Marriage Story

Avril Z. Speaks has been carving out her path as a bold, innovative content creator for several years, not only as a producer and director but also during her former days as a professor at Howard University. She produced the award-winning film Jinn, which premiered in Narrative Competition at SXSW and won Special Jury Recognition for Writing. Jinn gained distribution through MGM/Orion Classics and continues to be seen throughout the world. Avril has also produced several films including Hosea, the South African film African America, (both of which will release in fall 2020), and the comedy Dotty & Soul, starring Leslie Uggams, Gary Owen, David Koechner and Margot Bingham. Avril was also an Associate Producer on the TNT docu-series “American Race” and has helped produce both scripted and non-scripted content for BET, Coca Cola, Essence, and others. Avril has been selected for producing labs with Film Independent, Sundance, IFP, Rotterdam and Cannes, and she is currently a 2020 Sundance Momentum Fellow and a Blackhouse Producer’s Lab Fellow. Avril has coordinated international film education programs such as Global Media Makers and the inaugural Hollywood Foreign Press Association Filmmaker Residency. She is a contributing writer for DearProducer.com and has also directed feature films, including The Round Table and the award-winning Sophisticated Romance.

Heather Rae is a film and television producer and narrative change activist. Rae produced Academy Award nominated Frozen River, received the Piaget Producers Award and has been recognized as Variety’s Producer to Watch.  Rae produced Netflix Originals Tallulah starring Ellen Page and Allison Janney and Dude from Blacklist winner Olivia Milch, Sundance highlight The Dry Land starring America Ferrera, and festival darlin I Believe in Unicorns from director Leah Meyerhoff.  More recently Rae produced Bull, which premiered in Cannes and Amazon series Outer Range starring Josh Brolin. As a filmmaker Rae directed the acclaimed documentary Trudell, which tells the story of movement leader and poet, John Trudell. Formerly Rae ran the Native Program at the Sundance Institute and recently Rae began an overall producing deal with Amazon Studios .  As a speaker and social critic Rae is working from both her settler and indigenous heritage to deepen the dialogue of reconciliation and responsibility in the Americas. 

Kimberly Sherman is an American Independent Film Producer best known for festival favorites such as Wild Canaries (dir. Lawrence Michael Levine, SXSW 2014) and Sun Don’t Shine (dir. Amy Seimetz, SXSW 2012), as well as the breakout home-invasion thriller, You’re Next (dir. Adam Wingard, Lionsgate 2013). Sherman worked as a Production Executive for Warner Brothers Digital Studios, where she ushered through several groundbreaking series, including the Emmy nominated short-form comedy series, I Love Bekka & Lucy (dir. Rachael Holder, 2016). Sherman most recently returned to independent film and produced the features Archenemy (dir. Adam Egypt Mortimer) and No Man of God (dir. Amber Sealey), alongside Company X/SpectreVision’s Elijah Wood, Daniel Noah, and Lisa Whalen. 

Shruti Ganguly is an award-winning filmmaker and writer based in Oslo and New York City. Shruti was a member of Obama’s ECCO committee of 30 leaders and creators in entertainment, chairing its Asian Caucus, and is on the Creative Council for Emily’s List. She has produced several films (including Spirit-winner H., and the Nora Ephron Prize-winner Initials SG) that have premiered Sundance, Venice, Tribeca and Berlin. Shruti has directed videos for Google, Unilever, Nike, Conde Nast, Chanel, and crafted the #MySentence series on prison reform for the Obama Administration. In late 2017, Shruti started honto88, a production company that works in a variety of formats – from narrative and doc features to series, and branded content. She launched it with a narrative feature, Green Dolphin, by director Chris Kenneally and EP Keanu Reeves. Shruti worked for several years with James Franco on films, and produced an experimental art performance with him and Marina Abramovic, called Bird Shit, which premiered at the MoMA. Previously, Shruti worked at NYLON, MTV, and Conde Nast, producing the CLIO-winning 73 Questions series. Shruti is currently writing a genre film for Sony, and writing a multi-generational drama for Netflix. She is developing a series on the Harlem Renaissance with Killer Films and MGM. Shruti is a co-founder of the Resistance Revival Chorus, a collective born out of the Women’s March that brings together artists and activists to use music and joy as an act of resistance. Shruti is a published writer (Nevertheless They Persisted, Penguin) and a contributing writer for The Juggernaut. Shruti received her Bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University, and went to NYU’s dual MFA/MBA program at Tisch and Stern. She hails from India, by way of Oman, and believes that international stories deserve the specificity and truth, and strategic marketing and distribution plan to travel the world and change the way we exist.

Ruth Du is a director and producer, originally from Portland, Oregon. She received a B.F.A. at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Du produced indie feature The Archer starring Bailey Noble (“True Blood”), Jeanine Mason (CW’s “Roswell”) and Bill Sage (“Power,” “Orange is the New Black”), which premiered at SXSW in 2017. Her directorial credits include digital series Seeking with Jay A. Johnson (“Quantico”) and TV movie Your Baby Is Mine with Linsey Godfrey (“Days of our Lives”). Most recently, Du was the Executive Director of the AT&T Hello Lab Mentorship Program, working closely with Lena Waithe and Rishi Rajani and producing five short films that included the talents of Dascha Polanco (“Orange is the New Black”), Loretta Devine (“Crash,” “Grey’s Anatomy”) and Rob Morgan (“Mudbound,” “Just Mercy”). She is a 2020 Film Independent Project Involve Directing Fellow and currently resides in Los Angeles.