Jennifer Maytorena Taylor

Jennifer Maytorena Taylor is a professor of Social Documentation and an acclaimed filmmaker whose work, featured on PBS, Al Jazeera, and at Sundance and Hot Docs, captures underrepresented stories with depth and compassion. Her films include New Muslim Cool, For the Love of Rutland, and Redneck Muslim. A Sundance Documentary Fellow and recipient of multiple NEA and Ford Foundation grants, Jennifer is also the founding director of the Social Documentation Lab at UC Santa Cruz. She mentors emerging filmmakers through programs like PBS and Latino Public Broadcasting, helping shape the next generation of impactful storytellers.

Chen-Yi Wu

Taiwanese artist and filmmaker Chen-Yi Wu creates hybrid works that merge literature, theater, and cinema to explore identity, memory, and community. Her ongoing documentary, Uncle America, reflects on Taiwan-U.S. connections through family stories and has received support from UnionDocs. A Netflix Documentary Archival Research Fellow, Chen-Yi’s interdisciplinary approach spans animation, performance, and interactive media. She teaches as an adjunct professor and contributes to film festivals as a screener, programmer, and writer. Through her creative and academic practice, Chen-Yi builds cross-cultural bridges, and her visionary work addresses social issues within the Asian diaspora.

Sonali Gulati

Sonali Gulati is a filmmaker, feminist, and queer rights activist whose award-winning work has screened at over 500 festivals worldwide. Her documentaries, including I Am and Nalini by Day, Nancy by Night, have aired internationally on PBS and other major networks. A Guggenheim Fellow and Creative Capital artist, Sonali’s work explores identity, gender, and the politics of “representation” in mass media. She teaches at Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of the Arts, and her ultimate goal is not only to find innovative ways of storytelling but also to create films as organizing tools, in the hope of making this a safe, sustainable, and just world.

Tracy Heather Strain

Tracy Heather Strain is an award-winning filmmaker and educator whose work explores race, gender, and social justice through historical and contemporary narratives. Her acclaimed film Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart, the first feature about Lorraine Hansberry, won a Peabody and NAACP Image Award. Her credits also include Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space and Race: The Power of an Illusion. As co-founder of The Film Posse and a professor at Wesleyan University, Tracy trains filmmakers to tell stories that reveal untold histories and spark critical dialogue about culture and identity.

Anayansi Prado

Anayansi Prado is an award-winning filmmaker celebrated for her deeply human stories that reveal the people behind the headlines. With over two decades of experience, her films, including Maid in America, Paraiso for Sale, and The Unafraid, have aired on PBS and screened at Tribeca, Full Frame, and SXSW. Her work has received support from Creative Capital, the Ford Foundation, and Sundance Institute, among others. Anayansi is also a visiting film professor, teaching at UCLA, Chapman University, and Cal State Northridge. As a cultural envoy for the U.S. State Department's American Film Showcase, she's taught documentary workshops across five continents, helping new filmmakers find their voice and vision.

Carleen L. Hsu

Carleen L. Hsu is an Emmy and Peabody Award–winning documentary filmmaker, editor, and educator with more than two decades of experience. Her work for HBO, PBS, BBC, and TLC spans a range of subject matter, from the obesity epidemic in America to gender identity in Thailand to faith healing in Nigeria. Carleen's storytelling has been celebrated for its originality, earning accolades from the Royal Television Society and the Foreign Press Association. A graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and Columbia Journalism School, she is drawn to stories related to health, science, and the environment.

Alicia Hawkins

Alicia is an educator, filmmaker, and writer originally from Buffalo, NY. Her work often centers on complex and intersecting identities, the restorative power of nature, untold histories of marginalized communities, and the unexpected resilience of individuals. Her documentaries and screenplays have been featured at festivals across North America, earning recognition from the REEL Sisters of the Diaspora and Hollywood Diversity Film Festival. Alicia has taught filmmaking and writing at Antioch University, Temple University, and Northwest Indian College. 

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