Amir Husak is a documentary media maker and Assistant Professor of Media Studies at The New School in New York. Combining emergent and traditional media, essay and experimental techniques, Husak’s work explores documentary as social practice and investigates representations of economic infrastructures, borders and migration. His works have been shown at international venues including the Cinemateca Distrital (Bogota, Colombia), Sarajevo Film Festival (Bosnia & Herzegovina), Stadtmuseum Graz (Austria), and Crvena Association for Culture and Art (Sarajevo, Bosnia) among others. Husak also serves as an artistic director of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian Film Festival in New York. He is a co-editor of a volume on socially engaged art and activist media in Bosnia-Herzegovina titled “Kriza, Umjetnost, Akcija” (Crisis, Art, Action; 2016) and holds a PhD degree from the University of Leeds, UK.

Elizabeth Nichols is a writer, director and cinematographer of both non-fiction and narrative films. She currently lives in Tanzania, East Africa with her partner and their two daughters, and works at Orkeeswa where she teaches filmmaking and serves as the Director of Strategy. Elizabeth holds an MFA in Filmmaking from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and a BA in History and Literature and History of Art and Architecture from Harvard University. She has received several awards and scholarships in support of her filmmaking, including being recognized as one of the 25 New Faces in Independent Film by Filmmaker Magazine. Her short films have played at some of the top international film festivals, including the Toronto International Film Festival and the Berlinale. 

Emily Packer (she/they) is a Queens-based experimental filmmaker and editor with an interest in geography, hybrid formats, and collaborative practices. Their first feature "Holding Back the Tide", an impressionist hybrid documentary that traces the oyster as a queer icon through its many life cycles in New York, is playing in theaters across the country starting in fall 2024. 

Esy Casey is a filmmaker and interdisciplinary artist. Her film ‘A Movement Against the Transparency of the Stars of the Seas’ (2023)  was in competition at IDFA and the Busan International Video Art Festival, won Best Short Documentary at Mimesis, screened at Prismatic Ground and is streaming on The Criterion Channel. She is the recipient of awards and fellowships from organizations including NYSCA, The Ford Foundation, The Flaherty Seminar, The New York Film Festival, MacDowell, Yaddo, The Center for Asian American Media, and The Princess Grace Foundation USA.

Dan is a writer/director/editor and sometimes camera operator currently residing in Minneapolis, Minnesota. A recipient of two McKnight Fellowships (2010/2016) and The Creative Capital Award for Moving Image (2015), he has been recognized for his experimental narrative and documentary work. Dan uses unconventional structures, poetic imagery, and immersive sound to explore technological isolation, destructive masculinity, generational violence, and the commodification of human suffering by the media industry. His work has been seen at Anthology Film Archives, The Walker Art Center, MoMA, Ann Arbor Film Festival, True/False, Fantasia, Fantastic Fest, Athens International Film & Video, Kurzfilm Hamburg, Filmstock International, Cellular Cinema, Revelation Perth, Antimatter [Media Art], FLEXFest, Cosmic Rays, and a few other places.

Nimisha Srivastava’s films and art reflect intersectional feminist themes and human rights issues. She has been involved with various projects that deal with the personal and political in evocative and avant-garde ways. Her poetry makes up for a large personal archive and she has been a choreographer and performer of both poetry and Indian classical dance, often together. Her debut film Chadariya: an emotional sense-scape of abortion, was received as groundbreaking feminist work, winning multiple awards across the globe.

Nima Bahrehmand is an artist, scholar, and educator. His artistic research explores bodies, archives, and places that became suppressed and desertified due to being subjugated by political, economic, and technological progress. Working with emergent media, he interrogates technology that claims accessibility, fairness, and welfare. Nima received his BFA from the University of Kerman, Iran; MA from the School of Art, Ghent, Belgium; MFA in studio art (Transmedia) from the University of Texas at Austin, and Ph.D. in Emergent Technology and Media Arts Practices from the University of Colorado Boulder. Nima is currently an assistant professor of art at the Metropolitan State University of Denver.

Sharifa Lafon (she/her) is a curator and interdisciplinary artist dedicated to community building and creative exploration through experimental media. Her practice prioritizes authenticity and the exchange of ideas over commercial outcomes, focusing on projects that span experimental cinema and animation, performance, and media arts. Sharifa is currently the executive director and curator at Denver Digerati, and serves on the board of Tilt West, a nonprofit organization focusing on inclusive arts discourse for the community. She received a MH in Visual Studies, a BA in Art History, and a BFA in Photography from the University of Colorado Denver.

Walker’s works have shown in various galleries and festivals across the Americas, Asia, and Europe and have been permanently archived in several institutional collections, including that of The International Center of Photography in New York,  Libera Accademia di Belle Arti in Italy, and Brown University

She spearheads the publishing project Evidence House, is represented by Vtape distributors in Canada, holds a BFA in Studio Art from Tufts University, and is currently pursuing AHG board certification in Vitalist Herbalism, Field Botany & Integrated Nutrition at the Colorado School of Clinicial Herbalism

I oversee ecosystem management policy for the City of Boulder, Colorado. Boulder has legacy of environmental stewardship and enacted the first open space tax in the U.S., which led to the conservation of 45,000 acres of mountain parks, prairie grasslands, agricultural properties and wetlands. Boulder was also one of the first cities in the U.S. to adopt an Integrated Pest Management policy and neighbor pesticide notification ordinance. The city has been a national leader in reducing pesticide and synthetic fertilizer use, and using an ecosystem management framework for land management.

I lead the Urban Pollinator Pathway and Rewilding Program for the Cool Boulder initiative, a partnership between the city, universities, NGOs, businesses, community members, tribal leaders, and others working together to equitably and inclusively implement natural climate solutions. I am the biodiversity lead for Natural Climate Solutions Division of the Climate Initiatives Department, manage the city’s mosquito program using wetland biodiversity protection and monitoring, and developed a pesticide assessment process that accounts for impacts to ecosystem function and stability.

Paul Echeverria is a filmmaker, digital artist, and educator. His research and creative practice examine the formative dynamics between childhood, parenthood, and the family structure. In addition, he produces work that contemplates the inevitable collision between humans and technology. Echeverria's films have been exhibited at multiple venues including MoMA, the Bronx Museum of the Arts, Angelika Film Center, Anthology Film Archives, Experiments in Cinema, and the Mimesis Documentary Festival.

Echeverria is an Assistant Professor of Communication at Wayne State University. He currently serves as board member for the Millennium Film Workshop and has worked on curatorial committees for the Ann Arbor Film Festival and Experiments in Cinema.