An Emmy and Peabody-award winning filmmaker whose documentaries have screened in cinemas and on television throughout the world. His films include A.K.A. DOC POMUS, SACCO AND VANZETTI, JEWS AND BASEBALL: AN AMERICAN LOVE STORY, ROBERT SHAW: MAN OF MANY VOICES, PROJECTIONS OF AMERICA, THE INTERNATIONALE, and A CLASS APART. Peter has also been a producer on numerous documentaries by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, including the PBS series THE WAR, JAZZ, and FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT. More at willowpondfilms.com
Lauren Smitelli is a writer, director, and producer who splits her time between NY and LA. An alumna of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, her work has been exhibited at SXSW, Sundance, Venice, the NYTimes Op Docs, and an Icelandic Fish Factory. As a long-time member of the Zeno community, she is thrilled to be a part of this important endeavor.
Chicago-based filmmaker and installation artist who maintains a collaborative social practice and exhibition career that centers the voices of under-recognized or misrepresented communities. Her work has shown across the US and internationally in film festivals, galleries, and museums. Awards include Purpose Prize Fellow, Women’s eNews Ida B Wells Bravery in Journalism Award and 21 Leaders for the 21st Century, Chicago Foundation for Women Impact Award, and the Illinois Humanities Council Towner Award. She was the founder and director of the celebrated community media organization, Beyondmedia Education, and a founding member of the PO Box Collective, a multi-generational social practice center. Chasnoff teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she also directs the BFA in Art Education program.
Ben Stamper is a visual artist and filmmaker based in the New York City area who specializes in documentary and contemplative film. Ben’s guiding principle as a filmmaker is to tell singular stories from around the world with cultural sensitivity and artistic integrity. With a background in fine art and music, Ben’s intuitive approach to imagery and sound has led him to a broad range of human interests, from the forgotten communities of Haiti to the icy summit of Mount Kilimanjaro.
Tom Martin is a Bristol based filmmaker and Creative Director at Band Studios. From the early days of teaching himself cinematography whilst shooting award winning community filmmaking projects, to concepting, writing and shooting commercials, music videos and short films, to building a production studio business (bandstudios.co.uk) with his brother Pete, Tom has passionately pursued film projects in all shapes and sizes. Tom continues to make films, funded or otherwise, and at their heart is always an inquisitive nature, observing and questioning our actions as individuals and as communities.
Ric Burns is a documentary filmmaker and writer, best known for his eight-part, 17-hour series New York: A Documentary Film, which premiered nationally on PBS to critical acclaim (1999, 2001, 2003). Burns has been writing, directing and producing historical documentaries for over 25 years, since his collaboration on the PBS series The Civil War (1990), which he produced with his brother Ken and co-wrote with Geoffrey Ward.
Since founding Steeplechase in 1989, he has directed many films of note for PBS. His work has won numerous film and television awards. Burns was educated at Columbia University and Cambridge University. He lives in New York City with his wife and two sons.
S. Leo Chiang is a Taiwanese-American filmmaker based in San Francisco and Taipei. His documentary, MR. CAO GOES TO WASHINGTON, won the Inspiration Award at the 2012 Full Frame Documentary Festival. His previous film, Emmy® Award-nominated A VILLAGE CALLED VERSAILLES, picked up eight awards and aired on the American PBS series, Independent Lens. Leo’s work has received funding support from the Sundance Documentary Fund, the Tribeca Film Institute, and ITVS. He also collaborates with other documentarians as editor and a cameraman. Leo received a MFA in film production from University of Southern California. He is the co-founder of A-Doc, the Asian American Documentary Network, and a documentary branch member of the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences.
Rasko MIljkovic was born in Belgrade in 1991 and graduated from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts. After his student years he made several short films and documentaries, as well as numerous commercials and music videos.
Harper Spero is a storyteller and community builder for people living with invisible illness. She’s lived her whole life with Hyper IgE Syndrome, a rare immunodeficiency that took a decade to get diagnosed. After keeping her illness a secret for nearly 30 years and undergoing a life-altering surgery, she decided she could no longer remain silent.
As she started writing about her invisible illness, she realized that sharing her story wasn’t just empowering individually, it helped others with invisible illnesses feel seen, while also raising visibility for those living in the shadows of their illnesess. In 2018, Harper launched the Made Visible podcast, sharing stories of invisible illness from around the world. As Made Visible grew, she began hosting writing classes, consulting with businesses, and continued her work as a business coach, advocate, and facilitator of important invisible illness conversations around the world. She’s released over 100 episodes of Made Visible podcast which has been featured in TheSkimm, Health Magazine, Self Magazine and Well+Good.
