Festival Spotlight events feature exclusive conversations with the creators behind work that screened at the Sundance Film Festival, designed to share advice and insights on the creative process. You do not need to have seen the work to participate.


Join Sundance Collab and filmmaker Kate Beecroft for a discussion about the art and craft of storytelling, filmmaking outside of the box, and her journey to making her first feature. Her film East of Wall premiered in the 2025 Sundance Film Festival’s NEXT section.


About East of Wall: After the death of her husband, Tabatha — a young, tattooed, rebellious horse trainer — wrestles with financial insecurity and unresolved grief while providing refuge for a group of wayward teenagers on her broken-down ranch in the Badlands.


The NEXT program showcases “pure, bold works distinguished by an innovative, forward-thinking approach to storytelling…Unfettered creativity promises that the films in this section will shape the greater next wave in global cinema.”

Kate Beecroft
Writer and director Kate Beecroft is a Los Angeles native who graduated from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London. Her background in acting has given her a deep love and respect for those she works with on camera, whether professional or non-actors. more...
Katherine Street
Moderator | Digital Course & Event Producer
Katherine "Kat" Street is an LA-based award-winning filmmaker and Philadelphia native. A cinephile at heart, she writes female-driven stories with complex (oftentimes damaged) main characters, centered around self-discovery, self-love, and belonging. She has written numerous short-form projects, including original shorts, pilots, and features. She wrote and directed the dramatic short film “Cycles,” which received festival recognition in both acting and best romantic short. She also created her award-winning flagship web series "The New Adult,” which is currently streaming on Kweli TV. Kat is a Stowe Story Lab SAGIndie Fellow and a participant in the BlackMagic Collective Emerging Filmmakers Initiative. In 2021, she founded the Black Film Challenge, a project that showcases filmmakers of African descent and the movies they create. She earned her BFA from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts with a concentration in Cinematography and has literary representation with Yak Yak Mgmt. more...

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