Brazilian-Minnesotan, Vera Bianchini has worked in the film industry for over a decade – specializing in film festivals and arts community building. She’s worked for regional film organizations like MSP Film Society, Flip The Script Fest, and the Upper Midwest Film Office. Her experience includes being invited to speak on panels for film art organizations such as FilmNorth and Art House Convergence, and Oscar-qualifying festivals such as Chicago International Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, Cleveland International Film Festival, and Palm Springs International Film Festival. Vera’s mission is to elevate artists and provide underrepresented voices a platform to share and celebrate their work while also proving the value of film in the economic development of a community

Kendra Shoemaker is a budding filmmaker born and raised in Minnesota with 2 short films under her belt. One she made in college with a group of her friends from work and her most recent film was a documentary short that was shown at the Minnesota International Film Festival last year. She is currently working on her next documentary.

A North Dakota native, Elizabeth Chatelain has directed several documentary and narrative shorts including MY SISTER SARAH, about her sister’s lifelong drug abuse and recovery. It won the International Documentary Association’s Award for Best Student Documentary and was a Student Academy Award Finalist. Her films have screened at festivals across the country and the world, including Interfilm Berlin, Uppsala and SXSW. She has optioned her feature, SUNDOGS, which participated in the Berlinale Script Station and was an Academy Nicholl Fellowship Semi-Finalist and won the Showtime Tony Cox Screenplay Competition. She is a Blacklist/Women in Film Feature Fellow and a Sundance/Women in Film Financing Fellow. She received an MFA in Film Production from University of Texas-Austin and an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU-Tisch. She currently resides in Hibbing, Minnesota.

Khayman Goodsky (Bois Forte band member) is a local two-spirit Ojibwe filmmaker who has lived in Duluth, MN most of her life. She decided to pursue DIY filmmaking in the freshman year of college. After Jonathan Thunder mentored her in animation and creative economy, Khayman proceeded to make several short films collaborating with other Indigenous actors, film-makers, and musicians to bring her own stories to life. Her work usually contains key values and teachings from her Ojibwe culture mixed in with experimental art. Several of her works have been played in the DSFF and other local film festivals. Khayman has also been involved with youth work since 2016 and had dedicated to helping queer youth feel more safe and welcome in the world. She values the time she spends with her family and can usually be found dressing up at comic cons with family and friends.