Program Team and Jury

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.

Streich has an extensive background in both the film/TV/media industries and in the political arena. She held senior management positions in other film festivals prior to creating the Global Peace Film Festival in 2003 including Festival Manager of the Newport International Film Festival and Development Director of the Nantucket Film Festival. She began her career as a film editor, cutting trailers and marketing material for over 50 major studio and independent features, including The Elephant Man, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Scandal. In politics, she was the New York Finance Director for the Dukakis Presidential Campaign and for the Democratic National Committee in 1987 & 1988. She coordinated the Inauguration of Mayor David N. Dinkins in New York City in 1990 and was appointed Deputy Film Commissioner for the NYC Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre & Broadcasting. After leaving the Mayor’s Office, she was the Deputy Executive Director of the NYC Host Committee for the 1994 Grammy Host Committee. An accomplished events producer, she has organized film premiers, music festivals, conferences, parades, street fairs and press conferences. She has produced several documentaries on subjects she is passionate about.

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.

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).

Yubakar Rajkarnikar is a filmmaker, programer 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

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.