Nevertheless

#OscarsSoWhite began as a Twitter hashtag that April Reign, being the cinema fanatic that she is, tweeted out in 2015 during the Oscars nominations announcement. The hashtag was inspired by the blatant lack of nominees of color. As the hashtag went viral, something clicked in April and she decided to leave her law career and dedicate herself to advocating for people in marginalized communities (That includes race, age, disability – visual and non-visual, LGBTQ, AAPI, First Nations and more.) Now that the hashtag-turned-movement is woven into our cultural vernacular, April applies her expertise, personal brand equity, marketing skills, moderating and speaking talent and loyal and targeted social media base to help companies and organizations promote and produce their projects and initiatives.

Paola Mendoza is an accomplished film director, activist and author.  A co-founder of The Women’s March, she served as its Artistic Director and co-authored the New York Times bestseller Together We Rise: Behind the Scenes at the Protest Heard around the World. Mendoza is a critically acclaimed film director whose films have premiered at the most prestigious film festivals around the world. Her films have continually tackled the effects of poverty and immigration on women and children in the United States.  She was named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film and is a Tribeca All Access, Film Independent, and Independent Film Week fellow. She is a co-founder of The Soze Agency and has been the creative director for campaigns fighting for immigration reform, criminal justice reform, incarcerated mother’s and women’s rights. She is a co-founder and Artistic Director of the critically acclaimed, Resistance Revival Chorus. 

Melissa Gira Grant is a staff writer covering justice at The New Republic. She is the author of Playing the Whore: The Work of Sex Work (Verso). She was a senior staff writer at The Appeal, as well as a contributing writer at the Village Voice and Pacific Standard. Her feature reporting has been published by BuzzFeed News and the Guardian, and her commentary and criticism has appeared in The Washington Post, The New York Times, Bookforum and The New York Review of Books. Her essays are collected in Best Sex Writing, The Feminist Utopia Project, and Where Freedom Starts: Sex Power Violence #MeToo. She lives in New York.

Melissa Goodman is director of advocacy/legal director at the ACLU of Southern California. In this role, Melissa leads the affiliate’s advocacy department, which comprises 60 attorneys, policy advocates, organizers, and support staff across offices in Los Angeles, Orange County, the Inland Empire, and Kern County. Melissa joined the ACLU SoCal as a senior staff attorney in October 2012 and until July 2018 was the Audrey Irmas Director of the ACLU SoCal’s LGBTQ, Gender & Reproductive Justice Project. In that role, Melissa conducted legal and policy advocacy concerning LGBTQ rights, reproductive rights, gender equality, and the rights of people with HIV. Melissa continues to lead the organization’s advocacy to end discrimination against women directors and increase inclusive hiring in Hollywood.

Sarah Moshman is an Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker and TEDx speaker whose work has been featured on Upworthy, Marie Claire, CNN, and Good Morning America. After directing two short documentaries about female empowerment in young women, (Girls Rock! Chicago (2010) and Growing up Strong: Girls on the Run (2012) she set out to direct her first feature doc The Empowerment Project: Ordinary Women Doing Extraordinary Things (2014) which has been screened over 700 times around the US and around the world in schools, groups, organizations and corporations starting conversations about gender equality. Sarah‘s second feature doc, Losing Sight of Shore follows the incredible journey of four women who rowed across the Pacific Ocean. The film was released globally in 190 countries on Netflix in May 2017. Sarah’s third feature documentary, Nevertheless takes a look behind the headlines of #MeToo and Time’s Up to examine sexual harassment in the workplace. Sarah is dedicated to telling stories that uplift, inform, and inspire as well as showcase strong female role models on screen.