Emilie Upczak is an independent filmmaker, academic, a Andy Warhol grant recipient and a Rotterdam Producers Lab alumni. She has her MFA in Film from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her work focuses on climate justice, migration, and economic, racial and gender hierarchies. Her films reflect her interest in hybridity, blending fiction and non-fiction techniques, and highlighting actors and non-actors. She makes narrative, experimental, and non-fiction films and works with archival footage and collections. Her films range from feature length narratives to public video projections to digital exhibitions.

Emilie spent ten years living in Trinidad and Tobago, where she began making films and worked as the Creative Director for the trinidad+tobago film festival spearheading the Caribbean Film Database and the Caribbean Film Mart. Her debut narrative feature “Moving Parts”, a human smuggling and sex trafficking film, set in the capital city of Port of Spain, was supported by the Trinidad and Tobago Film Commission. It premiered at the Denver Film Festival and is available through the films distributor, Indiepix.

In 2022, she wrote and directed a narrative short film entitled “Silt”, a story of loss centered on the Colorado river, which premiered at the Independent Film Festival Boston where it won the special jury award and went on to receive a Federal Emergency Management Agency Climate Resilience Storytelling Award. “Silt” also screened at the Smithsonian Institute Mother Tongue Festival in 2023.

Emilie’s family has lived in the West for three generations, and she is centrally involved with and concerned for the future of the region. She is from the mountains above Boulder, one hour as the crow flies, from the headwaters of the Colorado River. Growing up, her family had a shallow well, and water scarcity was always an issue. When she was nine, she went rafting on the Green River, the major tributary to the Colorado River. Since that time, Western rivers have been an integral part of my life. She has rafted on the Colorado River through Grand Canyon numerous times and has engaged in researching its history, peoples, folklore, scientific and cultural expeditions, and current environmental situation.

John Otterbacher has a Masters in Communications and Bachelor’s in Film from Grand Valley State University in Michigan. He completed his Master of Fine Arts in Film at the Vermont College of Fine Arts in 2015 and lives in Chicago where he splits his time between teaching and filmmaking. Otterbacher has mainly worked as a producer, cinematographer, and post coordinator specializing in independent film, tv, and new media. He produced MOVING PARTS in 2017, with Emilie Upczak, his fourth narrative feature. He is the consulting producer on Roy’s World: Barry Gifford’s Chicago, producer on Nearest Neighbour, a documentary about Venezuelan political refugees fleeing to Trinidad, and producer for the short proof of concept film, Silt.

Lisa Yellow Eagle is an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation and is also Sicangu Lakota. She grew up in Wide Ruins, Arizona. Lisa graduated from the University of Colorado with a B.A. and went on to earn her J.D. from the University of Colorado School of Law in 2008. She currently works as a Tribal Attorney for the Southern Ute, tasked with securing and protecting the Nation’s water rights. Previously, she worked within the Navajo Nation DOJ Water Rights Unit, at a private Indian law firm, for the Boulder County District Attorney’s office, and for a non-profit organization that focused on strengthening American Indian economies to support healthy Native communities. Lisa co-produced the short proof of concept film, Silt.

Christi Cooper is a PhD scientist, documentary filmmaker, and Emmy-award winning cinematographer. Christi focuses her storytelling and visual narratives on issues of justice and impact by creating human connections to the most pressing issues of our time. Her feature film “YOUTH v GOV” is now streaming on Netflix, and her film awards include Wildscreen’s Panda Award for Best Campaign Film; Jackson Wild’s Grand Teton Award; Cleveland International Film Festival’s ReelWomen Direct Award for Excellence in Directing by a Woman; Woods Hole Film Festival’s Best of Festival, Audience Award, and Jury Award for Best Feature Documentary; EarthxFilm’s Impact Award for Feature Film; among others. Christi is the inaugural SFFilm/ Vulcan Productions Environmental Film Fellow and the first Jacob Burns Film Center “Focus on Nature” Artist- in-Resident.

Harlan Taney has made a life of adventuring around the globe. For the last 18 years, Harlan has spent his summers as a Grand Canyon River guide, completing approximately 160 trips down the river. Many of these trips involved scientific research and studies of the cultural and natural history of the Colorado River. As owner and operator of 4 Corner Film Logistics, Harlan has managed productions for National Geographic, NBC, and the BBC. He has created a niche in the Outdoor/Adventure film industry by developing innovative solutions for film projects in one of the world’s most remote locations. Harlan’s recent projects include The Weight of Water where he worked with blind adventurer Erik Weihenmayer, to produce and document an 18-day kayaking trip with Weihenmayer down the Grand Canyon. He also ran logistics for BBC Grand Canyon, a 21- day re-creation of the 1869 John Wesley Powell expedition down the Colorado River in the Canyon.

Shemin Ge is a distinguished professor of Geological Sciences at the University of Colorado, Boulder with a PhD from Johns Hopkins University. She is a hydrogeologist whose research involves studying groundwater in the Earth’s crust with a focus on understanding how groundwater flow interacts with and is affected by other geologic processes and how theses interactions advance science and offer insights on societally relevant issues. One area of research is to study the impact of climate change on groundwater resources, focusing on high-altitude regions where variations in temperature and precipitation are expected.

Based in Trinidad and Tobago, Melanie Archer is an award-winning book designer and partner/editor at Robert & Christopher Publishers. Melanie also writes on art, design, and culture. She has been director of engagement at Unqueue (2020–2024), a part-time lecturer at UWI St Augustine (2019–2022), art director of the trinidad+tobago film festival (2010–2015) and co-curator of its New Media programme of experimental works (2012-2015; 2021–2023). Melanie’s other curatorial experience includes the exhibitions “Public Spaces” (2012, Port of Spain, based on the work of architect Colin Laird) and “Pictures from Paradise” (2014, Toronto, a survey of contemporary Caribbean photography). Her book design awards include two 2024 Gold and two 2024 Silver ADDYs, a 2023 Silver ADDY, and a 2022 Gold ADDY.m description

Sarah Biagini is a filmmaker, educator, and editor of fiction and documentary. She holds a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and MFA from University of Colorado Boulder. She has been a Filmmaker in Residence at Alchemy Film and Moving Image Residencies in Scotland and a Visiting Artist at Hellenic International Studies in the Arts, in Paros, Greece. Screenings of her work include International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, UnionDocs, International Film Festival Rotterdam, San Francisco International Film Festival, and Denver Film Festival. She is a founding member of Process Reversal, a Colorado-based nonprofit dedicated to film arts preservation and education. As a filmmaker and educator, Sarah is committed to building community access to moving image technologies, specifically designing youth programming to support and uplift the creative careers of girls and gender-nonconforming young filmmakers. Sarah was the Lead Programmer for the 2021 Mimesis Documentary Festival. Sarah was the editor for the short proof of concept film, Silt.