Brown Girls Doc Mafia announces Capacity Council

BGDM's Capacity Council: Opal H. Bennett, Anurima Bhargava, Daniel Chalfen, Jess Devaney, Gina Duncan, Wendy Ettinger, Rosie Garthwaite, Alex Lieberman, Christie Marchese, Marángeli Mejía Rabell, Adam Neuhaus, Carol Paik, Joshn Penn, Anya Rous, Lina Srivastava, and Everette Taylor.

New York, NY — Brown Girls Doc Mafia (BGDM) announced a new support model to usher in the organization’s next phase as they approach their 10 year anniversary.

Nearly five years after the movement for greater diversity, equity, access, and inclusion took center stage, many companies have failed to uphold the promises they made. In the last year, the US has seen growing anti-DEI legislation which threatens documentary film distributors like PBS’s POV, 17,000 industry jobs cut in one month, the mass exodus of Black women executives from major studios, and compounding systems of inequity harming marginalized groups. It’s clear that a reinvestment and recommitment to BIPOC women and nonbinary creatives and professionals, and organizations is overdue.

To answer this call, BGDM launched the Capacity Council, a brain trust of industry leaders, donors, allies, and BGDM members across sectors whose mission is to bolster BGDM’s financial resiliency and increase the organization's capacity to innovate, scale, and impact the documentary field. The inaugural members of the Council, who have been working behind the scenes for the last year, include:

• Opal H. Bennett (Senior Producer, POV; Executive Producer, POV Shorts)
• Anurima Bhargava (Founder/Director, Anthem of Us)
• Daniel Chalfen (Co-Founder, Naked Edge Films)
• Multitude Films (Jess Devaney, Anya Rous)
• Gina Duncan (President, Brooklyn Academy of Music)
• Wendy Ettinger (Co-Founder, Chicken & Egg Pictures and Gamechanger Films)
• Rosie Garthwaite (Executive Producer, BBC World Service’s Investigations Unit)
• Alex Lieberman (Founder, Bright West Entertainment)
• Christie Marchese (CEO/Founder, Kinema)
• Marángeli Mejía Rabell (Festival Director, Philadelphia Latino Arts & Film Festival)
• Adam Neuhaus (Founder, Neuhaus Ideas)
• Carol Paik (Co-Founder/Executive Producer, Shoes Off Media)
• Josh Penn (Producer, Department of Motion Pictures)
• Lina Srivastava (Founder, Center for Transformational Change)
• Everette Taylor (CEO, Kickstarter)

Utilizing their expertise and networks, Council members will support the work of the organization through annual fundraising and project-focused collaboration with BGDM leadership, with a particular focus on strategic dreaming and knowledge-building in its inaugural charge.

“Capacity Council members inspire us with their work, share our values and commitment to diversity, and see BGDM as the future of the documentary industry,” BGDM Founder & Co-Executive Director Iyabo Boyd said. “As we approach BGDM’s 10th anniversary in October 2025, we remain steadfast in our mission to nurture, amplify and invest in this talented community. We’re proud to be integral players in the nonfiction field’s progress around diversity, equity, and inclusion in the last ten years. We’re honored to have these incredible leaders on the Capacity Council, and we feel confident their contributions will help ensure BGDM’s programs and initiatives continue to support women and nonbinary documentary filmmakers of color for the next ten years.”

For more information about the Capacity Council and opportunities to support Brown Girls Doc Mafia please visit: browngirlsdocmafia.org/Capacity-Council