About the Screening
Meet passionate teenage innovators from around the globe who are creating cutting-edge solutions to confront the world’s environmental threats – found right in their own backyards – while navigating the doubts and insecurities that mark adolescence. Take a journey with these inspiring teens as they prepare their projects for the largest convening of high school scientists in the world, the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF).
Includes a post-film discussion with Director Laura Nix, Producers Diane Becker and Melanie Miller, Editor Helen Kearns, and Documentary Subject Jared Goodwin. Moderated by Matt Holzman, host of KCRW's The Document.
Laura Nix is a Chicken and Egg Breakthrough Filmmaker Award winner in 2018, and was awarded the Sundance Institute/Discovery Impact Fellowship in 2017. She previously directed The Yes Men Are Revolting, (Toronto Film Festival 2014, Berlinale 2015), which was theatrically released and broadcast in the US and in multiple international territories. Her film The Light in Her Eyes premiered at IDFA; was broadcast on the PBS series POV, and toured the world as part of Sundance's Film Forward program.
Other feature directing credits include the comedic melodrama The Politics of Fur, which played in over 70 festivals internationally and won multiple awards including the Grand Jury Prize at Outfest; and Whether You Like it or Not, about the phenomenon of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Her films have been favorably reviewed in publications such as the New York Times, Variety, Indiewire and Time Out London. Nix has broadcast her work on Al Jazeera Arabic, Arte, CBC, Canal+, HBO, IFC, NHK, PBS, VPRO, ZDFand on outlets such as New York Times Op-Docs . Her work has received support from the Bertha Foundation, BritDoc, California Humanities, COBO Fund, the Danish Film Institute, Glassbreaker Films, the Redford Center, and the Sundance Documentary Fund. She has received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, Film Independent and the Independent Feature Project, and is currently is a film expert for the U.S. State Department’s American Film Showcase, and a member of the documentary branch of the Academy for Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. Based in Los Angeles, she is the owner of Felt Films, a production company that produces non-fiction shorts and features.
Diane Becker is an LA-based documentary and feature film producer and a graduate of the American Film Institute. She has worked with the award-winning Passion Pictures and Motto Pictures on films including Sergio, Manhunt, Chicken People, and Legion of Brothers. The team’s latest film with Greg Barker, The Final Year, chronicling the last year of the Obama Administration's foreign policy team, premiered in January 2018. She and producer Melanie Miller founded Fishbowl Films in 2009 and their latest narrative film, Alaska is a Drag, is currently screening in festivals around the globe. Other credits include We are X, about Japan’s biggest rock band in history (World Cinema Documentary Best Editing Award, 2016 Sundance Film Festival) and the Netflix documentary series Five Came Back, executive produced by Steven Spielberg and Scott Rudin. Diane was chosen as one of five of the 2017 Sundance Documentary Creative Producing Fellows. Her new film with director Stephen Kijak, Lynryd Skynryd: If I Leave Here Tomorrow, will premiere on Showtime in August 2018. She is a member of the Producers Guild of America (PGA) and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS).
Melanie Miller has over two decades of experience in the entertainment industry. During her tenure at Gravitas Ventures as Vice President of Acquisitions & Marketing, she played an integral role in the growth of the new paradigm of independent distribution. Prior to Gravitas, Miller was the Artistic Director at the Jackson Hole Film Institute and in 2009 co-founded Fishbowl Films with Diane Becker. Their films include William Dickerson's Detour which released theatrically in 2013, and Shaz Bennett’s directorial debut Alaska is a Drag which won the coveted US in Progress grant and is currently on the worldwide festival circuit. More recently Melanie was the Executive Vice President at Samuel Goldwyn Films, responsible for the company’s distribution, marketing and PR strategy for all films. She has been a guest speaker at events such as the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s Sloan Summit, the Sundance Institute, the Produced By Conference, and other industry events. Melanie is a member of the Producers Guild of America (PGA).