DOCUMENTARY PANEL:Digging Deeper: Secrets of Sensitive Storytelling

A trend in much of today's nonfiction programming is to push to the limit, dig deep and expose an individual's darkest, most intimate secrets.

As filmmakers, we want to tell the best story. But when a documentary explores a very personal topic, how can we gain our subjects's trust and create compelling films with sensitivity and not exploitation? What conflicts face a filmmaker intent on digging deep?

This program will explore the consequences arising from filmmakers' commitment to capture the unspeakable on film — survivors of suicide breaking their silence, mothers devastated by police brutality, a prostitute divulging her life in traditional society, a woman reliving her harrowing escape from tribal mutilation.

The panel includes first-time directors and veteran producers. They'll discuss ethical issues, building trusting relationships with subjects and what happens after a film is released including sometimes unexpected results.

Panelists include:

Mystelle Brabbee produced, directed and photographed the documentary Highway Courtesans and is currently working on her second documentary, Lotto, about three Lottery winners. She is Artistic Director at the Nantucket Film Festival, where she is responsible for programming 50 feature, documentary and short films; the NBC Universal Screenwriter Tribute; the Staged Readings Series; the Screenplay Competition, the Teen View on NFF Filmmaking program; and, the Official Jury and special programming events. She was previously Director of Acquisitions, article27.

Tami Gold has produced and directed over 20 films about controversial and often-ignored subjects.Her most recent, Every Mother's Son (with Kelly Anderson), is an intimate portrait of three women who have paid the ultimate price for the aggressive, zero-tolerance policing practices that swept through American cities during the 1990s. This multi-award-winning visual artist's other credits include To The Workers Of The World, Making A Killing, Out At Work, Another Brother and Facing AIDS: Stories of Healthcare Workers. She directed her first narrative short film, Emily & Gitta, in 1996.

Gini Reticker has been producing and directing independent films for the past decade. In 2004, she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Short Documentary for Asylum, the story of a woman enmeshed in the U.S immigration system. Reticker recently received a Golden Cine Eagle for Ladies First, for the PBS Wide Angle series, on the role of women in rebuilding Rwanda. In 2004, she co-directed In the Company of Women. Its Sundance premiere was marked her fifth film at the festival. Others included New School Order and The Heart of the Matter (POV). Before becoming a producer and director, Reticker worked as a film editor.

Connie Rinehart & Tom Donohue are partners behind Laughing Dog Productions (LDP, based in Washington, DC. LDP produces hour-long documentaries primarily for The Discovery Channel and National Geographic Television. Their work has received two Cine Golden Eagles and an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Artistic and Cultural Achievement. Rinehart and Donohue handle all creative aspects of their productions. Donohue is the cameraman, while Rinehart records audio and interviews subjects. Working as a two-person drew allows them special intimacy with their subjects.

Moderator Julie Anderson recently founded her own production company, Lioness Productions, which is developing primarily non-fiction programming for a variety of broadcast and cable networks. Previously, she served as Director of Documentary Programming at HBO, where she developed and commissioned docs for HBO's America Undercover and Cinemax's Reel Life series.Two won the Oscar for Best Documentary Short. Most recently, she produced the HBO series Pornucopia, Going Down in the Valley. Anderson has received four Emmy, two Peabody and several ACE Awards.