Ana-Maria Garcia
Ana-María García has over 40 years experience in community development, leadership training and social and racial justice. She has managed budgets in excess of $100 million and known for her budgetary prowess. In 1995, a day (Nov 30) was named after her she for her previous five years’ body of work which included creation of a specialized project named Project Start; development of training programs for general assistance clients; development of two comprehensive youth centers and creation of a coordinated system of human services. She went on to work for the Census Bureau to familiarize herself with data gathering. She has a Juris Doctorate from Temple University.
Melissa “MelimeL” Lauradin
Melissa “MelimeL” Lauradin is a creative artist and mompreneur. She is CEO and Lead Graphic Designer of MelimeL Digital Art Design. Her published works as a writer and poet include Beneath the Deep Surface which was re-released for print and e-book in July 2022. Aside from designing and writing, MelimeL enjoys travel, photography, performing, and is an aspiring DJ. She hosted an Annual Women Empowerment Event during Women’s History Month for ten years from 2013-2022 and is currently developing a documentary film about the event. In 2015 and 2019 respectively, MelimeL launched The sisSTAR Loop, a platform for women-owned business and professionals and The Empowerment Network, a digital magazine, with its 12th issue currently in production. Through her creative works she hopes to empower others to excel in their personal and professional lives.
Anjanette Levert
Anjanette Levert is a documentary filmmaker, producer, curator, coach and professor. She is the former Director of Spelman College’s Documentary Filmmaking Program. She is the 2022 Recipient of the Presidential Teaching Award at Spelman College. An invited panelist at the Sundance Producer Summit and a member of the Sundance Producers Intensive. She is the producer of The Only Doctor by Matthew Hashiguchi which made its World Premiere at Toronto’s Hot Docs International Film Festival in 2023. She is a board member for Jezebel Productions and Atlanta’s MINT Gallery.
Advisory Committee and Festival Committee
Ashley Torres Carrasquillo
Ashley Torres Carrasquillo (they/she ella/elle) is a transnational community organizer, a transdisciplinary and collaborative researcher, and an art-based educator; whose work focuses on supporting and documenting anti-racist and anti-colonial community-based projects with adult and youth organizers in the Dominican Republic, Colombia, and Puerto Rico. Originally from Santurce, Puerto Rico, Ashley holds an M.S. in critical ethnic and community studies, and a BA in women’s, gender, and sexualities studies, from the University of Massachusetts. They are the former coordinator and co-facilitator of the Muñecas Negras project with the Dominicans Love Haitians Movement. They are also the recipient of several grants including the 2022 small grant program from the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation and the 2021 Soros Justice Fellow from the Open Society Foundation, where they co-develop a violence intervention program with youth and adult community organizers. Ashley currently works as the Political Education Coordinator for Mijente, and is an Instructor at the University of Colorado Boulder, Ethnic Studies Department.
M. Asli Dukan
M. Asli Dukan is a filmmaker who works primarily in the genres of speculative fiction as a subversive, radical and liberatory practice. She has screened at festivals in the U.S., Canada, and on the Black-owned streaming service, KweliTV. She has been the recipient of several grants, awards and fellowships, including a 2020 Sundance Institute Knight Alumni grant. In 2022, she completed Sundown Road, a short film about the residue of racial discrimination, intimidation and violence in the U.S. She is in development on the feature film, Skin Folk, based on the book by the award-winning Caribbean writer, Nalo Hopkinson.