PANEL 2 | Greenpoint Film Festival

Bridging communities through film

MODERATOR: Roy Wol

PANELISTS: Pulkit Datta, Sola Fasehun, Iman Zawahry, Kristin Parker, Ashley Eakin, Cidney Hue
RUNTIME: 90 MIN

MONDAY, AUGUST 3RD 2020
PANEL 2, 7:30PM
LOCATION: THE VIRTUAL SPACE

SUBJECT: The entertainment industry has the power to shape and influence global conversations through storytelling, travel audiences to worlds and narratives unknown, and to educate, inspire, and connect people. Join us as we discuss the way our decisions impact both our work and our audiences, how each of these talented professionals approaches this in their work, and what they hope to see for the future.

ROY WOL

PRODUCER

ROY WOL (p.g.a) is a filmmaker with a visual disability, Amblyopia, and an LGBTQ advocate. Having grown up in 5 countries before ending up in the US, as a cross-cultural Turkish-Latinx-Sephardic producer, he is driven by the idea of bridging communities. His latest film “The Garden Left Behind” won the 2019 SXSW Audience Award and is one of the “Top LGBTQ films of all time” (by Rotten Tomatoes). Roy is the founder of the border, genre, and platform-agnostic IP development and production company Autonomous Pictures, whose latest projects include: 2020 IFP Episodic Lab sci-fi series “Autom Reign” by Sundance Alumni Sofian Khan, Yes, And…Laughter Lab finalist Roddenberry Impact Award-winning “Muslim Girls DTF” among many others. He’s a 2020 SXSW & NALIP Mentor; 2019 GLAAD Media Fellow; 2019 ReelWorks Mentor; 2018 Hollywood Radio and Television Mentor; 2017 IFP Narrative Lab Fellow; 2017 Trans Filmmakers Project Mentor; 2016 Harlem Cinema School Mentor. His projects include: Academy Nominees, Golden Lion Winners, NYFF Academy Artists, Princess Grace, Sundance, SXSW, TIFF, Golden Globe, Spirit Award, and Ryan Murphy’s Half Initiative fellows.

PULKIT DATTA

PRODUCER/DIRECTOR

Pulkit Datta is a film producer, director, programmer, and community organizer. He has worked on the creative development and production of a range of international projects, including scripted films, documentaries, commercials, short films, music videos, and multimedia campaigns. Pulkit is active in the filmmaking community, setting up incubator initiatives for South Asian filmmakers, and as a member of Asian American Doc Network, Center for Asian American Media, and as an alum of IFP and the Impact Partners Producing Fellowship. He serves as a consultant and programmer for several film festivals and events working towards greater South Asian inclusion in the mainstream. He is also the Artistic Director of the Tasveer South Asian Film Festival, which is part of the Coalition of South Asian Film Festivals (CoSAFF) 2020.

SOLA FASEHUN

AGENT/PRODUCER

Sola Fasehun works in Film/TV sales, distribution, producing, music, and event planning in NYC. She graduated undergrad with college and university honors from Carnegie Mellon University with a BHA degree. After CMU, Sola moved to LA and worked under Academy Award winning producer Michael Phillips (Taxi Driver, The Sting) in Beverly Hills. She also began an independent film company: Fasehun Films.

IMAN ZAWAHRY

WRITER/DIRECTOR

Iman Zawahry is an American-Muslim female writer/director who has worked on numerous films that have played at over 100 venues worldwide. She has worked as a producer on the feature film Paperback with Moonlight producer Adele Romanski and Sundance alum Adam Bowers. Her short film “Tough Crowd” won an Emmy Award and qualified her as a finalist in the NBC Comedy Short Cuts to pitch a sitcom with NBC executives. She is the recipient of the coveted Princess Grace Award for her film “Undercover” and was selected as a Lincoln Center New York Film Festival Artist Academy Fellow in 2015. Iman also collaborated with the non-profit Islamic Scholarship Fund to create the first-ever American Muslim film grant where she currently serves as director. Iman works to amplify the underrepresented female voice. She wrote and directed her debut feature film American.ish, currently in production with a majority female crew. She is a professor of production at the University of Florida.

KRISTIN PARKER

ACTRESS

Kristin P Lovell is a lifelong New Yorker and member of the trans community she has advocated for her people for over 20 years. She was a co-founder of FIERCE, a long-time staff at Sylvia’s Place shelter, and co-founder of the WRRQ Collective. Over the past decade, Kristen has been pursuing her dream to be an actress, and filmmaker. Kristen has been featured in HBO’S RANDOM ACTS OF FLYNESS, TALES OF THE CITY, and NBC’S THE STONEWALL REVOLUTION DOCUMENTARY. The film she co-produced “The Garden Left Behind” was just named one of the 200 greatest LGBTQ films of all time by Rotten Tomatoes. The film, which she co-produced and appears in as an actress, won countless awards including the SXSW Audience Award 2019, Kristen is also the founder of The Trans Filmmakers Project and a film at Lincoln centers artist academy member 2019.

ASHLEY EAKIN

WRITER/DIRECTOR

Born in California and raised in Nebraska, Ashley Eakin is a writer-director with a physical disability. This year she was 1 of 8 women selected for the AFI Directing Workshop for Women and her project SINGLE was selected for the SXSW 2020 Film Festival and received the Special Jury Recognition Award. Eakin was also the recipient of the New York Women in Film Loreen Arbus Disability Awareness Grant. In 2019 Eakin worked for and shadowed Mark Pellington on the Quibi series SURVIVE filmed in the Italian Alps starring Sophie Turner. Prior to this, Eakin was the assistant to film director Jon M. Chu. In 2017 she spent 5 months in Malaysia and Singapore working on his critically-acclaimed box-office hit CRAZY RICH ASIANS. Eakin’s short documentary THE DETAILS, featuring Henry Golding and Awkwafina was selected for the 2018 Hamilton Film Festival and her short film BLUE premiered at the 2019 LA Shorts Fest. Eakin is represented by United Talent Agency and Artists First Management.

CIDNEY HUE

DIRECTOR

Cidney Hue is a director and filmmaker in NYC with a focus on building inclusive futures through science fiction. Her most recent award-winning film, Ovum, is a Black Mirror-Esque short on the convergence of reproductive rights and VR technology. Her previous award-winning short, Odessa, recounts the journey of an astronaut’s last night on Earth. Her web series for Wired & Reddit, Cyborg Nation, profiles scientists at the forefront of prosthetics, robotics, and brain-computer interfaces. Her environmental documentary, Shark Loves the Amazon, toured nationally and premiered at the World Sustainability Forum to leaders and policymakers. Cidney serves as the Director of 360 Video at NSENA and has traveled across the US to film VR for law enforcement and corrections training. She teaches filmmaking at NYU’s prestigious Tisch School of the Arts. Cidney founded NYC Women Filmmakers in 2015, where she leads its monthly workshop series and its thousands-strong grassroots community to support women and non-binary filmmakers in New York. In her spare time, Cidney designs and creates art, sets, and futuristic visions from her imagination. She can often be found traveling the world with her camera in tow, capturing Earth’s most spectacular natural phenomenons. Her lifelong goal is to visit space by 2050 so you should email her if you have an extra seat on your rocketship.