Matthew is an assistant professor at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Previously, he was the director for multimedia and creative at statnews.com in Boston, Mass. He is an award-winning filmmaker and journalist with two decades of experience in video production. Before joining STAT, Matthew worked at The New York Times for 12 years as a senior video producer and the organization’s first full-time staff video journalist.
A writer and photographer in China, Ying moved to Canada from Beijing in 1997 first as an international student then became a landed immigrant. As a migrant navigating between multiple cultures, Ying is fascinated by stories that reveal the geopolitical complexity of
global migration. Her younger sister developed a mental illness after immigrating to North America. Inspired by her sister’s experience, Ying wrote and directed her first feature film Sisters. The World is Bright is Ying’s second film tackling the topic of immigration and mental health from a broader sociocultural perspective.
Ying’s credits as a documentary filmmaker include Executive Producer of Tricks on the Dead: The Story of Chinese Labour Corps in WWI, a Canada-China-France co-production that won two 2016 Canadian Screen Awards and the 2015 Vancouver International Film Festival Audience Must See Award.
While making the documentary, in 2007, Ying co-founded Cinevolution Media Arts Society (www.cinevolutionmedia.com) in Richmond BC, a city with one of the highest new immigrant populations in Canada. Under her 10-year leadership, Cinevolution brought contemporary migrant experiences into the global conversation and grew into one of the most promising arts organizations in metro Vancouver.
Sergio Morkin is an Argentinean documentary filmmaker living in Mexico. He studied cinematography in Buenos Aires and graduated in 1995, and was drawn into film and drama direction. His critically acclaimed documentary film “Oscar” (2004) has received numerous international awards. Since then, Morkin has worked for several production companies and directed different documentary films for TV. He also designs and teaches documentary filmmaking workshops throughout Mexico and is project consultant for documentaries.
In 2012 he filmed and directed “The Ginger Ninjas Ride Mexico”, a feature documentary film that audiences have responded enthusiastically to at film festivals.
Morkin is a founding partner of Lupe & Hijos Films and produced “The Charro of Toluquilla”, a documentary film by director José Villalobos Romero and coproduced by IMCINE.
His most recent documentary “Maricarmen”, coproduced by IMCINE, will be premiered in 2019. This film has received many awards in several festivals: Best Documentary Feature at the San Diego Latino Film Festival, Public’s Choice Award at the Morelia International Film Festival, among others. The official premier in Mexico at cinema halls is planned at the beginning of 2021, and will be distributed by Cinepolis.
His projects have obtained support from several institutions like Fondo Nacional de las Artes, (Argentina), Altercine (Canada), Aeci (Spain), Docsforum (Mexico), ITDP (Mexico), IMCINE (Mexico), Tribeca Film Institute (USA) Gabriel Figueroa Fund (Mexico) Fundación Cinépolis (Mexico), EFICINE (Mexico), among others.
Rachel Handler is an actor and filmmaker based in NYC. She won the AT&T Underrepresented Filmmaker Award for her short, “Committed” and the Sundance Co//ab Monthly Challenge for her script, “The A Doesn’t Stand for Accessible.” Since joining the disabled community she’s found a passion for writing, producing, and advocating for inclusion in every project she creates. Her writing credits include the award-winning short films, “HOW MUCH AM I WORTH?” “Andy & Kaliope,” and “Unlucky in Love.” Handler’s films have screened at Slamdance, Hollyshorts, Reelabilities, Bentonville, Heartland, Newport Beach and more. Handler’s TV acting credits include “New Amsterdam,” “Interview with the Vampire,” and “NCIS: New Orleans.” She just finished performing Off-Broadway in “The Lucky Star,” other favorite stage credits are Ani in “Cost of Living,” Marian in “The Music Man,” and Lady Anne in “Richard III.”
Subject of the film, Hal and Minter
Subject of the film, Hal and Minter
Ram Devineni produced, edited and directed the feature documentary, The Karma
Killings, which was shot in India and released on Netflix. He is the creator of the
interactive social-activist comic books, Priya’s Shakti, which received the Tribeca Film
Institute New Media Fund from the Ford Foundation and supported by the World Bank,
and honored by UN Women as a “gender equality champion.”
