GEETA GANDBHIR (DIRECTOR) is an award winning director, producer and editor. As director, she won Best Documentary at the News and Doc Emmys for I AM EVIDENCE, an HBO Documentary Film, and Best Government and Politics Documentary for ARMED WITH FAITH, a PBS Documentary film. As editor, she won a Primetime Emmy for Best Editing for Spike Lee's HBO documentary series WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE and also for the HBO film BY THE PEOPLE, THE ELECTION OF BARACK OBAMA. A documentary film she co-produced, THE SENTENCE, for HBO, also won a Special Jury Primetime Emmy. In 2019 she directed the series WHY WE HATE with Amblin Entertainment and Jigsaw Productions for Discovery. Other award- winning feature docs she co-directed include PRISON DOGS which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, and A JOURNEY OF A THOUSAND MILES: PEACEKEEPERS which premiered at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival and aired on PBS. She created and is co-directing and co-producing a series on race with The New York Times Op-Docs titled The Conversation which won the AFI Documentary Film Festival and a MacArthur Grant. She also co-directed and edited the film, REMEMBERING THE ARTIST: ROBERT DENIRO SR. with Perri Peltz for HBO which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2014. She has been the recipient of a Ford Foundation grant, a MacArthur Grant, among others. In 2017, she was the recipient of Chicken & Egg Pictures’ Chicken & Egg Award.
SAM POLLARD (DIRECTOR) is an accomplished feature film and television video editor, and documentary producer/director. Between 1990 and 2010, Mr. Pollard edited a number of Spike Lee's films: MO’ BETTER BLUES, JUNGLE FEVER, GIRL 6, CLOCKERS, and BAMBOOZLED. Mr. Pollard and Mr. Lee co-produced a number of documentary productions for the small and big screen: FOUR LITTLE GIRLS, a feature-length documentary about the 1963 Birmingham church bombings which was nominated for an Academy Award and WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE, a four part documentary that won numerous awards, including a Peabody and three Emmy Awards. Five years later 2010 he co-produced and supervised the edit on the follow up to LEVEES, IF GOD IS WILLING AND DA CREEK DON’T RISE. Since 2012, Mr. Pollard has completed as a producer/director SLAVERY BY ANOTHER NAME, a 90-minute documentary for PBS that was in competition at the Sundance Festival; AUGUST WILSON: THE GROUND ON WHICH I STAND (American Masters, 2015); TWO TRAINS RUNNIN’ (Full Frame Film Festival, 2016); SAMMY DAVIS JR., I’VE GOTTA BE ME (American Masters, 2017); In 2019 Mr. Pollard co-directed the Six Part Series WHY WE HATE that premiered on The Discovery Channel. In 2020 he was one of the directors on the 2020 HBO Series ATLANTA’S MISSING AND MURDERED: THE LOST CHILDREN. Atlanta’s Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children. He also completed in 2020 MLK/FBI that premiered at the 2020 Toronto Film Festival and New York Film Festival.
ANYA ROUS (PRODUCER) is a Brooklyn-based Producer and Vice President of Multitude Films. In addition to producing LOWNDES COUNTY AND THE ROAD TO BLACK POWER, presented by Participant (Peacock); Emmy-nominated PRAY AWAY, executive produced by Ryan Murphy and Blumhouse (Netflix); and APART, the Emmy-winning episode of the series THROUGH OUR EYES (HBO Max), she co-executive produced the Oscar-shortlisted CALL CENTER BLUES (Topic Studios) and CALL HER GANDA (Tribeca 2018, POV) and co-produced Sundance Award-winning and IDA-nominated ALWAYS IN SEASON (Independent Lens 2020) and Livingston Award-winning THE FEELING OF BEING WATCHED (Tribeca 2018, POV), which was dubbed “a real-world conspiracy thriller” by Variety. Anya also advises on impact strategy for films produced by Multitude and leads a movement orientation within the company’s producing model where films are drivers of culture change. Anya was a 2019–2020 Sundance Creative Producing Fellow, a 2019 Impact Partners Documentary Producing Fellow, a 2020–2021 DOC NYC 40 Under 40 filmmaker, and a 2021 Gotham/Cannes Producers Network Fellow.
JESS DEVANEY (PRODUCER) is a Brooklyn-based producer and Founder & President of Multitude Films. Her latest films include LOWNDES COUNTY AND THE ROAD TO BLACK POWER, presented by Participant (Peacock); Emmy-nominated PRAY AWAY, executive produced by Ryan Murphy and Blumhouse (Netflix); Oscar-shortlisted CALL CENTER BLUES (Topic Studios); and APART, the Emmy-winning episode of the series THROUGH OUR EYES (HBO Max). She also produced Sundance Award-winning and IDA-nominated ALWAYS IN SEASON (Independent Lens) and THE FEELING OF BEING WATCHED (POV), dubbed “a real-world conspiracy thriller” by Variety. Additional credits include Critics' Choice Documentary Award-nominated SPEED SISTERS (Netflix) and Peabody-nominated ROLL RED ROLL (POV, Netflix), among others. Her films have been programmed at top festivals including Sundance, SXSW, Tribeca, BlackStar, and Telluride. Jess founded QueerDoc and was a Sundance Institute Documentary Edit and Story Lab fellow, Women at Sundance fellow, and Sundance Institute Creative Producing Lab advisor. She received DOC NYC and Topic Studios' inaugural 40 Under 40 Award, Cinereach Producers Award, and Doc10’s inaugural Vanguard Award.
DEMA PAXTON FOFANG (PRODUCER) is a writer and producer based in Los Angeles. Dema has developed and produced projects with filmmakers Geeta Gandbhir, Sam Pollard, Maisie Crow and Erin Lee Carr. Dema’s directorial debut narrative short film, THE SWIM INSTRUCTOR, screened as an official selection of the 2015 Austin Film Festival and Portland Film Festival. Previously Dema developed TV series for Viceland, collaborating with Spike Jonze on their original programming slate, and documentaries for Anonymous Content, working with the New York Times and Atlantic Magazine. As a screenwriter, Dema is represented by Jacob Perlin at Iconoclast and Nina Soriano at Anonymous Content.
VIRIDIANA LIEBERMAN (EDITOR & CO-PRODUCER) is a filmmaker and writer based in Brooklyn, NY. She edited the feature documentary I AM EVIDENCE (Tribeca 2017, HBO), which won a 2019 News & Doc Emmy for Best Documentary and the short documentary LOVE THE SINNER (Tribeca 2017). She also co-directed FATTITUDE, a feature documentary that exposes how popular culture fosters fat prejudice and then offers an alternative way of thinking. She edited SPECIAL OLYMPICS: 50 YEARS OF CHANGING THE GAME which aired in 2018 on ABC and ESPN and THE SENTENCE (HBO), which won the 2018 Sundance Film Festival US Documentary Audience Award and the 2019 Emmy for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking. In 2019, she edited STONEWALL: THE MAKING OF A MONUMENT for New York Times Op-Docs.
HENRY ADEBONOJO (DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY) is a New York City-based cinematographer and photographer with a twenty five year background in creating images and films. His work spans a variety of genres and pursuits—documentary films, promos and commercials, music videos and various other television projects. These include the Academy Award-nominated documentary I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO, Emmy nominated HALF PAST AUTUMN, BLACK ART: IN THE ABSENCE OF LIGHT for HBO, HABLA for HBO Latino, MARIAN ANDERSON: SHE’S GOT THE WHOLE WORLD IN HER HAND on PBS, and more.
KATHRYN BOSTIC (COMPOSER) is an Emmy-nominated and award-winning composer and artist known for her work on films, TV, and theater. She is a recipient of numerous fellowships and awards including the Sundance Institute | Time Warner Foundation Fellows, Sundance Institute Film Music Program, Sundance Documentary Film Scoring Lab at Skywalker Sound, BMI Lionel Newman Conducting Fellowship, and Best Music in Film by the African American Film Critics Association. In 2016, she became the first African American female score composer to join the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. Bostic's scores and songs can be heard in productions with a lineup of award-winning directors and writers; she is Emmy-nominated and Oscar-shortlisted for her original music in AMY TAN: UNINTENTED MEMOIR and TONI MORRISON: THE PIECES I AM, respectively. She is currently the first Artist in Residence for the Chicago Sinfionetta .As a solo artist, Bostic toured extensively in festivals and venues worldwide. She has also recorded and performed with many artists including Nas, Ryuichi Sakamoto and David Byrne.
Coordinating Producer
Colleen Cassingham
Archival Producer
Lizzy McGlynn
Consulting Producer
Vann R. Newkirk II
Co-Producer
Viridiana Lieberman
Associate Producers
Wesley Harris
Jot Sahi
Archival Producer
Lizzy McGlynn
Executive Producers
Jeff Skoll
Diane Weyermann
Fred Grinstein
Linzee Troubh
Participants
Courtland Cox
Mukasa Dada (fmr. Willie Ricks)
Margaret Haigler Davis
Catherine Coleman Flowers
Carolyn Haigler Ikenberry
John Jackson
Hasan Kwame Jeffries
Ed Moore King
Jennifer Lawson
Lillian McGill
Arthur Nelson
Vann R. Newkirk II
Wendell Paris
Judy Richardson
Ruby Sales
Wiliam Sturkey
A PEACOCK ORIGINAL
PARTICIPANT PRESENTS
A MULTITUDE FILMS PRODUCTION
IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE ATLANTIC