Daniel Junge is an Oscar-winning (2-time nominated) and 5-time Emmy-winning (12-time nominated) documentary filmmaker.  His films include Oscar-winner SAVING FACE, Sundance-premiere BEING EVEL, Toronto-premiere IRON LADIES OF LIBERIA, SXSW-winner THEY KILLED SISTER DOROTHY, Tribeca-premiere A LEGO BRICKUMENTARY, and Oscar-nominee THE LAST CAMPAIGN OF GOVERNOR BOOTH GARDNER.  Junge also served as showrunner for the AMC series SECRET HISTORY OF COMICS and CHALLENGER: THE FINAL FLIGHT for Netflix.  He has also taught filmmaking at USC, UCLA, and Loyola Marymount, among other institutions. 

SAM POLLARD is an accomplished feature film and television editor, and documentary producer/director. Between 1990 and 2010, Pollard edited several Spike Lee films:  MO’ BETTER BLUES, JUNGLE FEVER, GIRL 6, CLOCKERS, and BAMBOOZLED. Pollard and Lee co-produced a several documentary productions for the small and big screen, FOUR LITTLE GIRLS, a feature-length documentary about the 1963 Birmingham church bombings which was nominated for an Academy Award and WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE, a four-part documentary that won numerous awards, including a Peabody and three Emmy Awards. Five years later 2010 he co-produced and supervised the edit on the LEVEES follow-up film, IF GOD IS WILLING AND DA CREEK DON’T RISE.

Since 2012, Pollard has completed as a producer/director SLAVERY BY ANOTHER NAME, a 90-minute documentary for PBS that was in competition at the Sundance Film Festival; AUGUST WILSON: THE GROUND ON WHICH I STAND a 90-minute documentary in 2015 for American Masters; TWO TRAINS RUNNIN,’ a feature length documentary in 2016 that premiered at the Full Frame Film Festival. SAMMY DAVIS JR., I’VE GOTTA BE ME for American Masters premièred at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival. In 2019 Pollard co-directed the Six Part Series WHY WE HATE that premiered on The Discovery Channel.

In 2020 he was one of the directors on the 2020 HBO Series ATLANTA’S MISSING AND MURDERED: THE LOST CHILDREN. He also completed in 2020 MLK/FBI which premiered at the 2020 Toronto Film Festival and the New York Film Festival. In 2021 HBO premiered two of his films BLACK ART: IN THE ABSENCE OF LIGHT AND CITIZEN ASHE. The years 2022 and 2023 have been very productive for Pollard. He completed LOWNDES COUNTY AND THE ROAD TO BLACK POWER, a film he co-directed with Gandbhir, the two-part documentary, BILL RUSSELL: LEGEND, about the legendary Boston Celtic and civil rights icon that premiered on Netflix in 2023. And that same year he premiered MAX ROACH: THE DRUM ALSO WALTZES, a film he co-directed with Ben Shapiro, that had its world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival. And the film SOUTH TO BLACK POWER, inspired by New York Times columnist Charles Blow’s book, The Devil You Know: A Black Power Manifesto, co-directed by Pollard and Llewellyn Smith premiered on HBO in 2023.

A film industry veteran of more than 30 years, Wellington Love is the president of w/Love Productions, which recently produced Daniel Peddle’s critically acclaimed feature documentary Beyond The Aggressives.  Currently streaming on Showtime, the film won the GLAAD 2024 Outstanding Documentary Award. Love served as Co-Producer on Lee Daniels’ 2021 The United States vs. Billie Holiday, starring Golden Globe winner Andra Day. With veteran producer Effie Brown (The Inspection), Love produced Spread the Vote’s 2020 PSA campaign #WorkThePolls, which incorporated spots directed by Oscar-nominated Gabourey Sidibe (Precious)and Tony award-winning John Cameron Mitchell. Love is a producer on Oscar winner Daniel Junge and Emmy winner Sam Pollard’s new upcoming documentary I Was Born This Way, which follows the life and legacy of the trailblazing AIDS activist and musical artist Archbishop Carl Bean, who recorded the 1977 Motown anthem “I Was Born This Way.” The film will make its World Premiere at the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival. Other projects in development include Peddle’s narrative feature Rose Moon, a twisted love story about a female parole officer who has a tempestuous affair with her parolee; and the limited series Uncle Bobby, created by novelist Tim Murphy (Christodora), in which a young man travels back in time to try to prevent his uncle’s death from AIDS. Love is a member of AMPAS and lives in New York City.

Born and raised in Bethesda, Maryland, Alan is a 2007 Emerson College Film graduate and Los Angeles-based Cinematographer with nearly 15 years of experience. His collaborations with renowned directors like Peter Berg, Daniel Junge, and Matt Tyrnauer span award-winning documentaries, doc-series, commercials, and promos. A founding partner of both Goodform and Rare Breeds, Alan leads with a simple belief: success in filmmaking is born from the connections we forge while creating work we deeply care about. His companies embody this philosophy.

Jerry Henry is a LA-based Director/DP who received his MFA degree from UCLA’s prestigious Production Program with an emphasis on Documentary and Cinematography. His award-winning short documentary I Promise Africa premiered in over 100 film festivals worldwide and won many prestigious awards, among them a Directors Guild of America Student Award. Jerry’s visual talents can be seen in the Oscar nominated documentary Exit Through The Gift Shop directed by Banksy, and Peabody Award winning documentary American Revolutionary by director Grace Lee. He lent his visual talents to help shoot the Grammy Award winning HBO doc series titled The Defiant Ones which chronicles the life and work of Dr. Dre. and Jimmy Iovine. Jerry contributed cinematography on the Oscar Nominated documentary short film St. Louis Superman by directors Smriti Mundra and Sami Khan. His most recent work is the Documentary/ Narrative hybrid adaptation of the Ta-Nehisi Coates book Between the World and Me directed by Kamilah Forbes for HBO Max and High on the Hog directed by Roger Ross Williams for Netflix. He is currently shooting documentary series The 1619 Project with the Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times Journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones for Hulu/ ABC/ Disney+ and Season 2 of High on The Hog.

DeAndre James Allen-Toole is a Los Angeles-based composer best known for his original score to Julian Higgins’ neo-Western feature GOD’S COUNTRY—starring Thandiwe Newton. First showing as a 2022 Sundance Film Festival Premieres selection ahead of its theatrical release, GOD’S COUNTRY received widespread critical acclaim for many aspects, including DeAndre’s score. Among his accomplishments, DeAndre is a Sundance Institute Film Music & Sound Design Lab alum, a Sundance Institute Interdisciplinary Program grantee, a Reel Change Film Fund grantee, an ASCAP Foundation Michelle & Dean Kay Award recipient, a nominee for the David Raksin Award for Emerging Talent during the 4th SCL Awards, and most recently, a selected composer for the Vancouver International Film Festival’s inaugural Amp Composer Filmmaker Accelerator Program.

John Jennings Boyd represents the vanguard of a new generation of composers equally adept at scoring with live orchestra, producing ambient soundscapes, and creating commercially-minded music across all forms of modern media. With a passion for multiple genres, he has worked with major film studios and indie filmmakers alike, involving himself in dramas, comedies, animation, and documentaries. Most recently, John has teamed up with Warner Bros. scoring three films in their Mortal Kombat franchise, HBO with the documentary “40 Years a Prisoner,” and the Sundance Film Festival 2023 selection “Young. Wild. Free.”

Leslie Gaston-Bird CAS, MPSE is President-Elect of the Audio Engineering Society and founder and director of Immersive and Inclusive Audio, CIC, which provides training in Avid Pro Tools and Dolby Atmos certification for underrepresented groups, an initiative which she created as part of her PhD at the University of Surrey. Leslie is author of the books Women in Audio (Routledge) and Math Fundamentals for Audio (A-R Editions). She is a Pro Tools | Dolby Professional Avid Certified Instructor and Dante Level 3 Certified audio engineer specializing in re-recording mixing and sound editing. She is a member of the Recording Academy (The Grammys®), Cinema Audio Society, and Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE). She has worked for National Public Radio (Washington, D.C.), Colorado Public Radio, the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Post Modern Company, and was a tenured Associate Professor at the University of Colorado Denver. In 2023, Leslie began an appointment as Lecturer in Sound Recording & Music Production at City, University of London.

Billy Porter is an Emmy, Tony, and Grammy Award-winning actor, singer, director, composer, and playwright from Pittsburgh, PA.

His portrayal of ‘Pray Tell’ in FX’s “Pose” earned him an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, as well as Golden Globe, Critics’ Choice, and Television Critics Association nominations. He also received a Dorian Award from GALECA and a Black Reel Award nomination. He has appeared in “American Horror Story: Apocalypse,” “That Damn Michael Che,” “The Twilight Zone,” and narrated Max’s docu-series “Equal.”

On screen, Porter starred in “Our Son” with Luke Evans, “80 For Brady” with Jane Fonda, and Prime Video’s “Cinderella” as ‘Fab G.’ Other film credits include “Like a Boss,” “The Get Down,” “The Humbling” with Al Pacino, and “The Broken Hearts Club.” TV appearances include “Law & Order: SVU,” “The Big C,” and “Another World.”

In 2022, he made his directorial debut with “Anything’s Possible” on Prime Video, followed by directing an episode of FOX’s “Accused” in 2023. Upcoming, he is co-writing and starring in a James Baldwin biopic.

On Broadway, Porter won a Tony Award and Grammy for his role as ‘Lola’ in “Kinky Boots.” He has also starred in “Shuffle Along,” “Miss Saigon,” “Grease,” “Dreamgirls,” and more. As a producer, he won a Tony in 2022 for “A Strange Loop.” In 2024, he received the Isabelle Stevenson Tony Award for his advocacy for the LGBTQ+ community.

Currently, he is starring as the ‘Emcee’ in the West End revival of the musical “Cabaret.” Recently, he starred as ‘Chimney Man’ in the off-Broadway musical “Jelly’s Last Jam.” Other stage credits include “Angels in America,” “Radiant Baby,” “Topdog/Underdog,” and “Songs for a New World.” His one-man show, “Ghetto Superstar: The Man That I Am,” was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award. In 2023, Porter produced “Billy Strayhorn: Something to Live For” at the Pittsburgh Public Theater, a new musical about the extraordinary life, music, and legacy of the jazz legend in history.

As a recording artist, Porter released “Black Mona Lisa” under Island and Republic Records, followed by a 25-city US tour. His past albums include “Billy’s Back on Broadway” and “The Soul of Richard Rodgers.” His song “Time” has been featured on “So You Think You Can Dance” and the Miss America Pageant. He has performed with Aretha Franklin, at Carnegie Hall, and for President Bill Clinton.

As a director, Porter will make his UK directorial debut with “This Bitter Earth”. Previously he helmed “The Life” at NYC Center, “The Purists,” and revivals of “The Colored Museum” and “Topdog/Underdog.” He has also directed “Once On This Island,” “Five Guys Named Moe,” and “The Wiz,” among others.

In 2022, Porter launched his production company, Incognegro, to develop inclusive and culturally relevant projects across TV, film, music, and fashion.

His memoir, “Unprotected,” was published in 2021, exploring race, sexuality, and healing. Porter holds an honorary doctorate from Carnegie Mellon University, where he has also taught. He was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2022 and received the GLAAD Vito Russo Award for his contributions to LGBTQ+ representation.

Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson is an Academy Award‒winning filmmaker, drummer, DJ, producer, director, culinary entrepreneur and New York Times bestselling author, who is the unmistakable heartbeat and co-founder of Philadelphia’s most influential hip-hop group, The Roots. The artist is a modern-day renaissance man and award-winning creative force who made his directorial debut with the Academy Award‒winning feature documentary SUMMER OF SOUL (…OR, WHEN THE REVOLUTION COULD NOT BE TELEVISED). 2025 has seen Questlove direct a multitude of projects including SLY LIVES! (AKA THE BURDEN OF BLACK GENIUS), the critically acclaimed original documentary about legendary musician Sly Stone, which premiered on Hulu, and the highly anticipated LADIES & GENTLEMEN… 50 YEARS OF SNL MUSIC, which premiered ahead of SNL’s 50th extravaganza. In 2025, Questlove has also signed on to direct a documentary about EARTH, WIND & FIRE. These projects will mark Questlove’s latest forays into filmmaking following his directorial debut and will be produced by Two One Five Entertainment (the production company founded by Questlove and Black Thought).

In addition to his work as a Director, Questlove has executive produced documentaries THE LEAGUE from Academy Award nominee Sam Pollard and the Sundance award winner DESCENDANT from Emmy nominee Margaret Brown. Thompson has also written multiple books, including the New York Times bestsellers Mo’ Meta Blues, Creative Quest, Music Is History and The Rhythm of Time, which is the first book in his middle grade series of the same name. Recently, he published his first picture book, The Idea In You. He is the publisher of AUWA, an imprint of MCD / Farrar, Straus and Giroux on the Macmillan platform. Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson is the Musical Director for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where his beloved Roots crew serves as house band. A six-time GRAMMY Award-winning artist with an additional 18 nominations, Questlove has also served in musical directing positions for everyone from D’Angelo to Jay-Z to the 2024 Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony.

Jamie Lee Curtis sprung to fame with her starring role as Laurie Strode in John Carpenter’s HALLOWEEN — for which she has acted in or produced numerous sequels. Other significant roles for Curtis include TRADING PLACES, PERFECT, A FISH CALLED WANDA and TRUE LIES — for which she won a Golden Globe. Most recently Curtis won the Oscar for best supporting actress for EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE.

Curtis is also a renowned author of over a dozen children’s books; she happens to be the favorite author of director Daniel Junge’s children!

Curtis is also known for her activism and philanthropy — especially in the realm of LGBTQ+ rights. This includes her work to overturn California’s Prop 8, her tributes to the victims of the Orlando nightclub shooting, and her hosting of events for The Children Affected by AIDS Foundation. Curtis is the mother of a trans daughter and is currently fighting the proliferation of anti-trans legislation around the US.

Cori Robinson is the great niece of Carl Bean but their bond was that of father and daughter. They shared a profound love for music and the performing arts and Carl always encouraged Cori to follow her dreams. In fact, when she was ready to make the big move to New York City to pursue a career as a performing artist, it was Carl who personally drove her to the YMCA on 135th Street (also one of his early homes), kissed her cheek with his blessings and said, “Go live, daughter.”

Cori is a multi-disciplined artist with accolades as a singer, actress and writer. When she was 17 years old, she became the youngest performer to accompany the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s annual Live, Gifted, and Black program with narrative classical-style singing and a dramatic reading. Cori has gone on to work with companies such as Opera Ebony, being featured at New York’s Blue Note Jazz Club and The Apollo Theater, as well as working with a diverse group of acclaimed artists including: Chadwick Boseman, Chris Rock, Gwen Stefani, Kristen Wiig, Kanye West and Carson Daly. Her credits also include appearances on Saturday Night Live, The Corner, As The World Turns, Homicide: Life On The Street, Rescue Me and The Head of State. She has also performed in a variety of Off-Broadway and regional theater productions.

As Executive Producer, Cori brings her creativity, unique perspective and familial history to help ensure her uncle’s legacy is authentically captured for generations to come.

Founder of LA-based Jagman Productions, Green has produced, represented, or distributed more than 60 films in a 20 plus year time span.  His production credits include the documentary BY SIDNEY LUMET (PBS/American Masters) on the legendary director; music documentaries DON’T STOP BELIEVIN’: EVERYMAN’S JOURNEY (Cinedigm/Independent Lens) and I WANT MY NAME BACK (Image/BET) on seminal bands Journey and The Sugarhill Gang, respectively; and Lifetime movie SEASONS OF LOVE produced alongside Taraji Henson.  He’s further an Executive Producer on the South African western, FIVE FINGERS FOR MARSEILLES, which was released theatrically by Uncork’d Entertainment in the US to critical acclaim in Fall 2018

Green’s latest scripted film, the US/China co-production Confetti, a mother daughter immigrant story centered around dyslexia, was released theatrically in the US in Summer 2021 by Dada Films and is currently available digitally.  He is producing multiple documentaries in production: THE GREAT CHINA BASEBALL HUNT and the search for China’s first MLB player; and I WAS BORN THIS WAY a documentary on Motown legend, AIDS activist, and Archbishop Carl Bean directed by Sam Pollard and Daniel Junge and produced alongside Questlove, Jamie Lee Curtis and Billy Porter.  Green’s latest doc in release is the critically acclaimed THE LEAGUE ON THE NEGRO BASEBALL LEAGUES, directed again by Sam Pollard, produced alongside Radical Media and Questlove and being distributed by Magnolia Films/Hulu.

He is further executive producing a scripted limited series with Alcon TV on the Negro Baseball Leagues and the first and only woman elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, Effa Manley.  And he’s executive producing a film adaptation of the Reginald Lewis biography with MACRO, adapted by Kevin Willmott (BLACKKKLANSMAN), WHY SHOULD WHITE GUYS HAVE ALL THE FUN, on Reginald’s achievement on Wall Street as the first black billionaire.  His next docuseries will be a limited series on the assassination of MLK, dispelling myths and finally revealing the true conspiracy, and a series on ground zero of the disabled rights movement and the saga of the Willowbrook institution.  Lastly, he is in development on a scripted narrative on the Journey and Arnel Pineda musical story with Warner Brothers, Temple Hill and Jon M. Chu, and he’s developing projects based on Brexit whistleblower Shahmir Sanni; the woman who helped take down Harvey Weinstein and Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi, model/activist Ambra Gutierrez; blind Cuban ballerina Alicia Alonso; the ‘Babe Ruth’ of NASCAR, Curtis Turner; and legendary HOF college basketball coach for Marquette University, Al McGuire.

Kristen Wolf is an award-winning filmmaker and novelist on a mission to tell stories of beauty, wonder and new possibility. Her short films have been Official Selections at over 100+ festivals worldwide and have won multiple awards including Tampa Bay International Film Festival’s Audience Award, Phoenix Film Festival’s Best LGBTQ+ Directed Short, Palm Springs LGBTQ+ Film Festival’s Festival Favorite and Paris’ La Femme International Film Festival’s Best Director. Her debut novel, THE WAY: A Girl Who Dared to Rise, was hailed by The OPRAH Magazine as “A Title To Pick Up Now!” Her second novel, ESCAPEMENT: An Exquisite Tale of Love and Passion, earned multiple honors including the IPPY, IAN, NIEA and BIBA awards. Wolf also serves as an executive producer on the queer breakout documentary, BEYOND THE AGGRESSIVES (NYT Critic’s Pick, GLAAD Media Award winner, Showtime/Paramount+), on the critically-acclaimed documentary Nasrin (narrated by Olivia Colman) and as co-producer on the Tony and Pulitzer Prize-Winning Broadway hit, A STRANGE LOOP. She was recently selected as a 2024 LGBTQ+ Emerging Voice by Lambda Literary and is in pre-production on her first feature film. Wolf is co-founder of Women Have Wings, a grant-making organization that honors and supports courageous women and youth working to advance peace and justice around the globe.

Barbara Bridges has spent much of her life as an entrepreneur and businesswoman. She is now a philanthropic and for-profit investor in many areas, including the movies. In 2006, she founded Women+Film, an annual program in partnership with the Denver Film Society, which includes the Women+Film Festival. The Denver Post named her one of Colorado’s Top Thinkers in Arts and Culture. Seeing storytelling as an effective way to encourage social change, she has executive produced many films, both individually and through movie funds, and joined the Women’s Leadership Council at Sundance. Barbara is the co-author of HOLLYWOOD: HER STORY, AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF WOMEN AND THE MOVIES, which documents women’s contributions to the film industry since its founding in the 1890s. Barbara speaks to various groups about the role of women in the movies.

Will is a Colorado based film producer with nine projects on the slate. He’s an ardent supporter of several film festivals, with a focus on CinemaQ through Denver Film. He founded the CinemaQ LaBahn Film Ikon Award in 2022, and awarded it to actor Colman Domingo. He is a Colorado philanthropist, and enjoys hiking and downhill skiing in the Rocky Mountains with his Golden Retriever.

Neal Baer is a renowned television producer, writer, doctor, teacher and activist.

Baer graduated from Harvard Medical School and completed his internship in Pediatrics at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles. He is an acclaimed author who has advised on medical issues his entire career and has written extensively on such subjects as teen pregnancy, AIDS, drug and alcohol abuse, and nutrition. His newest book is “The Promise and Peril of CRISPR,” a timely collection of essays on the pressing possibilities and risks of gene-editing technology.

From its first season, Baer was a writer on the hit television show ER. Baer has subsequently created, showrun, written and directed dozens of programs, including LAW AND ORDER: SVU, UNDER THE DOME and DESIGNATED SURVIVOR – earning him seven Emmy nominations.

Baer is also an experienced documentary producer, including Oscar-nominated WELCOME TO CHECHNYA and festival favorite IF YOU BUILD IT.

In the last decade, Baer has dedicated himself to LGBTQ+ issues and HIV awareness. He has sat on numerous boards including The One Foundation and Venice Family Clinic.