Four Directors Share Their Artistic Journey to the 2019 Sundance Film Festival with Lulu Wang (THE FAREWELL) & more

Ilyse McKimmie is the Deputy Director for Sundance Institute's Feature Film Program. She oversees the Directors and Screenwriters Labs and the Screenwriters Intensive, provides year-round creative and strategic support to alumni filmmakers, and plays a key role in the Producers and Episodic Programs. 

Films developed at the Labs during her tenure include Dìdi (弟弟), A Thousand and One, Aftersun, Nanny, The 40-Year-Old Version, The Last Black Man in San Francisco, The Farewell, Sorry to Bother You, We the Animals, Beach Rats, Swiss Army Man, Diary of a Teenage Girl, Fruitvale Station, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Pariah, Sin Nombre, Red Road, Me and You and Everyone We Know, Paradise Now, and Maria Full of Grace, among many others. Before joining Sundance 25 years ago, she held positions at ICM and Red Wagon Entertainment. Her roots lie in the theater; her first job after graduating from UCLA was as a production stage manager in the Los Angeles theater scene.

Joe Talbot is a fifth-generation San Franciscan who began developing "The Last Black Man in San Francisco" with childhood friend and star Jimmie Fails after leaving high school early to pursue film. He is a Sundance Institute fellow and wrote and directed the acclaimed short "American Paradise," which was shown at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and the 2017 SXSW Film Festival. "The Last Black Man in San Francisco" is his feature-length debut.

Lulu Wang is a classical pianist turned filmmaker. She is currently in post on her second feature THE FAREWELL, starring Awkwafina, which will premiere at Sundance 2019 in U.S. Dramatic Competition. She was listed by Variety as Ten Directors To Watch in 2019.

Born in Beijing, raised in Miami and educated in Boston, Lulu is a recipient of the Chaz and Roger Ebert Directing Fellowship, which was awarded at the 2014 Film Independent Spirit Awards. Her first feature film, POSTHUMOUS, starring Jack Huston and Brit Marling was released by The Orchard. She is also a 2014 Film Independent Project Involve Directing Fellow and a 2017 Sundance Fellow invited to participate in the FilmTwo Initiative for second time feature filmmakers. 

Jacqueline Olive is an independent filmmaker with more than fifteen years of experience in journalism and film. Her award-winning feature documentary, ALWAYS IN SEASON, has received numerous honors including winner of the 2019 Sundance Festival Special Jury Prize for Moral Urgency and the 2020 SIMA Documentary Jury Prize For Ethos, as well as nominations for Best Writing from IDA Documentary Awards 2019 and the Spotlight Award from Cinema Eye Honors 2019. ALWAYS IN SEASON broadcast on PBS on Independent Lens, in February 2020 and was the highest rated film of the season.

Jackie recently directed, produced, and wrote the documentary short, DEATH IS OUR BUSINESS, which broadcast on FRONTLINE/PBS and the WORLD Channel in March 2021.

A Mississippi native, Jackie teaches film at the University of California, Santa Cruz as a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Social Documentation M.F.A. Program. She is also a 2021 Sundance Momentum Fellow

Paul Downs Colaizzo’s first play Really Really (Helen Hayes Award) played a sold-out, twice-extended run Off-Broadway at MCC. His second play Pride in the Falls of Autrey Mill premiered at The Signature Theatre in DC. Brittany Runs a Marathon (2019 Sundance Film Festival, U.S. Dramatic, Audience Award Winner) is his first feature film.