Burchie Benton is the Senior Manager of Accessibility and Safety at the Sundance Institute and has been working in event operations for 20 years. Her passion around accessibility, safety and belonging has helped to grow the Institute’s inclusive accessibility for staff, artists and patrons of Sundance Institute. She currently lives tucked away in the mountains of Salt Lake City, UT with her family of four.

Lynn has been a writer since she was six years old and penned her opus, The Stinkopottamus. She has written for radio, print, television and film. She won a Writer’s Guild Award and a LA Emmy. Amazing Grace is her feature directorial debut.

Chrystee Pharris is a highly established actor who has starred in dozens of projects ever since she blazed onto NBC as Simone Russell on the hit daytime soap opera Passions and returned to NBC creating passion with Golden Globe Nominee Zach Braff on the hit show Scrubs. 

Currently, she can be seen on Craig Ross Jr.’s Monogamy on ALLBLK and recurring on Season 3 of Goliath on Amazon Prime. She is also executive producing the TV series Mercer Island.

This versatile alumni of Emerson College has conquered feature films with 2 Best Actress Awards and 3 Best Film Awards for her starring role in Steps of Faith, currently on Pureflix and Amazon Prime. 

Chrystee has directed the stage musical Suessical and made her film directorial debut with Aimee Victoria. 

Reveca is the founder of BACKBONES, an organization serving people with spinal cord injury, and Co-Director of ReelAbilities Film Festival Chicago. She uses her own multimedia practice and curation/exhibition of the work of other artists with disabilities to further social justice.

Cassidy Dimon is a filmmaker and event producer with over 12 years of experience producing film events across the US. As the former Associate Director of Public Programs & Events at the International Documentary Association, she produced over 100 screenings, three awards shows, and two iterations of Getting Real, the organization’s biennial field-wide conference and the only peer-to-peer gathering of its kind in North America. She also spearheaded an organization-wide audit for IDA’s accessibility team, the implementation of an internal educational series, and the rollout of accessibility initiatives throughout IDA’s operations and programming. Cassidy is also the founder of the Event Accessibility Working Group, an initiative that harnesses the collective power of event professionals in the field to help exhibitors across the country develop and execute fully accessible events.

Jeff Ayars is a filmmaker, mental health advocate, and 1/2 of the comedy duo Cannibal Milkshake, known for their sketches with 20M views and over 100K followers on TikTok. Jeff produced & starred in the feature film This Is Our Home (Amazon Prime), and his film & TV work has been featured by Comedy Central, The New Yorker, Funny or Die, Ellen, MSNBC, Bravo, Universal Television, and The Tribeca Film Festival.

Itandehui Jansen studied film directing at the Netherlands Film and Television Academy. She participated in different international film programs, such as Binger Film Lab in Amsterdam, the Berlinale Talents and Torino Film Lab. Her documentaries and short films screened at international festivals such as the IDFA (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam) and the Morelia International Film Festival. Her short film The Last Council won several international awards and was nominated for the Mexican Film Critics Award Diosa de Plata. Her feature film In Times of Rain won the Award for Best Emerging Feature at the Oaxaca Film Fest.

Born 1984 in Tokyo.

“listening to the silent/ inaudible/ voices” is the statement of his filmmaking.

He changes his point of view together with the person concerned and stands steadily side by side. Therefore he operates, starting from writing the concept to filming and editing, all by himself.

Eyal Resh is a live-action and animation filmmaker.

His stories explore the intricacies of the human condition through the themes of intimacy, sex, and communication.

Eyal’s work screened in festivals such as Sundance, Tribeca, LAFF, Outfest, Viennale and more. Some of his work could be found on Hulu, Amazon Prime and Vimeo on demand.

Eyal is a graduate of the MFA Film Directing Program at CalArts.

Matt Kudish is the Executive Director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness of New York City.   NAMI-NYC is one of the largest NAMI affiliates and helps families and individuals affected by mental illness build better lives through education, support, and advocacy.  Under Matt’s leadership NAMI-NYC has doubled its budget, staff, and impact, touching the lives of more than 30,000 individuals each year through its free programs and services.   

Named to City & State’s “Health Power” list for four consecutive years, Matt is a respected industry voice on issues surrounding mental health, mental illness, caregiving, peer-based support, and accessibility. Notable media coverage includes The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Thrive Global, CNN, ABC News, WABC-7, WNBC-4, NY-1 and more.  

Matt received his Master’s in Social Work from Columbia University and his Master’s in Public Administration from New York University.  He has taught at Columbia University’s School of Social Work and guest lectured at NYU’s Silberman School of Social Work.