Robert Rooy, Producer/Director/Camera (he/him) is an independent documentary film producer and director. His most recent feature film, Deej, received a 2017 George Foster Peabody Award and was nominated for an Emmy in Graphic Design and Animation.  Rob has worked in more than twenty countries creating media in support of international development, human rights and environmental organizations.  His collaboration with Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh and winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, led to producing and directing To Our Credit, a two-part PBS series that aired in 1998.  In addition, he has worked as a first assistant director on more than forty films and television programs, including Lonesome Dove, Honeymoon in Vegas, Minority Report and The West Wing. He holds an MFA degree from Yale School of Drama, a Distinguished Alumnus Award from Calvin University, and a National MediaMaker Fellowship from BAVC Media

Anne de Mare, Producer/Writer (she/her) is an Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker and recipient of both a MacArthur Foundation Media & Journalism Grant and a Carnegie Corporation of NY Democracy Program Grant.  Her feature films as Director/Producer include The Homestretch, which aired on PBS’s Independent Lens (Emmy Award, 2015), Capturing the Flag (2018), and Asparagus! Stalking the American Life (2008). She was the Co-Producer on Deej (Peabody Award, 2017).  Her work has been supported by Sundance Institute, Chicken & Egg Pictures, The Chicago Media Project, GoodPitch (now, DocSociety), and many more.  She also directed and produced The Real Rosie the Riveter Project, a filmed archive of WWII women munitions workers for NYU Libraries and her most recent film, The Girl with the Rivet Gun, is an award-winning animated documentary short based on those personal histories. 

Kimberlee Bassford, Producer (she/her) combines her love for storytelling with her background in journalism to bring the underrepresented stories of the Pacific to the world. She directed and produced the documentaries Winning Girl (2014, The World Channel), Patsy Mink: Ahead of the Majority (2008, PBS) and Cheerleader (2003, HBO Family) and was a producer on two national PBS documentary series: Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick? (2008) and The Meaning of Food (2005). She has garnered festival awards, a duPont-Columbia Award, Student Academy Award and CINE Golden Eagles. Her work has been supported by the Sundance Institute, CNN, PBS, ITVS, Center for Asian American Media, Pacific Islanders in Communications, Firelight Media, International Documentary Association, Film Independent, Fund for Investigative Journalism, Asian American Documentary Network, Women in Film and Brown Girls Doc Mafia. Kimberlee holds a BA in psychology from Harvard University and a Master of Journalism from University of California Berkeley.

Nico Opper, Consulting Producer (they/them) is an Emmy-nominated director and producer who has been featured in Filmmaker Magazine’s annual “25 New Faces of Independent Film”, Indiewire Magazine’s “25 LGBT Filmmakers on the Rise”, and DOC NYC’s “40 Under 40” list of documentary talents. Their directorial debut, Off and Running (Tribeca Film Festival Audience Favorite, POV broadcast), received the Best Documentary Award at Outfest. The WGA Award for Best Documentary Screenplay and a national Emmy nomination. Their episodic series The F Word (Los Angeles Film Festival, PBS Digital Studios, SoulPancake) was nominated for a Gotham Award for Breakthrough Series, an IDA Award for Best Short Form Series, and was named a top series of the year by Indiewire. Most recently they produced the ITVS feature documentary Try Harder! which premiered in the U.S. Documentary Competition at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. 

Day Al-Mohamed, Consulting Producer (she/her) is an author, filmmaker, and disability policy strategist. She is author of two young adult novels and a regular host on Idobi Radio’s Geek Girl Riot with an audience of 80,000 listeners. Her award-winning documentary, The Invalid Corps (2019), about the little-known story of disabled Civil War soldier regiments, was licensed to Alaska Airlines and the pilot for her historical series – RENEGADES: Kitty O’Neil (2021) - was released on American Masters/PBS. Day is a co-founder of FWD-Doc, a filmmaking collective which seeks to increase the visibility of and support for filmmakers with disabilities. In 2021, Day was named one of DOC NYC’s “Documentary New Leaders.” However, she is most proud of being invited to teach a workshop on storytelling for young women of color with disabilities at the White House. She lives in Washington DC with her wife, NR Brown and her guide dog, Gamma.

Erica Ginsberg, Editorial Consultant (she/her) has more than 20 years of experience helping documentary filmmakers as a story consultant, artist services provider, cheerleader, and champion. She co-founded the Washington, DC-area documentary film organization Docs In Progress where she also served as its Founding Executive Director for more than a decade. There she piloted fellowship, residency, and work-in-progress programs that helped hundreds of documentary filmmakers move forward with their projects, including Robert Rooy’s prior film, Deej.  She is a Co-Host of The D-Word, an online community for documentary film professionals with more than 20,000 members around the world. Her work there has included co-facilitating weekly virtual filmmaker gatherings and work-in-progress programs. She is also a documentary filmmaker and the author of the Creative Resilience blog and forthcoming book that helps artists across disciplines better navigate the emotional ups-and-downs of the creative process and creative careers.