Using Film For Social Change

Alex Stapleton is an Emmy award-winning documentary showrunner and director for film and television. She is currently directing a project for HBO entitled God Save Texas (Jigsaw Productions). She’s also in pre-production on a new docu-series based on the book, How Music Got Free, for Apple. This will be her third documentary project produced by LeBron James and SpringHill Entertainment. Her episode of The Playbook (SpringHill), a new show for Netflix premiered this Fall and over the past two years she’s had the privilege to showrun a six-part, docu-series for FX called Pride, which chronicles the American LGBTQ+ Civil Rights movement. She’s also in pre-production on a new four part series about race and the criminal justice system with HBO that will be produced by IPC & Blumhouse Productions.
Other recent credits include Hello Privilege. It’s Me, Chelsea (Netflix/CondeNast) and Shut Up & Dribble (Showtime/SpringHill). Stapleton made her directorial debut with the critically acclaimed film, Corman’s World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel (A&E), starring Jack Nicholson, Martin Scorsese and Ron Howard and competed at top festivals like Cannes, the New York Film Festival and Sundance. Past producing credits also include The Case Of: JonBenet Ramsey (CBS) Big Fish Texas (Nat Geo) and TakePart World (Participant Media).

Fanny Grande (Formerly Fanny Véliz) is a Venezuelan-American award-winning filmmaker, actor, and director with more than 20 years experience in the entertainment business. Grande, who was born in the US, grew up in Venezuela performing from a very young age. She returned to the States to attend college, she quickly realized that roles available for her and other Latinos were very limited and often portrayed negative stereotypes. So she decided to start creating her own content while in College. A three-time Imagen Award nominee, she has received several recognitions for her work both in front and behind the camera. She’s currently one of 8 fellows selected by Geena Davis for the See it, Be it program. Her films focus on creating content that celebrates diversity and her main goal is to transform the way Latinos are portrayed in the media. 4 years ago she co-founded Avenida Productions with her husband Nelson Grande. Avenida is a consulting and production firm that specializes in empowering independent media content creators with a focus in diversity. To date Avenida has helped raise millions of dollars via crowdfunding for over 150 media projects. She served as a vice chair of Nosotros for 3 years. She currently has one feature documentary film in post-production about DACA called My DACA Life and her feature documentary Our Quinceañera won the audience awards at the Bentonville Film Festival. She’s also in post-production on a web series called I Friggin Love You.

Jiayan “Jenny” Shi is a Chicago-based documentary filmmaker and video journalist who is passionate about social justice issues regarding people of color. Her debut documentary “Finding Yingying” was set to premiere at the 2020 SXSW Film Festival and won the Special Jury Recognition for Breakthrough Voice. Jenny is a graduate of Kartemquin’s Diverse Voices In Docs program, a TFI Network alum, the winner of the Paley DocPitch Competition 2018 and a fellow of the Inaugural Women at Sundance Adobe Fellowship.

Reaa Puri is a filmmaker whose work addresses sexual and state violence, as well as collective power and healing. She is a TEDX speaker and recipient of two Cannes Lion awards, the Roselyn Schneider Eisner Prize and the SFFilm Holbrooke Female Fund. Reaa is a current artist-in-residence at the San Francisco Filmhouse and the Bay Area Video Coalition’s doc filmmaker development program. Her work has been showcased at film festivals around the world, including South by Southwest Film Festival, London Asia Film Festival, SF IndieFest and BAMPFA. Previously, Reaa was the Director of Photography and Editor for Nike’s 2019 Black History Month campaign, show-runner of a Vh1 TV show and assistant director on feature film Mary Kom. She has formerly led video teams at Wear Your Voice Magazine, Carbonated.TV and Hearst Digital Media, and her photography has been published in Vogue Magazine. Reaa is a co-founder of Breaktide Productions, a women-of-color owned production company rooted in intersectional solidarity producing films on issues of environmental racism, human rights and indigenous sovereignty. Breaktide was named to YBCA’s 100 list of change-makers in 2019. Reaa earned her bachelor’s degree in film and media studies from the University of California, Berkeley. Her film practice is informed by her queerness, Kashmiri-Sikh heritage, and upbringing between Berkeley, Mumbai, Delhi, and Kuwait.

Alahna Lark is an award winning, Emmy nominated film producer. As a child of refugees her main goal is to improve the lives of people of color through her art. She is the founder of a full service production company called Lark Media, which provides video production for a variety of socially conscious companies. Lark is the director, co-producer, and co-writer of Sweet Auburn Blues, a documentary about a historically black neighborhood struggling to return to its former glory. She is the Producer and Executive Producer of the Emmy nominated, three time Telly Award winning short film, Made In America, which focuses on a Salvadorian mother who struggles to make a better life for herself and her daughter. She has recently taken on the role of Programming Director of HUeMAN.TV, an online streaming platform that showcases work by marginalized content creators. Her latest project, “Remembering Momma” is set to hit the festival circuit in July 2022 at the International Black and Diversity Festival in Toronto with nominations for Best Short Film and Best Director.