Virtual Shadowing

Mary Lou Belli is a Two time Emmy award-winning filmmaker who has been directing television for over 30 years, including NCIS: New Orleans, Black Lightning, Bull, Legacies, Station 19, Pitch, Monk, Famous In Love, Devious Maids, The Quad, American Woman, and Hart of Dixie as well as Wizards of Waverly Place, Sister, Sister, Girlfriends, and The Game. Her short film, Straight Eye for the Gay Guy, won “Best Mini-short” at the California Independent Film Fest, where she also premiered I Heard Something, a thriller that went on to play fests internationally. She has done ground-breaking work on web series. Her award-winning short, America, is currently on the fest circuit. She is also Producing Director and Executive Producer of Ms. Pat. Mary Lou served two terms as the Co-chair of the Women’s Steering Committee at the DGA, where she also serves on the Western Director’s Council, and the Leadership Council PAC and as an alternate to the Board. She is an Honorary Board member of the Alliance of Women Directors and Advisory Board member of Women in Media and a long-time member of Women In Film. She has served as judge and/or guest speaker for the CSU Media Arts Fest, a judge for the Miss America Outstanding Teen Pageant, a jury member at the Sapporo Short Festival, Newport Beach Film Fest, Regina International Film Festival, and The Voice awards, a lecturer at the Chautauqua Institute, and a panelist for Women In Film, the DGA, SAG, and AFTRA and the LA Times Festival of Books. Mary is the current Governor of the Television Academy. She has been a guest artist at the International Thespian Festival for secondary school theatre, where she gave workshops to thousands of teens and high school theatre teachers. Through her teaching, she supports many vibrant diversity programs, including ABC/Disney, CBS, Sony, HBO Access, AFI’s Directing Workshop for Women, and Warner Bros. Directing Workshop, mentoring the next generation of directors. She is the co-author of four books: The NEW Sitcom Career Book, Acting for Young Actors, and Directors Tell the Story, which she co-wrote with fellow DGA member Bethany Rooney. Focal Press published her 4th book, Acting for the Screen, in the summer of 2019.

Afia Nathaniel was raised between Lahore and several air force bases. Afia grew up with a deep love for fighter jet planes, long road trips, and discovering worlds hiding in plain sight. Afia was an NBCU Female Forward fellow and directed an episode of Chicago Med, becoming the first Pakistani-American female director hired by a US network/studio in episodic directing (one-hour drama). Afia’s debut feature Dukhtar (Daughter), premiered to a rousing reception in Toronto (2014). It was Pakistan’s Official Submission for “Best Foreign Language Film” at the 87th Academy Awards®. The film played to critical acclaim in over 20 countries to rave reviews and became the Critics’ Pick (Village Voice) and the People Magazine’s Pick of the Week. The film has won several awards, including the Adrienne Shelly Award for Directors, Audience Award at Creteil, Best World Feature at Sonoma, and Best Director + Best Feature Film at SAIFF. Afia has been featured in Variety, NYT, Indiewire, NPR, Huffington Post, and Screen Daily. Variety says, “Nathaniel proves her mettle in a national industry where distaff directors are rare,” with Indiewire labeling Dukhtar as “groundbreaking,” New York Times calling it “exquisite,” and LA Times billing it as “gorgeous, suspenseful cinematic achievement.” Through her films, Afia explores pressing social justice issues of our times which a critic lauded as “a stunning, emotive work that takes to task oppressive patriarchy.” Afia is an alumnus of Gotham, Tribeca Film Institute, Film Independent, and Berlin Talent Project Market. Her work has been supported by HBO, Netflix, National Geographic, Tribeca Film Institute, Cinereach, Women in Film, NYFA, IFFR, SorFond (Films from the South), Caucus Foundation, NYSCA + Hollywood Foreign Press. Afia shares her love for storytelling with students. She has taught Film/TV courses at Columbia, Princeton, Tisch, and Temple. She is also a generous mentor to emerging filmmakers through several labs. Afia holds an MFA in Film Directing from Columbia University (Dean’s Fellow). Echo Lake Entertainment reps her.

Anna Sang Park is a multifaceted filmmaker. Born in South Korea, she grew up in Seoul, then Philadelphia. She is the writer and director of The Cho Stories, an award-winning short film trilogy about a Korean immigrant family told in a chapter format. The Cho Stories received the Audience Award for Short Film at the 2021 Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival and one of the shorts from the same trilogy, APPA APPA APPA, won Honorable Mention at the 2021 Bushwick Film Festival, the Best Short Film at the 2021 Peekskill Film Festival and has been in many other festivals. Anna directed and produced nine short documentaries for Theatre Communications Group – TCG’s Legacy Leaders of Color Video Project (LLCVP) highlighting groundbreaking theatre directors of color who fundamentally functioned as civil rights leaders. She directed for TLC‘s Say Yes to the Dress for five seasons, as well as the spin-off shows. Anna also directed for BRIC TV‘s two short doc series. She produced the narrative feature film Wallabout, which won Best Film at the Bushwick Film Festival and Best Personal Narrative Film at the Manhattan Film Festival. Anna was the development producer on the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning doc, The Loving Story. She has an MFA in Directing from Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema, Brooklyn College, and a BFA in Film from Emerson College. Anna is a Film Fatales, Alliance of Women Directors, Brown Girls Doc Mafia, and NYC Women member. She speaks Korean fluently.

Catherine Eaton is a director, writer, actor, and storytelling activist. She was selected as a Shadowing-Director for Ryan Murphy‘s Half Program and Tribeca Film Festival‘s “Through Her Lens” Director’s Lab and Grant. Catherine is a Statera Mentee under Showrunner Kit Steinkellner and an inaugural Avalon: Story Fellow. Catherine directed/co-wrote the feature The Sounding – starring Harris Yulin (Ozark) and Frankie Faison (The Wire) – which won over two-dozen awards on the festival circuit, sold to HBO for international broadcast, myCinema for North American theatrical, and was nominated for the SAMHSA Voice Awards for activism. She is working on her next feature film, The Control Room, co-written by Naomi McDougall-Jones and Christian Coulson. Based on her experience working with freelance news crews in conflict zones, Catherine’s pilot Free Radical was selected for The Gotham/IFP‘s Project Forum. Catherine is a Director/Writer at Next Chapter Podcasts, where she’s directed seven fiction episodes and wrote/adapted 55 episodes in collaboration with Marcus Gardley (The Chi), Oscar-winner Jeffrey Witty, and others. She has created content for MSG’s Garden of Dreams Foundation and shares an Emmy with the production team on The Human Toll of Ethanol (Bloomberg TV). As an actor, she has performed on Broadway. Catherine teaches Screen Directing at Harvard. She is Paraguayan and French-American.

Danielle Eliska Lyle is an award-winning writer, film director, photographer, entrepreneur, and educator from Detroit. She’s a co-creator of an experimental art community, A Love Letter to Detroit. Danielle received her MFA in Dramatic Writing in Film from New York University and has gained notable screenwriting and photography recognition. Danielle was one of the inaugural grant recipients of the 2018 Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment and New York Foundation for the Arts (MOME NYFA) ‘Made in NY’ Women’s Fund in Film for her short narrative film, Shield (Digital Press Kit). She was a 2022 Womxnhouse Detroit Resident, a 2022 Sesame Street Workshop Writer’s Room Fellow, and a 2023 CultureSource Flourish Fund | Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts grant recipient.

Maya Washington is an award-winning director, narrative and documentary filmmaker (writer/director/producer), actress, writer, poet, creative director, visualist (photography), and arts educator. She received a BA in Dramatic Arts from the University of Southern California and an MFA in Creative Writing from Hamline University. Her background, on stage/camera and behind the scenes, has allowed her to work on everything from public art, live theatre, commercials, and print ads, to web series, films, and television. Her award-winning film, Through the Banks of the Red Cedar, about her father, Vikings Legend Gene Washington, and the desegregation of college football, aired on the Big Ten Network and is currently available on PBS platforms, including PBS Documentaries Channel through Amazon Prime, Comcast, and iTunes. Her memoir, Through the Banks of the Red Cedar: My Father and the Team that Changed the Game, was released in 2022 (Little A) and is a 2023 Finalist for the Minnesota Book Award. The book is available in bookstores, and the audio edition features Maya’s narration. Her award winning-film Clear, about a family reconnecting in the aftermath of a wrongful conviction, is available on the streaming platforms Argo and Kwelitv. As a freelance tv and film director, Maya recently directed episodes of the Fox series The Killer Next Door and History Channel’s I Was There, both from Committee Films and the PBS Kids series Black SciGirls. Her award-winning narrative short, White Space (starring ABC Family Switched at Birth’s Ryan Lane) about a deaf performance poet, aired on network television and was nominated for a Black Reel Award. Her commercial and brand work includes Best Buy, Target, The National Society of Leadership and Success, and others. Maya is dedicated to projects with a sense of “purpose” in the world, selecting social impact stories that illuminate aspects of the human experience that are untold, rarely seen, or might benefit from new approaches to issues of diversity and inclusion.

Nicole Gomez Fisher is an award-winning writer, director, and producer of the feature film Sleeping with the Fishes, starring Golden Globe Winner Gina Rodriguez, Steven Strait, and Ana Ortiz. Fishes aired on HBO from 2014-2016 and can currently be seen on Amazon Prime, Vudu, Fandango, and Peacock. Nicole was nominated for The St. Louis International Film Festival’s New Filmmakers Emerging Director Award and received the Brooklyn Film Festival’s award for Best New Director. In 2014 she was named Best Director at the Imagen Awards, founded by legendary television producer Norman Lear. Her follow-up feature, Good Egg, a heist/comedy, stars Yara Martinez (Bull), Joel Johnstone (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), Andrea Londo (Narcos), Nick Creegan (Bat Woman), Nick Cirillo (Outer Banks) and TONY Winner Priscilla Lopez. Nicole’s directing projects also include: The Beauty of Disaster, a short film written by Janet Stilson, Wokeman – Women in the Workplace, a webisode, Queens, a pilot presentation, and Getting out of My Own Way, a music video for indie recording artist Jennifer Vazquez. Nicole’s film, television, and theater acting credits include a recurring role on 24, General Hospital, Empire (an Official Selection of The Sundance Film Festival), Frankie and Johnny are Married (starring Mandy Patinkin), Habla for HBO Latino, and Birth Marks (part of The Ensemble Studios Marathon Series). Starting out as an actress and stand-up comic, Nicole is a founding member of The Hot Tamales Live!, the Latina comedy tour produced by Eva Longoria and Kiki Melendez. Nicole’s work has been featured in The New York Times and Time Out NY. She is also a proud member of the NYWIFT and the Film Fatales.

Award-winning writer/director Shari Lynette Carpenter says she came out of the womb with a pencil in hand, a born storyteller, and her film career all began with a fan letter written to Spike Lee. During her decade a half tenure as script supervisor to Spike and many other notable directors, Carpenter built her writing and directing portfolio, making a series of shorts and indie features. In 2021 Ava DuVernay invited Carpenter to direct her first television episode on the critically acclaimed series Queen Sugar. Carpenter has also recently directed three made-for-television movies, Three’s Complicated for TVOne and Single Black Female and Mary J. Blige‘s Strength of a Woman for Lifetime. Her television pilot script, Translate, was selected for The Writer’s Lab. An NYU graduate, Carpenter is a member of the DGA Women’s Steering Committee Squad, the Paramount Directors Initiative, and a Stowe Story Lab Board member and alumna.

Yoruba Richen is a documentary filmmaker who has directed films in the U.S. and abroad. Her most recent films, The Killing of Breonna Taylor premiered on FX and Hulu and The Sit In: Harry Belafonte Hosts the Tonight Show premiered on MSNBC. Yoruba‘s previous film The Green Book: Guide to Freedom was broadcast on the Smithsonian Channel to record audiences and was nominated for an Emmy. Her feature documentary, The New Black, won multiple festival awards and was nominated for an NAACP Image Award and a GLAAD Media Award before premiering on PBS’s Independent Lens. Her film Promised Land was broadcast on POV. Yoruba won a Clio award for her short film about the Grammy-nominated singer Andra Day. She has also won a Creative Promise Award at Tribeca All Access and was a Sundance Producers Fellow. Yoruba is a featured TED Speaker, a Fulbright fellow, a Guggenheim fellow and a 2016 recipient of the Chicken & Egg Breakthrough Filmmaker Award. She is the Director of the Documentary Program at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.