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FILMMAKERS

Cary Cronenwett

Director/ Producer

Cary Cronenwett directs and produces films that foreground forgotten histories and marginalized stories with an emphasis on inclusivity and process. The San Francisco Guardian granted him the 2009 Bay Area Goldie Award for Local Discovery after the release of his film, Maggots and Men, an epic collaboration with an ensemble cast that brought together close to 100 transgender actors and crew. In 2018 he directed a short, Eisha Love: A Trans Woman of Color in Chicago, that was part of the Emmy Award winning series ACLU: Trans in America. His work, both documentary and narrative, has screened in numerous festivals. He holds an MFA from California Institute of the Arts and a BA from Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. Originally from Oklahoma, he is currently based in Los Angeles.

​​Juan Carlos Zaldivar

Consulting Producer

Juan Carlos Zaldivar is a LatinX visual artist who lives and works in the United States. Zaldivar completed both a BFA and a Masters of Fine Arts at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. He started a film career as a sound editor and designer, and worked in Academy Nominated films such as Ang Lee's "Sense and Sensibility;" "On the ropes" and on HBO's America Undercover, which garnered an Emmy nomination. His video artworks have screened at many festivals worldwide and were broadcast on PBS, ABC, IFC, Showtime and WE. He associate produced the theatrical feature doc "Buena Vista Social Club, Adios" (2017). Zaldivar recently tenured with Doc Society (previously Britdoc Foundation) as the Outreach Director for their first PanAmerican event, Good Pitch Miami (2017) and served as a Juror for several major film festivals including the Sundance International Film Festival.

Juan Carlos Zaldivar is a LatinX visual artist who lives and works in the United States. Zaldivar completed both a BFA and a Masters of Fine Arts at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. He started a film career as a sound editor and designer, and worked in Academy Nominated films such as Ang Lee's "Sense and Sensibility;" "On the ropes" and on HBO's America Undercover, which garnered an Emmy nomination. His video artworks have screened at many festivals worldwide and were broadcast on PBS, ABC, IFC, Showtime and WE. He associate produced the theatrical feature doc "Buena Vista Social Club, Adios" (2017). Zaldivar recently tenured with Doc Society (previously Britdoc Foundation) as the Outreach Director for their first PanAmerican event, Good Pitch Miami (2017) and served as a Juror for several major film festivals including the Sundance International Film Festival.

Susan Stryker

Susan Stryker is a San Francisco-based filmmaker, historian, and cultural theorist specializing in transgender topics. She co-wrote, 

directed, and produced the Emmy-winning PBS documentary 

Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton’s Cafeteria and has served as producer, consulting producer, or historical consultant on numerous projects, including Michelle Lawler’s Forever’s Gonna Start Tonight, Rhys Ernst’s web series We’ve Been Around, The Danish Girl, Transparent, Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen, Tales of the City, and The Lady and the Dale.

Consulting Producer

Sam Feder

Consulting Producer

Cited by Indiewire as one of the “exciting trans filmmakers shaking up Hollywood”, Sam’s films explore the intersection of visibility and politics along the lines of race, class, and gender in trans lives while working towards higher ethical standards in filmmaking. 

Sam’s films have been programmed by Sundance Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, CPH:DOX, MOMA PS-1, The British Film Institute, The Hammer Museum, and in hundreds of film festivals around the world. The Netflix Original Documentary, DISCLOSURE (Sundance, 2020) is an unprecedented, eye-opening look at transgender depictions in film and television, revealing how Hollywood simultaneously reflects and manufactures our deepest anxieties about gender. KATE BORNSTEIN IS A QUEER AND PLEASANT DANGER (2014), a portrait of trans icon Kate Bornstein, was named one of the best documentaries of 2014 by The Advocate, won the James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism, and multiple best feature film awards. Sam’s work has been supported by Ford/JustFilms, Fork Films, California Humanities, The Jerome Foundation, Perspective Fund, Threshold, IFP Film Week, Good Pitch USA/Doc Society, MacDowell Colony, and Yaddo artist residency.

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