Past Artists In Residence
Lala Aliyeva
Artists-in-Residence
Lala Aliyeva is a documentary filmmaker from Azerbaijan, a graduate of an MA in Journalism at GIPA and an MA in Visual Anthropology at Goldsmiths University, London. Her short films have been selected for festivals such as Visions du Réel, Sheffield, Jihlava, Cinedoc, and Tampere Film Festival. Her debut feature documentary, Strange Sea, is currently in production. It has received the Sundance Development Fund, won Ciclic WEMW Award at Trieste WEMW Co-Production Forum, and she is currently a Jacob Burns Film Center Resident. Lala is also a fellow of the Close Up initiative, Eava Change, and B2B Doc.
Anahit Ghazaryan
Artist-in-Residence
Anahit Ghazaryan is a filmmaker, writer, and visual artist from Yerevan, Armenia. Her work is driven by questions of memory, identity, and gender-based justice, explored through the lens of how women's identities are shaped in a post-Soviet majority world country like Armenia. Over the years, Anahit has addressed these topics through various media, including text, audio, photography, documentary theater, and film. She co-produced the feminist podcast Akanjogh (2019-2021) and co-authored two books on language (2022) and the Artsakh war (2022). Her solo exhibition, You Shape me, I Reflect You (Dalan Art Gallery, 2022), explored how women navigate and subvert social roles. She curated an exhibition of the work of Maryam Shahinyan, Turkey's first female professional studio photographer (2021). She has created and premiered two documentary theater performances: Planned Outage (2023), Download Upload Loveload (2024).
Filippo Piscopo
Artist-in-Residence
Filippo Piscopo(producer, cinematographer) is an Emmy Award winning filmmaker and 2024 Academy Award nominated cinematographer of The ABCs of Book Banning. Piscopo intersects his true passion as a film producer with impactful camera work. He has crafted engaging stories featured at film venues such as the Venice Film Festival, IDFA's Central Pitch, and the IFP's Spotlight on Documentaries. Filippo's documentary work, often in collaboration with his wife and film director/partner Lorena Luciano, has been distributed globally.
This residency is presented in partnership with the Sundance Institute.
Lorena Luciano
Artist-in-Residence
Lorena Luciano (director, editor) is a fellow of the Sundance Film Institute, IDA Enterprise, and the MacArthur Foundation. An indomitable storyteller, her impactful films resonate with global audiences. Her worldwide distributed work has won Best Directing and Best Documentary awards. Raised in Italy, she lives in New York City with her husband and film partner Filippo Piscopo and her two sons.
This residency is presented in partnership with the Sundance Institute.
Donal Mosher
Artist-in-Residence
Donal Mosher and Michael Palmieri are a collaborative filmmaking/multimedia team. Their first feature as directors OCTOBER COUNTRY won the Grand Jury Prize at Silverdocs, received two Cinema Eye Honors, and was nominated for a 2009 Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary. The film is a haunting portrait of American poverty, described by A.O. Scott as a “Joyce Carol Oates novel rendered as a documentary.” Their most recent feature film THE GOSPEL OF EUREKA premiered at the 2018 SXSW Film Festival, was released theatrically by Kino Lorber, and broadcast on POV in 2020. Palmieri and Mosher have worked in live cinema, performing at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam, the First Look Festival at the Museum Of The Moving Image as well as collaborating with Daniel Lanois, Lonnie Hollie, Pop-Up Magazine, and others. They score their own films and perform their soundtracks as live accompaniments.
Michael Palmieri
Artist-in-Residence
Michael Palmieri and Donal Mosher are a collaborative filmmaking/multimedia team. Their first feature as directors OCTOBER COUNTRY won the Grand Jury Prize at Silverdocs, received two Cinema Eye Honors, and was nominated for a 2009 Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary. The film is a haunting portrait of American poverty, described by A.O. Scott as a “Joyce Carol Oates novel rendered as a documentary.” Their most recent feature film THE GOSPEL OF EUREKA premiered at the 2018 SXSW Film Festival, was released theatrically by Kino Lorber, and broadcast on POV in 2020. Palmieri and Mosher have worked in live cinema, performing at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam, the First Look Festival at the Museum Of The Moving Image as well as collaborating with Daniel Lanois, Lonnie Hollie, Pop-Up Magazine, and others. They score their own films and perform their soundtracks as live accompaniments.
Santiago Giralt
Artist-in-Residence
Santiago Giralt is a prolific, multidisciplinary artist: a novelist, filmmaker, screenwriter, playwright, stage director, actor, and producer. His diverse body of work deals with LGTBQ themes, women’s rights, the construction of family and memory. As a filmmaker, Giralt has written and directed more than a dozen films, screening at international film festivals and streaming across global content platforms. Some of the main titles are Before Opening Night, Jess & James, Here Kitty Kitty, Queer Diaries and the successful indie comedy saga upa! His last film Norma was released on cinemas in October 2023. He lives between Argentina and Greece.
Avtandil Khorava
Artist-in-Residence
Avtandil Khorava, born in 1978, is a filmmaker and founder of one of the largest film studios in Georgia. After a long career in business, he decided to take a turn and pursue his childhood dream of photography, founding "Moonbow Production" and starting to make films about culture, rituals, and social issues touching on LGBTQ+ topics.
Ana Kvichidze
Artist-in-Residence
Ana Kvichidze, born in 1993, is a Georgian filmmaker whose works are a blend of cultural heritage and storytelling. She studied directing feature films at Georgia State University's Shota Rustaveli Theatre and Film program and holds a Master's degree in Religion Studies from Ilia State University specializing in folk and vernacular religions.
Maksim Shved
Artist-in-Residence
Maksim Shved was born in Minsk, Belarus in 1979. After graduating in 2002 from the Law department of the Belorussian State University and working as a small business owner, he decided to realize his ideas in the film industry. Maksim started his film education in 2013 from an intensive course at St Petersburg High School of Directors and Screenwriters. In 2016, he graduated from the DOC PRO program at Wajda Film School in Warsaw. Now Maksim works in television as the director of the documentary series Welcome to Belarus. He also creates and develops social video and documentary projects.
Kynan Tegar
Artist-in-Residence
Kynan Tegar is an 18-year-old photographer and filmmaker from the Dayak Iban tribe of the island of Borneo, Indonesia. Living in and around the traditional longhouse of his village, Kynan learns from the wisdom and values of the elders and their stories of resistance in the face of encroaching deforestation. He started making short films soon after picking up a camera as an inquisitive 12-year-old boy. Kynan creates thoughtful and emotive imagery that highlights the quiet daily lives of the people and the community within his tranquil village, documenting their traditional knowledge, and the importance of balance with nature. In 2019, Kynan won the EQUATOR PRIZE with his community, DAYAK IBAN IN SUNGAI UTIK LONGHOUSE.
Lindsey Ryan
Artist-in-Residence
Lindsey is a filmmaker currently based in Brooklyn, New York. After graduating from Hofstra University with a BS in Film and Television, she began working for critically acclaimed director Reed Morano.
Her recent credits include What About David?, a short film about mental health that is currently going the festival circuit, and SEASICK, an LGBTQ short film about a ferry deckhand who sends a love-confessing text message, starring Pauline Chalamet. Seasick has played many festivals, such as Palm Springs Short Fest, Outfest, and DC Shorts, and won several awards, including Best 1st Time Director, Best Actress, and Best LGBTQ Short. In 2020 she Creative Produced Leylak, a short film that went on to win Tribeca Film Festivals Grand Jury Award and was in consideration for the 2022 Oscar predictions.
Lindsey is an alumnus of The Australian International Screen Forum’s Women in Screen Workshop and is currently in development with her feature film Capsized, which was in second-round consideration for the 2023 Sundance Development labs.
Elwira Niewira
Filmmaker-in-Residence
Elwira Niewiera is a Polish-German director and screenwriter based in Berlin. In her artistic work, she focuses primarily on social and cultural transformations in Eastern Europe.
She is a recipient of fellowships from Robert Bosch Stiftung, DEFA-Foundation in Berlin, and Nipkow Programm. Her feature documentary Domino Effect (2014) was shown worldwide at more than 50 festivals, including Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival and MoMa Doc Fortnight, and won many awards, including the Golden Dove at DOK Leipzig and Golden Horn at the Krakow Film Festival. The film received a nomination for the Polish Academy Award for Best Documentary.
Her last documentary, The Prince and the Dybbuk, premiered at the 74th Venice International Film Festival, where it won Best Documentary on Cinema. In 2019, the film won the Polish Academy Award for Best Documentary. Elwira recently received the Young German Cinema Award by DEFA Foundation in Berlin. She is a member of the European Film Academy.
Chantel Clark
Sundance International Narrative Filmmaker-in-Residence
Chantel Clark is a South African director and screenwriter working between Cape Town and New York. An MFA graduate of the Film Program at Columbia University, her short film, Our Albertinia, was awarded a 2018 National Board of Review Student Grant, as well as the inaugural Columbia University/Big Sky Edit Visionary Award and screened at over 25 international film festivals. She is also the recipient of a Katharina Otto-Bernstein Thesis Film Fund Grant and was selected for inclusion in the ASCAP Foundation 2018 Film Scoring program in collaboration with Columbia University. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Film and Media Production and her Bachelor of Arts Honours in Television Drama from the University of Cape Town. Chantel is also an ambassador for Girls in Film South Africa.
She is currently developing two feature films, Wit Gesigte (Pale Faces), which was selected for the Sundance Institute’s January 2019 Screenwriters Lab, IFP's 41st IFP Week Project Forum, and was made a SFFILM Spring 2019 Rainin Grant Finalist, and A Place Called Paradise, both set in South Africa.
Experimenting with time and collective memory, Chantel’s films exist at the intersection of the supernatural and the speculative. Framing fiction through historical research, her narratives play out parallel to significant turning points in South African History.
Mariam Al-Dhubhani & Mohammed Al-Jaberi
Close Up Filmmakers-in-Residence
Mariam Al-Dhubhani is a Yemeni-Russian award-winning journalist, filmmaker, curator, and educator based in the MENA region. She first pursued her passion for media during the 2011 Arab uprisings and co-founded her first media production. She is a two-time TEDx speaker and one of the first directors to utilize virtual reality to highlight stories from Yemen. Al-Dhubhani holds a Bachelor's degree in Journalism and Strategic Communication from Northwestern University, 2019, and a Post Graduate Diploma in Museum and Gallery Practice from University College London, 2020. In addition to grossing several awards for her films, she was awarded Most Promising Filmmaker at the Toronto Arab Film Festival in 2019 for her film, In The Middle. Through her work, Mariam attempts to shed light on the dangers of stereotyping the region in the mainstream media and provides a counterviewpoint to showcase equality in humanity. Her feature debut, Let's Play Soldiers, is a part of the Close Up Initiative. Al-Dhubhani has provided mentorship and training to support young filmmakers in conflict areas, including Yemen and Libya. She also served as a jury member for film grants and festivals in the US, Canada, and Yemen. Additionally, she collaborated with several UN agencies to produce and train young journalists on immersive reality in storytelling. Currently, she serves as a consultant on a Hollywood production film about Yemen.
Mohammed Al-Jaberi is a Yemeni producer and cinematographer who worked on award-winning short documentary films focusing on Yemen. His feature length debut is a film showing the impact of the war in Yemen on children, produced in collaboration with DFI and Al Jazeera. He received specialized training from international film experts including the French Cambodian director, Rithy Phan and the Sundance consultant Bruni Burres. He participated in a number of international film industry events including in Beirut DC, HotDocs, Doha Film Institute, AJB DOC, Close Up Initiative, MEDIMED, Jacob Burns Film Center, IDFA and Cairo International Film Festival. He holds two degrees in international relations and development.
Mohammed Al-Jaberi is a Yemeni producer and cinematographer who worked on award-winning short documentary films focusing on Yemen. His feature length debut is a film showing the impact of the war in Yemen on children, produced in collaboration with DFI and Al Jazeera. He received specialized training from international film experts including the French Cambodian director, Rithy Phan and the Sundance consultant Bruni Burres. He participated in a number of international film industry events including in Beirut DC, HotDocs, Doha Film Institute, AJB DOC, Close Up Initiative, MEDIMED, Jacob Burns Film Center, IDFA and Cairo International Film Festival. He holds two degrees in international relations and development.
Haley Anderson
REMIX Artist-in-Residence
Haley Elizabeth Anderson is a Brooklyn-based writer, director, and multidisciplinary artist. Her work has been featured at several film festivals and platforms, including Sundance, SXSW, Tribeca Film Festival, AFI, Le Cinema Club, I-D Magazine, and Sixteen Journal. She was selected as one of Filmmaker Magazine's 25 New Faces of Independent Film in 2019.
J Bird Lathon & Allison Shillingford
Black Public Media Filmmakers in Residence
Allison Bonner Shillingford is an oral historian, documentarian, scriptwriter, and playwright who does not confine her writing but lets her stories decide how they want to be told. She takes the personal accounts of her subjects and weaves their statements to construct a poignant reflection of their lives.
Through her documentary, A Place to Become—Montclair through the Eyes of the Glenridge YWCA, the participants were able to recount their decades-old experiences at the YWCA that served as a haven from racism for them. The production was chosen for the State of NJ Department of Education/NJ Amistad Commission Curriculum and is in permanent collections at the Montclair History Center.
Her teleplay Mel and Missy won at the 2013 Urbanworld Film Festival, and her play, Can We Dance, had performances at the National Black Film Festival in Winston Salem, NC. The play also showed in New York, NY and Portland, OR. Her other documentaries have screened at Columbia University, The San Diego Black Film Festival, and The DC Independent Film Festival. She is currently producing a short animation of an oral history—The Ride.
A Black Public Media 360 Incubator fellow and a Jacob Burns Film Center Creative Culture Resident, Ms. Shillingford divides her time between writing and producing, and running her nonprofit, Navigate the Maze to Achievement, which prepares Black and Latino students for specialized and selective high school admissions.
J Bird Lathon is interested in a cinema of artists, outcasts, eccentrics and iconoclasts that’s aesthetically irreverent, innovative, and informative. His shorts Numbers From A Montgomery Jail screened at The Nashville Film Festival and The Process and Mrs. Right Now, at The Black International Film Festival of Berlin. Impaled & Inhaled (2020) uses his photographs and poetry to tell his story of the September 11 attack on New York.
He is currently directing The Ride, an animated oral history about a young girl’s first experience with racist lynchings in Vicksburg, Mississippi in 1933. He and collaborator Allison Bonner Shillingford were selected by Black Public Media for their 360 Incubator+ Pitch Black Program. The Ride was recently invited to the Jacob Burns Film Center Creative Culture Residency Program for Fall 2021.
Mr. Lathon is a Creative Capital Nashville 2012 cohort and Sundance Co//ab for Producing (May 2020) cohort, advised by Karin Chien.
His feature screenplays received recognition in 2020. A Little Victory was a Quarterfinalist and Second Rounder in the ScreenCraft Drama and Film Fund Competitions. Administrative Leave was an Official Selection for the Loudoun Film Festival Screenplay Competition. In 2019, his short Presser was a Semifinalist in The Pan African Film Festival embRACE L.A. John Singleton Short Film Competition. See and learn more on Vimeo and Behance.
Through her documentary, A Place to Become—Montclair through the Eyes of the Glenridge YWCA, the participants were able to recount their decades-old experiences at the YWCA that served as a haven from racism for them. The production was chosen for the State of NJ Department of Education/NJ Amistad Commission Curriculum and is in permanent collections at the Montclair History Center.
Her teleplay Mel and Missy won at the 2013 Urbanworld Film Festival, and her play, Can We Dance, had performances at the National Black Film Festival in Winston Salem, NC. The play also showed in New York, NY and Portland, OR. Her other documentaries have screened at Columbia University, The San Diego Black Film Festival, and The DC Independent Film Festival. She is currently producing a short animation of an oral history—The Ride.
A Black Public Media 360 Incubator fellow and a Jacob Burns Film Center Creative Culture Resident, Ms. Shillingford divides her time between writing and producing, and running her nonprofit, Navigate the Maze to Achievement, which prepares Black and Latino students for specialized and selective high school admissions.
J Bird Lathon is interested in a cinema of artists, outcasts, eccentrics and iconoclasts that’s aesthetically irreverent, innovative, and informative. His shorts Numbers From A Montgomery Jail screened at The Nashville Film Festival and The Process and Mrs. Right Now, at The Black International Film Festival of Berlin. Impaled & Inhaled (2020) uses his photographs and poetry to tell his story of the September 11 attack on New York.
He is currently directing The Ride, an animated oral history about a young girl’s first experience with racist lynchings in Vicksburg, Mississippi in 1933. He and collaborator Allison Bonner Shillingford were selected by Black Public Media for their 360 Incubator+ Pitch Black Program. The Ride was recently invited to the Jacob Burns Film Center Creative Culture Residency Program for Fall 2021.
Mr. Lathon is a Creative Capital Nashville 2012 cohort and Sundance Co//ab for Producing (May 2020) cohort, advised by Karin Chien.
His feature screenplays received recognition in 2020. A Little Victory was a Quarterfinalist and Second Rounder in the ScreenCraft Drama and Film Fund Competitions. Administrative Leave was an Official Selection for the Loudoun Film Festival Screenplay Competition. In 2019, his short Presser was a Semifinalist in The Pan African Film Festival embRACE L.A. John Singleton Short Film Competition. See and learn more on Vimeo and Behance.
Jude Chehab
Close Up Filmmaker in Residence
Jude Chehab is a multi-award winning DP and feature filmmaker based between New York and Beirut. Her cinematic interests have drawn Jude to the exploration of the esoteric, the spiritual and the unspoken. A richly layered visual and intimate personal shooting style developed under the mentorship of Abbas Kiarostami’s final student group; Jude has been credited in collaborations with the BBC, Refinery29, Oxfam GB, and Doctors Without Borders.
She has worked as a DP internationally, on films in Somalia, Sudan and Pakistan and was most recently, an AP on Sesame Street’s newest show for Syrian refugees.
Her work has been awarded fellowships through: CAAM, NeXtDoc, Points North Institute, Firelight Media and Close-Up. Jude is currently in production on her first feature documentary based in Lebanon and has been supported by: IDA, ITVS, TFI, Sundance and recently was awarded First Prize in the Docs in Progress program at the Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival.
Jude was joined at the JBFC by editor Fahd Ahmed.
Melissa Lesh & Mallory Bracken
Focus on Nature Filmmakers in Residence
Melissa Lesh is an award-winning director, editor and cinematographer. In 2014 she founded Emerging Earth Films as a way to bridge the arts and sciences, focusing on natural history and conservation stories. Her work has been screened at festivals globally and she has produced for clients such as PBS, National Geographic and the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Lesh contributed cinematography to the feature film The Story of Plastic that aired on Discovery for Earth Day 2020. She is currently directing and producing a feature-length documentary film supported by the Sundance Institute. To see her work visit www.emergingearthfilms.com
Mallory Bracken is a photographer and filmmaker based in Richmond, VA. She was born and brought up in Waco, TX, there until a Joni Mitchell song prompted her move to Morgantown, WV. After earning a degree in Visual Journalism from West Virginia University, she spent time traveling in Europe, relocated to Santiago, Chile, and after two years in the Southern Hemisphere, resolved that she would call Virginia home. There, she continues finding significance in moments, relationships, stories, and saving bugs. To see her work, visit www.mallorybracken.com.
Mallory Bracken is a photographer and filmmaker based in Richmond, VA. She was born and brought up in Waco, TX, there until a Joni Mitchell song prompted her move to Morgantown, WV. After earning a degree in Visual Journalism from West Virginia University, she spent time traveling in Europe, relocated to Santiago, Chile, and after two years in the Southern Hemisphere, resolved that she would call Virginia home. There, she continues finding significance in moments, relationships, stories, and saving bugs. To see her work, visit www.mallorybracken.com.
Leola Calzolai-Stewart
REMIX Filmmaker-in-Residence
Leola Calzolai-Stewart is the co-founder of the Virginia-based production company FLOWSTATE Films where she currently directs and co-produces the historical documentary Changing State - Black Diplomats, Civil Rights, and the Cold War. Leola previously edited the feature documentary Dear Walmart, an intimate look at a diverse group of Walmart employees who fought back and won better wages and respect inside America’s largest private retailer; she also co-produced and edited The Last Song Before the War which examines the role of Mali’s Festival au Desert in promoting peace and development in Timbuktu.
Francisca Alegría
Sundance International Narrative Filmmaker-in-Residence
Francisca Alegría is a Chilean writer/director, who received her bachelor’s degree in audiovisual directing from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile in 2010, and her MFA from Columbia University in 2016. Her short film And the Whole Sky Fit in the Dead Cow’s Eye, a recipient of the National Board of Review Award, was selected at the Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, New York Film Festival, Warsaw Film Festival, amongst others. It won Best International Fiction Award at Sundance and Best Latin American Short at the Miami Film Festival in 2017. She currently has two projects in development, her first feature set in Chile, The Cow that Sang a Song About the Future, selected at the Sundance Screenwriters Lab, Sundance Directors Lab and CineMart (Rotterdam Film Festival) and her second feature, which will be an American production, set in New Mexico.
Bar Mayer
Woman Filmmaker-in-Residence
Born in a small religious village in southern Israel, Bar left her ultra-orthodox community at 17 and went on to study art at the Städel Schule in Frankfurt, Germany and at the Art Academy (UDK) in Berlin. In 2012 she moved back to Israel where she graduated with a BFA in photography from The Bezalel Art Academy in Jerusalem. She has exhibited her photographic, video and installation work in Israel and abroad.
Aviva Zimmerman
Woman Filmmaker-in-Residence
Originally from Calgary, Canada, Aviva trained as an actor and produced several political theatre projects before moving to Israel in 2011. Based in Tel Aviv, Aviva has collaborated with Israeli and Palestinian artists on several documentary and fiction projects. Her short film The Story of How it Ended premiered at the Jerusalem International Film Festival and her satirical web-series Avi Does the Holy Land has garnered hundreds of thousands of views and was nominated for Best Documentary Web-Series at the NYC Webfest. She recently completed an MFA in Film at Tel Aviv University.
Siyi Chen
Womxn Filmmaker-in-Residence
Siyi Chen is a documentary filmmaker from China. Born and raised in Zhejiang and educated in New York, she currently splits her time between these two places. Chen received a B.A. in World History and Chinese Literature (dual degree) from Peking University (Beijing) and a M.A. in News and Documentary from NYU. She has produced, shot, and edited dozens of short web docs that have appeared on Quartz, CNN, and PBS. Among her works, Chen documented a pioneering artificial intelligence experiment in a Chinese nursing home, covered the thriving new industry of paid cuddling in the US, and profiled an amateur roboticist from Hong Kong who spent $50,000 and three years building a extremely life-like robotic “Scarlett Johansson.”
Shelby Zoe Coley
Artist-in-Residence
Shelby Zoe Coley is a Black queer documentary filmmaker based in New York using rhythm, portraiture and the spoken word to explore intersections between queerness, race, and healing practices. Her work has been featured in publications such as Afropunk, Slay TV, and Curve Magazine and screened at festivals around the world; snagging an Audience Choice Award at Philadelphia Qflix and nominated for the Iris Prize.
Iliana Sosa
Social Justice Filmmaker-in-Residence
Iliana Sosa is a documentary and narrative filmmaker born and raised in El Paso, Texas by Mexican immigrant parents, and holds a MFA in film production and directing from UCLA. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Hollywood Foreign Press Award, the National Hispanic Foundation of the Arts Scholarship, the Film Independent Project Involve Directing Fellowship, and Firelight Media’s Impact Producer Fellowship, among others. Iliana has been selected for the Berlinale Talents and Sundance’s Latino Screenwriting Project. Her films have screened at various film festivals and took home Best Short Film and the Texas Award at the USA Film Festival, a Jury Award for Best Texas Short at SXSW, and a Youth Jury Award at Aspen ShortsFest. She is a 2018-2019 Sundance Development Fellow with her first feature documentary, What We Leave Behind.
Iliana was joined by editor Clementina Mantellini.
Christi Cooper
Focus on Nature Filmmaker-in-Residence
Born and raised in Boulder, Colorado, Christi Cooper is an Emmy-award-winning cinematographer with a MS in Microbiology and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience. Cooper creates compelling visual narratives to raise awareness and inspire action around socio-political issues. Her journey documenting the youth climate movement began in 2011, when she co-produced a 10-part series with WITNESS, a social justice and human rights organization focused on using film for social change. The series, Stories of TRUST: Calling for Climate Recovery, was used in a grassroots campaign to reach decision-makers and judges ruling on climate litigation brought to the courts by young people. Cooper’s short films have screened at festivals around the world and won numerous awards, including a Wildscreen Panda Award for Best Campaign Film. In 2018, she was awarded the inaugural SFFILM/Vulcan Productions Environmental Film Fellowship for her work on YOUTH v. GOV.
Christi was joined by editors Tony Hale and Lyman Smith.
Martha Gregory
Artist-in-Residence
Martha is a filmmaker and editor who teaches at Kenyon College in Gambier, OH. Martha edited and co-directed a short documentary about Sea Level Rise called Facing the Surge, which toured the country with Citizens Climate Lobby and played at festivals on both coasts. Her most recent short doc, Three Red Sweaters, won Best Documentary at Aspen Shortsfest, the Critics Award at the Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival, and the Jacob Burns Creative Culture Award at the Middlebury New FIlmmaker's Festival. It has gone on to become a Vimeo staff pick and Short of the Week.
Hana Mire
GREENHOUSE Artist-in-Residence
Somali filmmaker Hana Mire was a 2016–17 Greenhouse Documentary Development lab participant. Her first feature-length documentary, Rajada Dalka (Nation's Hope), is a character-driven portrait of the Somali Women’s National Basketball team struggling to survive in a country where strict gender roles and rigid Islamic tenets increasingly restrict women’s rights.
Rozeen Bisharat
Woman Filmmaker-in-Residence
Rozeen BIsharat is a Palestinian Israeli who recently moved to Berlin, Germany. After graduating from the Tel Aviv University Film School, she worked as script supervisor on Shira Geffen’s Self Made and was personal assistant to director Eran Kolirin on Dancing Arabs. Rozeen was part of the Greenhouse Program for Jewish & Arab Women Filmmakers in Israel, and during her time at the JBFC, she worked on her directorial debut, the documentary Present/Absent.
Brad Barber
Artist-in-Residence
Named to Variety's “10 Documakers to Watch” list in 2015, Brad Barber is an Emmy-nominated documentary filmmaker. His feature debut, Peace Officer, won the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at the 2015 SXSW Film Festival and the David Carr "Truth in Nonfiction Filmmaking" Award at the Montclair Film Festival. Peace Officer went on to a nationwide theatrical release (including a screening at the Jacob Burns Film Center), before airing on PBS's acclaimed documentary series Independent Lens. Previously, Barber was nominated for an Emmy as an editor on the HBO documentary Resolved. Recently, Barber released his newest project, States of America, which examines identity and connection to place through the lens of one person in each of the 50 United States.
Hannah Jayanti
Artist-in-Residence
Hannah Jayanti is a documentary filmmaker. In her current work, she lives in a place for months, filming by herself and giving voice to the smaller stories that surround us but which we rarely celebrate. Recent support includes: New York State Council on the Arts, Tribeca New Media Fund, Jerome Foundation, Tribeca Film Institute & Points North Institute (Camden/TFI Retreat), True/False & Catapult Film (Rough Cut Retreat), Puffin Foundation, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation. She’s a 2018 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in Video/Film from The New York Foundation for the Arts. She’s a member of Women Make Movies and Brown Girls Doc Mafia.
Antonio Campos
Artist-in-Residence
Antonio Campos is a writer, director, and producer. His most recent feature Christine, which stars Rebecca Hall and Michael C. Hall, premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. Campos’ debut feature, Afterschool premiered at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for Best First Feature at the 2008 Film Independent Spirit Awards. That same year, Campos was nominated for Breakthrough Director at the Gotham Independent Film Awards. His producing credits include Martha Marcy May Marlene, James White, and Two Gates of Sleep.
Bernardo Britto
Artist-in-Residence
Bernardo Britto was born in Rio de Janeiro, grew up in South Florida, and graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. His animated short films, including Yearbook and Glove, have played numerous film festivals and won awards at Sundance, SXSW, AFI Fest, and others. In 2016 his debut feature film Jacqueline (Argentine) premiered at Sundance in the NEXT section. His work has been featured on Pitchfork, the New Yorker, and AdultSwim and he has received support from the Sundance Institute Labs as well as the Rooftop Filmmakers’ Fund. During his residency at JBFC he worked on a new project and hosted a screening of Y Tu Mamá También at the JBFC Theater.
Sara Nacer
GREENHOUSE Artist-in-Residence
Algerian filmmaker Sara Nacer is founder and president of the arts & films production company SN Productions, and a public relations specialist. She is co-director of the Greenhouse work-in-progress feature documentary La Rockeuse du Désert, and currently living and working in Montreal, Canada. She is living and working on the JBFC Campus in April 2017. During her residency she will host screenings at the JBFC Theater, work with Creative Culture Lab Makers, and participate in student screenings.
Laura Bustillos
GREENHOUSE Artist-in-Residence
Mexican filmmaker Laura Bustillos is a documentary filmmaker and photographer from the Ciudad Juarez border sister city of El Paso, Texas, where she currently developing a film series Undocumented Freedom, and is co-director of the Greenhouse work-in-progress feature documentary La Rockeuse du Désert. She is living and working on the JBFC Campus in April 2017. During her residency she will host screenings at the JBFC Theater, work with Creative Culture Lab Makers, and participate in student screenings.
Ekin Çalışır
GREENHOUSE Artist-in-Residence
Turkish filmmaker Ekin Çalışır has worked at Al Jazeera Turk as a journalist and producer of short documentaries, and has produced international news and current affairs for the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation. Çalışır is co-director of the Greenhouse work-in-progress feature documentary Mr. Gay Syria and is currently directing the Greenhouse documentary Babyland. She is living and working on the JBFC Campus in April 2017. During her residency she will host screenings at the JBFC Theater, work with Creative Culture Lab Makers, and participate in student screenings.
Ayse Toprak
GREENHOUSE Artist-in-Residence
Turkish filmmaker Ayse Toprak is based in Istanbul, working on social and political documentaries about her country. She has produced films for Channel Thirteen/PBS and Al Jazeera in London and Doha. Toprak is co-director of the Greenhouse work-in-progress feature documentary Mr. Gay Syria. She is living and working on the JBFC Campus in April 2017. During her residency she will host screenings at the JBFC Theater, work with Creative Culture Lab Makers, and participate in student screenings.
Ja'Tovia Gary
REMIX Artist-in-Residence
Ja'Tovia M. Gary is an artist and filmmaker currently living and working in Brooklyn, New York. She was REMIX Artist-in-Residence in January 2017. Gary’s work confronts traditional notions of representation, race, gender, sexuality, and power. Gary is concerned with charting the various ways raced and gendered bodies navigate popular media. The artist earned her MFA in Social Documentary Filmmaking from a private for-profit art school in New York City. While in residence, Ja’Tovia worked on the first cut of her documentary, The Evidence of Things Not Seen. She also worked with makers in JBFC’s Creative Culture program, an initiative that provides production space, equipment, industry-oriented programming, and networking opportunities to emerging filmmakers.
Maryam Ebrahimi
Artist-in-Residence
Maryam Ebrahimi lived and worked on the JBFC campus in March 2016, and participated in our series Greenhouse 2016: Emerging Documentary Voices from the Middle East and North Africa, from March 20–24, and in various education programs at the Media Arts Lab, including the new adult class Films in Focus: Greenhouse 2016.
Maryam studied at the Art University of Tehran and continued her education at the University of Konstfack in Stockholm, where she now lives and works. Maryam has produced and codirected several acclaimed documentaries highlighting contemporary political and social themes including Those Who Said No, the Greenhouse ’15 opening night film, and No Burqas Behind Bars, which focuses on how “moral crimes” are used to control women in post-Taliban Afghanistan, and was named Best Documentary at the International Emmy Awards in 2014. Her work-in-progress documentary feature Stronger than a Bullet explores the misuse of photographer Saied Sadeghi’s images from the first Persian Gulf War for Iran's war propaganda, helping to propel a generation to their deaths as martyrs.
Maryam was joined by Jesper Osmond, a feature film, documentary and commercial editor from Sweden.
Hind Bensari
Artist-in-Residence
Hind Bensari lived and worked on the JBFC campus in March 2016, and participated in our series Greenhouse 2016: Emerging Documentary Voices from the Middle East and North Africa, from March 20–24, and in various education programs at the Media Arts Lab, including the new adult class Films in Focus: Greenhouse 2016.
A journalist and self-taught filmmaker, Hind developed an interest in filmmaking while working in London as a media development manager. Her award-winning first documentary 475: Break the Silence investigates the perception and misrepresentation of rape, family and relationships in her country, and helped to change to the laws which previously protected rapists who agreed to marry their victims. Her current work-in-progress feature documentary Weight Throwers highlights disabled athletes struggling for rights and recognition in Morocco.
Sarra Abidi
Artist-in-Residence
Sarra Abidi is a Tunisian filmmaker. The Dead Cannot Vote, a documentary about a fledgling democracy facing the problem of chemical pollution in southern Tunisia, is her first feature. The Mother, which she cowrote, won the Francophone Prize at the Montpellier Film Festival. While in residence at the JBFC, Sarra Abidi presented a screening of The Dead Cannot Vote, followed by a Q&A.
Bong Joon-ho
Artist-in-Residence
Bong Joon-ho is one of the most successful South Korean filmmakers ever, with a wide international reputation. The LA Times says, “Bong Joon-ho is the rare filmmaker who seems to work both within and beyond the confines of genre. His brisk, funny, extremely well-made movies deliver the familiar pleasures of pop entertainment, though often in unfamiliar configurations.” He is the award-winning director/screenwriter of Barking Dogs Never Bite, Memories of Murder, The Host, Mother,and Snowpiercer. During his time at the JBFC, Director Bong was accompanied by producer and Hartsdale native Dooho Choi. Director Bong attended screenings of his four most recent films, participated in Q&As, and worked on preproduction for his upcoming project while he was in residence.
Guy Reid
Artist-in-Residence
Guy Reid is cofounder of the Planetary Collective. He is an emerging leader in sustainability and biocentric philosophy and holds an MA in Leadership in Sustainable Development from Forum for the Future in London. His award-winning short film Overview has been viewed 6.5 million times. At the JBFC, Reid screened and discussed Overview, completed postproduction on his first feature, Planetary, worked with JBFC Creators’ Co-op students, and visited high schools around Westchester County.
Lindsey Dryden
Artist-in-Residence
Lindsey Dryden is a documentary filmmaker from the United Kingdom who worked on television documentaries for the BBC and the History Channel prior to beginning her filmmaking career. At the JBFC Dryden worked on filming, editing, and postproduction for her latest documentary, Plié. In addition, she presented a screening of Lost and Sound, her documentary about music, deafness, and the incredible human brain.
Lucio Gregoretti
Artist-in-Residence
Lucio Gregoretti has written the music for approximately 100 plays and film scores, working with directors including Carlo Lizzani, Margarethe von Trotta, and Lina Wertmüller. He also has composed many operas and symphonic and chamber music pieces, receiving commissions from numerous organizations and international festivals. His music has been performed around the world. During his time at the JBFC, he attended screenings, presented public programs, and worked with students.
Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Artist-in-Residence
Apichatpong Weerasethakul is an internationally acclaimed Thai filmmaker and visual artist. A native of Bangkok, Weerasethakul was trained in architecture before turning to filmmaking in the 1990s. His award-winning work has been shown to great acclaim around the world. During his residency, Weerasethakul worked on postproduction on a pair of short films—Mekong Hotel and Ashes—both of which were screened at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.
Mihai Chirilov
Artist-in-Residence
Mihai Chirilov is a film critic and has been Artistic Director of the Romanian Film Festival in New York City since 2006. He is also Artistic Director of the Transilvania International Film Festival, which he cofounded in 2002 and guided to prominence While at the JBFC, Chirilov curated “Tales from the Golden Age: New Romanian Cinema” and has curated the annual series “Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema” series since then.
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