Nia Hampton

Founder | Black Femme Supremacy Film Festival

Nia is a multidisciplinary artist who has consistently found community with Black Femme filmmakers in her travels around the world. During her first solo art show “Drapetomania: The Strong Urge to Escape” Nia created and hosted the first Black Femme Supremacy Film Festival as a means to hold space for Black Femme filmmakers all over the world. As an international freelance journalist by trade who has written for sites like DAZED, VICE and Paste Magazine, LA Weekly and the Village Voice. Nia hopes that the festival will travel and meet Black Femme filmmakers where they are, wherever that may be.

Kathleen Bertrand

Founder and Executive Producer | BronzeLens Film Festival

Kathleen Bertrand is founder and executive producer of BronzeLens Film Festival, a non-profit organization. BLFF provides a platform for broader engagement in the film industry for people of color and showcases the talents of the next generation of great filmmakers.

Under Bertrand’s visionary leadership, BronzeLens has grown to receive attention and accolades from across the country and around the world. It is a charter member of ARRAY (formerly AFFRM), the film distribution network founded by producer/director Ava DuVernay in 2011. The festival is an Academy Award Qualifying Film Festival for the Short Film Award. This tremendous honor is one of only two in the state of Georgia, and one of only 3 such designations in the country for film festivals that support the work of people of color. In its most recent film season, BLFF received film submissions from 35 countries. Most recently, BronzeLens received 2 “Best of Atlanta” Awards from Atlanta Magazine: “Best Showcase for New Filmmakers,” and “Best Place to Break into the Film Industry.”

Bertrand has received numerous awards for her work with BronzeLens. In 2018, she received the honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from her alma mater, Spelman College, which honored her careers in both hospitality and the film industry. In 2018, she was inducted into the Atlanta Hospitality Hall of Fame, which also honored her dual careers in film and in hospitality. Most recently, in celebration of the BronzeLens 10th Anniversary, she received the City of Atlanta’s highest award – The Phoenix Award.

Paula Guthat

Founder | Cinema Detroit

Kathleen Bertrand is founder and executive producer of BronzeLens Film Festival, a non-profit organization. BLFF provides a platform for broader engagement in the film industry for people of color and showcases the talents of the next generation of great filmmakers.

Under Bertrand’s visionary leadership, BronzeLens has grown to receive attention and accolades from across the country and around the world. It is a charter member of ARRAY (formerly AFFRM), the film distribution network founded by producer/director Ava DuVernay in 2011. The festival is an Academy Award Qualifying Film Festival for the Short Film Award. This tremendous honor is one of only two in the state of Georgia, and one of only 3 such designations in the country for film festivals that support the work of people of color. In its most recent film season, BLFF received film submissions from 35 countries. Most recently, BronzeLens received 2 “Best of Atlanta” Awards from Atlanta Magazine: “Best Showcase for New Filmmakers,” and “Best Place to Break into the Film Industry.”

Bertrand has received numerous awards for her work with BronzeLens. In 2018, she received the honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from her alma mater, Spelman College, which honored her careers in both hospitality and the film industry. In 2018, she was inducted into the Atlanta Hospitality Hall of Fame, which also honored her dual careers in film and in hospitality. Most recently, in celebration of the BronzeLens 10th Anniversary, she received the City of Atlanta’s highest award – The Phoenix Award.

Hebe Tabachnik

Artistic Director | Cine Latino Minneapolis Saint Paul Film Festival

Hebe Tabachnik has been a film curator, producer and festival consultant for twenty years, and participated as a juror, project evaluator and panelist in the US, Europe, Latin America, Israel and China. She is Senior Programmer for the Seattle, Palms Springs and Cartagena International Film Festivals, and the Artistic Director for Cine Latino in Minneapolis-Saint Paul.

Hebe worked for Sundance and Los Angeles Film Festivals and was the Director/Producer of the Guadalajara Film Festival in Los Angeles. She is part of the MSP Film Society Advisory Council and served in the Board of Dance Camera West. She gives workshops on festivals, film distribution and project pitching all over the world.

She became a Professor in the Directing Department at the Universidad del Cine in Buenos Aires where she graduated as Director and Screenwriter. She is the Co-Founder and VP of Lokro Productions, Inc., a film production company in Los Angeles, California.

Hebe received a special recognition from the California State Assembly in 2012 and was awarded the 2015 Moving Film Forward Award by the National Association of Latino Independent Producers for building bridges between filmgoers, filmmakers and talent, and her support for the Latino, Latin American and Ibero American talent.

Marie Jamora

Founder | Cinema Sala

Musician-director MARIE JAMORA was recently named one of Five Visionary Asian-American Female Filmmakers in Kore Magazine’s ‘New Hollywood’ issue. Her short film, Flip the Record, won the Grand Jury Award for Best Narrative Short at Urbanworld and her first feature, What Isn’t There, premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival. She was executive producer and the director of Family Style, an Asian foodie show with Justin Lin’s YOMYOMF and Warner Bros/Stage 13. As a feature film programmer for the Slamdance Film Festival, she has screened films of other women and people of color to bring recognition to their stories. Then she founded Cinema Sala, a screening series for Filipino and Fil-Am artists from both the film and performing arts industries to showcase their work, attain feedback and provide a platform for future collaborations. After almost two decades of filmmaking and teaching in the Philippines, she became the first Filipina director to be accepted into the American Film Institute’s Directing Workshop for Women, where she is currently teaching and finishing post-production of her latest film, A Song For Myself.

Karen Toering

Director | Gary International Black Film Festival

Karen Toering is a grassroots organizer, cultural worker and consultant for non-profit arts and social justice organizations. For 14 years, Karen served as Consulting Producer for Seattle’s Langston Hughes African American Film Festival. She is also the founder of Sankofa Film Society, a member-based collective that incorporates cinema and travel, building a wider audience for indie Black film across the diaspora. Karen currently serves as Program Director for the Social Justice Fund NW, a progressive, member-based grantmaking foundation that moves millions of dollars to critical organizing work in the Pacific NW.

In the fall of 2010, Karen and a small group of Gary, IN friends organized around the idea of using film to spark discussion, engage ideas and build community. On February 11, 2011 the group launched the 1st Annual Gary International Black Film Festival (GIBFF), partnering with the Urban League of NWI .

The inaugural festival’s Opening Night film, I WILL FOLLOW directed by Ava DuVernay (Selma, 13th , Queen Sugar, When They See Us) launched the GIBFF journey – connecting independent filmmakers with audiences who are hungry to see themselves reflected in complex, nuanced and very personal ways in a city that has no working cinemas. For the past nine years, the GIBFF has grown in depth and breadth throughout NW Indiana.

Jasmine Jones

Film Consultant | Houston Museum of African American Culture

As Film Consultant for the Houston Museum of African American Culture (HMAAC), Jasmine Jones has curated and marketed a successful film series while managing strategic partnerships with QFest: The Houston International LGBTQ Film Festival, and the Houston Cinema Arts Festival. While at HMAAC, she launched and served as the Co-Director of the Houston African Film Festival, the first African film festival in the city of Houston.

In addition to film curation, she has lead regional marketing campaigns for major motion pictures such as Straight Outta Compton, The Jungle Book, Peanuts: The Movie, The Boss, and many others. She is also the creator of Film Jones, the premier source for reviews, news, and coverage of film, television, and digital content by and about people of the African Diaspora and is currently directing a documentary about the history and current state of Black beach communities.

Ms. Jones holds a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies and a Master of Arts in Communication from the University of Central Florida.

Crystal Echo Hawk

CEO | IllumiNative

Crystal Echo Hawk, a tribal citizen of the Pawnee Nation in Oklahoma, is a passionate and long-time advocate for the rights of Native peoples. She designed and co-led Reclaiming Native Truth, the largest public opinion research project ever conducted about Native Americans in 2016-18. Its groundbreaking research found that invisibility and misconceptions about Native peoples across American society are driven by pop culture, media and K-12 education that fuel bias and racism against Native peoples. Based on this research, Crystal founded IllumiNative, a Native-led nonprofit organization with a mission designed to illuminate the vibrancy and importance of contemporary Native voices, stories and issues across multiple platforms in order to transform the way that Americans and institutions think about and engage with Native peoples.

Moikgantsi Kgama

Founder & Executive Director | ImageNation Cinema and Music for the People

Moikgantsi Kgama an audience development specialist with a reputation for excellence in her field. Her credits include: I WILL FOLLOW, Academy Award nominated TROUBLE THE WATER, KILLER SHEEP and LUMUMBA to name a few. She is also the founder of the ImageNation Cinema Foundation. A Harlem-based nonprofit media arts organization, ImageNation presents progressive media by and about people of color, with the goal of establishing a chain of art-house cinemas dedicated to these works. Through a variety of public exhibitions and programs, ImageNation fosters media equity, media literacy, solidarity, cross-cultural exchange and highlights the humanity of Pan-African people worldwide. Moikgantsi’s accolades include being named one of 25 Women Who Are Shaping the World by Essence Magazine, received the Trailblazer Award from Reel Sisters Film Festival and a proclamation from the City of New York for her work with ImageNation. Moikgantsi earned a BS in Newspaper Journalism from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications. She serves as the Director of Communications at Harlem Congregations for Community Improvement, Inc. Moikgantsi resides in New York City’s Harlem community with her husband and partner Gregory Gates, and their son.

Willi White

Director | Indigenous Film Festival

Willi is a filmmaker, photographer, and multimedia specialist who co-founded a media production company and film festival on the Pine Ridge Reservation. He actively works as a film director, producer, and community organizer reclaiming indigenous stories—with a growing number of credits on film productions. In 2016, Willi was awarded a fellowship with the Sundance Institute’s Native and Indigenous program that enabled him to connect with a network of indigenous filmmakers and professionals. Currently, Willi is collaborating as an associate producer on a feature film directed by Gina Gammell and Riley Keough shooting on Pine Ridge.

Additionally, Willi works as Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation’s director of communications. In this role, he is eagerly exploring ways to innovate storytelling within our Indigenous communities. With over 5 years of nonprofit communications and marketing experience, he’s driven to help Indigenous-led organizations and movements create impact through narrative changing original content.

Willi is a member of the Oglala Lakota Oyate and lives on the Pine Ridge Reservation. He loves Kpop, traveling, his wiener-dog Copper Penny, and exploring ways to redefine, reframe and reclaim Indigenous storytelling.

Francis Cullado

Executive Director | Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival (Visual Communications)

Francis Cullado is the Executive Director for Visual Communications, a media arts organization that develops and supports the voices of Asian American & Pacific Islander filmmakers and media artists who empower communities and challenge perspectives. He began his service at Visual Communications as a Getty Multicultural Undergraduate Intern in 2002. Since 2010, Francis has worked with VC and their annual Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival through various capacities such as the Volunteer Coordinator, Festival Operations Manager, Development Director, and Operations Director. He is a graduate of California State University, Long Beach with a B.A. and M.A. in Asian & Asian American Studies, with a focus on cultural arts & performances, history, and human geography.

Kim Pevia

Curator | Lumbee Film Festival

Kim Pevia is an experienced life strategist, engaging keynote speaker, and a skilled workshop facilitator. Her company, K.A.P. Inner Prizes, specializes in identifying and addressing issues that can keep us stuck by developing a personalized toolbox to help us hurdle over them. Her favorite topics include Emotional Intelligence, Gifts of Conflict, Impacts of Historical Trauma, Cultural Healing, and the Innocuous Nature of Fear, most of which she includes in Race, Equity and Inclusion work. Her latest work is Emotional Justice and Liberation woven into Race conversations.

She serves on local, state and national boards that support community activism and the local economy. She is the President of the Board of Alternate ROOTS, an organization of activist artists in the South.

Born and educated in Baltimore, MD she currently lives in Robeson County, NC where her roots run deep as a member of the Lumbee Tribe. She is a writer and is the founder of Artist Market-Pembroke. Her love of community and films led her to be the curator of the annual Lumbee Film Festival (along with Cucalorus Film Festival of Wilmington) and the monthly CommUnity Cinema (in partnership with Working Films).

Jacqueline Moscou

Founder | Sankofa Film Society

Jacqueline Moscou’s 50+ years as a theatre professional has included: Actress, Director, Producer and Playwright.

She was an Artistic Associate of Intiman Theatre in Seattle,1992- 2011, Artistic Director of the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center, 2002-2014; Director of Langston Hughes Black Nativity 1998-2013, Creator and Director of The Langston Hughes African American Film Festival, 2004-2014, Co-founder, Sankofa Film Society, 2015-present.

Her long-standing commitment to civic affairs includes organizing outreach programs, benefits and fundraisers. She has sat on local and national panels advocating and educating for arts funding, multicultural programming, youth education and HIV/AIDS.

Gabrielle Glore

Festival Director and Head of Programming | Urbanworld Festival

Gabrielle Glore is Festival Director and Head of Programming for Urbanworld, a New York City festival providing a platform for film, digital, and music storytellers from around the globe. With a focus on community, Urbanworld curates an inclusive slate of content representing the broadest lens of storytelling for audiences. In addition to Urbanworld, Gabrielle consults with various media and entertainment companies, as well as nonprofits, on content curation, marketing strategy, and production, with historical clients including HBO, BET Networks, Comcast, Viacom, ARRAY and the Equal Justice Initiative.

Gabrielle’s personal interest in creative producing in the independent film and television space has led to her involvement with projects including documentary film Through The Fire, narrative feature Dirty Laundry (Executive Producer), and the forthcoming narrative feature, Sylvie (Producer). Sylvie beautifully represents the type of universal story and multifaceted characters that Gabrielle seeks to champion with her projects. For two seasons, she served as the Series Producer for CENTRIC’s “The Round,” a platform for women giving inspiring TED-style talks on a range of impactful topics.

Prior to pursuing her entrepreneurial spirit, Gabrielle spent over a decade in various marketing roles at Time Warner, across businesses including HBO and Warner Music Group, as well as Time Warner Corporate.

Miora Rajaonary

Photography

Miora Rajaonary is a photographer born and raised in Madagascar and currently based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Her project ‘Lamba’ explores cultural identity and heritage in her home country by examining the role of traditional garment in the Malagasy society.

Shawn Theodore

Photography

Shawn Theodore is a Philadelphia based photographer, whose work encompasses investigations of African American and African Diasporic life within disappearing Black American neighborhoods. His submission ‘Church of Broken Pieces’ develops myth-based visual narratives to confront constructs of African Diasporic identity as it is challenged by historical and contemporary American and European society.

Curtis Essel

Film

Curtis Essel is a director of 33 BOUND; a creative collective based in London. His (unfinished) film project ‘AGYA’ (Father in Tiwi, a Ghanaian Dialect) explores the concept of fatherhood, through the experience of Yaw, a father of four from Ghana.

Mayye Zayed

Film

Mayye Zayed is an Egyptian filmmaker and a co-founder of Rufy’s Films; an independent film production company and a collective of 5 filmmakers in Alexandria, Egypt. Her film project ‘Lift Like a Girl’, with cinematographer Mohamad El-Hadidi, challenges traditional female stereotypes and celebrates gender equality through the story of a young girl Zebiba, who dreams of becoming a professional weightlifter.