Documenting Politics

Alison Klayman was the youngest director named by the New York Times chief film critics A.O. Scott and Manohla Dargis on their international list of 20 Directors to Watch. Alison’s documentary work has been recognized with awards and box office success, and she also directs nonfiction series and commercials. Her debut feature Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, about the Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei, premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival where it was awarded a US Documentary Special Jury Prize for Spirit of Defiance. It had its international premiere at Berlinale and went on to be shortlisted for an Academy Award, nominated for two Emmys, and earn Alison a DGA Award nomination and an appearance on The Colbert Report among other honors. Never Sorry has now been translated into over 26 languages and had major theatrical releases around the world, including on over 200 screens with IFC Films in the United States. It was also one of the highest grossing films of 2012 directed by a woman. Her newest documentary The Brink was theatrically released in 2019 by Magnolia Pictures. In it she takes on former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, following him for over a year as he tries to promote his brand of extreme nationalism and unite the far-right anti-immigrant parties of Europe. After its Sundance premiere, Variety called the film “impeccably crafted…an engaging and enraging, disturbing and highly revealing movie.” In his Critic’s Pick review, A.O Scott wrote “it’s a fast-moving, tightly packed, at times unnervingly entertaining documentary.” Alison’s other films include the Netflix Original feature documentary Take Your Pills about the role of prescription stimulants in a hyper-competitive, overly medicated America. The Emmy and BAFTA-nominated film was executive produced by Maria Shriver and had its world premiere at the 2018 SXSW Film Festival. She is also the director of The 100 Years Show about 103-year-old Cuban-American painter Carmen Herrera, who worked in obscurity for decades until finally receiving recognition late in life. The film was a festival favorite and five-time winner of “Best Documentary Short.” It had a theatrical run at New York’s Film Forum, and screened at the Whitney and other museums before being released worldwide on Netflix. She has also served as an executive producer on several award-winning films, including the Oscar-shortlisted documentaries Hooligan Sparrow and On Her Shoulders.

Lisa Cortés is an Academy Award® nominated and Emmy-winning Producer and Director. She is renowned for creating challenging, visionary stories and has been distinguished by her commitment to empowering inclusive voices. The film Precious (2009), which she executive produced, received Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize for best drama. Marking the acting debut of Gabourey Sidibe, the film was nominated for six Academy Awards® and won two. 2019’s The Apollo, an HBO documentary, explores African American cultural and political history through the story of the legendary Apollo Theater. Her directorial debut, The Remix: Hip Hop X Fashion (2019), traces the impact of street fashion and African American creativity on global cultural trends and was recently released on Netflix. Cortés‘ current project, All In: The Fight For Democracy; which she co-directed with Liz Garbus and produced with Stacey Abrams, Dan Cogan, and Garbus was released by Amazon Studios. Her early career as a music executive was launched at the iconic Def Jam label and Rush Artist Management; she also was VP of A&R at Mercury Records, and founded the Loose Cannon label. Her film productions have received over 70 international awards and nominations. Cortés is a member of the Producers Branch of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She serves on the Boards of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, ITVS, Yaddo, and the Trajal Harrell Dance Company. She is a graduate of Yale University.

Ramona S. Diaz is an award-winning Asian American filmmaker whose films have screened at Sundance, the Berlinale, Tribeca, the Viennale, IDFA, SXSW, Hot Docs, and many other top- tier film festivals. All of Ramona‘s feature-length films — Imelda (2004), The Learning (2011), Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey (2012), and Motherland (2017) — have been broadcast on PBS, on either the POV or Independent Lens series. Three of her films have premiered and won awards at the Sundance Film Festival. Motherland had its international premiere at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival and was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary, a Peabody Award, and a Gaward Urian Award from the Filipino Film Critics. Her latest film, A Thousand Cuts, premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and had a theatrical release in August. It will be broadcast on Frontline in January 2021. Ramona was awarded a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship and was inducted into the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (AMPAS) in 2016, and in 2017 received a Women at Sundance Fellowship and a Chicken & Egg Pictures Filmmaker Award. She is a recipient of both a United States Artist and a Creative Capital Fellowship. Ramona‘s first film Imelda has been acquired by Kyra Sedgewick‘s Big Swing Productions with Ramona attached to direct and write the scripted adaptation; Don’t Stop Believin’ was acquired by Warner Brothers with John Chu (Crazy Rich Asians) attached to direct; Ramona is attached to produce.

Washington D.C. based documentary filmmaker Yi Chen is a Soros Equality Fellow and DC Arts and Humanities Fellow. Her debut feature First Vote – about Asian American voters in battleground states – is an official selection at the 2020 AFI DOCS, Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, Hawaii International Film Festival, CAAMFest, LA Asian Pacific Film Festival, Vancouver Asian Film Festival, and more. The film is playing in virtual cinemas followed by national broadcast premiere on WORLD Channel’s American ReFramed series in October. It’s also currently on a campus and community tour across the US through Good Docs and its Good Talks speaker series. Yi‘s work has been supported by the Ford Foundation JustFilms, Open Society Foundations, Center for Asian American Media, ITVS, DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, Kartemquin Films, and Southern Documentary Fund. Yi holds an MFA in Film and Media Arts from American University and taught documentary filmmaking at George Mason University.

Amy Adrion is a director and writer whose work has screened at the Sundance, SXSW, and Tribeca Film Festivals, been broadcast on STARZ, PBS, and MTV, and won numerous awards. Amy‘s debut feature, Half The Picture, which celebrates the groundbreaking work of women film directors, had its World Premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in 2018 and won the #WhatNext Award at Sundance Film Festival: London, the Audience Award for Best Documentary at Lighthouse Film Festival, and the Impact Award at Through Women’s Eyes Film Festival. Half The Picture is at 100% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and was released theatrically in Summer 2018. Amy‘s short films include her UCLA thesis, Shoegazer, which was Executive Produced by Miranda July and won a Directors Guild of America (DGA) Student Film Award, and Surviving 7th Grade, of which the La Weekly wrote Surviving 7th Grade takes just seven-and-a-half sparkling minutes to initiate us into the secret rituals and self-effacing humor that just might enable a couple of nerdy (yet utterly appealing) pubescent girls to weather a stormy passage through adolescence.” Amy‘s television work includes directing the show Sucks Less with Kevin Smith for MTV/MTVu. Amy is attached to direct the fierce, funny revenge Western, Picante, written by Meg McCarthy and Diana Davis-Dyer, and is in early production on a documentary about a female singer/songwriter and modern day cowgirl cattle rancher in Colorado.