Over the last year, we've collectively experienced unprecedented change in our world and personal lives. The Pandemic accentuated the failures of existing systems and opportunities to build new ones.


Moving forward, how can we re-envision outdated producing models and create better and more equitable ways of working? For our annual Financing Intensive, the Women at Sundance program and WIF LA will explore fresh ideas in producer career sustainability and reflect on the guidelines and best practices coming out of the newly formed Producers Union and the Documentary Producers Alliance (DPA).



                         



Carrie Lozano
Director, Sundance Documentary Film Program and Artist Programs
Carrie Lozano is the Director of the Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program and Artist Programs, and is an award winning documentary filmmaker and journalist. Prior to Sundance, she was director of the International Documentary Association's Enterprise Documentary and Pare Lorentz funds, where she supported more than 60 diverse films and filmmakers at the intersection of documentary and journalism, including WELCOME TO CHECHNYA, A THOUSAND CUTS, and THROUGH THE NIGHT. more...
Summer Shelton
Producer
Summer Shelton was the recipient of the 2018 Independent Spirit Producers Award. Her career began working alongside critically acclaimed director Ramin Bahrani while climbing the ranks of production working as a production coordinator, manager, line producer and post supervisor. After receiving the inaugural Sundance Institute Bingham Ray Creative Producing Fellowship (2012), she began developing works for both emerging and established filmmakers taking projects from inception to completion. In 2023, she produced her directorial debut YOU & I which she also wrote, edited and co-starred opposite veteran actor Clayne Crawford. A micro budget film made during COVID, YOU &I screened as an Official Selection at the Nashville Film Festival, New Orleans Film Festival, River Run International Film Festival, debuted internationally at the American Film Festival, and was released in December 2024 by Slated. more...
Avril Speaks
Produces Union
Avril Speaks has been carving out her path as a bold, innovative content creator for several years, not only as a producer and director but also during her former days as a professor at Howard University. Avril produced the award-winning film Jinn, which premiered in Narrative Competition at SXSW and won Special Jury Recognition for Writing. Jinn gained distribution through MGM/Orion Classics and continues to be seen throughout the world. Avril has also produced several films including Hosea and the upcoming comedy Dotty & Soul, starring Leslie Uggams, Gary Owen, David Koechner and Margot Bingham. Her latest projects include the South African film African America, which premiered at the Pan African Film Festival, and will make its worldwide debut on Netflix this summer, and the docu-series Black America Is…, which has received support from The Blackhouse Producer’s Lab, the CNN/Film Independent Docu-Series Intensive, and the Kettering Foundation. more...

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