Brave New World

Amber Fares is an award-winning documentary filmmaker best known for her directorial debut SPEED SISTERS (Hot Docs, 2015), which aired internationally on Netflix, Al Jazeera and RAI. Her subsequent credits include WE ARE AYENDA (Amazon, 2023), GUTSY ep5 (Apple TV, 2022), RECKONING WITH LAUGHTER (Al Jazeera’s “Witness,” 2021), CONVERGENCE: COURAGE UNDER CRISIS (Netflix, 2021) AMERICA INSIDE OUT WITH KATIE COURIC (National Geographic, 2018) and the Peabody Award-winning THE JUDGE (PBS, 2017), which she co-produced and filmed. A Sundance Momentum Fellow and Sundance Editing and Story Lab Fellow, Amber is a Canadian of Lebanese origin currently based in New York.

Cristina Costantini is a proud Latina, Wisconsinite, and science fair nerd. She studied at Yale University and has reported and produced for the New Haven Independent, The Huffington Post, ABC News, Univision and Fusion. She speaks English and Spanish and owns a plump pug dog named Harriet. Cristina’s first TV documentary Pimp City, was nominated for two Emmys and her reporting on immigration has won awards from GLAAD and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. Her feature documentary, “Science Fair,” which she directed with Darren Foster won the Festival Favorite Award at Sundance in 2018. The film also won the Audience Award at SXSW, Sun Valley Film Festival, Portland International Film Festival and the Tumbleweeds Film Festival.

Meera Menon is a Jersey born, LA based filmmaker whose directing credits in MS. MARVEL, WESTWORLD, FOR ALL MANKIND, and THE WALKING DEAD. She was awarded the Nora Ephron Prize for a groundbreaking woman filmmaker by TriBeCa and Vogue for her feature debut FARAH GOES BANG. Her second film EQUITY premiered at Sundance in 2016.

Sam Feder is a Peabody Award–nominated film director and writer. Sam’s films explore the intersection of visibility and politics along the lines of race, class, and gender. They directed the award-winning Netflix Original documentary Disclosure (2020) and the widely acclaimed documentary Kate Bornstein Is a Queer & Pleasant Danger (2014).

Alece Oxendine is a celebrated speaker, strategist, and writer in the film and media industry. She has mentored and supported hundreds of filmmakers at Film at Lincoln Center, Rooftop Films, Fandor, Good Deed Entertainment, Columbia University’s film school, and is currently at Color Congress. She is starting a film festival in her hometown of Durham, NC and is working on a book with her father. Alece is an alumna of Columbia University and a proud HBCU graduate from Winston-Salem State University. She enjoys telling stories in her free time and is trying to learn French.