2022 VTIFF: Guest filmmakers/speakers
Annie began her film career in her hometown, Washington DC, at The Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital, where she now serves on the Board of Directors. She consulted for Ford Foundation’s Just Films team 2015 – 2016, and directs, produces, and ADs narrative and documentary films. Annie received an MFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in 2016, where she was awarded an Alan Landsburg Documentary Award and Spike Lee Fellowship. Annie lives in Brooklyn with a lawyer/musician and a slightly unruly rescue Saint Bernard.
Charles Burnett is an American film director, film producer, writer, editor, actor, photographer, and cinematographer. His most popular films include Killer of Sheep (1978), My Brother’s Wedding (1983), To Sleep with Anger (1990), The Glass Shield (1994), and Namibia: The Struggle for Liberation (2007). Called “one of America’s very best filmmakers” by the Chicago Tribune and “the nation’s least-known great filmmaker and most gifted black director” by The New York Times, Burnett has had a long, diverse career.
Natalia Lopez Gaillardo was born in La Paz, Bolivia. She is an editor and director, known for Robe of Gems (2022), Heli (2013) and Silent Light (2007).
Alejandro Loayza Grisi is a Bolivian filmmaker. Utama, his debut film, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival 2022 where it won the Grand Jury Prize in the World Dramatic Competition. Alejandro began his artistic career in still photography, followed by a career as director of photography, before venturing into directing.
Lantz is an award-winning filmmaker and playwright. As a playwright, James’s work has been produced at FlynnSpace in Burlington, Off-Broadway, played nationally and internationally including his award-winning LGBTQ play, “The Bus.” He has produced over 200 commercial
Daniel Nerenberg is a Communications Associate for Just Vision, an organization that fills a media gap on Israel-Palestine through independent storytelling and strategic audience engagement. He is also a Visiting Instructor at Berea College and lives with his family in Kentucky.
Allan F. Nicholls is an award-winning veteran of the film industry having produced, directed, acted, and composed music for the past forty years. He is most noted for his collaborations with Robert Altman, Tim Robbins, and John Madden. Often performing multiple roles for a film, these collaborations include associate producer and assistant director on Dead Man Walking, assistant director on The Player, executive producer and assistant director for the Palme d’Or nominated Cradle Will Rock, and associate producer on the Golden Globe nominated Bob Roberts . His TV experience includes being an associate director on Saturday Night Live (1989-91) and first AD on both Tanner ’88 and Tanner on Tanner. He co-wrote A Perfect Couple and A Wedding, both directed by Robert Altman. He has also taught screenwriting at Burlington College, NYU’s Tisch Asia School of The Arts (Singapore) and served as the Artistic Director of New York Film Academy- Abu Dhabi Campus in the UAE.
Laurent Rochette a cinematographer and producer, known for Paris Is Us (2019), Roaring ‘20s (2021) and The World After Us (2021).
Joel Sartore is an American photographer focusing on conservation photography, speaker, author, teacher, and a long-time contributor to National Geographic magazine. He is the head of The National Geographic Photo Ark project, a 25-year effort to document the approximately 12,000 species living in the world’s zoos and wildlife sanctuaries.
Academy Award winning filmmaker Deborah Shaffer began making social issue documentaries as a member of the Newsreel collective the ‘70’s. She co-founded Pandora Films, one of the first woman’s film companies, which produced several shorts. “I’ve been making films for 40 years. While all of the films unfold in a political context, they are first and foremost human stories of ordinary people caught up in the vortex of history. The common threads that weave them together are the search for truth and the struggle for justice.”
Norm Smith is a film editor, known for Dead Ringer (1982), Graveyard Shift (1986) and Night Visitors (1987).
Bianca Stigter was born in Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands. She is a producer and writer, known for Three Minutes: A Lengthening (2021), Widows (2018) and 12 Years a Slave (2013).
Gretchen Stoeltje walked into a movie theater, fell in love, and never looked back. A native Texan, she made her way West and learned to make films in California, finishing undergraduate and graduate work at UC Santa Cruz. From San Francisco, the heart of Northern California’s independent filmmaking community, she made three films before earning a law degree from Santa Clara University. She has also published several articles addressing issues of law, technology, film, food miles, smart growth and intelligent transportation systems.