Emilie Upczak’s films are grounded in realism and hybridity, where she weaves together fiction and nonfiction, starting with real-life accounts and true stories, which are then reimagined to capture emotional truths and foster empathy for people and place. She collaborates with both professional actors and non-actors and is committed to working closely with members of the communities featured in her films. Emilie works to elevate female-driven stories, ensuring that women are represented on both sides of the camera and her projects include a diverse range of narrative, experimental, and documentary feature and short films, public video projections, and digital exhibitions.

An award-winning filmmaker, a Rotterdam Producers Lab alumni and an Andy Warhol Foundation grant recipient, she began her filmmaking career while living in Trinidad and Tobago for a decade, where she served as Creative Director for the trinidad+tobago film festival and led initiatives like the Caribbean Film Database and the Caribbean Film Mart. In 2017, she released her debut narrative feature, Moving Parts, which tackles human smuggling and sex trafficking in the capital city, Port of Spain (available through the distributor, Indiepix). 

Currently, she is in post-production on Leo Sacer, a social documentary exploring the complex interactions between residents of a small mountain community and a relocated mountain lion. 

Emilie is also developing her second feature, an alt-western indie / eco-drama set in the near future on the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. She released a proof of concept called Silt (2022) which premiered at the Independent Film Festival Boston and won the Special Jury Award. It has since played at festivals such as Chicago Underground, Charlotte, Hawaii, Denver, Dallas, Santa Fe, and the Mother Tongue Film Festival at the Smithsonian. It was also awarded a Climate Resiliency & Storytelling award by FEMA and the Jury Prize at Borders/No Borders Film Festival in Houston. Originally from Colorado, Emilie now lives in Oklahoma and teaches at the University of Oklahoma.

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.

Jamie Wagner is the Moving Image Archivist at the University of Colorado Boulder Libraries. She has an MLIS and a MA in Film, both from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She currently serves as the Continuing Education Coordinator for the Society of Rocky Mountain Archivists (SRMA), the Rocky Mountain area liaison to the AMIA Regional Audiovisual Archives Committee (RAVA), and a member of AMIA's Continuing Education Advisory Task Force.

Vanessa Cornejo is originally from the Denver, CO area. She is a video producer and social media content creator for the Department of Student Affairs at the University of Colorado Boulder. Vanessa obtained her BFA in Cinema Studies and Moving Image Arts, also from the University of Colorado Boulder, in 2021. Before beginning her work with Student Affairs, she created video content for CU’s performing arts marketing department, CU Presents. Currently, Vanessa also works in assistance to Assistant Teaching Professor Emilie Upczak, for which she has been involved in creating a digital exhibition from the collection of Ann Roy.