Serving on the Panel of Cool

I had the delight of being selected for the “Panel of Cool,” a group filmmakers and film experts with successful festival runs to contribute to MovieMaker’s magazine “The 25 Coolest Film Festivals in the World” (or as editor Tim Molloy puts it; “a festival that does not reek of attitude, confusing communication or the sense that it thinks it would do just fine without you.”) All of us shared our on the ground, first hand experiences with festivals we found particularly welcoming and interesting and it didn’t hurt if they recognized that we were going places in the industry. I am especially happy to have brought a bit of attention to a few of the fests that go out of their way to highlight social justice films and the growing careers of filmmakers of color. Check out all 25 festivals that made the list or take a look at me making my way through the Addis International Film Festival in Addis, Ethiopia.