Master Class: Thriving as a Woman in Leadership with Pat Mitchell and Karyn Kusama (GIRLFIGHT)
About this Master Class
Master Classes are in-depth, interactive learning experiences focused on craft and career building and led by renowned industry experts. Topics include fiction and documentary filmmaking, TV writing and production, and navigating and succeeding in the entertainment industry.
In honor of Women’s History Month, join Sundance Collab for an in-depth discussion with two industry leaders in film and television. Producer, Executive, and Author, Pat Mitchell will lead the session sharing how she challenged the status quo to become a media trailblazer and her advice to those just starting out. You’ll learn about how she defied expectations as a journalist, how she became the first woman president of PBS and CNN, and her efforts to promote the work of underrepresented groups in the film industry. Following this, you’ll hear from Emmy® Award-nominated writer, director and producer, Karyn Kusama. She will discuss her leadership style in prep, on set and in post when directing films such as GIRL FIGHT, JENNIFER’S BODY and THE INVITATION. We will also discuss her extensive television career and forming her own production company. Both speakers will share their creative and personal experiences around leadership and disruption, and give you the opportunity to ask questions.
In this live and interactive three-hour master class, you will learn how to lead while remaining true to yourself, how to empower and be an ally to the women around you, and how to use failure to move forward.
Topics covered include:
Leading with vulnerability
Embracing risk and failure
Navigating obstacles and rising to the challenge
Learning from each experience and reinventing yourself
Supporting other women
Defining your leadership style
Redefining your role on the team
Understanding your worth
Protecting your project
Work/life balance and self-care
Recommended Resources can be found here.
Master ClassTeam
Pat Mitchell
Instructor
Pat Mitchell is a lifelong advocate for women and girls. At every step of her career, Mitchell has broken new ground for women, leveraging the power of media as a journalist, an Emmy award-winning and Oscar-nominated producer to tell women’s stories and increase the representation of women onscreen and off. Transitioning to an executive role, she became the president of CNN Productions, and the first woman president and CEO of PBS and the Paley Center for Media. Today, her commitment to connect and strengthen a global community of women leaders continues as a conference curator, advisor and mentor.
In partnership with TED, Mitchell launched TEDWomen in 2010 and is its editorial director, curator and host. She is also a speaker and curator for the annual Women Working for the World forum in Bogota, Colombia, the Her Village conference in Beijing, and the Women of the World (WOW) festival in London. In 2017, she launched the Transformational Change Leadership Initiative with the Rockefeller Foundation focused on women leaders in government and civil society.
In 2014, the Women’s Media Center honored Mitchell with its first-annual Lifetime Achievement Award, now named in her honor to commend other women whose media careers advance the representation of women. Recognized by Hollywood Reporter as one of the most powerful women in media, Fast Company’s “League of Extraordinary Women” and Huffington Post’s list of “Powerful Women Over 50,” Mitchell also received the Sandra Day O'Connor Award for Leadership. She is a contributor to Enlightened Power: How Women Are Transforming the Practice of Leadership, and wrote the introduction to the recently published book and museum exhibition, 130 Women of Impact in 30 Countries. In 2016, she served as a congressional appointment to The American Museum of Women’s History Advisory Council.
Mitchell is active with many nonprofit organizations, serving as the chair of the boards of the Sundance Institute and the Women’s Media Center. She is a founding member of the VDAY movement and on the boards of the Skoll Foundation and the Acumen Fund. She is also an advisor to Participant Media and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Mitchell is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Georgia and holds a master's degree in English literature and several honorary doctorate degrees. She is the author of Becoming a Dangerous Woman: Embracing Risk to Change the World. She and her husband, Scott Seydel, live in Atlanta and have six children and 13 grandchildren.
Karyn Kusama
Instructor
Karyn Kusama most recently directed the first two episodes of AMC's horror anthology series, THE TERROR: THE DEVIL IN SILVER, of which she is also an executive producer. The show is set to premiere in 2026. Karyn was also an executive producer of Showtime’s coming-of-age survival drama, YELLOWJACKETS. The show has garnered ten Emmy nominations to date, including one for Karyn’s direction of the pilot episode.
Prior to that, Karyn helmed the Golden Globe-nominated film DESTROYER starring Nicole Kidman and written by her frequent collaborators, Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi. Her feature credits include indie thriller THE INVITATION, cult horror comedy JENNIFER'S BODY, sci-fi love story AEON FLUX, and her Cannes and Sundance-award winning debut, GIRLFIGHT. Karyn has also worked extensively in television, directing episodes for such series as THE MYSTERIOUS BENEDICT SOCIETY (for which she won a Children’s and Family Emmy Award), DEAD RINGERS, HALT AND CATCH FIRE, THE OUTSIDER, and THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE.
In 2018, Karyn launched Familystyle Film, her production company with Hay and Manfredi, where they produce for film and television across multiple genres.