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RAÚL O. PAZ-PASTRANA
Raúl is a Mexican immigrant filmmaker, cinematographer, and multimedia creator based in Denver Colorado. His work intersects experimental non-fiction, participatory filmmaking, and visual ethnography to explore themes of belonging, alienation, and the concept of “home.” His films have screened at museums and festivals worldwide including at the Sheffield Doc/Fest in the U.K., the Museum of the Moving Image (MoMI) in New York City, and at the Guadalajara International Film Festival (FICG) in Mexico. Raúl’s work has received support from the Spark Fund, the Princess Grace Foundation, MountainFilm, JustFilms, The LEF Foundation, ITVS, Catapult, Colorado Humanities, and the Sundance Institute among others. He is a BAVC MediaMaker Fellow, a Camargo Foundation Cassis France Artist Alumni, a Firelight Media Documentary Lab Fellow, a Lincoln Center/New York Film Festival Artist Academy alumni, a New America National Fellow, a Creative Capital Awards Artist Fellow, and a Guggenheim Fellow.
MIKE SHUM
Mike Shum is Asian-American, born to immigrant parents from Hong Kong. He seeks to incorporate empathy and curiosity with the goal of challenging normative perspectives in the modern media landscape. As an independent filmmaker, Shum specializes in documentary cinematography and journalism. He began his career covering conflict ranging from the fall of Tripoli in Libya to M23 rebels in Congo (DRC). His New York Times collaboration on ISIS in Iraq garnered him his first News and Documentary Emmy nomination for Outstanding Interview. Netflix distributed his first feature length documentary, "Hondros," in 2017, serving as producer and director of photography. He has collaborated on several documentaries with Al Jazeera’s Witness Series and PBS Frontline. Beginning in 2018, he ventured into investigative journalism with PBS Frontline with the film "Predator on the Reservation" covering accountability in Indian Health Services which garnered his second News and Documentary Emmy for Outstanding Investigation. In the years that followed, Shum was the breaking news videographer for the New York Times in Minneapolis in the days after George Floyd was killed. In late 2020, he directed and produced “American Voices: A Nation in Turmoil” for PBS Frontline. By the end of 2022, Shum produced and edited “My Eternal Art” for Al Jazeera Witness which was a finalist for the Arts and Culture Award at the Foreign Press Association in London. In 2023, Shum completed his feature length directorial debut, “Police on Trial” with PBS Frontline. The film was a finalist for a NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Documentary and later awarded the National Association of Black Journalists’ Salute To Excellence Award for TV Documentary.
STEPHANIE SUNATA
Stephanie is a documentary filmmaker with over a decade of experience in the industry. Born and raised in Colorado, Stephanie built her career at Kartemquin Films in Chicago, having recently moved back to her home state. She has worked across every phase of the filmmaking process, including development, production, post-production and distribution. Stephanie’s primary focus is outreach and impact for social-issue documentaries. She specializes in using grassroots methods that transform films into engagement tools for positive change. Recent collaborations include “For the Left Hand” from Kartemquin Films, Lucia Small’s final film “Girl Talk,” and the award-winning “Subject.”
ALAN DOMÍNGUEZ
Denver-based with Nuevo Mexicano roots, Alan is a Chicanx border crosser since birth. Alan’s documentaries highlight the fabric and landscapes of the Southwest USA. Alan has recently been named a Sundance Producer’s Intensive Fellow for his upcoming feature film “Commerce City.” He is also an educator of film production at North Denver’s CEC Early College of Denver and takes pride in how he learns from his students as much as they learn from him. Alan’s documentaries and narrative films have been screened and distributed in three different continents and in three different languages. His work has been broadcasted on Hulu, World Channel, Rocky Mountain PBS, Colorado Public Television, Third World Newsreel, and Latino Rebels. Additionally, Alan’s films have screened at the Festival Internacional de Cine en Morelia, New York Latino Film Festival, and Big Sky, among others. Alan’s films have received support from American Masters, Firelight Media, PBS, MountainFilm, National Association of Latino Independent Producers, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, World Channel, and the Western Conservation Trust. He is a NALIP Latino Media Market Fellow, a Tribeca Creators Market alumni, a Latino Leadership Institute Fellow, and a Firelight Media Beyond Resilience panelist. Alan has recently been named a Sundance Producer’s Intensive Fellow for the upcoming feature film “Commerce City” directed by Raúl Paz-Pastrana.