Audience Engagement and Distribution Day (Nov. 17)

Natalie Pattillo is an award-winning filmmaker and multimedia journalist based in New York City. Her reporting bylines include the New York Times, MSNBC, VICE, Jezebel, New York Magazine, Al Jazeera America and Salon. In 2020, she was awarded the Media Award from the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. She received a Master’s degree from Columbia Journalism School in 2017. She is the co-director, producer, and writer of And So I Stayed, an award-winning documentary about survivors of abuse who are incarcerated for their acts of survival.

Co-Director/Producer/Director of Photography Daniel A. Nelson worked as a cinematographer and researcher on Oscar-nominated director David France’s feature-length documentary THE DEATH AND LIFE OF MARSHA P. JOHNSON, which celebrates the lasting political legacy of trans icon Marsha P. Johnson and seeks to finally solve the mystery of her unexplained death, that premiered at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival and landed on Netflix. Daniel received his Master’s from the Columbia Journalism School in documentary filmmaking in 2016. His thesis at Columbia was a short documentary called POSTURE about the controversial world of competitive yoga, which premiered at the 2017 Long Island International Film Expo and was published on Yoga Journal.

Jim Hu is the Executive Vice President of Audience at Participant, a company dedicated to creating entertainment that inspires social activism. In this role, Jim oversees digital content production, programming, and audience engagement across Participant’s social media, email newsletters, and website. Jim joined Participant in 2018 as Senior Vice President of Strategy and Business Development. Prior to Participant, he spent his career leading teams in strategy and operations at digital media companies including Instagram, Yahoo and CNET. He earned his bachelor’s at Tufts University and his MBA at UCLA Anderson School of Management.

Mia Bruno combines an intricate knowledge of film distribution and sales with a skill for innovative and effective marketing strategies. Mia works with filmmakers and content-creators as a distribution strategist and grassroots marketer/impact producer, marrying a nuanced understanding of the marketplace with creative campaigns designed to connect with audiences meaningfully. Some of her recent work include Jamila Wignot’s AILEY, Shalini Kantayya’s CODED BIAS, and James Cameron’s THE GAME CHANGERS. Mia has worked with film organizations Cinereach, The Gotham, and DOC NYC and consults on content strategy for brands like AAA and Meow Wolf.

Alece has dedicated her career to helping emerging independent filmmakers through her work in marketing, social media, partnerships, distribution, and strategy at Film at Lincoln Center, BAMcinématek, Rooftop Films, Athena Film Festival, Fandor, GoDigital, Inc., and Good Deed Entertainment. Her focus is educating filmmakers about digital distribution practices and navigating a difficult yet rewarding film industry. She currently works in this capacity as the Director of Industry and Festival Outreach at Columbia University’s Film Program, where she is an esteemed alumna and serves on the Board of Directors for the Columbia Alumni Association. She is also a proud HBCU graduate of Winston-Salem State University and is committed to serving the Black community through her board position at the Black Film Space. Alece is originally from Durham, NC and has lived in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and is glad to call New York City home again.

Dan O’Meara is the EVP, Nonfiction at NEON and Co-Head of NEON’s boutique distribution label Super LTD. He has managed all of NEON’s documentary releases including Three Identical Strangers, The Biggest Little Farm, Apollo 11, and Honeyland. Dan’s producing credits include the documentaries By The People: The Election of Barack Obama, Freakonomics, and Print the Legend.

Tom Hurwitz, ASC is one of America’s most honored documentary filmmakers. Winner of two Emmy Awards, the Sundance and Jerusalem Film Festival Awards for Best Cinematography, Hurwitz has photographed films that have won 4 academy awards and several more nominations His features and television programs have won literally dozens of awards, Emmy, Dupont, Peabody, Directors Guild and film festival awards for Best Documentary, over the last 25 years. Films that he has directed have won the Cine Golden Eagle and have been shown in festivals around the world. Tom’s most recent film, Can You Bring It: Bill T. Jones and D-Man in the Waters, released in July, 2021, has garnered rave reviews from all the major newspapers, magazines and websites, and many of the smaller ones.

Duana C. Butler is an independent producer with credits that include “Can You Bring It: Bill T. Jones and D-Man in the Waters” (Dir(s): Rosalynde LeBlanc, Tom Hurwitz; Distributor: Kino Lorber, Inc.). Ms. Butler served as the Series Director/Producer for the public television documentary series “Afropop: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange” (E.P.: Black Public Media; Distributor: APT). She served as producer on the short “Hold On” (Dir: Christine Turner; Premiere, 2017 Sundance Film Festival). She co-produced the documentary “Miss Navajo” (Dir: Billy Luther; Premiere, 2007 Sundance Film Festival; Broadcast: PBS’ Independent Lens). Other credits include Curator/Producer of WNET/Thirteen’s independent film series “Reel New York”.

Sian- Pierre Regis is a filmmaker who directed, produced and self-distributed his debut feature documentary DUTY FREE. Called a “tender love poem from son to mother” by CBS News, the film was released in 30 theaters over Mother’s Day 2021 and fast-became a press magnet garnering coverage from CBS Sunday Morning, NPR, MSNBC, The Tamron Hall Show, AARP; the film was also a #1 Apple News story through the weekend. It will have its debut broadcast on PBS’s Independent Lens on November 22 at 10pET. Prior to filmmaking, Regis was a journalist and on-camera contributor to CNN, HLN, and MTV and founded Swagger, an online lifestyle magazine for millennials with over 1.5 million fans. He is a Firelight Media fellow and Film Independent Documentary Lab Fellow.

Iyabo Boyd is the founder and director of Brown Girls Doc Mafia, whose mission is to bolster the creative and professional success of women and non-binary people of color working in the documentary industry, and to challenge the often marginalizing norms of the documentary field. Iyabo is also an award winning filmmaker that strives to tell stories from under-explored perspectives and reflect the dynamic humanity of women and people of color. Her latest short ME TIME is a black feminist comedy about masturbation, which has played over 20 festivals nationwide, winning 9 awards. She was a fellow in Sundance’s 2019 Talent Forum and their 2018 Screenwriting Intensive, and was awarded a 2019 SFFILM Rainin Screenwriting Grant for her first first feature screenplay, KAYLA & EDDIE EN FRANÇAIS, about an estranged Black father and daughter reconnecting in Paris. As a producer, Iyabo was a Sundance Creative Producers Fellow and an Impact Partners Creative Producers Fellow in 2016 for the feature documentary FOR AHKEEM about a teenage black girl coming of age in St. Louis just after Ferguson, which premiered at the Berlin International and Tribeca Film Festivals. As a film industry professional, Iyabo has held positions in artist development, program management, and funding at the Points North Institute, First Look Media’s Topic.com, Kickstarter, Doc Society’s Good Pitch, Chicken & Egg Pictures, Tribeca Film Institute, and IFP. Originally from Denver, Iyabo graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts for Film & Television, and currently resides in the Bronx, NY.

Award-winning director and producer Lisa Cortés generates bold, explosive art that shines light on important stories hidden from view. Little Richard: I Am Everything (CNN Films), which she directed and produced, had its world premiere in January 2023 as the opening night selection in the US documentary competition at the Sundance Film Festival.