USA

Sally!

Deborah Craig is an award-winning documentary director and producer whose films use compelling personal stories to raise awareness about the challenges and strengths of underrepresented communities. Her work has played at LGBTQ+, women’s and documentary film festivals in the U.S. and internationally. Deborah’s most recent short, “A Great Ride,” a 33-minute documentary about lesbians and aging, premiered at the Frameline LGBTQ+ Film Festival in San Francisco in 2018, was picked up for distribution by Frameline, has screened at over 50 film festivals around the globe, and has won multiple awards. “Sally” will be her first feature-length documentary. Deborah has a BA in history from Columbia University, did undergraduate work in photography at California College of the Arts, and has a Master of Public Health from San Francisco State University, where she currently teaches in the Public Health Department.

Ondine Rarey is a filmmaker, editor, and writer. Her documentary “Fools and Heroes” was a Grimme-Preis nominee (the German equivalent of an Emmy), airing on ARTE in France as well as stateside on PBS. She has edited well over a dozen documentary features and shorts, including “Now en Español” (for PBS), “A Great Ride,” “Who Will Write Our History” and, “Rebel Hearts,” an official selection at Sundance 2021. She has edited on multiple TV series, including “Keeping up with the Kardashians” and “Alien Encounters.” Ondine received a BA from UC Berkeley in History and a BFA in Documentary and Journalism from the Munich University for Television and Film in Germany. She currently resides in Southern California, where she teaches Documentary Editing at Chapman University.

Jörg Fockele is an award-winning filmmaker with a career spanning over 25 years. He has written and directed over 10 short films, four feature documentaries, and numerous music videos and PSAs. Of the awards and distinctions Jörg has received, the most important ones are retrospectives at the Goethe Institutes New York City, San Francisco, Chicago, and Mexico City, two Emmys and a special prize from the International Film Festival in Berlin. In addition, Jörg is a critically acclaimed television producer of award-winning shows such as Bravo’s “Queer Eye,” ABC ’s “Wife Swap,” the Sundance Channel’s “Big Ideas for a Small Planet” and AMC’s “Small Town Security.” He has also directed and produced shows for MTV, CBS, Oxygen, Discovery Network, PBS, Fine Living Network, and the SciFi Channel.

Union

Stephen Maing is an Emmy-award winning documentary filmmaker based in New York. His feature documentary Crime + Punishment, which he directed, filmed and edited, won a Special Jury Award at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, and an Emmy Award for Outstanding Social Issue Documentary. Stephen has directed films for the New York Times, Time Magazine, The Nation, The Intercept and Field of Vision.

Brett Story is an award-winning filmmaker, geographer and writer. Her films have screened in festivals around the world, including CPH-DOX, the Viennale, SXSW, True/False, and Sheffield DocFest. Her interests across the fields of documentary and critical theory are expansive, and include experimental cinema and essay films, prisons and abolition, political geography, critical theory, racial capitalism and Marxist political economy.

Holding Liat

Brandon Kramer is a Washington, D.C.-based filmmaker and co-founder of Meridian Hill Pictures with his brother Lance. Brandon directed The First Step (Tribeca, AFI DOCS); City of Trees (Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, PBS, Netflix); and the Webby Award-winning independent documentary series The Messy Truth (CNN). Brandon is a Film Independent Fellow, a D.C. Commission on the Arts & Humanities Fellow, a regular collaborator with Kartemquin Films, and a teacher for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Brandon holds a BA in film and cultural anthropology from Boston University.

Flophouse America

Monica Strømdahl is an international award-winning documentary stills photographer graduated from Falmouth College of Arts. In 2019, she won the 1st prize at the Norwegian Picture of The Year, and was nominated for the Leica Oscar Barnack Award (LOBA). Monica is known for her intimate way of portraying people and their lives. She has made short films, and Flophouse America is her debut feature film.

Cutting Through Rocks

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.

Mohammadreza Eyni is the Grand Jury Award winner of the world cinema documentary category of Sundance Film Festival for his feature documentary, Cutting Through Rocks. A Sundance and Tribeca Alumnus, Mohammadreza is a director, producer, and cinematographer, whose career and cinematic approach bridges boundaries and elevates underrepresented voices, connecting diverse perspectives globally. A co-founder of Gandom Films Production L.L.C., Mohammmadreza’s works have earned IDA nomination and international recognition.

Coexistence, My Ass!

Award-winning filmmaker Amber Fares directed Speed Sisters, Reckoning With Laughter, and We Are Ayenda, which won the 2024 Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity Grand Prix for Entertainment. She co-directed Convergence: Courage Under Crisis. Fares is a Canadian of Lebanese origin based in New York.

Őrzők

Edivan Guajajara is from the Zutiwa village, located in Arariboia Indigenous Land (Maranhão, Brazil) and one of the creators of the communication network Mídia Índia. As an activist & filmmaker, he creates photography and documentaries centering indigenous peoples’ perspectives, showcasing their struggle of land protection and defense of Mother Earth. As a designer and video editor, he uses his gift to create art pieces that give visibility to the ongoing fight of the Brazilian indigenous peoples, a people who have resisted for 521 years. “Film has given us the opportunity to show our culture and our resistance. Today we have our own way of communicating and spreading our works so that people can know our true history and strengthen our struggle. My greatest inspiration as an indigenous is showing our reality and telling that we are also capable of being what we want to be, and showing to the world how much we indigenous peoples are important to the survival of our planet.

One Forest was formed with the mission to help people reconnect to themselves and to nature. Comprised of filmmakers Chelsea Greene (she/her) and Rob Grobman (he/him), One Forest is dedicated to creating impactful and heartfelt films and media. They view the art of storytelling as a sacred work, which endows their stories with a deep reverence for the earth and the characters they feature. They have recently produced two award winning short documentaries, BORNEO’S VANISHING TRIBES and GORILLA GIRL. Their commitment to authentic, integral and informative stories paired with their youth, ambition and drive as individuals, make this unique duo and their work exceptional, relevant and inspiring. One Forest lives and works in the mountains of Southern Oregon.

We Are Guardians

Fekete hó

Alina Simone Ukrajnában született újságíró és filmrendező, akinek munkái többek között a New York Times, a Wall Street Journal és a Guardian Long Read hasábjain jelentek meg. Cikkei szerepeltek a The Atlantic, az NPR és a Rolling Stone sikerlistáin. Egy esszégyűjtemény és egy regény szerzője, a Yale Egyetemen oktatott is mint szerző. Elnyerte az Andrew Berends Filmösztöndíjat, az NYSCA/NYFA Filmösztöndíjat és a Mountainfilm Emerging Filmmaker Fellowship ösztöndíját is. A Fekete hó (2024) az első dokumentumfilmje.

Black Snow

Alina Simone is a Ukrainian-born journalist and filmmaker whose work has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Guardian Long Read, among many others. Her articles have been featured on best-of lists in The Atlantic, NPR and Rolling Stone, and have been optioned for film by major studios. She is the author of an essay collection and a novel, and has taught writing at Yale University. Simone is the recipient of the Andrew Berends Film Fellowship, an NYSCA/NYFA Film Fellowship and the Mountainfilm Emerging Filmmaker Fellowship. Black Snow (2024) is her first documentary feature film.

23. Verzió

2026. NOVEMBER 17-25.

USA