Portia Cobb is an inter-disciplinary artist deeply interested in telling stories that reflect the double consciousness of Black American identity, history, memory and forced forgetting. Her body of work and research has joined these themes within short-form documentary video, photographic essays, field recordings, collaborative installation and community engaged performance art. She teaches at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, in the Department of Film, Video, Animation and New Genres.
Nina Streich is the Executive Director of the Global Peace Film Festival, based in Orlando, Florida, which she founded in 2003. She boasts a rich background in the film, television, and media industries as well as in the political arena. Streich has held senior management roles in various film festivals and has produced documentaries on social issues ranging from nuclear disarmament to women’s health. She also served as Deputy Film Commissioner for the New York City Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre & Broadcasting. Her political experience includes roles such as New York Finance Director for the Democratic National Committee and Deputy Executive Director for the NYC Host Committee for the 1994 Grammy Awards.
In addition to her festival work, Streich is an accomplished events producer, having organized film premieres, music festivals, conferences, parades, street fairs, and press conferences. She began her career as a film editor, working on trailers and marketing materials for over 50 major studio and independent films.
For More Information: https://peacefilmfest.org
Farid Bozorgmehr was Born in Iran 1949, and studied at College of Dramatic Arts in Tehran. He acted in and directed many plays for stage and TV. In 1977, he moved to Washington DC and received his Master Degree in performing arts from American University. Farid worked at AU and produced plays there. In 1990s, he produced plays in US and Canada. He also worked with Iranian-American director Amir Naderi as producer and advisor. He was a jury member at Jigon, Spain international film festival in 2012, and at Short Film Festival at Maryland University. In 2016, he made 53-minute film in memory of Abbas Kiarostami. In 2017, Farid wrote and directed play for Montgomery Playhouse. In 2019, he made ‘Double Indemnity of the third kind.’ He is presently working on another movie project ‘Job and Social Security’.
Formerly with Search for Common Ground, Deborah was the Executive Producer of the international television franchise called The Team produced and broadcast in 20 countries including Nepal. Currently she is a TV writer and producer in Los Angeles and in development with new projects.
Anup Subedi is a writer and filmmaker based in Kathmandu. He wrote some film script and many analytical articles about film. He made some documentary films. He conduct workshops on script writing and filmmaking. He was Jury of Nepal International Indigenous Film Festivals, Nepal International Human rights Film Festival and National Film Awards. He frequently writes articles on films. He is working on some scripts and planning to direct feature film next year.
Yubakar Rajkarnikar is a filmmaker, programmer and a media professional, with writing and production of a number of television series and documentaries under his belt. He has been the Festival Director of NAIFF (Nepal America International Film Festival) since 2020. He has also been associated with KIMFF (Kathmandu International Mountain Film Festival) as a programmer for many years, and was the Festival Manager of Tasveer South Asian Film Festival in 2021.
Ankit Khadgi is a journalist and a writer. He likes to use his talents to start conversations about art,
gender, sexuality, queerness, and feminism.
Barbara K. Asare-Bediako is a SAG-AFTRA Actor, Director, Producer, Anthropologist, Healer, and
recipient of the Saul Zaentz Innovation Fund Fellow for groundbreaking film and media production.
She has trained in acting at the Atlantic Theater Company(NYC), the Negro Ensemble
Company(NYC), TVI Actors’ Studio(NYC), Shakespeare Theatre(Washington, DC), Woolly Mammoth
Theatre(Washington, DC), and Martin Blank Studio(Bethesda, Maryland). She is a long-term private
student of Professor Emerita Vera Katz. She is a MA graduate of the Johns Hopkins University
program in Film and Media. She is also an alumnus and graduate of Kansas State University(BS Education), Northwestern University-Evanston, Illinois(MA Cultural Anthropology), and the Bodyworks
Institute in Virginia(Licensed Massage Therapist).
Tsering Choden is a Kathmandu-based independent filmmaker. Her repertoire of roles and
experience spans the production process, from directing to video & audio editing to voice-overs and
script-writing, and genres, from features to shorts to documentaries and music videos
Erik Spink has produced films, television, and multimedia predominately in non-fiction storytelling. He
operates Vacant Light, a production company, with filmmaking collaborator, Amitabh Joshi. Erik
produced, Tashi’s Turbine which premiered in 2015 and was broadcast on PBS’s The WORLD
Channel. In 2016 Erik was the recipient of the A&E Indie Films Grant at the Paley Center For Media
Documentary Pitch Forum for his forthcoming documentary Hart Island. In 2017, Erik was an Impact
Partners Producing fellow. In 2018, Erik was awarded for excellence in documentary film by The
Bronx Council On The Arts and funded by New York State Council on the Arts. Most recently, Erik
was a producer and co-director for American Master’s and Firelight Media’s new series In The
Making.
Sahaj Man Shrestha – trained, among others, in Advance Professional Diploma from Television Training Centre in Berlin – is a filmmaker and a media professional with several leadership roles in Nepali media under his belt. He was one of the pioneer program producers and the Technical Director at Nepal Television, Chief Executive Producer and Chief Operating Officer at Image Channel Television, Executive Advisor at Himalayan Television and Creative Director at ECS Media Group. He has made a feature film, several documentaries, television commercials, public service announcements, television programs and music videos. He also worked at the Npeal Forum of Environmental Journalists (NEFEJ) contributing to media training, strategy planning, and design, and implementing innovative ideas for sustainable development to uplist marginalized communities.