DIRECTORS

Abby Ellis is a Peabody and Emmy nominated Director. Her film, FLINT’S DEADLY WATER, was a multi-year investigation that exposed a steep number of unknown deaths from a deadly disease outbreak during the Flint water crisis, the negligence of officials who allowed it to continue and the efforts to obstruct the legal and scientific investigations around it. In 2020 she was the Hollyhock Filmmaker-in-Residence at PBS, where she wrote, directed and produced SHOTS FIRED, an unflinching look at the connection between the high rate of police shootings in Utah and the state’s controversial police training methods. Prior to that Abby produced AMERICA DIVIDED, an original docu-series executive produced by Norman Lear and Shonda Rhimes, which featured narratives around inequality in America woven into an eight-story, five-part series. Abby’s work has earned her a Peabody Award, several Emmy nominations, an Edward R. Murrow Award, a Scripps Howard Award, an Izzy Award, Sentinel Award, Acting for Justice Award, two Livingston nominations, and other honors. At the start of her career Abby spent six years at VICE where she produced and edited on some of the network’s most pivotal and award-winning shows, from character-driven social and cultural documentaries to current affairs films.

Abby Ginzberg, a Peabody award-winning director, has been producing compelling documentaries about race and social justice for over 35 years. Her latest film, Shaking It Up: The Life and Times of Liz Carpenter (co-directed with Christy Carpenter) premiered at SXSW in March, 2024 in the Documentary Spotlight section. Her short film, Judging Juries, premiered at the Pan African Film Festival in February, 2024, and won an Outstanding Achievement award from the Accolade Global Film Awards. Her film, Barbara Lee: Speaking Truth to Power, won the 2022 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Documentary. This intimate and compelling film, about Representative Barbara Lee, who is best known for her lone NO vote against the use of military force following the 9/11 attacks, is available on Amazon Prime and Starz. Abby also produced A Double Life, directed by Catherine Masud, which premiered at the 2023 Mill Valley Film Festival and won an Audience Favorite award. Abby is also the co-producer of American Justice on Trial, co-directed by Andrew Abrahams and Herb Ferrette, which premiered at the 2022 San Francisco International Film Festival, and won Best Short documentary from the Pan African Film Festival. Waging Change, her 2019 documentary, is about the challenges faced by tipped servers who are forced to rely on their tips and the federal tipped minimum wage of $2.13 per hour. It was broadcast on public television in February and March 2021.

Abby Berendt Lavoi is an award-winning Writer, Director and Producer. She directed the multi-award-winning feature documentary Roots of Fire which earned the prestigious Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities Documentary of the Year Award and screened at over 25 film festivals. She is currently in development on the sequel, and in production on an episodic spinoff series, Dry Bones. She was the Showrunner of the 12 episode half-hour unscripted streaming series, My Amazing Cheap Date: New Orleans. Her work has screened at over 35 film festivals and has received awards and honors from the New Orleans Film Festival, Hot Springs Doc Fest, SIFF, Hawaii International Film Festival, SFIndieFest, Indie Memphis, the Telly Awards, Promax, and many others. Her TV staff credits include MTV, TVLand, Nick@Nite, Nickelodeon, and Current TV. Her screenwriting work has been recognized at Austin Film Festival, CineStory, and Stowe Story Labs. In 2021, she was awarded the Women in Film and Television’s Resilient Woman Award. Her series, It’s a Rough Life, was a finalist in the 2014 NYTVF History Channel Unscripted Development Pipeline. Her team won Best Film at the San Francisco 48 Hour Film Festival in 2012, and in 2011 she won Best Editor at Mockfest for the film Rolled, which she also produced. Since 2008, she has successfully run Lavoi Creative, a full service creative agency and production studio.

Abi Damaris Corbin is a Boston-bred writer and director based in Los Angeles. Corbin's BAFTA shortlisted live-action short “The Suitcase” had its world premiere at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival and screened worldwide as an official selection at over 50 festivals.

Abigail is a writer and director who loves dark comedy. Her debut feature film BLOW UP MY LIFE, a whistleblower comedy-thriller starring Jason Selvig and Kara Young and co- written/directed with Ryan Dickie, premiered at Austin Film Festival in 2022. Her previous short films have played at SXSW, Fantastic Fest, LA Film Festival, Cleveland International, Woodstock Film Festival, and received multiple Vimeo Staff Picks. Accolades for her directing work include "25 New Faces of Independent Film” from Filmmaker Magazine, shortlist for the D&AD Next Director Award, a 2018 Webby Award Nomination, UKMVA Nominations, and 2 Gold Cannes Young Director Awards. Her commercial work is known for off-beat visual comedy and fantastic performances, for clients like Spotify, NBCUniversal, Audible, Skittles, and General Mills. Abigail is in development on her next feature film GESTURES, a dark comedy about women in private equity. She studied film at Wesleyan University, loves to speak Spanish, play charades, and is a member of the National Board of Review. Party time excellent.

Abigail Child has been at the forefront of experimental media and writing since the 1980s, having completed more than fifty film/video works and installations, and written 6 books. An acknowledged pioneer in montage, Child addresses the interplay between sound and image, to make, in the words of LA Weekly: “brilliant exciting work…a vibrant political filmmaking that’s attentive to form.” Her films, compulsive visual and aural legerdemain, have been widely awarded and shown internationally. Her major projects include Is This What You Were Born For?: a 9 year, 7-part work; B/Side: a film that negotiates the politics of internal colonialism; 8 Million: a collaboration with avant-percussionist Ikue Mori that re defines "music video"; The Suburban Trilogy: a modular digi-film that prismatically examines a politics of place and identity; and MirrorWorlds: a multiscreen installation that incorporates parts of Child's "Subtitled" series to explore narrative excess. Her most recent is a trilogy of feature films, including UNBOUND, an imaginary 'home movie' of the life of Mary Shelley, teenage author of Frankenstein; ACTS & INTERMISSIONS: on the life of anarchist Emma Goldman in America; and the last, ORIGIN OF THE SPECIES which explores human-machine interactions in the 21st century. Winner of the Rome Prize, a Radcliffe Institute Fellowship, Guggenheim and Fulbright Fellowships, the Stan Brakhage Award, as well as participating in two Whitney Biennials, (1989 and 1997) Child has had numerous retrospectives worldwide. These include Buena Vista Center in SF, Anthology Film Archive (in conjunction with The New Museum, NY), Harvard Cinematheque, Reservoir, Switzerland, EXIS Korea, the Cinoteca in Rome and Image Forum in Tokyo. Her work has been exhibited at the MoMA NY, the Whitney Museum, Centre Pompidou, Museo Reina Sofia, and in numerous international film festivals, including NY, Rotterdam, Locarno and London. Harvard University Cinematheque has created an Abigail...

My vision for Nailed It changed over the course of production. What I didn’t expect was the effect exploring the history of the Vietnamese salon would have on me. As a mixed race, second generation Vietnamese-American woman, there was always a disconnect from my culture, which I inadvertently found a place within by documenting the definitive history of the Vietnamese nail salon. Although politically it feels like America is more fractured by identity than ever before, it’s also never been so culturally and genetically mixed. This new demographic is hungry for thoughtful, humorous articulation of diverse communities, and where these underrepresented groups intersect. I consider this transcultural space to be the hallmark of my growing body of work—including this documentary about Vietnamese in America via nail salons, and their impact.

I am a highly experienced filmmaker with a wealth of knowledge in concept writing, directing, producing and film editing. With a passion for storytelling and a keen eye for detail, I bring a unique perspective and creative vision to every project I work on. Whether it's bringing a script to life on the big screen or fine-tuning the final cut, I am dedicated to creating captivating and impactful content that resonates with audiences.

Adriana was born in São Paulo. She graduated in Social Communication from PUC-SP and studied Documentary through courses at PUC-SP, USP, and the Escuela Internacional de Cine y TV (Cuba). Her latest documentary, “The First Women” premiered at the Tiradentes Film Festival 2024, where it won the Best Film award from the audience jury. The film has been selected for various festivals worldwide, including in Ireland, South Korea, Canada, Italy and the Czech Republic.

Her three short films have also been selected for several festivals, such as the It’s All True, the Rio de Janeiro International Short Film Festival, and the Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK). In 2020, she released "A Crime Amongst Us" (60 min), a documentary about sexual violence against children and adolescents, which gained significant media attention and was acquired by Globoplay.

For television, she has directed series and special projects for channels such as ESPN, SporTv, and Rede Globo. Recently, she directed episodes for the series "Sociedade do Cansaço," available on Globoplay, and "The World According to Football" – available on Showtime and Paramount+ (USA) – which won a Sports Emmy Award in 2024.

In 2025, she will also release “Paid in Blood” (96 min), a film about the largest massacre of the century in the Amazon, a project by Repórter Brasil for which she wrote the script.

Adriana Marchione has been involved in the arts for over thirty years as a filmmaker, dancer, photographer and is internationally recognized in her work as a movement-based expressive arts therapist and educator. Marchione created When the Fall Comes in 2013, a performance project that culminated in a short film based on her own life story encountering intimate grief and loss. Along with Producer Dianne Griffin she recently completed The Creative High, a documentary film featuring artist stories of addiction and recovery. Since 2002, Marchione has taught at the renowned Tamalpa Institute, WHEAT Institute in Canada and founded her own wellness center in San Francisco. She has presented her creative healing approach, with a focus on addiction, eating disorders, trauma and grief, at festivals, conferences, and treatment centers including South by Southwest, Studio le théâtre du Corps in Paris, Ohlhoff Recovery Program and the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Addiction. Marchione continues to research both experientially and didactically the ways that the arts and a body-based orientation can foster healthy living.

A graduate of Yale, Adrienne Weiss began her career as a theater director but became a filmmaker after realizing that in film she could combine her two great passions- powerful, spontaneous performance and beautiful images. Love, Ludlow, her first feature film as a director, premiered at Sundance ’05 and starred David Eigenberg, Brendan Sexton III and Alicia Goranson, The Sundance catalogue read, ”Weiss sticks close to the raw emotional truth of her characters, and we fall in love with them because their behavior is always unpredictable. With her deeply humanistic sensibility, her flair for ironic humor, and her ability to creatively mine cultural references, Weiss is unequivocally someone to watch.” The film screened at over 20 festivals worldwide, was released by Time/Warner DVD and was broadcast on Sundance Channel, Starz and other cable networks. Adrienne has worked for over fifteen years as directing and script consultant. Recent feature projects include The Bad Intentions (nominated for Best Foreign Film Oscar 2013) May in the Summer, Opening Night Sundance Film Festival 2013, Homewrecker, Best of Next Award, Sundance, The Abolitionists and Murder of a President for the American Experience (PBS), Sunbelt Express, Kalushi: The Solomon Mahlangu Story (post production).

Adura Onashile is an award-winning Glasgow-based artist. In 2020, she wrote and directed her screen debut, Expensive Shit, a BAFTA Scotland–nominated short produced by barry crerar, which premiered at the 2020 BFI London Film Festival. Girl is her feature debut.