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.

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.

Megan McGarvey is a Wisconsin based documentary filmmaker and television producer. Originally from Oconomowoc Wisconsin she has made the Twin Ports her home for over seven years. She’s directed films such as Outsourced: The new Wisconsin Idea (2019), and Unweaving(2020). Her short documentary film Unweaving as nominated for an Upper Midwest Emmy back in 2021. She began working as a producer for PBS North in Duluth and won an Upper Midwest Emmy for her work covering the 38th Annual John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon in 2022. Megan has worked as a programmer for the Duluth Superior Film Festival, the North by North Film Festival, Catalyst Content Film festival and now the Minnesota Film Festival! As a UW- Superior Alumna Megan has come back to speak to students about her journey in media production, taught a stop motion animation class at Lincoln Park Middle School, and conducted an Intro to Video Production Course through the Minnesota Media Arts School.  Primarily you can see Megan’s work every Friday on PBS North’s program Almanac North as she produces documentary style video segments regarding topical issues in our region. She is currently working on three documentary films with one coming out in December of 2023!