Making Your First Feature Film - A Conversation at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival

Julian Brave NoiseCat is a writer, filmmaker and student of Salish art and history. His first documentary, SUGARCANE, directed alongside Emily Kassie, follows an investigation into abuse and missing children at the Indian residential school NoiseCat’s family was sent to near Williams Lake, British Columbia. SUGARCANE is set to premiere in the U.S. Documentary Competition at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. A proud member of the Canim Lake Band Tsq'escen and descendant of the Lil'Wat Nation of Mount Currie, he is concurrently finishing his first book, WE SURVIVED THE NIGHT, which will be published by Alfred A. Knopf in North America, Profile Books in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth, Albin Michel in France and Aufbau Verlag in Germany.

NoiseCat’s journalism has appeared in dozens of publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post and The New Yorker and has been recognized with many awards including the 2022 American Mosaic Journalism Prize, which honors "excellence in long-form, narrative or deep reporting on stories about underrepresented and/or misrepresented groups in the present American landscape." In 2021, NoiseCat was named to the TIME100 Next list of emerging leaders alongside the starting point guard of his fantasy basketball team, Luka Doncic.

Emily Kassie is an Emmy and Peabody nominated filmmaker and investigative journalist. Her feature debut, SUGARCANE, directed with Julian Brave NoiseCat, follows an investigation into abuse and missing children at an Indian residential school in British Columbia. SUGARCANE is premiering in the US Documentary Competition at the Sundance Film Festival.

Kassie shoots, directs and reports stories on geopolitical conflict, humanitarian crises, corruption and the people caught in the crossfire. Her work for The New York Times, PBS Frontline, Netflix and others ranges from drug and weapons trafficking in the Saharan desert, to immigrant detention in the United States. In 2021, she smuggled into Taliban territory with PBS Newshour correspondent Jane Ferguson to report on their imminent siege of Kabul and targeted killing of female leaders. Her work has been honored with multiple Edward R. Murrow, National Magazine, World Press Photo and National Press Photographers awards. Her multimedia feature on the economic exploitation of the Syrian and West African refugee crises won the Overseas Press Club Award. Kassie was named to Forbes 30 under 30 in 2020 and is a 2023 New America fellow. Her first documentary, I MARRIED MY FAMILY'S KILLER, following couples in post-genocide Rwanda, won a Student Academy Award in 2015.

Josh Margolin is a writer, director, editor, and actor from Los Angeles. He co-wrote, edited and starred in the absurdist horror-comedy DEEP MURDER which premiered at the LA Film Festival in 2018 and ran theatrically before streaming on Paramount+. Previously, Josh co-created the digital series MY BOYFRIEND IS A ROBOT for Freeform, and has developed projects with TBS, Sony Pictures Television, Olive Bridge & Paul Feig’s Powderkeg. He performed over 100 shows with "One Night Stand: An Improvised Musical", which was produced by Marc Platt and had sold-out runs at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival as well as appearances in the The New York Musical Theater Festival and a limited run in Los Angeles. THELMA is Josh's feature directorial debut.  

Sean is an Academy Award-nominated filmmaker from Fremont, CA, currently based in Los Angeles. He is a Google Creative Lab 5 alum, former Sundance Ignite Fellow, and 2023 Sundance Screenwriters & Directors Lab Fellow.

His latest film, Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó (Grandma & Grandma), premiered at SXSW 2023 where it won the Grand Jury Prize & Audience Award. It was acquired by Disney+ and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary Short Film. It is currently streaming on Disney+ & Hulu.

His debut feature film, Dìdi (弟弟), premiered in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. It won the U.S. Dramatic Audience Award, Special Jury Prize for Best Ensemble Cast, and was acquired by Focus Features for a Summer 2024 theatrical release.

Patty West is a producer and educator based in California. She led the Directing Workshop for Women and the Thesis Program at the American Film Institute prior to joining the Sundance Institute. She came to Sundance Collab in December of 2019 and now serves as its Director. 

West is a Chicago native and holds a B.S. from Northwestern University, an M.F.A. from the AFI Conservatory and an Executive M.B.A. from Quantic School of Business & Technology. She is a member of the Producer's Council of the Producers Guild of America.