Pitch It

Jenny Deller is a filmmaker and designer who loves helping fellow creators take the first step in launching their visions. Crafted to immerse viewers in story and tone, her pitch decks have assisted award-winning film, television, and commercial creators land work for Warner Brothers, HBOMax, Showtime, AppleTV+, TNT, and USA Networks; as well as national brands like Toyota, Cox, Amazon, and Home Depot. Her debut feature as writer-director, Future Weather, stars Amy Madigan, Lili Taylor, Marin Ireland, and Perla Haney-Jardine. It premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and was distributed worldwide. While in development, Future Weather received the Showtime Tony Cox Award for Screenwriting and three grants from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for its unique exploration of climate change. Most recently, she produced the independent thriller, Clare in Motion (SXSW) starring Betsy Brandt and co-directed by Annie Howell and Lisa Robinson. Her work has been supported by Film Independent, The Gotham, Netflix, Women in Film, and The Wexner Center. Fun fact: she once played a Russian moll on an episode of Law & Order.

Maria Breaux has been a presence in San Francisco’s indie filmmaking sphere for over 20 years with films like Vulveeta and Lucha, recognized respectively with Frameline Audience Awards. Her career spans directing, writing, producing, and acting, extending beyond film into plays, solo performances, and original music contributions. Maria is also a seasoned marketing writer for notable organizations like the Greater Good Science Center, Common Sense Media, and Pinterest, leveraging her expertise cultivated through a Master of Fine Arts in playwriting from San Francisco State University and a Bachelor of Arts in English from Stanford University. Recently grappling with an unimaginable loss—the tragic passing of her brother, known locally in Davis, California, as “the Compassion Guy”—Maria wants to continue candidly sharing her journey in cultivating compassion amid grief, drawing from her brother’s profound legacy of collecting definitions of compassion to navigate through the most challenging phase of her life.

Christy Veeder’s longstanding love of storytelling began with the Korean folk tales she read as a child. After writing in a range of formats (including restaurant reviews, peer-reviewed research articles, federal legislation, and social-justice whitepapers) across the different stages of her career, Christy has transitioned full-time to developing and writing 30-minute episodic comedies about the struggles humans face, across generations and historic time periods, in finding truth and purpose. Christy earned her PhD in Atmospheric Science and Climatology from Columbia University and her BA in English from Cornell University. She loves scuba diving, hiking, and traveling. She lives in New York City.

Gabriella A. Moses is a director, writer, and production designer based in Brooklyn, NY and graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Gabriella has received support from the Sundance Institute’s Creative Producing Lab, the NYWIFT “From Script to Pre-Production” Workshop, Sundance Screenwriter’s Intensive, Tribeca Film Institute All Access Lab, Los Cabos, Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund program, Tribeca x Chanel Through Her Lens and IFP No Borders Program. She has most recently won the 2021 Fresh Voices Screenplay competition, has been selected for the 2021 Black List Screenwriter’s Lab and the 2021 LALIFF x Netflix Latinx Inclusion Fellowship Program and 2022 Latinx List. Her debut feature Boca Chica premiered at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival. She believes in sharing stories with underrepresented protagonists that test viewer’s perceptions of identity and their imaginations.

Jay Melena is a Santa Cruz-based filmmaker who specializes in all things outdoor and narrative-driven stories. As a transmasculine filmmaker, he has a passion for centering stories of those less often seen in the spotlight. Jay co-directed The Right To Joy which was selected for the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival.

StormMiguel Florez is a trans, queer Chicane filmmaker, whose work includes the award-winning films The Whistle (2019, Producer/Director), MAJOR! (2015, Editor/Co-Producer) and Vulveeta (2022, Co-producer, Editor, Actor). StormMiguel is currently working on his feature narrative directorial debut, Welcome To Roswell, for which he received a 2022 SFFILM/Rainin grant, 2021 Sundance Trans Possibilities fellowship, a Film Fatales Stowe Story Labs Fellowship, and most recently a grant from the Sundance/Gold House One House Filmmakers Fund. StormMiguel is also an event producer, actor, and a lifelong musician. His first acting role was at the tender age of ten in the made-for-TV movie, Police Woman Centerfold. He’s originally from Albuquerque, NM, which he very much considers to be his homeland, and has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for 27 years. He lives with his life partner and fellow filmmaker, Annalise Ophelian, and their 2 chihuahuas.