An educator and facilitator, Vivian Vázquez Irizarry ran educational and youth leadership development programs at the Coro Foundation, Bronxworks, and is currently the director of community-school partnerships at the New Settlement Community Campus. Vázquez Irizarry managed educational youth development models in GED completion and college access programs across New York City. A former member of the National Congress for Puerto Rican Rights, she is a member of 52 People for Progress, a community organization that saved her childhood playground and revitalized the South Bronx for the last 35 years.

Neyda Martinez is an Associate Professor at The New School’s Media Management division of the School of Media Studies. As a producer of nonfiction film, her documentary credits include Decade of Fire and LUCKY. For over 5 years, she was part of the core team and was the lead communications strategist bringing public television's social-issue award-winning documentary series America ReFramed to national audiences. Additionally, Neyda also worked at POV for 7 years having supported the strategic campaigns of over 65 acclaimed films. For the Peabody award-winning PBS documentary series LATINO AMERICANS, she served as Director of National Engagement and as a consultant to a national initiative inspired by the program led by the American Library Association and National Endowment for the Humanities to engage communities and libraries across the U.S. As a consultant, she’s served Hachette Book Group USA, NYC’s Mayor’s Office of Adult Education, and WNYC and NPR’s The Takeaway. She is on the board of directors of The Association of American Cultures, Women Make Movies and Bronx-based dance company, Pepatian. Prior board service includes of Third World Newsreel and NALIP/National Association of Latino Independent Producers.

Paolo Rein, an aspiring writer, director, actor, and activist based in Los Angeles California strives to not only lay a foundation for change within the film industry, but also tackle colorism, representation on screen, and social and political issues that get overlooked within today's narratives. From assisting in the recording of sound in ‘Finding America’, a student short film that revolved around a middle eastern immigrant seeking a false perception of the American Dream. To the untold narratives of being a first-generation college student, but through the lens of a Filipino Asian-American perspective. His latest work ‘Shaded Complexion’ revolves around the culture shock of progressing from living in the projects to landing a corporate internship and the unhealthy idolization of narratives centered around brown and black people of color.

Dorian Gomez is a Mexican filmmaker and storyteller based in Durham, NC. Her voice and lens are intent on telling stories of inclusion and belonging. With very little formal training, Dorian has immersed herself in her local filmmaking community seeking every opportunity to practice her craft. Due to the systemic inequities that exist in the field of filmmaking, Dorian continues to organize to fight for access to sustainable careers and resources for young artists and storytellers.

Born in Ahuachapán, El Salvador and raised in California, Lidieth Arevalo is an activist, editor and independent filmmaker with a Master of Fine Arts degree in documentary filmmaking from Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts and a B.A. degree in Film and Electronic Media Arts from California State University, Long Beach. As an artist and filmmaker, she is committed to create content that transcends borders, cultures, and languages; media that evokes hope and understanding between communities and individuals across the world. She has produced several short documentaries on identity, immigration, diversity and inclusion. Some of her recent documentaries include Alpharaoh (2019), Ladylike (2019) Advance Parole (2018), ERUSD Leader of the Ethnic Studies Revolution (2018), and Sin Raiz (2015).

Rahi Hasan (they/them) is a dancer, cultural organizer, educator, impact strategist and a multimedia artist experimenting with ways to challenge power on all fronts and create space for healing and radical imagination. They immigrated to Queens, New York from Dhaka, Bangladesh and lived there for almost 15 years before moving to Durham, NC. Rahi completed their BA in Philosophy and MA in Philosophy of Law from Queens College prior to completing their certificate in Documentary Arts from the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. Rahi’s work spans autobiography, collaborative social documentary, experimental video, installation, reflective/theoretical discourse, and text-based approaches.

Mario Torres Torres is Los Angeles based filmmaker and activist. Born in Mexico and immigrating at the age of six has shaped the stories they tell. From a very young age they have had a strong passion for filmmaking and storytelling. Sitting around a campfire drinking café de olla and listening to elders pass down their stories sparked his curiosity. Now, Mario pursues a career to continue the work of great creatives that continue to push the borders of media. Their aim is to provide a restorative platform for underserved and underrepresented communities to break into the industry and create change from the inside.

Wil Prada is a cultural activist that captures and creates stories through film. He was born in La Campiña, a suburb of Lima, Peru. After obtaining his BA in Political Science from UCLA, he got involved in the grassroots immigrant rights movement, where he became a skilled media communicator after seeing the need to amplify marginalized undocumented voices. Prada discovered his love of filmmaking after using it as a tool for advocacy. Through years of experience in the non-profit and labor sectors, a lifelong involvement in science programs, and a dedication to the craft of film, Prada has developed a unique lens as a cinematographer and director. His work has screened at NASA, the Houston Museum of Natural Science, San Francisco MoMA, LALIFF.

Angel Manuel Soto is an acclaimed award-winning filmmaker from Santurce, Puerto Rico, and the director of Charm City Kings. His first feature, La Granja, won Best Opera Prima at the 2015 Guadalajara Film Festival. With media company RYOT, Soto directed over 20 documentaries, including El Púgil, which premiered during the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival, the critically praised VR documentary Bashir's Dream, and the groundbreaking VR experience Dinner Party, which premiered during the 2018 Sundance Film Festival.

Peter Decherney is an author, filmmaker, and professor. He is Director of the Cinema & Media Studies Program at the University of Pennsylvania and has been an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Scholar, a fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies, and a U.S. State Department Arts Envoy to Myanmar. He has directed documentary and virtual reality films in Myanmar, Kenya, Puerto Rico, and Ethiopia. He is the author or editor of six books including Hollywood’s Copyright Wars: From Edison to the Internet and Hollywood: A Very Short Introduction. He is also a regular contributor to Forbes and an award-winning teacher, whose open online course on the history of Hollywood has enrolled more that 50,000 learners.

Kumar Tristan Santana aka Tristan Seyek is a writer, director and producer from Philadelphia, the son of an Afro-Carribean Puerto Rican father and 1st generation Indian-American mother. His first short film, The Block, premiered at BlackStar Film Festival in 2015. Hanh, Solo, the feature comedy he co-directed, screened at the 2018 LA Asian Pacific Film Festival. Most recently, his music video for the song Pray For You, by alt-rnb artist, Rego, was featured as part of the Beat of the Resistance installation, curated by the Asian Arts Initiative in Philadelphia. A storyteller at heart, Tristan’s work spans across all styles and genres and aims to use this skillset and bursting imagination to bring Ave Maria to life.

Eli Jacobs-Fantauzzi is an internationally-recognized and award-winning filmmaker. He is the founder of FistUp.TV, a media platform uplifting and telling stories from underrepresented communities across the world. His work has circulated through National Broadcast: Free Speech TV, Teaching Channel, and PBS. Online he has created content for remezcla, okayafrica, TIDAL, and VIBE. Spike Lee is one of the reasons Eli became a filmmaker, and in 2019 he hired Eli to work on set with him as a photographer for ""She's Gotta Have It Too."" Eli is the co-founder of Defend Puerto Rico, a multimedia project designed to document and celebrate Puerto Rican creativity, resilience, and resistance. He is currently touring the world with his new film Bakosó: Afrobeats of Cuba and curating his 11th Annual Fist Up Film Festival. His dedication to his craft is deeply connected to his commitment to social justice and the belief in the transformative power of film.