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

Graham is a British filmmaker, teacher, and programmer. He was an assistant programmer for the Athens International Film and Video Festival from 2017-2019. He has worked with Zietghist since 2020. His films have been screened at academy award qualifying festivals in Asia, USA, and Europe. He presently works in Media in Washington DC as a producer.

Haeryun Kang, who programmed Korean films for MFF 2023, is a filmmaker and journalist based in Seoul. Her first film, Ahyeon’s Rooftop, premiered at the Seoul International ALT Cinema and Media Festival in 2020. As the creative director of a startup, she directed eight short films for documentary brand InterV from 2019-2021. She was also the managing editor of Korea Exposé, a journalism startup highlighting underrepresented Korean stories in English. As a freelance journalist, her work has appeared on NPR, Washington Post, Time and the cover of Rolling Stone. Haeryun is interested in documentary films that explore memory, changing subjectivity in the era of climate change, and the limitations of the body. She is currently developing her first feature, Naro’s Search for Space, about the Korean space program on Naro Island.

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.

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.

Matthew Dressel is a Duluth based award-winning screenwriter and recipient of the 2017 IFP Minnesota Screenwriting Residency award.  His most recent screenplay, the dark comedy Daniel’s Gotta Die (starring Joel David Moore and Bob Saget), was produced by Darius Films and is slated for a release in 2023.  He is the former Programmer for Zinema 2 and former Festival Director of the Duluth Superior Film Festival.

Matthew is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker and cinematographer with an MFA from the University of Texas at Austin. His work has played at The Jeonju International Film Festival, International Documentary Festival Amsterdam, Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, DocumentaMadrid, and True/False Film Festival. Matthew personally focuses on cinema vérité documentary films that explore the evolution of tradition, individual and national identity, and unseen processes. 

In 2016 he received the Antarctic Service Medal from the US Congress after traveling to Antarctica to film a paleontological expedition with the NSF. The Carnegie Museum of Natural History is currently screening his documentary about Antarctica and the paleontological process. 

He is a strong proponent of film and media education and has been a faculty member at St. Edward’s University, Austin Community College, and the Austin School of Film. Since 2017 he has worked with the US State Department as a mentor to fellows participating in the Mandela Washington Fellowship, which provides young leaders from Sub-Saharan Africa with the opportunity to hone their skills in the USA. In 2018 he organized and taught a month-long film workshop in Harare, Zimbabwe through a State Department Reciprocal Exchange Grant.