Film Jury
Narrative Features Jury
Miguel Silveira
Miguel Silveira
Miguel Silveira is an award-winning independent filmmaker, arts educator, and Assistant Professor in the film department at Loyola University Chicago. He holds a BA in film production from Columbia College Chicago and an MFA in film directing from Columbia University in New York City. Silveira’s documentary feature, I Am a Visitor in Your World (2013), was an Official Selection of the Woodstock Film Festival, the Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival, and the Athens Film + Video Festival. American Thief (2020), Silveira’s first feature narrative/documentary hybrid, was a Jerome Foundation Grantee, a participant in the IFP Completion Lab, and is distributed in North America via Film Movement. The Last Election and Other Love Stories (2021), a documentary shot entirely on Election Day 2020, screened at the Warsaw International Film Festival, Rio de Janeiro Film Festival, Urbanworld, and Chicago International Children’s Film Festival. Miguel’s work celebrates topics related to human dignity and development. His projects have received support from the Sloan Foundation, the Directors Guild of America, Cine Qua Non Storylines Lab, the Jerome Foundation, the Illinois Arts Council, and IFP/The Gotham. He is the writer-producer for Madrina, a short film directed and co-written by Missy Hernandez, and the producer of Hernandez’s debut feature film, I Don’t Dream In Spanish Anymore.
Valérie Déus
Valérie Déus
Valérie Déus is a poet and the Shorts Programmer for the Provincetown International Film Festival.
Rhiana Yazzie
Rhiana Yazzie
Rhiana Yazzie is an award-winning playwright, director, filmmaker, and the Artistic Director of New Native Theatre in the Twin Cities. A Navajo Nation citizen (Ta’neeszahnii bashishchiin dóó Táchii’nii dashinalí), her work has been staged from Alaska to Mexico. A Winter Love (2022) is her debut feature. She’s written for AMC’s Dark Winds, and is working on her second feature, A College Education, a coming of age comedy about two Lakota women figuring out how to stay in school.
Documentary Features Jury
Dawn Mikkelson
Dawn Mikkelson
2023/2024 American Film Diplomacy Program (US State Department & USC School of Cinematic Arts) Envoy and finalist of the Project Greenlight Digital Studios and Seed&Spark Untold Story Crowdfunding Rally, Mikkelson has Produced/Directed seven award-winning independent feature documentaries, MINNESOTA MEAN (2023), FINDING HER BEAT (2022), RISKING LIGHT (2018), THE RED TAIL (2009), GREEN GREEN WATER (2007), THIS OBEDIENCE (2003), and TREADING WATER: A DOCUMENTARY (1999), character-driven films highlighting power and joy in the margins, as well as branded content for Nonprofit, NGO, and Governmental partners including the European Union, the Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies, and the Center for Victims of Torture. Festival screenings of her feature documentaries include: the Galway Film Fleadh, Cinequest, Mill Valley Film Festival, Heartland Film Festival, DOC NYC, Frameline Film Festival, and American Indian Film Festival. Broadcast and streaming include: APT (American Public Television), PBS, CBC (Canadian Broadcast Corporation), Yes-Docu (Israel), Deutsche Welle (Germany), iTunes, and Amazon Prime.
Elizabeth Day
Elizabeth Day
Born on the Leech Lake Reservation and raised in the Twin Cities, Day merges the intimate storytelling traditions of her Native American heritage with modern cinematic expression. Day’s cinematic voice is rooted in her Ojibwe upbringing and urban experience. She centers Native voices, not just by highlighting traditional narratives, but by applying those values through a modern lens. The result is storytelling with emotional depth, cultural integrity, and quiet power.
Day is an emerging light in documentary cinema. With her latest documentary (Producer, Co-Director), Without Arrows, Day offers more than a story—she delivers a testament to heritage, connection, and resilience. As she redefines representation in filmmaking, Day continues to inspire a powerful shift in how Native American lives and communities are portrayed.
Samantha (Sam) Sanders
Samantha (Sam) Sanders
Sam is a filmmaker, professor, and photographer whose work strives to uncover and share the nuanced stories that resonate deeply with human emotions and our connection to one another. She has written/produced/directed documentary programs for networks including National Geographic, The History Channel, MSNBC, A&E and PBS. Her most recent short documentary, Swimming Through, screened at more than forty festivals worldwide winning numerous awards and was released by The New Yorker Documentary in December 2023. She has produced the award winning fiction feature films American Folk and Chicago Boricua which prior to their commercial distribution screened in festivals around the world and she has directed multiple Emmy-award-winning documentaries including Our Children: Purpose Over Pain, centered around families who have lost children to gun violence. Sam teaches film at Columbia College Chicago, where she received an MFA in filmmaking, and at DePaul University. She is currently in production on a feature length documentary about women’s health and body autonomy.