Conversation from the Sundance Film Festival Asia | Documentary Filmmakers Sushmit Ghosh & Rintu Thomas (WRITING WITH FIRE), Natalia Almada (USERS), and Debbie Lum (SEEKING ASIAN FEMALE)

Kim Yutani is the Director of Programming of the Sundance Film Festival; she assumed that role in 2018. She began programming short films for the Festival in 2006, and became a feature film programmer in 2009, focusing on US and international fiction feature films, overseeing short film programming, and working on the Festival’s Offscreen panels and conversations. She was instrumental in creating Sundance Film Festival: Hong Kong, which has since expanded to become Sundance Film Festival: Asia. She has also worked at Outfest Los Angeles, Provincetown International Film Festival, as a reader for Creative Capital, and with Cinema Eye Honors. Prior to her film festival work, Yutani was a film critic and freelance journalist focusing on independent film. She got her start in the industry as assistant to the director Gregg Araki.

Heidi Zwicker is a Senior Programmer for the Sundance Film Festival, focusing on international and U.S. Narrative Feature Films, Midnight and Shorts. She has been contributing to various Sundance Institute programs for over ten years, beginning with the Feature Film Program, International. Heidi was a Programmer at Palm Springs International Shortfest from 2011-2014 and also programs at the Provincetown International Film Festival. Originally from the north shore of Boston, she has a degree in English from University of Massachusetts – Dartmouth and an M.A. in Critical Studies of Film and Television from UCLA.

Sushmit Ghosh is an award-winning director-cinematographer from India whose work has been supported by the Sundance Institute, Tribeca Institute, Doc Society, SFF Film Fund, IDFA, The Bertha Foundation, Sorfond and the Finnish Film Foundation, among others. In 2009, he co-founded Black Ticket Films, a production company invested in the power of storytelling. With a strong eye on social justice stories, Black Ticket Films’ award-winning slate of films are being used as advocacy, impact and education tools by institutions across the world.

Five years in the making, Sushmit’s debut feature documentary, WRITING WITH FIRE premiered at Sundance ’21, winning two awards at the festival and going on to win a further 11 international awards.

In his spare time, you’ll find him motorcycling and hiking through the Himalayas.

2012 MacArthur “Genius” fellow and two-time recipient of the Sundance Documentary Directing Award for El General in 2009 and Users in 2021, Natalia Almada's directing credits include–Todo lo demás (New York Film Festival 2016), El Velador (Cannes 2011), Al Otro Lado (Tribeca 2005) and All Water has a Perfect Memory (Sundance 2002). She lives in Mexico City and San Francisco.

Rintu Thomas is an award winning director-producer from India whose work is supported by the Sundance Institute, Chicken & Egg Pictures, IDFA, SFF Film Fund, Doc Society, Tribeca Institute, Finnish Film Foundation and Bertha Foundation, among others. Over the last 10 years, Rintu’s films have been used as advocacy tools for social impact, included in the curriculum of universities and exhibited globally in spaces such as the United Nations Climate Change Conference and The Lincoln Center for Performing Arts – becoming catalysts for new conversations.

Her debut feature documentary, WRITING WITH FIRE, won two awards at Sundance ‘21 (Audience Award and Special Jury Award: Impact for Change) and has gone on to play in over 30 major international festivals. WRITING WITH FIRE has also won the McBaine Documentary Feature Award (SFFILM, 2021), the Best Documentary Award and Audience Award at the BlackStar Film Festival and a special jury at Seattle International Film Festival.

Rintu lives between New Delhi and a quaint mountain-town in North India.

Debbie Lum is a San Francisco-based director whose films give voice to the Asian American experience and other unsung stories. Try Harder! her documentary about San Francisco’s iconic Lowell High School premiered at 2021 Sundance Film Festival to rave reviews. It will open in movie theaters in the US this December and will broadcast on PBS’ Independent Lens, alongside a campaign to promote mental health in high school next year. Her previous documentary, Seeking Asian Female, premiered at SXSW, was a “fan favorite” on PBS' Independent Lens, won Best of Fest (Silverdocs) and was featured in This American Life. Lum’s editing credits include A.K.A Don Bonus (POV) and Kelly Loves Tony (POV) among others. She’s also directed two short comedies, A Great Deal! and Chinese Beauty and is currently developing a documentary about “Tiger Moms”.