SXSW Filmmaker Brunch

Name: SXSW Filmmaker Brunch
Start: 2026-03-15T10:00:00-05:00
End: 2026-03-15T12:00:00-05:00

Reimagining Work, Family, and Care

March 2026

Film Fatales and New America’s Entertainment Initiative invite you to an intimate private brunch during the SXSW Film Festival for a conversation centered around gender, work, family, care and representation on and off screen. We each have lived experiences, family backgrounds, and hopes and fears about the future that shape our own views about navigating work, family, and care—yet American culture often leaves us feeling alone and unsupported. People often feel that the challenges of managing jobs and family or personal needs are private and ours alone to bear. Yet there is joy and strength in building community, recognizing shared struggles, and engaging in discussion about a desire for change on screen and in life.

Join us for a candid discussion led by Alyse Walsh (Baby/Girls) and Luchina Fisher (The Dads) about why visibility and representation matter, and how art can change culture and policy.

Details

Date:: March 15
Time:: 10:00 am - 12:00 pm

Details

Date:: March 15
Time:: 10:00 am - 12:00 pm

Speakers

Alyse Walsh is an Emmy Award-nominated documentary filmmaker and journalist. She has directed and produced documentaries in over 20 countries. Alyse is a Showrunner and Executive Producer of the second season of HOME, produced with A24 Films for Apple TV+. Prior to that, Alyse directed several episodes of the Emmy-nominated Netflix science documentary series Connected hosted by RadioLab’s Latif Nasser. She was the Supervising Producer on the Netflix Original Documentary Series Diagnosis. Alyse also served as Supervising Producer on Defying Gravity, an Emmy-nominated and PGA award-winning YouTube Original documentary series. She previously worked as a producer for several seasons of the Emmy-winning news magazine series VICE on HBO. Ascending Afghanistan, a feature film Alyse produced for, went on to win multiple festival awards. Alyse received a B.A. in Journalism at NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute.

Luchina Fisher is the Emmy Award-winning director and producer of THE DADS, about five fathers of trans kids bonding on a weekend fishing trip. The short documentary, executive produced by Dwyane Wade and acquired by Netflix, received the 2024 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Short Form Program and a Special Recognition Award from GLAAD. Her directorial debut, MAMA GLORIA, about a Black trans elder activist, was nominated for a 2022 GLAAD Media Award and broadcast on PBS. She is also the director of the award-winning short documentary TEAM DREAM, executive produced by Queen Latifah, and co-director of the award-winning feature documentary LOCKED OUT, about the barriers to Black homeownership. She is currently finishing a feature-length documentary with some of the dads from her Emmy-winning short and a project about the unsung history of Black queer presence in music, which won the 2023 PitchBLACK Film Forum. Luchina began her career as a journalist, writing for The Miami Herald, People and ABC News, and is a 2026 inductee of the North Carolina Media and Journalism Hall of Fame. She is a visiting professor in film at Fairfield University and has taught documentary filmmaking at Yale. She is a member of the Television Academy and serves on the board of New York Women in Film and Television.

Vicki Shabo is a gender equity expert, policy strategist, and coalition builder, who has helped to win paid leave, equal pay, and pregnancy fairness policies affecting tens of millions of people. She is a senior fellow at New America and the founder and director of the entertainment initiative, Re-Scripting Gender, Work, Family, and Care. Shabo is a trusted resource for policymakers, advocates, researchers, journalists, business leaders, and entertainment industry stakeholders. She has testified numerous times in the U.S. Congress and state legislatures. Her op-eds have appeared in publications ranging from the Boston Globe to the Hollywood Reporter. Shabo holds degrees from Pomona College (B.A., highest honors), the University of Michigan (M.A. political science), and the University of North Carolina (J.D., high honors).

Community Partners

Film Fatales is a non profit arts organization which advocates for parity in the film industry and supports an inclusive community of over a thousand feature film and television directors of all marginalized genders. We raise the visibility of marginalized directors and expand the talent pool for decision makers looking to work with underrepresented voices. Together, we can build a more equitable industry for us all.

New America, a non profit, non partisan think tank, is dedicated to renewing the promise of America by continuing the quest to realize our nation’s highest ideals, honestly confronting the challenges caused by rapid technological and social change, and seizing the opportunities those changes create. Our Better Life Lab, which houses the entertainment initiative, Re-Scripting Gender, Work, Family, and Care, is focused on advancing work-family justice, gender equity, care, and well-being, particularly for those most disadvantaged by the status quo.