Gina Basso (Communication & Station Relations Manager, American Documentary| POV)) is an independent film curator based in San Francisco. Trained as an art historian, she worked at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) from 2008 - 2018 as the lead producer and program manager for live performances. From 2018 - 2021 she was the film curator for SFMOMA directing year round film programming and partnerships.Her film and video work has been shown at CROSSROADS Festival, Antimatter Festival, Artist Television Access and Public Records NYC. She is currently in post-production on her 16mm B&W split screen fantasy ode to gothic silent cinema. Most recently, she curated Sky Hopinka; Sonic Transmissions at Slash Art, an artist-run nonprofit gallery located in San Francisco, on view Jan 12 - April 18, 2026.

Kat Schulze is a Los Angeles-based non-profit arts professional with a strong background in film and organizational management. Since 2019, Kat has worked for the Sundance Institute, initially contributing to the Documentary Film Program and currently serving as the Manager of the Ignite Program, which fosters emerging filmmakers through the Sundance Institute Ignite x Adobe Fellowship. Kat lends their curatorial skills to various film funds, including the International Documentary Association, and offers creative consultation to independent filmmakers. Before Sundance Institute, Kat was the manager of a San Francisco event space, Manny’s, where they oversaw the gatherings of civic leaders, authors, and artists. Kat is in development on their first short film!

Charles is a writer, director, and arts educator. He began his career shooting and producing theatrical documentaries including Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead, Hey Bartender, Making the Boys, Fake It So Real and others. His feature-length fiction debut, Christmas, Again, premiered at the Locarno Film Festival and went on to play at Sundance, the MoMA, and Lincoln Center, and was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award in 2016. Charles is an alum of The Gotham and the New York Film Festival Artists’ Academy, as well as a MacDowell Colony fellow. He currently serves as Chair of Film and Media at Cornish College of the Arts at Seattle University and founded the Bainbridge Island Film Festival in 2023.

Omolola Ajao is an interdisciplinary artist working within film, video and theatre. Her work repeatedly attends to the complicative intimacies of life, metaphysical and psychological. Her recent short film, After Sunday premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. She has held residencies & fellowships at the Whitney Museum of American Art, UnionDocs, Nightwood Theatre & more. She is a 2024-2025 Sundance Adobe Ignite Fellow. She holds a Masters of Visual Studies from the University of Toronto.

Gabe is an LA-based documentary filmmaker and a proud NFFTY alum ('18, '22). Notably, his Oscar®-contending short doc Team Meryland was acquired by The New Yorker and POV Shorts on PBS. Currently, he directs political ad campaigns for city-wide ballot measures and mayoral candidates, and works with LA-based companies & foundations focused on improving Los Angeles. Simultaneously, he built and currently runs the "SoCal Film Lab," an after-school film program for the Lynwood High School District. He's entering post-production for his latest short doc, Father time, which explores parternal love through the stories of six dads in different stages of fatherhood.

Alexandra Kern is a documentary filmmaker from New Orleans whose work explores America’s complex cultural fabric through intimate, character-driven portraits. The rhythms of the South shape the pacing of her work. Her latest documentary, Some Kind of Refuge (2026), premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. Her short documentary Stud Country (2024) premiered at the Full Frame Film Festival, where it won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Short Documentary. It later screened at the Tribeca Film Festival, receiving the Tribeca Challenger Spirit Award. The film is available via the Los Angeles Times and WePresent. Her directorial debut Wild Magnolias (2023) screened at the New Orleans Museum of Art and holds a permanent place in the archive of the New Orleans Jazz Museum.