Reporter, Variety's DOCS
Addie Morfoot has been covering the entertainment industry for the last 20 years. She currently serves as the lead documentary reporter for Variety’s DOCS section.
Addie Morfoot, Moderator; Reporter, Variety’s DOCS
Erika Dilday, Executive Director, American Documentary | Executive Producer, POV, POV Shorts, America ReFramed
Yance Ford, Director, Producer
Kathleen Lingo, Producer
Brian Newman, Founder, Sub-Genre Media
Addie Morfoot, head of editorial coverage for Variety’s DOCS section, returns to DC/DOX to lead a timely conversation on the evolving state of the documentary field. Joined by a panel of industry veterans, they’ll examine the deepening crisis in distribution, the erosion of long-standing institutions, and the emergence of new models rising from disruption. With the added strain of shrinking federal arts support, escalating threats to public media, and increasing attacks on free speech, the stakes for documentary filmmakers have never been higher. This panel will unpack the profound challenges and surprising opportunities shaping nonfiction today, offering a candid look at what it takes to sustain bold, truth-driven work in a rapidly changing—and increasingly hostile—environment.
Addie Morfoot has been covering the entertainment industry for the last 20 years. She currently serves as the lead documentary reporter for Variety’s DOCS section.
Brian Newman, founder of Sub-Genre, is known as a pioneer in the film and media industry, consulting on film and media content strategy, distribution and marketing for some of the top brands in the world. Sub-Genre guides companies through the process of leveraging entertainment to showcase their values, have greater impact, and to stand out from the crowd. Current and former clients include: The Climate Pledge, Hilton, Indeed, John Deere, Lowe’s, Oatly, Patreon, REI, SmugMug, Stripe, Sundance, WeTransfer, and Yeti Coolers. Brian has served as CEO of the Tribeca Film Institute, produces independent films, and writes a popular weekly newsletter on film.
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. Prior to Futuro Media, she was the Executive Director of Maysles Documentary Center where she oversaw community cinema, 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 the 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.
Yance Ford is an Oscar-nominated, Emmy-winning director and producer whose work spans over two decades in documentary film. Ford’s work can be seen on Netflix, Showtime, FX, Apple TV+, and the Smithsonian Channel.
His debut film Strong Island premiered at Sundance, won a Primetime Emmy and the Gotham Award for Best Documentary, and was nominated for an Academy Award for its searing inquiry into race, justice, and grief. In 2024, Ford directed and produced Power, a Netflix documentary tracing the origins of American policing. It premiered at Sundance to critical acclaim, with The L.A. Times calling it “the definitive popular history of policing in America… urgent, astute, capacious, captivating.”
Ford’s work has been supported by the Sundance Institute, the John and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, Cinereach, and others. A MacDowell, Sundance, and Guggenheim Fellow, Ford is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Directors Guild of America. He resides in New York City with his wife and cat.
Kathleen Lingo is an Emmy-winning, Oscar-nominated documentary producer known for her excellence across shorts, features, and series. Formerly at The New York Times, she recently launched her Substack, Lingo on Docs about being an independent documentary producer.
Kathleen joined The New York Times Op-Docs in 2013, publishing 250 films that received three Oscar nominations, ten Emmy nominations, three Emmy wins, two Peabody Awards, and two IDA Awards for Best Short Form Series.
Starting in 2018 at NYT, Kathleen played a pivotal role in translating journalism into compelling nonfiction storytelling for film/tv. She produced five notable features, including Spermworld (FX, 2024) directed by Lance Oppenheim, and Sorry/Not Sorry (TIFF premiere/Greenwich Entertainment), directed by Caroline Suh, examining the Louis C.K. story. Time (Amazon Studios), directed by Garrett Bradley, premiered at Sundance and was nominated for the 2021 Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. Oppenheim’s Some Kind of Heaven (Magnolia Pictures) also premiered at Sundance. Father Soldier Son (Netflix), a decade-long chronicle of a military family, won the Emmy for Best Documentary Editing in 2021 and premiered at Tribeca.
She also executive-produced two high-profile series rooted in NYT journalism: The Emmy-nominated The Murdochs: Empire of Influence (CNN), and The 1619 Project (Hulu), which won the Emmy for Best Nonfiction Series in 2024 and was executive produced by Oprah Winfrey, Nikole Hannah-Jones, and Roger Ross Williams.
She recently launched her Substack, Lingo on Docs, about being an independent documentary producer.