Authentic Authorship

Geeta Gandbhir has been nominated for three Emmy Awards and has won two. As editor, films have been nominated twice for the Academy Award, winning once, and have also won three Peabody Awards. Most recently, a feature documentary she produced with Perri Peltz and directed with Academy Award Winning director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, A Journey of A Thousand Miles: Peacekeepers premiered at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival. She is currently co-directing and co-producing a Conversation series on race with The New York Times Op-Docs, and she co-directed and edited the film, Remembering the Artist, Robert De Niro, Sr. with Perri Peltz for HBO. Additional notable works as an editor include, Mr. Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown, Whoopi Goldberg Presents Moms Mabley for HBO, which was nominated for an Emmy, When the Levees Broke, By the People: The Election of Barack Obama, Music By Prudence, Budrus, If God Is Willing and Da Creek Don’t Rise, and God is the Bigger Elvis which was nominated for the 2012 Academy Awards. Her film, Which Way is the Front Line From Here? with author and Academy Award nominated director Sebastian Junger was nominated for the 2014 News and Doc Emmys.

Lisa Valencia-Svensson is an Emmy award-winning documentary producer and Vice President of Finance at Multitude Films. She co-produced Pray Away (Tribeca 2020), Call Center Blues (SXSW 2020), and Always In Season (Sundance 2019, Winner of the Special Jury Award for Moral Urgency). She produced PJ Raval’s Call Her Ganda (Tribeca 2018), which The Hollywood Reporter called “heartbreaking and inspirational.” Her first feature documentary, Herman’s House (Full Frame 2012, POV) won an Emmy for Outstanding Arts & Culture Programming. Her second feature Migrant Dreams (Hot Docs 2016) won the Canadian Hillman Prize and was a Top Ten Audience Favorite at Hot Docs. Herman’s House and Migrant Dreams were both nominated for the Canadian Screen Award: Donald Brittain Award for Best Social/Political Documentary. Additional credits include Laila At The Bridge (CPH:DOX 2018) and The World Before Her (Tribeca 2012). Lisa has been a Tribeca All Access and IFP Documentary Lab fellow, a lead mentor for the Hot Docs Diverse Voices mentorship program, and is an AMPAS Documentary Branch member. Her passion is for film projects which explore issues of inequality and social justice, and which encourage audiences to view their world through a constructively critical and creatively unique lens.

Smriti Mundhra is an Academy Award-nominated director/producer and one of DOC NYC’s 40 Under 40 Filmmakers to Watch. Her latest film, St. Louis Superman, has been nominated for a 2020 Academy Award in the short documentary category. Her debut feature, the documentary A Suitable Girl, world premiered in competition at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival to rave reviews from Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, New York Magazine and was awarded the Albert Maysles Best Documentary Director prize at the festival. Smriti also helmed ad campaigns for Google, the United Nations and Bumble (starring Priyanka Chopra Jonas). She created and executive produced Indian Matchmaking, an eight-part Netflix original documentary series currently streaming on the platform. Prior to A Suitable Girl, Smriti produced Bomb the System, a 2004 Independent Spirit Award nominee for Best First Feature, and the SXSW Audience Award winning feature film Waterborne. She also co-produced Punching at the Sun, an official selection of the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, as well as over one dozen award-winning short films, including the 2010 Sundance Film Festival official selection and Women In Film award winner New Media. She has written, directed and produced both short- and long-form documentary content for BET, Al Jazeera English, and other platforms. Her work has been supported by the Tribeca Film Institute, Film Independent, Women In Film, ITVS, Doc Society, the Bertha Institute, and the International Documentary Association, among other esteemed organizations. Smriti holds an MFA in Film from Columbia University and a BA from California State University, Northridge and Art Center College of Design. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, screenwriter Christian Magalhães, their daughter Isabel and son Jag.

Tamara Mariam Dawit is a producer/director based between Canada and Ethiopia. Tamara has experience producing music content, tours, creative documentaries, digital content, formatted television, and has recently branched into producing dramatic films. She has produced television content for CBC, MTV, Radio Canada, Discovery, NHK, Fana, Aljazeera among other networks. As well she has also overseen the production of digital projects and impact campaigns for Plan International, MTV Canada, Girl Effect, Corus, and other clients. For ten years Tamara was the executive director of the 411 Initiative For Change, a national Canadian charity producing social justice-themed arts content. In Canada, Tamara is a founding member of REMC (The Racial Equity Media Collective). In Ethiopia, she is an advisor to the federal government, and the European Union on policies and programs to support the film industry and also co-chairs the East African Film Working Group. As a producer, Tamara has participated in labs at Cannes, TIFF, IDFA, Hot Docs, and Sheffield. She is an alumnus of both the Berlin and Durban Talents programs and the Doha Film Institute and the APost Labs. In 2019 she took part in the Cannes Doc Corner Rough Cut program, the Miradas Doc Lab Afrolatam Pitch, and Produce Au Sud. In 2020 her new film Finding Sally screened at the Gothenburg, Hot Docs, Encounters, and Durban Film Festivals. As well this year Tamara is taking part in Good Pitch Kenya, Torino’s Extended Lab, the EAVE Producers Lab and is producing a dramatic project in the Realness Screenwriting Residency.

Roxy Shih is an internationally acclaimed, Emmy-nominated writer/director and speaker. Born in Europe, Roxy’s third culture background has given her a distinct perspective. As a filmmaker, she is known for her versatility and has worked with many independent companies both overseas and domestically, making her one of the most in demand cinema artists today. Roxy had her directorial debut, The Tribe, acquired by Empress Road Pictures in 2016. The film stars Jessica Rothe (Happy Death Day, La La Land), Anne Winters (Mom & Dad, 13 Reasons Why), and Michael Nardelli (The Collection, Circle). The film has garnered a lot of media attention and has won awards at prestigious festivals such as Best Narrative Feature at Nice International Film Festival, Best Debut Feature Film at The Female Eye Film Festival in Toronto, and Best Feature Director at Other Worlds Austin Film Festival. In 2016, Roxy helmed episodes of the highly anticipated sci-fi anthology series Dark/Web, which released on Amazon Prime in 2019 with a World Premiere at San Diego Comic Con and garnered her an Emmy nomination for Best Direction. Her second feature film Painkillers (Madeline Zima, Grant Bowler, Adam Huss, and Debra Wilson) was released in early 2019 with a Hulu deal. She recently wrapped production on her third and fourth feature, Heart To Heart (Julie McNiven, Jon Abrahams, and Kelly Jakle) with Ninth House Films and Pooling to Paradise (Lynn Chen, Jonathan Lipnicki, Dreama Walker, Jordan Carlos, and Taryn Manning) with Fox Meadow Films. Roxy also believes in giving back to her community and serves as the current Festival Director for the Taiwanese American Film Festival in Los Angeles. She is a proud member of Film Fatales.