2026 Meet Our Guests

Sun 1 Nov, 6 PM · Carnegie · PRE-FEST TAILGATE

Anaya Milligan — Director, Click

Anaya Milligan is a writer and director born and raised in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She graduated from Penn State University with a degree in Film Production and a minor in English.

Herley Gong — Director, Glass Sky

Herley Gong, from Shanghai, China, is a filmmaker specializing in music videos and tragedy films. I’m driven by a passion for visual storytelling that explores the depths of human emotion and philosophy. My work blends cinematic aesthetics with raw, authentic narratives, creating stories that resonate across cultures.

Talon McKendree — Director, Plugged

I am a filmmaker who works primarily in stop-motion animation. I handmake miniature set designs and characters out of anything I can find such as foam, wood, tape, fabric, etc.

Sean Martin — Director, The Golden Age

Sean Martin is a first-time filmmaker from Erie, Pennsylvania. Having recently graduated from Penn State University, Sean seeks to create films driven primarily by empathy and an interest in emotionally-grounded storytelling. His first film, THE GOLDEN AGE, follows a former silent film star who struggles to transition to talking pictures in the late 1920s.

Mon 2 Nov, 11:30 AM · UEC Theatres

Roselyn Costantino, Ph.D. — Q&A Moderator

Roselyn Costantino is a professor emerita of Spanish, women’s, gender, and sexuality studies, and Latin American studies and a 2011 Fulbright Scholar at La Universidad del Valle, Guatemala. She received her M.A. from Montclair State University (1988) in Spanish Peninsular Literature with a focus on 19th-century Spanish and Latin American narrative, and her Ph.D. from Arizona State University (1992) in Spanish with specialization in Latin American theatre and narrative; Latin American Studies; and Women’s Studies.

Mon 2 Nov, 12 PM · Foster Auditorium

Mary Haverstick — Director, Tipping Point PA

Mary Haverstick is a Pennsylvania-based director, writer and cinematographer. Her feature HOME, starring Oscar winner Marcia Gay Harden, premiered at the Montreal World Film Festival, and she is the author of A Woman I Know. She directed and produced TIPPING POINT PA, which follows six Pennsylvania candidates and activists.

Sarah Hammond — PROTAGONIST, Tipping Point PA

Sarah Hammond has over a decade of experience in local and state government and legislative affairs, including work with the PA Department of Agriculture, Fairness Pennsylvania, and PA AFL-CIO. In 2020, she became the youngest and first openly LGBTQ+ congressional nominee in South Central PA’s history — a campaign featured in TIPPING POINT PA.

Laura Shadle — Q&A Moderator

Laura Shadle is a political and multi-media professional, writer, and advocate, currently serving in her third term on the Pennsylvania Democratic State Committee. Shadle has a wide variety of clients across the Commonwealth, and locally holds the position as Political Director for State Representative Scott Conklin.

Mon 2 Nov, 2:30 PM · UEC Theatres

Jane Greenberg — Director, The Surrender of Waymond Hall

Jane Greenberg is an Oakland-based documentary filmmaker with 30 years of experience in public television and independent film. Over the course of her career, she has worked in a variety of key roles including producer, director, editor, camera operator, sound recordist, writer, archival researcher, production manager, and post-production supervisor.

Shaheen Pasha — Director, PRISON JOURNALISM PROJECT

Shaheen Pasha is an associate teaching professor at Penn State, focused on mass incarceration and prison education, and the cofounder and chief education officer of the PRISON JOURNALISM PROJECT, a national nonprofit that publishes and teaches journalism to incarcerated writers. A veteran journalist of 20 years, she reported for Thomson Reuters, CNNMoney and Dow Jones Newswires.

Irvin Moore — Q&A Moderator

Irvin Moore, a 79-year-old man from Philadelphia who spent more than fifty years incarcerated, reflects on his early life, his path into the criminal justice system, and his time at Holmesburg Prison where he was exposed to medical experiments conducted by the University of Pennsylvania and other entities. He explains how prisoners viewed the tests as economic survival in a system where money controlled safety and opportunity, and describes the informal inmate networks that recruited participants for studies run by Kligman, the Army, and Penn. Moore talks about witnessing side effects among others, the power dynamics that made prisoners trust authority figures, and how none of them understood the risks at the time. Later in life he became a respected inmate-leader, building educational programs, mentoring others, and maintaining long-term relationships with Penn State professors who eventually helped him transition into college after his commutation. The interview also covers his emotional release from prison, his bond with the therapy dog Fred, and his belief that apologies from Philadelphia and Penn are meaningless without education, public acknowledgment, and concrete reparations for survivors and their families.

Mon 2 Nov, 6:30 PM · THE STATE THEATRE

Ramses Barquero Martinez — Q&A MODERATOR

Ramses is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese at the Pennsylvania State University. He holds a B.A. in Spanish Philology and an M.A. in Spanish Literature from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, where he started collaborating with GEXEL (Grupo de Estudios del Exilio Literario). His dissertation examines literary mechanisms that defied the official discourses promoted by dictators Francisco Franco in Spain (1939-1975) and António de Oliveira Salazar in Portugal (1933-1974). His research and teaching interest include, but are not limited to, Spanish Republican Exile, Iberian Studies, Peninsular and Catalan Postwar Literature, Francoism and Salazarism, and Censorship during dictatorships. His scholarly publications have appeared in journals as the Bulletin of Spanish Studies, and collaborative volumes. During his time at The Pennsylvania State University, he has taught different courses on Spanish literature and cultures during the 20^th century, which included the works of authors like Federico García Lorca, Antonio Machado, Miguel Hernández, and recent film adaptations of the Spanish Civil War and its aftermath.

YAW AGAWU-KAKRABA — Q&A Moderator

Penn State professor of Spanish and African Studies from Ghana. Novelist and scholar; The Restless Crucible won the 2024 African Literature Association Book of the Year. Author of multiple academic books; newest novel The Executioner’s Stepdaughter (2025).

MELISSA WRIGHT — Q&A MODERATOR

Dr. Wright is a scholar of social justice movements within Mexico and the Mexico-US borderlands, and in the southern Americas. As a critical geographic scholar with foundations in interdisciplinary feminist, critical race, solidarity, and political economic studies, Dr. Wright examines how social movements that articulate human rights, social justice, and landscape stewardship subvert the necropolitical convergence of anti-immigrant, extractive economies, and racist governance systems that threaten the well-being of the borderlands beyond the human domain. She has authored foundational pieces in studies of feminicidio and the social movements against it in Mexico and beyond, of social justice campaigns against state terror and labor exploitation, and of the formation of solidarity in support of social and ecological diversity in the Mexico-US borderlands. Her current research examines how critical race, ecological, and indigenous movements throughout the borderlands have gained steam through “border thinking” combined with solidarity movements that prioritize the merging of social justice with ecological well-being.

Tue 3 Nov, 10:30 AM · 3dots

River Zhang — Director, The Blind Reggaetonera

River Zhang is a documentary filmmaker, video journalist, and editor based in Washington, D.C. and New York City. Her first independent documentary follows a blind reggaeton artist’s journey in embracing her disability identity. River sees the camera as her gateway to exploring human experiences and hopes her storytelling can offer new perspectives.

Tue 3 Nov, 11:30 AM · UEC Theatres 12

Ted Malawer — Director, Happy For You

Ted Malawer is an Emmy Award-winning writer and director in the Hudson Valley. He co-wrote the film adaptation of RED, WHITE & ROYAL BLUE, which received 2024 Emmy and PGA nominations for Outstanding Television Movie and GLAAD’s Fan Favorite Award.

Arturo López Rodas — Director, Vertices

Salvadoran independent filmmaker, writer, and director. He holds a degree in Logistics and Distribution Engineering. He completed a film directing workshop at the University of Las Vegas, Nevada. Since 2014, he has dedicated himself to the study of script structure and audiovisual dramatic narratives.

Tue 3 Nov, 2 PM · UEC Theatres 12

James Gannon — Director, Jimmy’s Custom Coffin

James P. Gannon was born with a tooth. He makes movies and likes to shoot on film and eat mexican food.

Carolyn Donaldson — Q&A Moderator

With a strong belief in public media and making connections with the community, Carolyn Donaldson has begun a new phase of her life after serving as a news anchor for WTAJ-TV for more than 20 years.

She has recently taken on the role as community engagement manager at WPSU Penn State, a new position for the public media station. Not only does she bring to the position her skills and resources but also the experience of having served on the advisory board at WPSU for several years.

Tue 3 Nov, 7 PM · The State Theatre

Michelle Malley Campos — Director, Extranjera (Foreigner)

From Santurce, Puerto Rico, Michelle Malley Campos is a filmmaker, NYU Tisch alumni, and 2008 WIF/GM Latina Acceleration Grant recipient. With nearly 20 years of experience in the film industry, she has directed short films and music videos showcased at international festivals. A DGA member, she has worked in Hollywood as an assistant director. Extranjera (Foreigner) is her debut feature.

Aris Mejías — Actor, Extranjera (Foreigner)

Actor in EXTRANJERA (FOREIGNER), joining director
Michelle Malley Campos after the screening.

Christopher Ali — Q&A Moderator

Christopher Ali is the Pioneers Chair of Telecommunications and Professor of Telecommunications at the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications at Penn State University. He holds a PhD in Communications Studies from the University of Pennsylvania and his work focuses on broadband and digital equity in rural and remote communities. He is the author of the book Farm Fresh Broadband: The Politics of Rural Connectivity and has been published in the New York Times, Washington Monthly, The Hill, Realtor Magazine, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Wed 4 Nov, 10:30 AM · 3dots

Kosoko Jackson — Director, FATHER FIGURE

Kosoko Jackson is a USA TODAY bestselling and Lambda Award–winning author of young adult fiction and romantic comedies. His novels have been published by most Big Five publishers, with contracts through 2028. He is currently a production film student at Stony Brook University and a dog dad to Artemis, a Golden Retriever. He lives in the New York metro area.

Wed 4 Nov, 12 PM · Foster Auditorium

Bill Short — Q&A Moderator

Bill Short has served as the volunteer college counselor at Humanities Preparatory Academy, a New York City public high school, since 2003. A graduate of Harvard Business School and Founder & President of The Short List, an independent college counseling practice, he has spent more than two decades helping young people navigate the path to higher education. At Humanities Prep, Bill has guided every successive senior class through college visits, applications, financial aid and the often unfamiliar choices that shape their futures. His work with first-generation students is central to Admission Possible, which explores how differences in exposure, information, resources and guidance can shape access to opportunity. Through Bill’s relationships with the seven students and their families, the film also examines the power of mentorship and what can happen when someone helps a young person see possibilities beyond those they already know.

Wed 4 Nov, 1 PM · UEC Theaters

Kody Leibowitz — Director, Meandering Scars

Kody Leibowitz is a multi-talented writer, director, producer, and co-founder of BirdMine, a production company that specializes in creating socially-driven films that elevate untold, powerful stories about underrepresented communities.

Wed 4 Nov, 3:30 PM · UEC Theaters

Storai Jalali — Director, DAY TRIP: ESCAPING THE TALIBAN

Storai Jalali is a women’s rights and social activist and an Editorial Assistant at the Penn State Alumni Association, where she supports The Penn Stater magazine. Before August 2021, Storai lived and worked in Kabul, Afghanistan, where she served as Assistant Director of a non-profit organization.

Murtaza Jalali — Director, DAY TRIP: ESCAPING THE TALIBAN

My name is Murtaza Jalali, and I’m a former Afghanistani journalist and a media specialist at Penn State’s Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications. My journalism career began in 2005, and I worked in Afghanistan’s media industry until August 2021.

David Sidore — Q&A Moderator

David Sidore has been teaching film for thirty years and working on film festivals for the past twenty. His research focuses on Post-Cold War culture, especially as represented in the media of the period. He is enthusiastic about helping bring a diverse collection of films and voices to central Pennsylvania.

Wed 4 Nov, 8:30 PM · UEC Theaters

Mark H. Rapaport — Director, Godhead

A New York filmmaker whose feature debut, HIPPO, premiered at Fantasia in 2023 and was an IndieWire Critic’s Pick. As a producer: JOSEPHINE, Sundance Grand Jury and Audience Award winner, and The Scary of Sixty-First, Best First Feature at Berlin in 2021.

Abigail Zealey Bess — Director, THE LION

ABIGAIL ZEALEY BESS (Director) is an award-winning Filmmaker, Theatre Director and Educator working in the US and the UK. A long-standing member of the Ensemble Studio Theatre; leading developmental theatre of new plays in the USA.

Jerry Zolten — Q&A Moderator

Jerry Zolten is a Professor Emeritus at Penn State University who, specializing in American Roots Music, is a writer, educator, performer, public speaker, film producer/narrator, and concert producer. Website: JerryZolten.com

His best known works include the book Great God A’Mighty! The Dixie Hummingbirds/Celebrating the Rise of Soul Gospel Music [Oxford University Press, 2003/2022]; the audio album Chimpin’ the Blues with cartoonist/satirist Robert Crumb [East River Records]; the documentary film How They Got Over/Gospel Quartets and ther Road to Rock ‘n’ Roll [One State Films] currently streaming on HBO MAX; the public radio documentary Time to Lay It Down/The Soundtrack of the Vietnam War, Parts 1 & 2.

He currently performs regionally with the soul blues/group Code: Blue.

Thu 5 Nov, 10:30 AM · 3dots

Laura New — Director, AMERICA

Laura New is an Australian-born director, writer, and actor with a dynamic background in theater, film, and television. A member of the Writers Guild of America East (WGAE), Laura has established herself as a multifaceted storyteller dedicated to crafting socially compelling narratives.

Jared Engel — Director, Day of the Catch

Jared Engel is a Grammy-nominated musician. filmmaker and baseball historian who been a mainstay of the New York City music scene for the past 20 years. An accomplished multi-instrumentalist, he is often seen on subways, sidewalks and bike paths hauling a multitude of instruments that may include upright bass, bass guitar, tuba, 4-string plectrum banjo, and 5-string banjo.

Sophia Zalipsky — Director, I Heard You Calling

Sophia Zalipsky is an award winning, SAG-AFTRA actress turned professional, award-winning filmmaker, director, cinematographer, sound designer and editor. Sophia has over 16 years of combined experience working both in front and behind the camera.

Thu 5 Nov, 12 PM · Foster Auditorium

Barbara Attie — Director, Hollywood Does Abortion

The EMMY® nominated filmmakers Barbara Attie and Janet Goldwater have collaborated on award-winning documentaries for national and international broadcast since 1990 and are recipients of a Pew Fellowship in the Arts. Their most recent film (with co-director Mike Attie), Abortion Helpline, This is Lisa, screened at Sundance, won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Short Doc at AFI Docs 2020, and was short-listed for an Oscar in 2021.

Other feature docs by Attie and Goldwater include Emmy-nominated BaddDDD Sonia Sanchez, Maggie Growls, Rosita and Mrs. Goundo’s Daughter.

Janet Goldwater — Director, Hollywood Does Abortion

Other feature docs by Attie and Goldwater include Emmy-nominated BaddDDD Sonia Sanchez, Maggie Growls, Rosita and Mrs. Goundo’s Daughter.

Jo Dumas — Q&A Moderator

J. Ann Dumas is an Associate Teaching Professor of Media Studies for the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications at Penn State University, with an expertise in information and communication technology policy. Her work in broadcast engineering led her to lecture at Stellenbosch University in South Africa from 2002 – 2003. Her experience includes being communications and outreach consultant for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Gender Caucus in Geneva and becoming a research fellow for bridges.org in South Africa. Also a producer of Three Minutes from Broadway and The Garden, her work in research, writing, digital media, and theatre production continues with her partner Charles Dumas.

Thu 5 Nov, 1 PM · Palmer Museum of Art

William Doan — Director, B Cells: A Chemotherapy Poem

William J. Doan, Ph.D. is a past president of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education and a Fellow in the College of Fellows of The American Theatre. In addition to articles in scholarly journals, Doan has co-authored three books and several plays. He has created solo performance projects at a variety of venues across the U.S., and abroad. His current work includes a multi-media project titled The Anxiety Project. Work from this project includes multiple short graphic narratives published in the Annals of Internal Medicine/Graphic Medicine, and Cleaver Magazine, and Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine, as well as multiple short films. He is an emeritus professor in the College of Arts and Architecture, and former Director of the Arts and Design Research Incubator at Penn State. Doan served as the Penn State Laureate for 2019-2020.

Thu 5 Nov, 2 PM · UEC THEATRES 12

Malky Goldman — Director, THE WEDDING ENTERTAINER (THE TALE OF MOISHE BADHAN)

Malky Goldman (מלכי גולדמן) is a Jerusalem-born actor and visual artist based in New York City. She stars in Gidi Dar’s THE WEDDING ENTERTAINER, with screen credits including The Vigil, Netflix’s Unorthodox, and HBO’s High Maintenance. Her theater work includes Strangers, Rhinoceros, and God of Vengeance.

Pearl Gluck — Q&A Moderator

Pearl Gluck, Co-Founder and Artistic Director of the Centre Film Festival, is a filmmaker whose work explores identity, class, and faith through narrative and documentary film. She is also the Penn State Laureate (2025–26) and an Associate Professor of Film Production at Penn State. Her films have screened at Cannes, Tribeca, Sundance, and international festivals. Her feature documentary Divan received a Fulbright to Hungary and premiered at Tribeca; her hybrid film, The Turn Out, won awards for its engagement with human trafficking awareness. Most recently, her short Castles in the Sky (2023) won Best Short at the Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival, and her forthcoming Stars and Bars is in post-production. She is also developing A Place with No Men, a feature documentary supported by two Fulbright awards (Poland and Israel), expanding her ongoing work with women’s stories and Jewish history.

Thu 5 Nov, 4:30 PM · UEC THEATRES 12

Tony Buba — Director, BECOMING BENJAMIN LAY

I have been producing documentaries since 1972 in both long and short formats. Since getting his M.F.A from Ohio University in 1976, I have worked on several feature films, including George Romero’s MARTIN and DAWN OF THE DEAD. In addition to his behind-the-scenes roles, I have appeared onscreen as well.

Timothy Novotney — Director, THE SECRETS BENEATH HAZLETON

Tim Novotney is a four-time Mid-Atlantic Emmy Awardwinning filmmaker and multimedia producer at WVIA Public Media in Northeastern Pennsylvania. His documentary work explores forgotten history, overlooked places, and the extraordinary stories of everyday people.

Christopher Ali — Q&A Moderator

Thu 5 Nov, 6:00 PM · UEC THEATRES 12

Daniel Letwin — Q&A Moderator

Daniel Letwin is a U.S. social historian, with special interests in labor, race relations, the South, and Gilded Age/Progressive Era America. His past research has focused on the interplay of racial and class identities in among working people, black and white, of the New South.

Michelle Rodino-Colocino — Q&A Moderator

An award-winning scholar, Dr. Michelle Rodino-Colocino (she/they) works as an associate professor of media studies in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications where they taught for the past 15 years and have worked with many wonderful colleagues and friends. I am also affiliate faculty in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and the Rock Ethics Institute in the College of Liberal Arts. I study relationships between media, labor, and social justice, and draw on over 30 years experience of organizing for a more just world.

Thu 5 Nov, 6:30 PM · CARNEGIE CINEMA

Gustavo Rosa — Director, THOSE WHO WHISTLE AFTER DARK

A Brazilian-born, Boston-raised filmmaker and educator. His projects include THE VOYAGE OUT, SECONDS AWAY and SO FAR ALL GOOD. Rosa has worked with companies including A24 and Netflix; his students’ films have received multiple Directors Guild of America awards.

Marni Zelnik — Q&A Moderator

Marni Zelnick is an award-winning writer, director, producer, and educator. Her directorial debut, Druid Peak (2014), received a $100,000 Sloan Foundation Feature Film Production Award and won multiple festival honors, including the Jack London Spirit Award. Her producing credits include The Adderall Diaries (Tribeca, 2015), Maladies (Berlin, 2013), and The Clerk’s Tale (Cannes, 2010). She has also written for film and television, including an adaptation of Dan Zegart’s Civil Warriors. A graduate of Dartmouth College and NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts (MFA), Zelnick began her teaching career at Boston University, where she developed an innovative social purpose filmmaking curriculum connecting graduate screenwriters with undergraduate filmmakers. Films produced through the program earned two Directors Guild of America Student Film Awards, the first in BU’s history.

Sarah Leibman — Director, STALE AIR

Film writer-director and Assistant Professor of Film at Ohio University. Her shorts have screened at New Orleans Film Festival, Dances with Films and Cinequest; her screenplay for STALE AIR was a Women in Media Camaraderie Act One finalist.

Merve Sen — Q&A Moderator

Merve Sen is a Penn State PhD candidate in Comparative Literature and Visual Studies researching health humanities, care ethics, and the hospital as sensory space.

Thu 5 Nov, 7 PM · UEC THEATRES 12

Trish Dalton — Director, REGGAE GIRLZ

Trish Dalton is known for her HBO Sports documentary, STUDENT ATHLETE, co-directed with Sharmeen ObaidChinoy on injustices in college football and basketball in the United States. They were named in People magazine’s ten “Women Changing the World in 2020” for their work encouraging legislative change at the federal and state level to protect college athletes’ rights.

Simon Licen — Q&A Moderator

Simon Ličen is an associate professor in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications who primarily studies sports journalism and sports broadcasting in national and international contexts.

FRI 6 Nov, 10:30 AM · 3 DOTS

Reilly McKay — Director, STRANGER DANGER

Reilly McKay is a Pittsburgh-based filmmaker and the founder of Rowdy Dawg Pictures. A 2025 graduate of Saint Vincent College, he completed The Warhol Academy Filmmaking Fellowship at The Andy Warhol Museum in 2026, where he made STRANGER DANGER, a folk horror dark comedy he wrote, directed, and edited.

Larry Ziegelman — Director, MORT

Larry and Terry Ziegelman were born (9 minutes apart) and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. While they were not connected by the hip, they might has well have been. They did everything together when it came to creativity: drawing, painting, creating superhero stories, acting and even codirecting one act plays in high school.

Greta Guthrie & Jake Lazarow — Director, IN THE PALM OF HER HAND

As an NYC-based screenwriting and directing duo, Jake and Greta have spent nearly a decade collaborating together in a partnership that goes all the way back to their college years at Penn State, when Jake traded a trash bag full of movie theater popcorn for Greta to score his short film.

FRI 6 Nov, 11:30 AM · UEC THEATRES 12

Nick Capezzera — Director, THE OTHER SIDE OF MEMORY

Nick Capezzera is a documentary filmmaker and photographer. He made his directorial debut with UNIVERSE (2020), a documentary on famed trumpeter Wallace Roney, which premiered at Sheffield DocFest and won the International Documentary Association Award for Best Music Documentary of the Year.

FRI 6 Nov, 12:00 pM · FOSTER AUDITORIUM

Boaz Dvir — Director, TO KILL A NAZI

Award-winning filmmaker Boaz Dvir tells powerful true stories of ordinary people who face extraordinary circumstances and transform into trailblazers.

Kobi Kabalek — Q&A Moderator

Kobi Kabalek earned his Ph.D. in history from the University of Virginia, with a dissertation on “The Rescue of Jews and the Memory of Nazism in Germany” (2013).

FRI 6 Nov, 2:15 pM · UEC THEATRES 12

Angela Almeida — Producer, MADWOMAN’S GAME

Angela Almeida is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker and journalist known for character-driven storytelling. Her credits include Do Not Attempt (Disney+, Hulu, National Geographic), the Emmy and James Beard Award-winning ROTTEN (Netflix), VICE (Showtime) and Gutsy (Apple TV+), and the Oscar-shortlisted The Flagmakers (Disney+). She was the supervising producer of MADWOMAN’S GAME, a documentary executive produced by Keanu Reeves.

Mila Sanina — Q&A Moderator

Mila Sanina (she, her, hers) is a journalist with 15 years of experience leading and innovating local, national and international newsrooms. Until 2022, Sanina served as the executive director of PublicSource.org, a nonprofit newsroom delivering public-service journalism in the Pittsburgh region at publicsource.org. She led PublicSource to become an internationally recognized independent local news organization known for its high-quality local reporting on issues of environment, police accountability, government, health, education and economic development. Under Sanina’s leadership, PublicSource tripled its size, grew its budget from $300,000 to $1.3 million, increased its audience exponentially and has won many state, national and international honors for its journalism, including a National Edward R. Murrow Award and the prestigious international award in General Excellence by the Online News Association in 2020 and 2021.

FRI 6 Nov, 7:00 pM · THE ROWLAND THEATRE

Luke Charles Fisher — Director, ANODYNUS

Luke works in Los Angeles as a freelance writer/director, editor, and sound recordist contributing to all sizes and formats of projects: from web-series and short films to commercials and features. Luke’s passion is writing and directing emotional and moving content that entertains and inspires freedom and creativity in the individual and compassion for others.

Tim Vanderburg — Guest, Talking um … uh … Jimmy Stewart

Tim Vanderburg is a marketing writer and content strategist who volunteers with The Jimmy Stewart Museum, where he helps bring Jimmy’s legacy to life through social media. He also co-hosts their podcast Talking um … uh … Jimmy Stewart, which has featured guests including Carol Burnett and Kim Novak.

SAT 7 Nov, 12:00 pM · MADE AT PA AT THE ROWLAND THEATRE

Lindsey Aranson — Director, Friends of Duke Lake

Lindsey Aranson is a documentary filmmaker specializing in post-production. She views documentary as a form of activism and has made films about gun violence prevention, mental health advocacy, queer pride, and environmental justice. Lindsey holds a BA in Film and Media Production from the University of Pittsburgh. This film marks the completion of her MFA in film and media arts from American University, focusing on social impact and environmental filmmaking.

Emiko Muraki — INVISIBLE IMAGINATION

Emiko Muraki received her PhD (2025) and MSc (2020) in Psychology from the University of Calgary, working in the Language Processing Lab under the supervision of Dr. Penny Pexman. Before joining Pennsylvania State University she was a postdoctoral associate in the Culham Actions and Real-World Imaging Lab under the supervision of Dr. Jody Culham at Western University. She also holds a BA (Honours) in Psychology (2018) and BFA in Drama (2005) from the University of Calgary.

SAT 7 Nov, 2:30 pM · THE ROWLAND THEATRE

John Murlowski — Director, ON THE LINE

Minneapolis-born director of BLACK CADILLAC (Tribeca, 20th Century Fox). ON THE LINE, his most personal film, comes from a crisis call he took with a suicidal teen at Los Angeles’ Suicide Prevention Center. It stars Rosa Salazar.

Chasen Nuttall — Director, SKY TO SOIL

Chasen Nuttall is a self-taught filmmaker based in Los Angeles with over a decade of experience crafting stories through writing, directing, cinematography, and editing. His journey into filmmaking began in his teenage years, sparked by an early passion for skateboarding.

SAT 7 Nov, 5:00 pM · THE ROWLAND THEATRE

Ya’Ke Smith — Director, THE OHIO, TEXAS REMIX

Ya’Ke Smith has built a career around a grounded, unflinching approach to storytelling—films that confront difficult truths while remaining deeply human, intimate, and cinematic. His work has received worldwide acclaim, screening at more than 150 film festivals and earning numerous awards.

BEATRICE OPOKUA ATENCAH — Q&A Moderator

Originally from Ghana in West Africa, Atencah creates fiber sculpture and installation artworks that explores the nexus of fiber and metal histories within Africa and America in relation to cultural acculturation. Her artistic sensitivities and interrogations are profoundly informed by transformation and adaptation through explorations of patinated copper, married with woven Kente strips made in Bonwire, Kumasi- Ghana.

This has included exhibitions and curatorial projects spanned nationally and internationally across USA, Turkey and UK including “Between Two Spaces” (Mary Warren Collection) at IU Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology (2024), A Touch of Healing, permanently owned by Eskenazi Health in Indianapolis (2024), “Tenuous Threads” (Atlantic Gallery – New York), & BUTTER (yearly exhibit) coupled with numerous publications, awards and grants in Canvas Rebel, Handweaver’s Guild of America (HGA), & Artist Talk Magazine (UK).

Atencah’s current curatorial project “Interlacing in Textiles” is on view at the Eskenazi Museum of Art in Bloomington, Indiana where she obtained her MFA in Fibers. She has 12 years teaching experience in studio art of which 4 years were taught informally at basic schools through Ghana Education Services and the remaining formally in KNUST – Ghana & Indiana University Bloomington with topical interests in Fashion Design, Textile Art & Technology, 2D & Studio Arts

As a prolific fiber sculptor, she is constantly researching on the “Why’s” in the “Normal.”

SAT 7 Nov, 7:00 pM · THE ROWLAND THEATRE

Christopher Ali — Q&A Moderator

SUN 8 Nov, 10:00 AM · THE ROWLAND THEATRE

POUR THE WATER AS I LEAVE — Director, Daniela Repas

Daniela Repas is a Bosnian born award winning visual artist and filmmaker based in Portland, Oregon. Her work depicts storytelling through multiple mediums, from drawing and animation to installation and film.