EVERYTHING YOU EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT FILM SCHOOL: A CONVERSATION WITH FILM STUDENTS

Moderator Alex Johnston is an award-winning filmmaker and media scholar, whose work has screened at a wide range of national and international film festivals, including the Berlinale, Sheffield Doc/Fest, Indie Lisboa, and the New Orleans Film Festival. He is an assistant professor of Film at Seattle University.

Ward is a Syrian born, NYC based filmmaker with a multidisciplinary approach to filmmaking. He strives to depict underrepresented characters in grounded and relatable narratives. He is currently in pre-production for a short film he is set to direct, titled Spring in America, whilst also developing a feature. The latest short he produced was a semifinalist in the Student Academy Awards®.

From the suburbs outside of Boston, Neal Mulani is a writer-director with a proclivity for autobiographical narratives about the queer experience. His work tends to explore themes of shame, self-perception, masculinity & parenthood. A recent graduate of the Film & TV Production program at the University of Southern California, Neal has worked for companies such as Cinetic Media, Lionsgate, and Plan B Entertainment, and spent the past year working as an assistant to the Chairman of Universal. His first short, FISH TANK, premiered in competition at IFFBoston before completing an international festival run. His most recent short, FROM THE TOP, had its world premiere this summer at Palm Springs International ShortFest. Neal currently lives in Los Angeles and is working on his next project.

McKinleigh Lair is a documentary filmmaker from Oklahoma with a keen interest in observation. She has assisted on productions for The New York Times and Kartemquin Films, and pre-screens for POV and the Camden International Film Festival. She is the Oklahoma storyteller for PBS American Portrait and a 2020 Southern Exposure Film Fellow. Her documentaries have been programmed by PBS and NFFTY, and received nominations for the 2020 College Television Award and the 2015 Heartland Emmy. A former collegiate tennis player, McKinleigh is developing a new documentary following an OKC tennis program that supports underserved youth. As a Park Scholar at Ithaca College (class of May 2019) she received her B.A. in Documentary Studies and Production, minored in Anthropology, and studied abroad in Seoul, London, and Jönköping, Sweden.

William Stead is a filmmaker from York, England, now living in Florida, USA. He attended the FSU College of Motion Picture Arts and graduated with a Bachelor's in Film Production. He prides himself in telling stories from the past. Some of the best stories already happened and are just waiting to be tapped into. Will’s focus is on historical fiction chronicling the outcasts of our society, specifically the LGBT Community.

Davi Pena is a Puerto-Rican American director with a passion for telling intimate human stories with a wide scope. Aside from being a director he is a freelance Cinematographer, shooting music videos, branded content and a variety of narrative shorts. He recently graduated from SCAD (The Savannah College of Art and Design) with a BFA in Film & TV Production.

Laura Holliday is a writer, director, actor and musician from West Virginia, based in Los Angeles. She is a self-described NFFTY fan girl and has attended the festival every year since 2012 as a filmmaker and then as a speaker. In 2017 Laura was chosen as a Sundance Ignite Fellow, for her short film 'Persephone Goes Home,' which screened at NFFTY 2016. Laura has studied and performed comedy at UCB LA and The Second City Hollywood and made many videos for the website Funny or Die. She holds a BFA in film production from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, and you can watch her 3 episode sketch series 'Brief and Futile Love Stories' on Comedy Central Digital. She is passionate about telling interpersonal, human stories and making content for and about young people.