The New Now: Maximize Your Impact with Emerging Technology

Filmmakers, producers and media makers discuss their different approaches to audience outreach in the rapidly changing world of emerging technologies (architectural projection; mixed reality-virtual and augmented; installation; mobile devices; and experience design). The panel discusses not only building audiences for their film, but maintaining their audience as change agents for their film’s cause. Panelists will discuss their unique use of emerging technology as part of their outreach campaigns that have extended the life and activism of their documentaries.

Panelists

Julia Bacha is a Peabody award-winning filmmaker, media strategist and Creative Director at Just Vision. Her credits include Control Room (2004, Writer/Editor), Encounter Point(2006, Writer/Co-Director), Budrus (2009, Director/Producer), My Neighbourhood (2012, Director/Producer) and The Wanted 18 (2014, Impact Producer). In addition to twenty international film festival awards, Bacha is the recipient of the King Hussein Leadership Prize, the Search for Common Ground Award, the Ridenhour Film Prize, and the PUMA Creative Impact Award. She is a Term Member at the Council on Foreign Relations, a Young Global Leader at the World Economic Forum, an Advisory Board Member to the Tribeca Film Institute and a TED speaker. Bacha is currently directing a piece on Palestinian women during the First Intifada, for which she has received a 2016 Guggenheim Fellowship.

Ann Bennett is an award-winning filmmaker, journalist and educator. Bennett began her film career at Blackside Productions. Since then, she has worked on a host of historical documentaries and multimedia projects for public television, cable networks and museums. Most recently she served as a producer for Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People. Her production credits include projects for WGBH, HBO, WNET, The History Channel, the National Civil Rights Museum and the Apollo Theater. She has been honored with numerous awards including fellowships from CPB/PBS Producers Academy, America Film Institute’s Digital Content Lab, Independent Feature Project’s Documentary Lab and the Institute for Justice and Journalism at the University of Southern California. Bennett’s work is focused on exploring the nexus of history, culture and technology within multi-cultural communities.

Hilary Sparrow is senior supervising producer at Vulcan Productions, which develops and produces feature films, television series, specials, and digital content designed to inspire people to take action on critical issues. She helms key initiatives at Vulcan, managing the production, marketing, strategy, outreach, and impact of film and television projects. Projects that Sparrow has spearheaded for the company include the feature documentaries Girl Rising, Pandora’s Promise, and Racing Extinction; the three-part PBS series This Emotional Life; and Success at the Core, the Web-based toolkit for middle-school educators. She is currently in production on two elephant films, the feature documentary Naledi and an hour-special for National Geographic Wild on elephant intelligence. Sparrow’s projects have won numerous awards and nominations including two News and Documentary Emmys, Tellys, and Webbys, among others.

Alexandra Pearson (Moderator) has been with Picture Motion since 2013 and serves as the Campaign Director leading strategy and implementation for a range of impact campaigns. She comes with a diverse background in political campaigns, media advocacy and journalism. Most recently she ran the broadcast premieres for The Lion’s Mouth Opens (HBO) and The Homestretch (PBS), developed institutional and academic partnerships for The Whiteness Project, helped project manage the creation of an interactive game around Little White Lie and developed a campaign engagement plan for Romeo is Bleeding. She has written on film and social action for The Huffington Post and PBS’ Documentaries Blog, and guest lectured at General Assembly.

Produced by Anna Henson, Alexandra Pearson, Nina Streich, and Savanna Washington.