ERIKA COHN, DIRECTOR

Erika Cohn is a two-time Emmy, Peabody and DGA Award-winning filmmaker who Variety recognized as one of 2017’s top documentary filmmakers to watch and was featured in DOC NYC’s 2019 “40 Under 40.”  Most recently, Erika directed/produced the New York Times Critics Pick, Emmy Award-winning and Peabody nominated BELLY OF THE BEAST, featuring the 2021 Oscar shortlisted original song, “See What You’ve Done” by Mary J. Blige. This powerful exposé of human rights abuses in women’s prisons opened in theatres and was broadcast on PBS’ Independent Lens series last fall.  Her current releases also include The New York Times Op-Docs short film, WHAT YOU’LL REMEMBER, a beautiful portrait of a family who reframes their experience of homelessness, now playing in theatres and major film festivals. Previously, Erika directed/produced THE JUDGE, a Peabody Award-winning and Emmy-nominated film about the first woman judge appointed to the Middle East’s Shari’a courts, which premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival and was broadcast on PBS’ 2018 Independent Lens series. She co-directed/produced IN FOOTBALL WE TRUST, an Emmy award-winning, feature documentary about young Pacific Islander men pursuing their dreams of playing professional football, which premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival and was broadcast on PBS’ 2016 Independent Lens series. Her work has been supported by IFP, the Sundance Institute, Tribeca Institute, Chicken & Egg, Hot Docs, ITVS, Women in Film, Fork Films, SFFILM, IDFA and BAVC among others. 

Erika grew up attending the Sundance Film Festival as a native Utahn, where she first began her career. She studied at Chapman University (California) and Hebrew University (Jerusalem) and has degrees in Film Production, Middle East Studies, and Acting Performance. In 2013, Erika founded Idle Wild Films, Inc., which has released three feature documentaries, two short films, and produced numerous branded content and commercial spots, including Gatorade’s “Win from Within” series, for which she received a 2016 Webby award nomination. In her spare time, Erika is an avid documentary photographer, music editor and performing artist. Erika is currently in development with her fiction feature debut and is represented by APA.

ANGELA TUCKER, PRODUCER

Angela Tucker is a writer, director and Emmy nominated producer who works in narrative and documentary genres. Her directorial work includes “All Skinfolk, Ain’t Kinfolk”, a documentary short which aired PBS’ Reel South about a mayoral election in New Orleans; “All Styles”, a narrative feature currently available on Amazon; “Black Folk Don’t”, a documentary web series that was featured in Time Magazine’s “10 Ideas That Are Changing Your Life”; and “(A)sexual”, a feature length documentary about people who experience no sexual attraction that streamed on Netflix and Hulu. She is in her ninth year on the PBS strand, “AfroPoP", now as a Co-Executive Producer and is currently producing “Belly of the Beast” (dir. Erika Cohn) which will broadcast on PBS' Independent Lens this fall. Her production company, TuckerGurl, is passionate about stories that highlight underrepresented communities in unconventional ways. A Visiting Professor at Tulane University, Tucker was a Sundance Institute Women Filmmakers Initiative Fellow. She received her MFA in Film from Columbia University.

CHRISTEN MARQUEZ, PRODUCER

Producer/Shooter, Christen Marquez is committed to producing character driven stories and covering social justice issues throughout the world.  In 2012 she produced a narrative feature entitled TWO SHADOWS, a fictionalized story about Cambodian families torn apart by the violent Khmer Rouge who are searching for their long lost relatives. In the same year she also completed her documentary feature debut, E HAKU INOA: TO WEAVE A NAME, which follows a young multi-racial Native Hawaiian throughout her journey to understand the meaning of her incredibly long Hawaiian name and reconnect with her estranged mother. This film was nationally broadcast on public television in May, 2014. Christen has also worked as a producer, videographer, and story producer for multiple short and feature length docu-series for networks including PBS, National Geographic, Discovery, and Univisión. Her work has been supported by Cal Humanities, The Independent Television Service (ITVS), and Pacific Islanders in Communications. She has also been honored with the 'Through the Soul of an Artist' grant for Artistic Innovation by the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation and was selected for participation in the 2013 CPB/PBS Producer's Academy. She holds a BFA in Film and Video Production from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.

PRODUCER, NICOLE DOCTA

(2020) Producer Nicole Docta is a documentary producer who has focused her career on socially impactful projects and BIPOC stories. She Co-Produced the Emmy-nominated As Goes Janesville (Independent Lens 2013). Nicole was the Outreach and Engagement Coordinator for the Emmy award-winning In Football We Trust (Sundance 2015). She Associate Produced the Peabody Award-winning and Emmy-nominated The Judge (TIFF, DOC NYC, IDFA 2017), which aired on Independent Lens in 2019. She is a Producer on Belly of the Beast (HRWFF 2020) Directed by Erika Cohn and Co-Producing Through The Night (Tribeca 2020) by Director Loira Limbal. Nicole is also a Special Initiatives Producer at Firelight Media. 

Kelli Dillon

Kelli Dillon is the Co-Chairperson for the Empowerment Congress Southeast neighborhood Council. She is a survivor of domestic/gang violence and an advocate for violence prevention and intervention programs. Kelli found herself incarcerated at the age of 19 and was sentenced to serve a 15-year sentence. Her case intensified from a domestic violence incident, in defense from preventing an attack from her abuser. While in the California Department of Corrections, her advocacy and community social work began during this time assisting fellow inmates with counseling and social justice issues. Since that time, Kelli continues to advance in education and has received certifications of training in the areas of Anger Management, Domestic Violence, Batterer’s Intervention Program, Art Therapy, HIV/STI Education and Peer Advocacy, Homeless prevention, and Sociology. In 2014, Kelli worked as an advocate with Justice Now, Inc. alongside of Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson on the SB 1135 Anti-Sterilization Bill. Her testimony was key in helping the Senate and Gov. Jerry Brown pass this bill into law, to ban unlawful and non-consensual sterilization of California prisoners. Kelli has received several awards for her passionate work and continues to volunteer her time in the community of Los Angeles. Kelli is now the Vice President of the Empowerment Congress Southeast Neighborhood Council and newly appointed Commissioner and Board Member for the Department of Community and Family services. In addition, she is the founder and executive director of Back to the Basics, a community empowerment organization and outreach program.

Cynthia Chandler

Cynthia Chandler has dedicated her life to achieving gender and racial justice while challenging violence in all its forms, including imprisonment. Cynthia is an always-bold founder, coach, and life-learner with over 25 years’ experience as a social entrepreneur, activist, academic and attorney. In collaboration with HIV-positive activists in prison, she founded the first organization advocating for HIV-positive women in prison. She co-founded Critical Resistance and Justice Now, early prison industrial complex abolitionist organizations influencing the Black Lives Matter network. She has coached the launch of dozens more social ventures. As an attorney, her practice is equally innovative: when law does not allow the relief she seeks for her clients, she changes it. She helped create the compassionate release legal process through loopholes in the law, representing the first terminally ill people granted release from prison in California. Her cases became the case studies used to codify the process in California, and later nationally. She uncovered California’s coercive sterilization of women in prison through 2012, and led efforts to pass successful legislation to stop it. Cynthia maintains a legislative practice, contributing to key legislation aimed at shrinking imprisonment. In all her work, she serves as an ally and coach, supporting disenfranchised people in realizing their own solutions for freedom. Cynthia has received numerous awards for her innovative work, including: California Women Lawyers’ prestigious Fay Stender Award, 2015; Women's Health Activist Network’s Top 30 Activist for Women's Health, 2005; Ford Foundation Leadership for a Changing World Award, 2001; and California Law Business’ Attorney to Whom California Can Be Most Grateful, 1997. Cynthia received her JD from Harvard Law School and a MPhil in Criminology from University of Cambridge. She is the mother of two artists and scholars.