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Panel
Seminar

Storytelling Our Way: Filmmakers of Color Forge Their Path

PST

  • Monika Navarro Headshot
    Monika Navarro, Moderator
  • Pallavi Somusetty Headshot
    Pallavi Somusetty, Speaker
  • Zippy Kimundu Headshot
    Zippy Kimundu, Speaker
  • Jude Chehab Headshot
    Jude Chehab, Speaker
Storytelling Our Way Filmmakers of Color Forge Their Path flyer

Filmmakers of color often encounter pushback from the industry around how to tell our stories our way. We are nudged to sacrifice our vision, our creativity, and sometimes even the truth, in the name of commercial viability and mass audience appeal. How can we be supported to tell stories outside of the dominant gaze, if most formative spaces for international artists are trying to make a film “accessible” to a mass audience? How can we create new Global South and diaspora forms for our specific audiences, particularly during a time when resources are scarce and the sustainability of our work is threatened? 

Join moderator Monika Navarro, Senior Director of Artists Programs at Firelight Media, and filmmaker panelists Jude Chehab, director of Q (2023),  Zippy Kimundu, co-director and co-producer of Our Freedom, Our Land (2023), and 2023 IDA Logan Elevate grantee Pallavi Somusetty, as they discuss ways to make room for their storytelling and reimagine their audiences.

If you need any other accommodations or help accessing this event, please get in touch with us at funds@documentary.org by June 25, 2024. We'll do our best to meet all access needs.

Event Participants

    Monika Navarro Headshot

    Monika Navarro

    Monika Navarro is an independent documentary filmmaker and the Senior Director of Artist Programs at Firelight Media, a non-profit supporting non-fiction filmmakers of color. Monika previously was Senior Director of Programs at Tribeca Film Institute, and managed content and funding initiatives at the Independent Television Service (ITVS). Monika has more than a decade of experience producing for public media, from directing her debut film Lost Souls (Animas Perdidas), which chronicled the journey of her uncle, a U.S. military veteran deported to Mexico, and bowed on Independent Lens, to producing for World Channel, American Documentary, the Peabody-award winning PBS series Latino Americans, and most recently (Independent Lens). Monika has served as a mentor for 4th World, Big Sky, Blackstar, CAAM, and the Points North Institute; as a juror for Blackstar and Hot Docs; and serves on the board of the Points North Institute.

    Pallavi Somusetty Headshot

    Pallavi Somusetty

    Pallavi Somusetty is a director, cinematographer, and producer whose documentary portraits center BIPOC voices in the hope that we feel fully seen, exploring intersections of identity and belonging for our communities. She has been a series producer for A-Doc’s Storytelling Initiatives since 2020. Pallavi’s feature debut in progress, Coach Emily, is a 2023 DocLands DocPitch Industry Award Winner, and she is a 2023 IDA Logan Elevate Grantee. Her work has been supported by the IDA, Center for Asian American Media, California Film Institute, The Puffin Foundation, Eddie Bauer, Studio IX Project, Center for Cultural Innovation, and more. Pallavi’s award-winning cinematography has appeared on Nat Geo, PBS, and other media outlets. She holds a documentary-focused Master in Journalism from UC Berkeley and a BA in Creative Writing from UC Santa Cruz. In her spare time, she climbs rocks with her kid, enjoys performing in musical theater, and supports incarcerated pregnant people as a doula.

    Zippy Kimundu Headshot

    Zippy Kimundu

    Zippy is an award-winning Kenyan Filmmaker who has been working in Film/TV for nearly two decades, across continents. She co-directed a short Documentary, a fork, a spoon & a KNIGHT with Mira Nair for Tribeca's Power of Word Series, and was the Assistant Editor on the Disney Film Queen of Katwe. Her latest feature Documentary Our Land, Our Freedom that she co-produced and co-directed, premiered a IDFA last year.

    Zippy holds an MFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and is a Film Educator for under-represented communities, https://www.illtellyoumystory.com. She's also the founder of www.afrofilmsinternational.com, women-led Film and TV Production Company and Collective based in Nairobi and Kilifi, Kenya, working to ignite political consciousness, and action, across continents.

    Jude Chehab Headshot

    Jude Chehab

    Jude Chehab is an award-winning Lebanese-American filmmaker whose cinematic interests have drawn her to the exploration of the esoteric, the spiritual and the unspoken. A richly layered visual and intimate personal shooting style developed under the mentorship of Abbas Kiarostami’s final student group; her work has been awarded fellowships through: CAAM, Points North Institute, Firelight Media and Chicken & Egg. Jude’s first feature documentary, Q, was named one of the best documentaries of 2023 by Vogue Magazine. It was supported by: IDA, ITVS, TFI, and the Sundance Institute and won the Albert Maysles award for Best New Documentary Director at Tribeca and the Grand Jury Award for Best First Feature at Sheffield DocFest. The film won a Cinema Eye Honor and was nominated for two IDA awards. She is part of DOCNYC's '40 under 40' list and Filmmaker Magazine named her one of the 25 New Faces of Independent Film.