Arthur Pratt, Director – Freetown, Sierra Leone 

Arthur V. A Pratt, (Director) is a Sierra Leonean filmmaker, and Pastor based in Freetown, Sierra Leone. He is a co-founder and manager of the Freetown Media Centre program in Sierra Leone (the only film collective in the country) with numerous credits and awards for the films and plays he has produced. Film credits include; CHARITY 2010 (Writer/Director), which received festival awards at the Pan African Film Festival Los Angeles, Semana del Cine Experimental de Madrid, Spain. Survivors (2018 Director and Producer) for which he was nominated for an Emmy. His most recent work is “The New Boat” which he Produced.

Daniel Chien, Filmmaker – Carpinteria, CA

Daniel Chein is an independent filmmaker whose work explores transculturalism and expressions of identity in the performative. His latest short About a Home premiered at the 2021 Slamdance Film Festival and is distributed by Argo. His work has received support from ITVS, the Princess Grace Foundation, BAVC, the Points North Institute, SFFILM, The Flaherty, UnionDocs and the Berkeley Film Foundation. As a lecturer, Daniel has taught courses on cinematography, editing, and documentary filmmaking. He received a BA in Anthropology and an MFA in Cinema from San Francisco State University. He is currently working on his debut feature length documentary.

Emily Abi-Kheirs, Filmmaker services manager, Women Makes Movies – Boston, MA

Emily Abi-Kheirs is a documentary film professional with experience in programming, production, broadcast, educational, and semi-theatrical distribution. She is currently the Manager of Filmmaker Services for Women Make Movies, where she works towards building community and connecting nonfiction women and femme-identifying filmmakers to industry leaders, opportunities, and resources. Prior to WMM, she worked at WORLD Channel in a variety of capacities, including digital content strategy and programming for their award-winning documentary series. As a board member of Women in Film and Video New England, she strives provide educational opportunities and support for members in the region. Emily serves as the Chairwoman of the IDA Documentary Awards’ Best Curated Series jury, is a Programmer for Salem Film Fest, and has previously served on screenings committees for film festivals such as DOC NYC, Hot Springs, amongst others. She recently attended the 67th Flaherty Film Seminar as a LEF New England fellow.

Farid Ahmad, Filmmaker – Bangladesh

Farid Ahmad is an independent filmmaker from Bangladesh. He also spent 10 years working at local television stations. His films are focused on freedom and memory. His latest short film 'Antara' (2020) was awarded at the Tokyo Docs (2020), UNICEF Innocenti (2021) & published in the New Yorker Documentary Section. He is currently working on his first feature 'Waiting For Winter' which received support from Doc Station, Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program, Open Doors Locarno, Hong Kong - Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF) and Brouillon d'un rêve (Scam).

He is an alumnus of Berlinale Talents and has been awarded a fellowship by the International Documentary Association (IDA). He co-founded Noyakar Productions, which produces indie documentaries. He has an academic background in Media Studies & Communication. He is actively involved in building communities through organizing, training and writing documentaries.

Jiayan "Jenny" Shi, Filmmaker – Chicago, IL

Jiayan "Jenny" Shi is an Emmy-nominated documentary filmmaker who's passionate about stories that find shared humanity and compassion. Her debut documentary "Finding Yingying" (MTVDocs) has won numerous awards including the Special Jury Recognition for Breakthrough Voice at 2020 SXSW and a China Academy Award of Documentary Films, and was nominated for a News & Documentary Emmy award. Jenny's work has appeared on Paramount +, MTV, BBC News, PBS NewsHour, Insider, and Bilibili, among others. Jenny is a Kartemquin's Diverse Voices In Docs fellow, a Women at Sundance fellow, a Logan Nonfiction Program fellow, and a DOC NYC "40 Under 40" filmmaker.

Julie McElmurry, Filmmaker, Educator – Charlotte, NC

A self-taught documentary filmmkaer, I started a local, community-based film school for adults to make filmmaking classes affordable and accessible. Money is often a barrier for people who want to learn filmmaking and I strive to negate that barrier by bringing together skilled filmmakers and adults who want to learn from them through live, in-person classes.

Katelyn Liu, Programming manager – Charlotte, NC

Katelyn Liu is the programming manager at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival based in Durham, North Carolina. Her journey towards documentary has not been a linear path, but one that has twisted and turned along the way. Studying public policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, her work has always been guided by a stakeholder-centered approach. She has experiences working in an education non-profit, church ministry, and a museum, all while cultivating a curiosity and love for film and documentary through Full Frame. Originally from New York City, she spent her most formative years in Charlotte, North Carolina, growing through transition and adaptation in the American South. She loves to champion stories and voices that question identity and sense of place.

Koval Bhatia, Filmmaker, Producer – Goa, India

Koval is a filmmaker and producer based in India. She has been running a production company for 12 years, during which she has written, directed and produced many commercials, impact films and broadcast episodes. She is a graduate from Eurodoc and a recipient of the Emerging Producers’ Bursary from WCSFP’21.

She is currently producing creative feature documentaries that have been supported by Sundance, HotDocs, Catapult Film Fund, DOK Leipzig, Al Jazeera, SFFILM and others. She is the co-founder of Open Door Docs, an organization that supports and assists women in Indian documentary cinema.

Laura Bermúdez, Filmmaker, Film curator, Cultural activist – Tegucigalpa, Honduras

Honduran filmmaker. Her shortfilm "Black I am " was official selection at the Sheffield International Documentary Film Festival, New Orleans International Film Festival, Málaga Film Festival among others. She was part of the Open Doors program in Locarno in 2022, Berlinale Talents 2021, and Talents Guadalajara in 2018.

Co-founder of Tercer Cine Espacio Alternativo, an alternative cinema exhibition film project, winner of the Berlinale Talents 2022 Mastercard Enablement Project grant.

Co-founder of the Collective of Female Honduran Filmmakers, an organization that promotes the participation of women in Honduran cinema, financed by the Central American Women's Fund FCAM.

Her first feature doc “Where the Sun is Born” currently in postproduction has been funded by the Mexican Institute of Cinema IMCINE and recently won the Costa Rica International Film Festival WIP.

Malia Bruker, Filmmaker, Associate professor – Tallahassee, FL

Malia Bruker is a filmmaker and Associate Professor at Florida State University. Bruker’s work evades categorization—she has made award-winning documentaries, dance films, and immersive projects, and work that blends these genres. Recent projects have delved into collective healing from sexual trauma, the struggles of anti-imperialist workers in Haiti, and the creative process of a self-proclaimed feminist nihilist artist. Her work has screened at venues like International Film Festival Rotterdam, Chicago Underground Film Festival, Antimatter Video Art, Berlin Feminist Film Week and American Dance Festival, and her recent 360-degree film Threshold won awards at Chelsea Film Festival and FilmGate Interactive. She is currently a Getting Real Fellow and the Executive Vice President of University Film and Video Association. Bruker also co-founded the Tallahassee Bail Fund in May 2020, which she continues to help run.

MMaría Josefina Parra Acuña, Distribution director – Mexico City, Mexico

María Josefina was partner and general coordinator of the Barranquilla International Film Festival (FICBAQ) from 2013 to 2016. She also worked in the direction of the UNAM International Film Festival (FICUNAM) from 2016 to 2018. She participated in the Locarno Industry Academy in 2016, and as an advisor in: Ventana CineMad 2020, GoodPitch México 2020 and Docs in progress in 2021. Since 2018, she has directed the distribution company specialized in documentaries: Artegios in Mexico, where she has distributed titles such as “The Devils Freedom” by Everardo González, “Dark Suns” by Julien Elie, “Of Fathers and Sons” by Talal Derki. In 2021 she joined Artegios as partner.

Milton Guillén, Filmmaker, Programmer – Burlington, VE

Milton Guillén is a filmmaker and the senior programmer of the Points North Institute & CIFF. His work explores the cinematic intersections of radical collaborative non-fictions and political dreamscapes, engaging with artists across various disciplines, including video installations, choreographies and films. Milton’s work has screened at CPH:DOX, Hot Docs, DOK Leipzig, Rooftop Films, DMZ, and more. Milton is an alumni of the Flaherty, Points North, ITVS, Tribeca Film Institute, BAVC, LEF, and Kartemquin. Milton has been visiting faculty at CalArts and is the 2022-2023 Harris Fellow at the University of Vermont. He holds an MFA from Northwestern University.

Mostafa Youssef, Director, Producer – Cairo, Egypt

Mostafa is a director and producer based in Cairo. He is a founder of Seen Films where he produced films such as Homemade Stories and Out On The Street, among others. His films have screened in festivals such as IDFA, Berlinale, CPH DOX, Dubai, Istanbul, Carthage, as well as the Venice Biennale, and in museums and art institutions such as the British Museum and Bozar. He worked on projects and activities related to development of the local Egyptian and regional Arab cinema industry such as founding Terr.so, an arabic language online film magazine, codirecting Hybrid Reels: A month-long program of documentary screenings and workshops, heading industry for Cairo Cinema Days, managing the Industry section of El Gouna Film Festival, CineGouna Platform, and he currently leads Seen Studio: a year long independent film development lab.

Pei-hua Chung, Programming coordinator – Taipei, Taiwan

Pei-hua is one of the programmers at the Taiwan International Documentary Festival (TIDF), mainly in charge of the non-competition section. She has more than ten years of experience working at film festivals and has developed a passion for documentary cinema along the way. She has been on the TIDF programming team since 2019.

Rodrigo Dorfman, Filmmaker, Writer, Activist, Multimedia producer – Durham, NC

Rodrigo Dorfman is a Latino award-winning filmmaker, writer, activist and multimedia producer living in the American South. For the past 25 years, he’s been a one-man band, documenting his emerging community through a series of hybrid educational/neo-realist films and documentaries centered around the everyday lives of immigrants and their cultural resilience. Complicity, creativity and collaboration are the guiding principles of his seductive, yet “imperfect cinema”. From revolutionary taco trucks to quinceañeras, dusty bull rodeos and saint worship celebrations, his work helps transform the worn patterns of an Old South into the American promise of an emerging Nuevo South.

Taneisha Berg, Poet, Filmmaker, Writer – The Netherlands 

An alumna of UCLA’s TFT film program, Taneisha Berg is a poet, filmmaker, writer, and daydreamer who has 20 years of experience working in media. With a broad background that includes international documentaries, feature films, TV production, and journalism, she has also moonlighted as a translator, an educator, a hotelier, and, when necessary, a particle accelerator.

A Northern California native, her passion and work have taken her around the world, from LA to NYC, from Europe to Africa, and beyond. She is currently in the last stages of production on her first documentary, The Tenor from Abidjan. At her core, Taneisha is a life-long creative who finds her greatest joy in building communities that transcend borders through the uniting force of storytelling.

Valentin Noujaïm, Director – Paris, France 

Born in France in 1991 to Lebanese and Egyptian parents, Valentin Noujaïm graduated in 2020 from the Fémis Film School in the screenwriting department. He directed a documentary film - Before she forgets Heliopolis and an experimental documentary film - The Blue Star, supported by the Doha Film Institute and AFAC and presented at the International Festival Visions du Réel in Nyon (2020) in international competition, Doclisboa and Qumra. His first short fiction film, Daughters of Destiny, produced by Kometa Films and Iliade&films was supported by the CNC and is currently in distribution. He is currently in residency at Artagon in Marseille and he recently directed a new video  Pacific Club, supported by Doha Film Institute. In 2022, he is selected for the Utopia Prize organized by the Magasins Généraux in Paris and the Salon de Montrouge for Fall 2022. In 2022/23, he will be in residency at Ateliers Médicis in Paris but also Guest Student at Städelschule for 3 semesters in video and films and in a one-month residency at Villa Médicis in Rome.

Victor Ribeiro Guimarães, Film critic, Programmer, Professor – Belo Horizonte, Brazil 

Film critic, programmer and professor. His work has appeared in publications such as Cinética, Con Los Ojos Abiertos, Cahiers du Cinéma, Senses of Cinema, Field of Vision, World Records Journal, Desistfilm, La Vida Útil and La Furia Umana. As a programmer, he was one of the artistic directors of Belo Horizonte International Short Film Festival (2014), a member of the selection committee at forumdoc.bh (2012 to 2015) – a festival dedicated to documentary and ethnographic film –, and a programmer at Tiradentes Film Festival (2019) and Berlin’s Woche der Kritik (2022). He is currently a programmer at FICValdivia (Chile) and the artistic director of FENDA – Experimental Festival of Film Arts (Brazil). He holds a PhD in Communications from UFMG, with a research stage at Université Sorbonne-Nouvelle (Paris 3).

Xiaolu Wang, Documentary filmmaker, Curator, Translator  – Minneapolis, MN 

Xiaolu Wang is a documentary filmmaker, curator, and translator from the Hui Muslim Autonomous Region of China, whose practice is based in the mapping of interiority, with the use of video, poetry, memory, translations, and a decolonial lens. Besides being a practicing cinephilia, they occasionally host podcasts, and frequently read the Tao Te Ching. Their work has been generously supported by Metropolitan Regional Arts Council of Minnesota, DocX Archive Lab, Jerome Foundation, UnionDocs, and The On Being Project. They live on occupied Dakota homeland (present day Minneapolis) with two cats, Marvin and Moto, who sleep on separate couches.

Winnie Wang, Programmer, Writer – Toronto, Canada 

Winnie Wang is a writer, and an industry programmer at Hot Docs, where they work on year-round funds, market delegations, and conference programming at the annual festival. Their work can be found in Cinema Scope, Documentary Magazine and Little White Lies.