Sara Alize Cross (Writer/Director): As a director, Sara Alize Cross has completed short form narrative and documentary films, commercials, and branded content, and is in post-production on Manhattan Lullaby, a feature documentary about NYC cultural landmark, Colony Records. Recently, she directed second unit on Kings of Beer, a feature documentary that goes behind the scenes with brewmasters from around the world. Sara’s producing credits include Murderball (Sundance Audience Award, Academy Award Nomination), The Order of Myths (Sundance Premiere, Peabody Award) and 21Up America (executive produced by Michael Apted as part of the American adaptation of the acclaimed 7Up series).

Sara was chosen to be one of 8 fellows (from over 3600 submissions) for the 2017-2018 HBOAccess Writing Fellowship. Her short script Unreliable Narrators (now retitled She Said/She Said) was a Finalist in the PAGE International Screenwriting Awards and the Nantucket Film Festival’s Showtime Tony Cox Screenplay Competition a Semi-Finalist in the Cinequest and Nashville Film Festival Screenwriting Competitions, and won the Jeffrey Jones Screenwriting Scholarship from the USC School of Cinematic Arts Writing Division. While pursuing her MFA in Production at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, Sara contributed her time and skills as the student coordinator of the Visions and Voices USC Comedy Festival and the Dinner for Eight program, and was awarded the Jack Oakie Comedy Fellowship.

A devoted dog lover, Sara founded the 501c3 non-profit Badass Brooklyn Animal Rescue after fostering one dog saved from death row in her one-bedroom apartment. Under Sara’s leadership, the organization has saved the lives of over 2400 dogs in 8 years. Sara has independently traveled in over 20 countries on 6 continents. She earned her BA in Film Studies at Columbia University, and a Masters in Women’s Studies at Oxford, where she wrote her thesis on Screwball Comedy of the 1930s.

Alyssa Renzi (Cinematographer): Alyssa Renzi is a cinematographer and photographer based in LA. She recently completed her MFA in film and television production at USC School of Cinematic Arts with an emphasis in cinematography. Alyssa has been the director of photography on fiction and documentary shorts and web series that have screened at film festivals around the country. While at USC, she shot the historical drama Hanger’s Limb. Set during the Civil War era, the film won a production grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and was selected as a semi-finalist for the Student Academy Award. Alyssa is also a photographer, having photographed places as wonderful as New York City and New Zealand. She started the “I stand For” project, a photo series where subjects reveal what they stand up for in society. You can view samples of Alyssa’s work on her website www.alyssarenzi.com

Katherine Sweetman (Editor): Katherine Sweetman is an artist, filmmaker and editor with work distributed in major film festivals including Recontes Internacionales; shown in galleries and museums including The Getty Center, Los Angeles; broadcast on major TV outlets including Cox, Brighthouse Networks Time Warner. She’s directed and produced 3D and 4k content for film and television distribution including the award-winning series, Road to the Cage 3D, a tell-all sports documentary series on amateur cage fighting. Katherine has an MFA in Cinematic Arts from the University of Southern California and an MFA in Visual Arts from the University of California, San Diego. In addition to her production and post-production work, she is a college instructor teaching courses on visual culture and media at colleges and universities including The University of California, San Diego; San Diego State University; and California State University, San Marcos. www.katherinesweetman.com