Beyond the Film:

Nivedita “Nive” Das is a documentary film producer, social impact strategist, and Co-Executive Director of Brown Girls Doc Mafia (BGDM), a global collective of more than 5,000 women and non-binary filmmakers of color. With nearly three decades of experience across the arts, education, tech, and cultural sectors, her work centers participation, care, and creative collaboration as tools for justice and transformation. She has founded award-winning creative ventures and advised global organizations and governments on international development, advocacy, and culture. Nive is a 2018 Double Exposure Scholar, 2020 Docs In Progress Fellow, 2023 MacArthur Foundation Journalism and Media Leader, and 2024 DOC NYC Documentary New Leader.

Erika Dilday, producer, journalist, and media executive, is the Executive Director of American Documentary Inc. and the Executive Producer of its award-winning documentary series POV on PBS and AMERICA REFRAMED on WORLD.

Previously, she was the CEO of Futuro Media Group, a multimedia organization that gives a critical voice to the diversity of the American experience through award-winning journalistic content for and about BIPOC communities. Prior to Futuro Media, she was the Executive Director of Maysles Documentary Center, where she oversaw community cinema and filmmaking programs and produced the acclaimed documentary IN TRANSIT. Erika also held strategic planning and financial management roles at The New York Times, National Geographic Television, and CBS.

She is a graduate of Harvard College, the Columbia School of Journalism, and Columbia Business School. In 2020, she was a Knight Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, where she authored a piece for Nieman Reports on authentic journalism in communities of color. Erika is a 2016 recipient of the Columbia Journalism School Alumni Award and a 2017 National Arts Strategies Chief Executive Fellow. Her latest film projects include CIVIL WAR with Rachel Boynton and MEANWHILE with Catherine Gund.

Catherine Gund, founder and director of Aubin Pictures, is an Emmy-nominated and Academy-shortlisted producer, director, writer, and activist. Her work focuses on strategic, sustainable social transformation, arts and culture, HIV/AIDS, and racial, reproductive, and environmental justice. Her films, which have screened internationally and on PBS, HBO, Paramount+, the Discovery Channel, SundanceTV, Free Speech TV, Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video, include PAINT ME A ROAD OUT OF HERE, MEANWHILE, ANGOLA DO YOU HEAR US? VOICES FROM A PLANTATION PRISON, PRIMERA, AGGIE, CHAVELA, and BORN TO FLY.

She has served on numerous arts, media, and justice nonprofit boards and has been a creative advisor on many documentary films. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and an alumna of Brown University and the Whitney Independent Study Program. She lives in New York City with her four children.

Stephen Maing is an Emmy Award–winning filmmaker. His most recent films, UNION (P.O.V./Criterion Channel) and CRIME + PUNISHMENT (Hulu/IFC), won Special Jury Awards at the Sundance Film Festival and were shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Documentary. CRIME + PUNISHMENT also received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Social Issue Documentary. He was a story producer and editor on the Academy Award–winning documentary ALL THE EMPTY ROOMS (Netflix). His previous films, which he also directed, filmed, and edited—HIGH TECH, LOW LIFE, THE SURRENDER, and DIRTY GOLD—have screened internationally, received numerous awards, and were released on P.O.V., Field of Vision, and Netflix, respectively. Maing has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, United States Artists, the Sundance Institute, and NBC Original Voices, and was a recipient of the International Documentary Association’s Courage Under Fire Award alongside the whistleblowers of the NYPD12 from CRIME + PUNISHMENT. He has worked as an adjunct professor and filmmaking mentor at numerous universities and organizations.