Anatomy of a Funding Decision

Lynnette Gryseels is the Director of Development and Fiscal Sponsorship at The Film Collaborative and loves working with filmmakers tell thought-provoking stories that entertain, stimulate social change, and support their filmmaking aspirations. Lynnette holds a BA in Film Studies, a BA in Media Studies, and a BA in Business Marketing and has worked with notable film organizations such as the American Film Institute, Film Arts Foundation, Women in Film, Toronto International Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, AFI Fest, and Hot Docs International Documentary Festival. Lynnette assists filmmakers in learning their craft through project development and fundraising support. At The Film Collaborative, she developed and launched the Fiscal Sponsorship Program and regularly advises filmmakers on fundraising strategies and sources, audience development, and film distribution strategies during the development and production process of filmmaking.

Ximena Amescua Cuenca currently works as the Senior Manager of Grantmaking at Firelight Media, a nonprofit supporting nonfiction filmmakers of color in the United States and Latin America. In this role, she manages all aspects of program development and implementation, focusing on Firelight Media’s grant-making initiatives, which include the William Greaves Research & Development Fund for mid-career BIPOC filmmakers in the U.S., Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil, and the Impact Campaign Fund, which supports audience engagement and impact campaigns for documentary films. Since 2012, she has worked in the documentary film industry, mostly at nonprofit organizations working at the intersection of human rights, social justice, and art. Her experience includes documentary film production and curation, museum curation, cultural programming and events production, grant and project management, and social impact strategy.

Dawn’s career has spanned myriad sectors of the healthcare and education public policy and delivery ecosystems. Her understanding of, and appreciation for the challenges to transformational change underly her passion for utilizing storytelling to illustrate systemic dysfunction and harm. She founded The deNovo Initiative to provide support for storytellers to create projects that offer a fresh perspective on issues that divide us.

Her film credits include Executive Producer for Agent of Happiness, Bad Axe, Body Parts, I Didn’t See You There, Pay or Die, Richland, and Shaken, and Co-Executive Producer for Beyond Utopia, Food and Country, Love Machina, and Songs from the Hole.

Her colleagues describe her as smart, funny, quick-witted, courageous, and irreverent. They also say she is kind, empathetic, ethical, and direct. Dawn follows rules carefully and breaks them knowingly.

Dawn earned a B.S. in business administration from Boston University Questrom School of Business, summa cum laude, and a J.D. from New York University School of Law. A lover of people who make her laugh or think, Dawn has called Portland, Oregon home for 25 years.

Jenni Wolfson is a fierce human rights advocate and a trailblazer in the art of storytelling for social change. As the CEO of Chicken & Egg Films, her strategic vision has evolved the organization into a powerhouse of support for women and gender-expansive documentary filmmakers. Under her leadership since 2013, Chicken & Egg Films has quintupled its signature grantmaking and mentorship programs, building a community with purpose and breaking down industry barriers across the globe.

Prior to Chicken & Egg, Jenni was the Managing Director at Witness, the international human rights video advocacy organization. Early in her career as a diplomat with the United Nations, Jenni was a human rights investigator on long-term missions in Rwanda and Haiti. Later, at UNICEF, she trained staff worldwide to protect children in humanitarian crises. These defining experiences led her to create and perform a solo play, Rash.

A member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and BAFTA, an Aspen Ideas Fellow, and a Dial Fellow of Emerson Collective, Jenni has been honored with the Women’s Media Center Lifetime Achievement Award and DOC NYC’s Leading Light Award. She holds an MA in Human Rights from the University of Essex and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Strathclyde. Jenni grew up in Glasgow and lives in Brooklyn.