A follow-up to last year’s panel on achieving gender equality in the documentary industry—because there’s still work to be done! This year’s Beyond #MeToo conversation focuses on documentary gatekeepers, asking about the systemic barriers that exist in accessing everything from funding to festivals, and how we can continue to bring solutions to female disempowerment.
MODERATOR
Niki Bhargava, Associate, Reavis Page Jump LLP
Niki Bhargava is an Associate at RPJ, practicing in the areas of entertainment, intellectual property and employment. Ms. Bhargava worked as a Paralegal and Communications Assistant with the firm while she was in law school, supporting those practices, as well as the firm’s marketing, social media and legal research and writing.
As an Associate, Ms. Bhargava’s practice focuses on legal issues that arise in the fields of television, film and digital media production; lifestyle, personal product and personal service industries; and corporate intellectual property.
SPEAKER
Iyabo Boyd, Founder/Co-Director, Brown Girls Doc Mafia
Iyabo Boyd founded Brown Girls Doc Mafia in 2016 - an initiative advocating for nearly 2,500 women and non-binary people of color in the documentary industry around the world. She's held positions at industry institutions First Look Media, Kickstarter, Good Pitch, Chicken & Egg Pictures, Tribeca Film Institute, and IFP. Iyabo was a Sundance Creative Producers Fellow in 2016 with feature documentary For Ahkeem, which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival. Originally from Denver, Iyabo graduated from NYU’s Tisch Film School, and lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Bernadine Lim, Head of Documentary, Screen Australia
Prior to Screen Australia, Bernadine was the executive producer of SBS program, Dateline. She joined the award-winning international documentary current affairs program in 2014 as supervising producer and took on the role as executive producer later that same year.
Prior to Dateline she was a series producer on Hamish Macdonald’s ground-breaking foreign correspondent show The Truth Is? for Network Ten and was nominated for an Australian Academy of Cinema Television Arts (AACTA) award for Best Direction in a Documentary for Once Upon a Time in Cabramatta, a landmark three-part series for SBS Television. Born in Malaysia; she studied media, law and communications in New Zealand.
Jenn Wilson, Programmer, Film Independent
Jenn Wilson joined the staff of Film Independent in 2007. She was a Senior Programmer with the LA Film Festival for 10 years. She is the co-manager of the Film Independent Spirit Awards nomination process, and a programmer for the year-round screening series, Film Independent Presents as well as for FIND Future Filmmakers—a curated day of screenings and programs for high school filmmakers. She also programs with the Bentonville Film Festival, AFI Docs, and Outfest. Jenn got her MA in Film Studies from Chapman University, and her BA in theatre from Illinois State University.