2015 Rockwood JustFilms Fellows

Sharese Bullock-Bailey, Tribeca Teaches Manager, Tribeca Film Institute

Sharese Bullock-Bailey is a multimedia producer, strategic consultant, and educator. She produced the Emmy-nominated film Off and Running, a feature documentary co- produced by Independent Television Service (ITVS). She has funded, distributed, and curated youth media globally for the past 12 years. She has led service and international education programs in over 20 countries, including filmmaking exchanges for young producers and educators throughout the UK and India. Sharese has served on the Board of Directors for the National Alliance of Media Arts and Culture (NAMAC) and the Young People’s Project (YPP), and is currently on the Board of Directors for ITVS and The Cahn Fellows Program at Teachers College. She has been Tribeca Teaches Manager at the Tribeca Film Institute since 2014.

Sonya Childress, Director of Partnerships and Engagement, Firelight Media

For over 15 years, Sonya has helped organizers, policymakers, educators, filmmakers, and philanthropists position film as a strategic tool to further a range of social justice issues. As Director of Partnerships and Engagement for Firelight Media, she maximizes the impact of films produced by acclaimed documentary filmmaker Stanley Nelson, and consults with independent producers on their films. Sonya has held positions at California Newsreel and Active Voice, and has managed campaigns for Kartemquin Films, Working Films, and the Independent Television Service. She has managed or contributed to numerous high-profile film campaigns including Freedom Summer, Freedom Riders, The Interrupters, Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, Favela Rising, Farmingville, and The New Americans. Sonya has produced countless media tools, including a Get Out The Vote Toolkit for Freedom Summer, video modules for The New Americans, and a three-part film series called Immigration: Beyond the Headlines.

Mona Eldaief, Filmmaker

Egyptian-American filmmaker Mona Eldaief is director and cinematographer of the award-winning film Solar Mamas. She works as a director, director of photography, and editor on documentary film and television projects around the world. Born in Cairo, Egypt and raised in the United States, she graduated from New York University with degrees in Political Science and Photography. With a goal of using video advocacy as a tool for social change, Mona started her career as the producer of MTV News Unfiltered, a TV show that pioneered the use of first-person documentary, and featured user-generated segments about social issues. Mona went on to implement a video diary exchange program between young Palestinians and Israelis promoting dialogue and understanding as a step towards conflict resolution. She passionately believes in the power of empathetic, character-driven storytelling to raise awareness about pressing social issues, and propel a wide range of audiences to action.

Kristin Feeley, Director of Labs and Artist Support Programs, Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program (DFP)

As Director of Labs and Artist Support Programs for the Sundance Institute DFP, Kristin Feely has developed and led programs that nurture creativity and provide strategic support to independent documentary filmmakers all of the world. For nine years, she has worked in various administrative and creative capacities on DFP Creative Labs, fellowship opportunities, and strategic partnerships. Prior to Sundance DFP, she worked at several international film festivals and arts nonprofits, including Tribeca Film Festival, Edinburgh International Film Festival, and Sundance Film Festival. Feeley received her Bachelors from Mount Holyoke College, and a Masters of Philosophy in Media Studies from University of Glasgow, Scotland, focusing on early American documentary film.

Yance Ford, Independent Filmmaker, Yanceville Films

Yance Ford is Sundance Documentary Film Program Fellow, recipient of a 2012 Creative Capital grant (Theo Westenberger Award), a MacDowell Colony Fellow, and was among Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film 2011. Ford is a recipient of MacArthur and JustFilms/Ford Foundation grants for Strong Island, a documentary about the murder of the filmmaker’s brother, and how the collision of race, fear, and the judiciary allowed the killer to go free. Ford’s training in still photography is reflected in the film’s embrace of formalism and hyper-composition, creating a hybrid film—one that is advanced by image, dialogue, and sound woven together organically, but rejecting the common structure of a “dead-black-man” documentary film. A former Series Producer of POV, Ford’s curatorial work at the acclaimed PBS documentary showcase garnered 16 Emmy Nominations. S/he is a graduate of Hamilton College, and the Production Workshop at Third World Newsreel.

Wendy Levy, Executive Director, National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture (NAMAC)

Wendy’s creative and human rights work takes place at the intersection of art, innovation, and social justice. She is Executive Director of the National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture (NAMAC), and a Senior Consultant with the Sundance Institute. Wendy is also the Director of the new media group New Arts Axis, and was the Director of the MacArthur Foundation-funded Producers Institute for New Media Technologies at Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC)—the first public media innovation lab in the US. Wendy is a featured speaker and moderator at venues around the world including the United Nations, Skoll World Forum, and the Sundance Film Festival. She has served as Advisor to the Sundance/Skoll Stories of Change Program, World Pulse, Tribeca New Media Fund, International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, and Open Society Foundation’s Documentary Photography Project. Wendy is the recipient of the Princess Grace Statue Award for distinguished contribution to the media arts field.

Andrew Lowenthal, Co-Founder/Director of Strategy and Development, EngageMedia

Andrew Lowenthal is the Co-Founder and Director of Strategy and Development at EngageMedia, an Asia-Pacific nonprofit employing documentary co-creation methods, open source technologies, and emerging distribution tactics to address social justice and environmental issues. Andrew joined the field of media activism when he was 19, and began working with video soon after via community television in Melbourne, Australia. His work traverses organizational development, network building, new media and video production, research, software development, and project and event management. Andrew was active in the global network of independent media centers (Indymedia) from 2000 to 2006. From 2006 to 2008, he worked with the Tactical Technology Collective as their Participatory Media Project Lead, producing a series of open source communications toolkits. Andrew is currently a Fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, and a Fellow at MIT’s Open Documentary Lab. He is also a member of the Impact Producers Group.

Jennifer MacArthur, Founder, Borderline Media/Co-Founder, Impact Producers Group

Jennifer MacArthur is a multi-platform communications, distribution, and engagement strategist with a focus on social issue documentary. In 2008, she formed Borderline Media out of a passion for helping producers create social change. Borderline’s strategic design work includes campaigns for Southern Rites (HBO, 2015), Out in the Night (POV, 2015), Gideon’s Army (HBO, 2013), and Traces of the Trade (POV, 2008). A sought-after expert on media engagement, Jennifer has produced workshops for Independent Television Service Community Cinema, been an invited industry guest for Sundance Industry Meetings, and participates in Tribeca Film Institute’s Interactive Media Impact Working Group. She is a founder of the peer support network The Impact Producers Group, and Impact Socials, a networking event for creative changemakers. Previously, Jennifer held positions at the National Center for Media Engagement, StoryCorps, Link TV, and Village Voice Media. She is a graduate of The New School film program, and lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

Elise McCave, Deputy Director, BRITDOC

Elise is the Deputy Director at BRITDOC, a nonprofit committed to enabling great documentary films and connecting them to audiences. She works across all the Foundation’s projects, from marketing, communications, and design, to producing large convening events like Good Pitch and the Impact Awards. She also works on BRITDOC’s online tools, including the Impact Field Guide, an information hub for those interested in or currently working at the intersection of films and impact. In April 2015, Elise moved to New York to begin working with more filmmakers in lab environments, do more public presentations of BRITDOC’s work, manage existing funders, and generate some new ones. Previous to working with BRITDOC, she studied anthropology at University College London, and acting at London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art.

Joanna Natasegara, Director, Violet Films // Ultra Violet Consultancy

Joanna is a multi-award-winning producer, Impact Producer, and Founder of Violet Films, an ethical consultancy specializing in bespoke outreach campaigns that maximize the social change potential of film and media projects. Joanna has extensive experience in documentary film, having directed and produced documentaries covering social justice and politics, including criminal justice reform, peace and conflict, global leadership, election reform, human rights, and environmental justice. Most recently, Joanna produced the Academy Award- and BAFTA-nominated feature documentary Virunga. Joanna holds a Bachelors (Hons) in Indian Religions & Language, and a Masters of Science in Human Rights. Before embarking on her film career, she worked in the not-for-profit arena in the UK, Cambodia, and Brasil. She lives in London with her husband Lawrence and her dog Marwood.

Carlos Sandoval, Filmmaker, Camino Bluff Productions, Inc.

Carlos Sandoval is the producer/director of the award-winning documentaries: winner of the CINE Golden Eagle The State of Arizona, Imagen Award winner A Class Apart, and Farmingville, which won Sundance Special Jury Prize. His films have all been broadcast on PBS, and organizations across the country have used his films to stimulate dialogue and promote action around issues of immigration and race. A writer and sometime-lawyer, Carlos’ essays have appeared in several publications, including The New York Times. As a lawyer, his areas of practice included telecommunications and complex litigation. Carlos worked on immigration and refugee affairs as a member of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations, and as a program officer for The Century Foundation. He is a Sundance and MacArthur Fellow, an advisor for Firelight Media, and a founding member of Indie Caucus.

Chi-hui Yang, Film Curator and Educator

Chi-hui Yang is a film curator and educator based in New York. Yang sits on the selection committee for MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight, and is the president of the board of directors of the Flaherty Film Seminar. From 2000 to 2010, he was the Director and Programmer of the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, the largest showcase of its kind in the US. Yang is also the programmer of Cinema Asian America on Comcast On-Demand, a Visiting Scholar at New York University’s Asian/Pacific/American Institute, and an adjunct professor at Hunter College and Columbia University. His current educational projects include Asian Americans in NY: Film and Literature, an NEH-funded summer institute for K-12 educators to be held in July 2015; the Oberhausen Seminar, a week-long examination of contemporary artists cinema held at the Oberhausen Film Festival in Germany; and a mentorship/public programming initiative examining race, experimental forms, and the work of American artists of color.