Documentary Producer (The Rise and Fall of the Brown Buffalo, Bridging the divide: Tom Bradley and the Politics of Race, Tom Bradley ‘s Impossible Dream)
  • Michael Vargas, Friends We Love
  • Fenell Doremus, Producer (COOKED: Survival by Zip Code, ABACUS: Small Enough to Jail)
  • Sushmita Hodges, Educator/historian
  • Kendall Moore, Professor
  • Corinne Manabat Cueva, Filmmaker (Why We Rise, Synchronized)
  • Emily Abi-Kheirs, Women Make Movies
  • Debra Zimmerman, Women Make Movies
  • Jennifer Baumstein, Former Director of Education and Community Engagement at WMHT Public Media
  • Hannah Choe, Associate Editor (Dark Money, Geographies of Kinship, I’m Not Going to Change 400 Years in Four)
  • Moni Vargas, Director / Producer (Friends We Love / Red Table Talk / Our Stories in Vivid Color )
  • Lina Srivastava, Founder, CIEL
  • Ameena Din (Finance & Accounting Consultant)
  • blair doroshwalther (Out In The Night)
  • Antonia Carew-Watts, Counsel
  • Becca Bender, Archivist/Archival Producer (Black America Since MLK, Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies)
  • Anna Sang Park, Filmmaker (Legacy Leaders of Color Video Project, The Loving Story)
  • B. Rich, Media, Design - Isthmus Films (Musher, Preserves, counter//balance)
  • Gerald Smith, GW Smith & Associates (A MostBeautiful Thing)
  • Larissa Lam, Director (Far East Deep South)
  • David Grabias, Director (SENTENCED HOME, OPERATION POPCORN, LUSOFORNIA )
  • Laila Kazmi, Director, Kazbar Media (Borders & Heritage (PBS.org); Reaching New Heights (frkdocumentary.com - in production))
  • Roselly Torres, Film Distribution
  • Larilyn Sanchez
  • Ira Mckinley, Social Change in Mind Productions (Outta the Muck)
  • Jamie Boyle, Director, Editor (Jackson, Trans In America: Texas Strong)
  • Shilpa Kunnappillil , Filmmaker, Editor
  • Seyi Adebanjo, Filmmaker, Director (Oya: Something Happened on the Way to West Africa, Honor Black Trans Womxn! Trans Lives Matter: Justice for Islan Nettles!)
  • Alex Stapleton, Director (Shut Up and Dribble, Corman’s World, Hello Privilege. It’s Me, Chelsea.)
  • Jess Kwan
  • Margo Guernsey, Director (Councilwoman )
  • Amy Hill, Actor /writer/director (A Language of Her Own, co-produced with Steven Okazaki )
  • Carl Deal, Independent Filmmaker (Trouble the Water, Citizen Koch, Where to Invade Next.)
  • Tony Gerber, President, Market Road Films (Kingdom of the White Wolf (Disney +), We Will Rise (CNN), The Notorious Mr Bout (BBC Storyville))
  • Tia Lessin, Filmmaker (Trouble the Water, Citizen Koch, Fahrenheit 9/11)
  • Karim Ahmad, Writer, Cultural Strategist, Director of Outreach & Inclusion at Sundance Institute
  • Shawn Cuddy, Executive Producer, Zero Point Zero
  • Francis Cullado, Visual Communications Media
  • Paul Espinosa, Espinosa Productions (California & the American Dream, The Lemon Grove Incident, The Hunt for Pancho Villa)
  • Katerina Cizek, Documentarian (Highrise)
  • Thato Mwosa (Memoirs of a Black Girl)
  • Rebecca Baron, Filmmaker, California Institute of the Arts
  • Walter Gavin, Gavin Media NU World (The Gavin & Lott Show (series) 1982-1985)
  • Taiji Miyagawa, editor
  • Mulu Habtemariam, Producer
  • Laarni Rosca Dacanay, Senior Communications Consultant, Media & Entertainment; Co-Producer, Asian Pacific Filmmakers Experience; Member, Community Advisory Board, Public Media Group of Southern California
  • Sheila Jackson, Writer-Producer
  • Jen Bradwell, Film Editor (Resilience, Waking Dream, MINE: Taken by Katrina)
  • Andre Seewood, Associate Instructor (Time Sphere (Le Chrononaut et la sphere du temps))
  • Yi Chen, Filmmaker (First Vote, Chinatown)
  • steven williams, Kite Flyer Productions
  • Jen Gilomen, Director/Producer, Forward Films, LLC (Deep Down, In My Shoes, Unsettled)
  • Fanny Grande, Avenida Productions LLC. (Our Quinceanera, & Homebound.)
  • Lacy Barnes, Producer (Olympic Pride, American Prejudice; Illegal Rose; Twenty Pearls:The Story of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.)
  • Joanna Rabiger, Grant Writer for Documentary Film (First Vote, Disclosure, Conscience Point)
  • Larurie Sumiye, Filmmaker, Animator (A Paradise Lost)
  • Marina Zenovich, Filmmaker (Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind )
  • John Sankofa, Writer
  • Duy Linh Tu, Professor, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
  • Julie Anderson, Producer (The Talk, (PBS), VICK (ESPN), God Is the Bigger Elvis (HBO)
  • Pam Sporn, Director (Detroit 48202, Making the Impossible Possible, Cuban Roots/Bronx Stories)
  • Eboni Zamani, Film
  • Judy Branfman
  • Erika Cohn (Belly of the Beast, The Judge, In Football We Trust)
  • Brett Schwartz, Director / Producer (Insatiable: The Homaro Cantu Story, Mashed Media)
  • Jenni Olson, Writer-director (The Royal Road, 575 Castro St., The Joy of Life)
  • Larry Adelman, Executive Producer (Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?; Race-The Power of an Illusion; The Raising of America: Early Childhood and the Future of Our Nation)
  • Louise Rosen, Managing Director, Producer (The Endurance, Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison, Prodigal Sons)
  • A.K. Sandhu, Filmmaker, Re–Present Partners
  • Jack Walsh, Director/Producer ((Feelings Are Facts: The Life of Yvonne Rainer, Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton's Cafeteria, Hope along the Wind: The Life of Harry Hay))
  • Doug Block, Copacetic Pictures (51 Birch Street, The Kids Grow Up, 112 Weddings)
  • Paul Dinh, Camera Operator
  • Genevieve Butler
  • Kelly Kowalski, Pajama Girl Productions (Artisodes (PBS-NM), From Curandero to Chupacabra (PBS-NM), Master Positive (STEPS International))
  • Nat Ruiz Tofano, Producer, Programmer, Brown Girls Doc Mafia
  • Laurie Little, Filmmaker (Totalité, Variations, Disability Pride Parade)
  • Judith Helfand , Filmmaker (A Healthy Baby Girl, Blue Vinyl, Cooked: Survival By Zip Code )
  • Craig D’Entrone , Showrunner/Director (PBS American Portrait)
  • Norbert Shieh, Filmmaker
  • Bryan Bowles, President ADS
  • Llew Smith, BlueSpark Collaborative, LLC (Race:The Power of An Illusion)
  • Joe Berlinger, Director/Producer (Paradise Lost; Metallica: Some Kind of Monster; The Ted Bundy Tapes)
  • Flora White, Partnerships / Producer (Inside Carnaval (Nat Geo), Lockdown (Nat Geo), Deadly Devotion (investigation discovery))
  • Kristen Irving-Jordan, Indy Documentary Director
  • Maya Salganek, Associate Professor, University of Alaska Fairbanks (AlaskaLand, We Breathe Again, Molly of Denali,)
  • Gil Seltzer, Editor (TransMilitary, Aggie)
  • M'Daya Meliani, Editor
  • Alfred Seccombe, Granted Media, Inc.
  • Brenda Coughlin, Producer (Dirty Wars, CITIZENFOUR, Risk)
  • Kyle Scoble, freelance camera operator
  • Sharon Wood, Producer, writer (Ai Weiwei: Yours Truly, Paragraph 175)
  • Khaula Malik
  • Nadine Patterson, HipCinema; SIFTMedia 215 Collective (We Are Free Because of Harriet Tubman, Tango Macbeth, Moving with the Dreaming)
  • Jameka Autry, Producer (Through The Night, Ernie & Joe: Crisis Cops)
  • Heidi Lawson, Owner of Town Glow Films
  • Nancy Schwartzman, Director/Producer (Roll Red Roll )
  • Abigail Severance, Dean, CalArts School of Film/Video
  • Madeleine Lim, Executive Director, QWOCMAP (The Worlds of Bernice Bing; Sambal Belacan in San Francisco)
  • Daniel Hart, Co-Director, Native Voices
  • Sarah Wolozin, Director, MIT Open Documentary Lab
  • Meena Nanji, Twende Pictures
  • Patricia Finneran, Story Matters Media
  • Amanda Zinoman, Editor
  • Karen Rodriguez, WIND-UP PICTURES (Elizabeth Bishop and the Art of Losing)
  • Wendy Levy, The Alliance fir Media Arts + Culture (Arts2Work.media)
  • Ruth Leitman, Writer/Director/ Producer (Lipstick & Dynamite, Hard Earned, Alma)
  • Regan Brashear, Filmmaker (FIXED: The Science/Fiction of Human Enhancement)
  • Peter Frumkin, Filmmaker
  • Sheila Curran Bernard, Filmmaker/wruter (Slavery by Another Name, )
  • Jean McGlothlin, Co-Director/Programmer (Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival )
  • Rodrigo Dorfman, Artistic Director (This Taco Truck Kills Fascists)
  • J. Ellen Tripler, Director/Producer (Dying Green, Chaplains ( for PBS) currently working on Downwinders)
  • Emma Lockridge, Environmental Justice Organizer
  • Schuyler Allen, Non-profit
  • Alan Domínguez , Director/Editor (“Beyond Graduation” series)
  • Claude Taylor, Educator: Higher Education
  • Jason Jong
  • Adrienne Choy Cianfrocca
  • Kahlil Williams, Nommo Films
  • Leslie Lee, Producer/director (Working With Weinstein)
  • Julian Cautherley, Producer
  • Princess A. Hairston, Editor, Director
  • Lynne Littman, Director (Number Our Days, In Her Own Time, Testament)
  • Manuel Gutierrez, trophy wife
  • Jacques Morial, Research Producer
  • Immy Humes, Independent filmmaker
  • Marc Perry, Associate Professor of African American Studies
  • Ina Fichman, Producer/Executive Producer Intuitive Pictures inc (The Oslo Diaries, Stray )
  • Aminah Bakeer Abdul-Jabbaar, Director (Bilalian )
  • Sheri Shuster, Independent Director/Producer (Still I Rise)
  • Amy Ferraris, Editor (Try Harder!, Seeking Asian Female, The Grace Lee Project)
  • Luana Ross, Co-Director of Native Voices Documentary Film Program
  • Jeffrey Skoller, Filmmaker & Professor of Film & Media UC Berkeley
  • Chris Renteria, Producer Mooshido Films (Whose Streets? - St. Louis Superman)
  • Luz Zamora, Director (De Colores)
  • Yaasin Hanif, Composer
  • Jeff Seelbach, Producer & Executive (Philly DA, Call Center Blues)
  • Ravi Chandra, Psychiatrist (The Bandaged Place: From AIDS to COVID to Racial Justice)
  • Ben Proudfoot, Director and CEO (A Concerto is a Conversation )
  • joan hall
  • Sabrina Craig , Film programmer, University of Chicago
  • Alethea Arnaquq-Baril, Director and Producer (Angry Inuk)
  • Leslie Ann Epperson, Director Editor (Divine Mission San Xavier del Bac)
  • Vaishali Sinha, Coast to Coast Films LLC (Made in India, Ask the Sexpert )
  • Vivek Bald, Filmmaker, Historian
  • Lailanie Gadia, Producer
  • Siddhartha Banerjee, Writer
  • JOY BELL, NA
  • Brenda Avila-Hanna, Filmmaker (Vida Diferida, Libertad )
  • Ranell Shubert
  • Veena Rao, Filmmaker
  • Thuy Tran
  • Lance Warren, Field Studio ("An Outrage," "How the Monuments Came Down")
  • Brent Huffman, Director (Saving Mes Aynak, Finding Yingying)
  • Cornelius Moore, California Newsreel
  • Arlene Yu
  • Mae Mehra, Producer
  • Cindy Burstein, Filmmaker/Educator
  • Gingger Shankar, Producer/Composer (Passion of the Christ, We Will Rise, And She Could Be Next )
  • Sabrina Aviles, Boston Latino International Film Festival
  • Lisa Atkinson
  • Jamie Dobie, Impact Producer (Knock Down the House, The Hunting Ground, Armor of Light)
  • Bryan Chang, Producer & Editor, Meerkat Media (Island Soldier, Brasslands, Dark Money)
  • Tom Davis, Producer (Breaking a Monster, Darkon)
  • HENRY NAM, IT DIRECTOR
  • Theresa Navarro, American Documentary (9-Man, From Here, POV)
  • Susan Cohen, Retired
  • Kevin Shaw, Director/Director of Photography
  • Kathryn Galan, Wynnpix Productions (The Midnight Ride of Jonathan Luna)
  • Samara Chadwick
  • Yael Swerdlow , CEO/Founder Maestro Games, SPC
  • Erica Ginsberg, Co-Host, The D-Word; Co-Founder, Docs In Progress
  • Anna Barsan, Filmmaker (Libre)
  • Sonali Gulati, Director/Producer (Nalini by Day Nancy by Night, I Am)
  • Sonia Kennebeck, Director (National Bird, Enemies of the State, United States vs. Reality Winner)
  • Giovanna Chesler, Director / Producer / Professor ((Out in the Night, Period: The End of Menstruation))
  • Su Kim, Producer (Midnight Traveler, Hale County This Morning, This Evening)
  • Nicole Franklin, EPIPHANY Inc. (Gershwin & Bess: A Dialogue with Anne Brown, Journeys In Black: The Jamie Foxx Biography, The Double Dutch Divas!)
  • Desha Dauchan, Filmmaker/Faculty, UC Irvine Department of Film & Media Studies
  • Li Lu, Director/Producer (A Town Called Victoria, The Resident, There is a New World Somewhere)
  • Alberto Barboza, Director - Writer (Cry Now)
  • Miriam Pensack, Journalist
  • Erick Stoll
  • Tracie Holder, Means of Production Films (Joe Papp in Five Acts (American Masters), Grit (POV))
  • Bonnie Abaunza, Abaunza Group - Social Impact Producer
  • Ali Moss , Producer (Fauci, Not Done: Women Remaking America, Yusuf Hawkins: Storm Over Brooklyn)
  • Conall Jones, Producer (Worn Stories, Fahrenheit 11/9 & Super Size Me 2)
  • Maria Pena , Cultural Anthropologist Oral Historian
  • Nick Capezzera, Director (Universe)
  • Laura Gomez-Mesquita, Kartemquin Films
  • Laura Flanders, Executive Director/ Host (Curious Communications/The Laura Flanders Show)
  • Nora Wilkinson, Documentary Producer & Researcher
  • Alexandra Codina, Director & Producer (Monica & David, Paper Children)
  • Susan Ivers
  • Dawn Valadez , Director, producer, writer (The Pushouts (2018), Going on 13 (2008))
  • Amelia Hanibelsz, Documentary Filmmaker (Series for VICE, DISCOVERY , NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC )
  • Lauren Wimbush (Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool)
  • Nicole Docta (The Judge, Belly of the Beast, Through the Night)
  • Rodrigo Reyes, Director, Producer (Sansón and Me (2022), 499, Lupe Under the Sun)
  • Heather Courtney, Director/Professor (Where Soldiers Come From, The Unafraid, Los Trabajadores)
  • Mylène Moreno, filmmaker
  • Laura Dyan Kezman, Director, LionArt Media
  • Jon Osaki, Director (ALTERNATIVE FACTS:: The Lies of Executive Order 9066)
  • Lisa N. , Artist
  • Pearl Jr, Owner Elbow Grease Productions (Michael Jackson Alive Docu-series )
  • Shuling Yong, Location Sound Mixer, Cinematographer, Filmmaker (Becoming, The Feeling of Being Watched, And She Could Be Next)
  • Kelly Whalen , Director (Tulia, Texas )
  • David O'Shields, David O'Shields Film (America's Lost Landscape; RISE Project; Southern Like Me)
  • Darius Clark Monroe , Director
  • Tanya Steele, TV Writer
  • Pallavi Somusetty, Director DP, Chandi Films (Escaping Agra)
  • Andrew Catauro, Program officer (Perspective Fund)
  • Heather Richey
  • Sharon Sebastian, Independent content creator
  • Helen Machuga
  • Brad Bennett, Producer (Forgive-Don’t Forget, Unmarked)
  • Ann Brummitt
  • Jackie Weissman, Oregon Media Lab (Rock N Roll Mamas, The Gorilla and the Piker)
  • Laryssa Payne
  • Simone Fary, Director/Co-producer (Sensei Fran Kicks Ass, American Feud: A History of Conservatives and Liberals, Confounding Father: A Contrarian View of the U.S. Constitution)
  • Lan Nguyen, Filmmaker, Educator, Community Organizer (Fighting For Family)
  • Kristie Wang
  • Jon Lanthier, Filmmaker (What Should I Put in My Coffee?)
  • Megha Agrawal Sood, Doc Society
  • Sachi Cunningham, Director/Producer/DP and Associate Professor, SFSU (CRUTCH, The Memory of Fish, SheChange)
  • Trevite Willis, Producer, Southern Fried Filmworks
  • Dacia Mitchell, Director, Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
  • Maxyne Franklin, Doc Society
  • Inney Prakash, Film curator
  • Julia Bacha, Director (Budrus, Naila and the Uprising)
  • John Grabowska, Filmmaker (The Ends of the Earth)
  • Anand Kamalakar, Director/Editor (Salam, Holy Unholy River, Garwin)
  • Maori Karmael Holmes, Filmmaker & Artistic Director, BlackStar Projects (Scene Not Heard: Women in Philadelphia Hip-Hop)
  • Yvette Torres
  • Adam Mazo, Filmmaker (DAWNLAND)
  • David C Jones, Cinematographer (Flint, Notown )
  • Ines Hofmann Kanna, Producer (National Bird, Landfall)
  • Netsanet Negussie, Producer, Catalyst Films (I Am Not Going to Change 400 Years in Four )
  • Alleen Brown, Reporter, The Intercept
  • Ligaiya Romero, Director, Producer, Editor (Maia Cruz Palileo: Becoming the Moon (For the American Masters & Firelight Media series, “In the Making”)
  • Edwin Perez Osuna, Editor (We Are Witnesses: Chicago)
  • Eurie Chung, Producer (Asian Americans)
  • Katerina Cizek, Documentarian ((Highrise))
  • Jody Mier
  • Hima B., filmmaker (How Do You Tell Somebody That You're HIV+?)
  • TJ Martin, Director/Editor (Tina, LA92, Undefeated )
  • Michaelle McGaraghan, Editor (The Lonely Child, Always in Season)
  • Suad Bushnaq , Film music composer (Hockey Mom, Twice Upon a Time, At Home with the Horses)
  • Robert Salyer, POV
  • Maria Finitzo, Director/Producer/Writer (5 Girls, Terra Incognita/ The Dilemma of Desire)
  • Aqiyla Thomas, POV
  • Sergio Rapu, Filmmaker (Eating Up Easter)
  • Jeff Malmberg, Director (Marwencol, Spettacolo)
  • Nicky Cook, POV
  • Kenney Carl, Producer Black Pearl Media Works
  • Tina DiFeliciantonio, Director, Producer, DP (GIRLS LIKE US, Emmy and Sundance Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary)
  • Chris Shellen, Filmmaker / Producer (Marwencol, Spettacolo)
  • Andrès Arias, Editor
  • Yoni Brook, Filmmaker (Philly D.A., A Son's Sacrifice)
  • Melissa Silverstein, Founder
  • Veronica Ramirez
  • Dana Merwin, International Documentary Association
  • Faisal Azam, Editor / Screenwriter (St. Louis Superman, Ferguson Rises, Dan Rather Reports)
  • TJ collins Collins, Director/ producer (Willets Point and Eli Moran)
  • Carla Gutierrez, Editor (RBG)
  • Don Bernier, Documentary Editor (Athlete A, Always in Season, Charm City, Audrie & Daisy, The Genius of Marian)
  • Franc Gabriel Contreras, Documentary filmmaker (The Plume: Who Contaminated Our Desert Aquifer)
  • Chelsea Hernandez, Director, Producer (Building the American Dream)
  • Michael Bonfiglio, Filmmaker (Patrice O'Neal: Killing Is Easy, May It Last: A Portrait of the Avett Brothers)
  • Stephanie Andreou, Editor
  • Rick Prelinger, Professor, Film & Digital Media, UC Santa Cruz and Founder, Prelinger Archives
  • Maggie Bowman, International Documentary Association (We are Witnesses: Chicago, Election Day)
  • Beverly Singer , Filmmaker, researcher
  • David Teague, Editor ((Cutie and the Boxer, Life Animated, The Departure))
  • Nicole Newnham, filmmaker
  • Thanh Tan
  • Julie Wyman ((STRONG!))
  • Lyn Goldfarb, lyn goldfarb productions, inc. (Bridging the Divide: Tom Bradley and the Politics of Race, The New Los Angeles, With Babies and Banners)
  • Iliana Hagenah, Producer (AJ+, Mama Gloria)
  • Dircelene Torres, Writer/producer
  • Pearl Park, Filmmaker
  • Erin Ploss-Campoamor , Producer (Las Marthas)
  • Carol Bash, Paradox Films (Mary Lou Williams: The Lady Who Swings the Band )
  • Hillary Bachelder, Director (Represent)
  • Cristina Kotz Cornejo, Filmmaker (3 Américas )
  • Dante James, Independent Filmmaker, Black Pearl Media Works (Slavery and the Making of America, Harlem in Montmartre, This Far by Faith)
  • Anuradha Rana, Isthmus Films (Counter//Balance, Preserves, Language of Opportunity)
  • Garland Mclaurin, Filmmaker (180 Days A Year Inside An American High school, Pops , 180 Days Hartsville )
  • Randall MacLowry, Filmmaker (Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart, American Oz, Mine Wars)
  • Lakshmi Iyer, Author
  • Kristin Lee Geisler, Business manager
  • Chithra Jeyaram, Director, Editor (Dir Foreign Puzzle; Editor America in Transition series)
  • Luna X Moya, Editor (Shirley Chisholm short on A+E, Cinta Amarilla, and The Rights of Butterflies)
  • Shanon Lee, Writer, Director
  • Lorena Manriquez, Producer, Director (Siqueiros: Walls of Passion, Ulises’ Odyssey, Here I’ll Stay)
  • Matt Cowal, Documentary Publicity
  • Raquel Ortiz, Raquel Ortiz Productions (Mi Puerto Rico-ROP/LaPlaza-WGBH/Realidades/WMET)
  • Rose Arce, Filmmaker (Hungry to Learn, Pandemic in Seattle )
  • Robert Rooy, Producer / Director (DEEJ)
  • Juan Mandelbaum , Producer/Director (Our Disappeared, Caetano in Bahia, Ringl and Pit)
  • Joanna Natasegara, Violet Films (Virunga, White Helmets, Edge of Democracy)
  • Doug Fitzsimmons, Creative Director (Seeds, And She Could Be Next)