"Eggspert" Advisors

 

Josyln Barnes, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer, L’Ouverture Films

A veteran screen-writer and producer, Josyln comes to the film industry with a deep experience in international development including food security, trade and the impact of electronic communications. She’s the author or co-author of 12 commissioned screenplays including the epic Tousssaint and the award-winning film Bàttu, directed by Cheikh Oumar Sissoko (Mali), which she also associate produced with British Screen and EMET Films. Since co founding Louverture Films with actor Danny Glover, she’s executive produced the award-winning feature Bamako, the music documentary Africa Unite and the Sundance Award Winning Trouble the Water.

Michelle Byrd, Executive Director, IFP

A 15-year veteran of the American independent film scene, as ED of IFP Michelle spearheads numerous national and international programs designed to assist American independent filmmakers in receiving funding and distribution for their work and exposure to new audiences, including the annual must-go-to Independent Film Week. She currently serves on the New York City Mayoral Task Force on Diversity in Film, TV and Commercial Production. Over the last 30 years the IFP has supported over 7,000 films and given resources to 20,000 filmmakers.

Rachel Chanoff, Founder and Director of The Office: performing arts + film

Rachel’s been working in performing arts and film for 25 years. Currently she’s the curator of performing arts and film for MASSMoCA, director of programming at the ’62 Center for Theater and Dance at Williams College, chairman of the New York Jewish Film Festival selection committee, consultant to the Feature Film Program for the Sundance Institute, curator of Family Programs at Symphony Space and artistic director for 92YTribeca and Celebrate Brooklyn!, New York’s longest running free outdoor performing arts and film festival. She is a founding member of the Working Films board.

Heidi Cullen, Director of Communications, Senior Research Scientist and head of Princeton’s think-tank Climate Central

Dr. Heidi Cullen is a senior research scientist with Climate Central, a research and communications organization headquartered in Princeton, NJ. Climate Central is non-profit, non-partisan network of scientists and journalists dedicated to educating the public about the science and solutions to global warming. Dr. Cullen currently provides reports on climate for The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and ABC News. Before joining Climate Central, Dr. Cullen helped create Forecast Earth on The Weather Channel, the first weekly television series to focus on issues related to climate change and the environment. Dr. Cullen worked as a research scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, CO. She received a bachelor's degree in engineering/operations research from Columbia University and went on to receive a doctorate in climatology and ocean-atmosphere dynamics at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University.

Lisa Heller, Vice President of Documentary Programming at HBO

Lisa develops, programs and promotes HBO and Cinemax documentaries. She has served as programming executive on various award-winning films including: The Black List, The Gates, Thin, 51 Birch Street, Born into Brothels, King Gimp, Baghdad High, Capturing the Friedmans, My Flesh and Blood, Unchained Memories: Readings From the Slave Narratives, The Journalist and The Jihadi: The Murder of Daniel Pearl. Prior to joining HBO, she worked as executive producer on the critically acclaimed PBS series P.O.V., where she was responsible for programming as well as broadcast-related initiatives designed to expand the role of independent documentaries in public life.

Scott Kirsner, Founder & Editor of the blog “Cinematech”

Scott Kirsner spends his days and nights studying and translating the ways in which new technologies are changing the entertainment industry. Author of “The Future of Web Video: New Opportunities for Producers, Entrepreneurs, Media Companies and Advertisers,” published in 2006 and updated by popular demand, Scott also writes a monthly “Entertainment 2.0”column for the Boston Globe. His writing on New Tech has also appeared in The New York Times, Variety, Wired, Fast Company, Hollywood Reporter, Salon, San Jose Mercury News, San Francisco Chronicle and Newsweek.

Caroline Libresco, Senior Programmer for the Sundance Film Festival & Co-Creator of the Creative Producing Initiative for the Sundance Institute

A veteran film festival programmer, Caroline has worked for Sundance for almost a decade, focusing on documentary and international features and acting as a conduit between artists and the industry. She has worked as an executive at the Independent Television Service (ITVS), the San Francisco International and Jewish Film Festivals and is an independent producer (Sunset Story, Barrier Device, Cat Dancers, The Grace Lee Project, Fanci’s Persuasion).

Cara Mertes, Director of the Documentary Film Program at the Sundance Institute

Cara Mertes is Director, Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program, overseeing the activities of the Documentary Film Program and Fund, including granting between $1 and $2 million per year to independent documentarians globally, directing three Creative Documentary Labs at Sundance Resort, supporting documentary programming and panels at the Sundance Film Festival and the Sundance Creative Producers Summit, curating work-in-progress screenings with partnering museums and festivals and other initiatives of the DFP. She has inaugurated several creative partnerships, including STORIES OF CHANGE: Social Entrepreneurship in Focus Through Documentary, a $3 million, 3 year partnership between the DFP and the Skoll Foundation which has funded 10 films on social entrepreneurs meeting today’s global challenges. The Good Pitch is a partenrship between the DFP and the UK Channel Four Foundation. The Arab Fund for Arts and Culture has partnered to support Arab documentary filmmakers working in the Middle East. The DFP also launched DocSource at www.sundance.org/docsource, a website connecting independent documentary filmmakers and human rights stakeholders worldwide. She is also a key programmatic strategist for Sundance Institute.

Mertes was previously Executive Director of American Documentary, Inc. and Executive Producer of P.O.V., PBS’ acclaimed independent documentary showcase from 1999-2006, where she was recognized with eight Emmy Awards, three George Foster Peabody awards, two duPont-Columbia Awards and three Academy Award nominations, most recently as Executive Producer for NERAKOON: BETRAYAL. Mertes is Executive Producer of over a dozen independent documentaries, including STREET FIGHT; MY COUNTRY, MY COUNTRY; BOYS OF BARAKA; and TWO TOWNS OF JASPER. She is a graduate of Vassar College, BA, and Hunter College, MA. A long-time New Yorker, she currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two children.

Amelia Richards, Founder of Third Wave Foundation and Soapbox, Inc

Amy Richards is the author of Opting In: How to Have a Child Without Losing Yourself in addition to being the co-author with Jennifer Baumgardner of Grassroots: A Field Guide for Feminist Activism and Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism and the Future.  Amy is a founder of both Third Wave Foundation and Soapbox, Inc: Speakers Who Speak Out and serves on the board or advisory committee of several organizations.  Amy’s writings have appeared in The Nation, The LA Times, Bust, Ms. and numerous anthologies, including Listen Up, Body Outlaws and Catching A Wave.

Marni Rosen, Executive Director, Jennifer Altman (JAF)

The Jennifer Altman Foundation is a small private foundation focused on environmental health and justice and mind-body health work. Through her work with JAF, Marni also directs the Barbara Smith Fund, the Bet Lev Foundation and the Environmental Health programs of the Upstream Fund and the StarFire Fund. In addition, she advises the Marisla Foundation on their Global South grantmaking in environmental health and justice. Prior to joining the foundations in 1999, Marni was the Associate Director of the Children’s Environmental Health Network (California) and lived in Kenya for three years where she served as NGO Liaison for a major United Nations conference, the City Summit. Marni has served on the Boards of a number of grantmaker affinity groups and non-profit organizations, and currently serves as Co-chair of the Health and Environmental Funders Network.

Alyce Myatt, Executive Director, Grantmakers in Film and Electronic Media (GFEM)

A veteran producer, media activist, advocate and thinker Alyce has worked as a PBS executive, as a producer for the Children’s Television Workshop and as a Media Program Executive at the MacArthur Foundation. She is the first Executive Director of GFEM (Grant Makers in Film and Electronic Media) an affinity group serving foundations (including Chicken & Egg Pictures, NEA, ITVS and the minority consortia), helping them understand the needs of the field, funding trends and best practices.

Lourdes Portillo, Independent director/producer/writer

Mexico-born and Chicana identified, Lourdes is a veteran independent filmmaker whose award-winning body of work strives to broaden the spectrum of Latino and Chicano representation. With themes ranging from state repression to AIDS, Portillo’s films include: Despues del Terremoto, the Oscar-nominated Las Madres: The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, La Ofrenda: The Days of the Dead, The Devil Never Sleeps, Corpus: A Home Movie for Selena and Señorita Extraviada. She’s currently in production on a narrative feature about a modern day Don Quixote: a woman filmmaker who loses her way in her quest to make the perfect film. A recipient of a 2008 U.S. Artists Fellowship, Lourdes teaches filmmaking in the Northern California UC system.

Thuy Tran, Program Officer, United States Artists

Thuy Tran is the program officer for United States Artists, a grantmaking organization dedicated to supporting America’s finest living artists working in a diverse array of disciplines. Thuy manages the nomination and selection process for the USA Fellowship program in which each year 50 different artists are awarded an unrestricted grant of $50,000. Prior to joining USA she worked at the LA County Art Museum and was a national advance and political campaign consultant for Vice President Al Gore.