USA

Mstyslav Chernov is a Pulitzer Prize–winning Ukrainian filmmaker, war correspondent, and novelist. He is known for his coverage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine as well as wars in Iraq, Syria, Azerbaijan, and Afghanistan. His film 20 DAYS IN MARIUPOL won Best Documentary Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards.

Sara Khaki is the Grand Jury Award winner of the world cinema documentary category of Sundance Film Festival for her feature documentary, Cutting Through Rocks. Her co-directed film, Our Iranian Lockdown, streaming on the Guardian, received an IDA nomination. Her co-directed Netflix original, Convergence, received an Emmy nomination. A Chicken & Egg Films and Sundance Alumni, Sara is a director, producer, and editor with dedication to stories about gender equity.

Joanne Popinska, the co-founder of Infinite Frame Media, is a documentarian, sociologist with a Ph.D. in Film Directing (specialization: VR) from the Polish National Film School. She dedicates her creative vision to creating important conversations around complex topics such as human rights, animal rights, and the environment. By using the latest technology and various narrative techniques, she is continually exploring how to get the attention of audiences and how to evoke empathy and interest in different perspectives.

Based in Los Angeles, Rory Mitchell is an XR Director with a background in theater and documentary. His work explores contemporary social, cultural and community-based issues with awe at the complexities of interdependence and the joy at the intersections of Humanism and Technology. His work has screened at SXSW, Cannes Film Festival, New Images, SIGGRAPH, Shanghai International, DOC NYC and has been broadcast on PBS. In 2015 Mitchell founded his first VR Company, Beard & Glasses VR, to bring his theater and documentary practices into the exciting new field of Virtual Reality, which he had become fascinated by during its first coming in the late 1980’s and 90’s. His first cinematic 360° narrative, “The Visigoths” (written by Martha Marion) was an intimate romantic drama putting the viewer feet away from a young couple falling in, and out, of love. It premiered in 2017 at the Museum of Broken Relationships in Los Angeles and went on to screen at 2018 Seattle International and the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. His commercial VR work includes 360° documentaries about the history of the Los Angeles River, a tour of the Ketel One Distillery, a 360° commercial of Cascadian Farms for General Mills, Star Wars Galaxies Edge at Disneyland for Disney’s internal advertising Agency, Yellow Shoes, and many others. Mitchell lives in Silver Lake with his wife and young daughter.