Join Firelight Media's Beyond Resilience series at DOC NYC PRO!
Step into the dynamic crossroads of documentary filmmaking, artificial intelligence (AI), and its business impact, where creators wrestle with ethical dilemmas amidst relentless innovation. Eva Kozanecka (Researcher at Google), Will Tyner (Researcher at Google & Firelight Media Documentary Lab Alum), Tess Thorsen (Research Ethics Director at Comcast), and Meredith Broussard (Professor at NYU & author, Artificial Unintelligence: How Computers Misunderstand the World) reflect on how AI might transform artistic approaches to connection and access, power and positionality, agency, and community care with moderator Sian Pierre-Regis (Filmmaker, Duty Free & Beyond Resilience Series Producer). Guided by industry leaders, this discussion will reflect on the entire filmmaking process, with a focus on research and development. Come contribute to shaping a future where innovation, ethics, and business coalesce.
This event will take place on Wednesday, November 15 from 11:30am to 12:45pm ET as part of DOC NYC PRO. Admission to the event can be purchased via a Day Pass or Multi-Day Pass.
--
The Beyond Resilience Series is sponsored by Open Society Foundations. Beyond Resilience is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Field of Vision.
--
Sian- Pierre Regis is a filmmaker who directed, produced and self-distributed his debut feature documentary DUTY FREE. Called a “tender love poem from son to mother” by CBS News, the film was released in 30 theaters over Mother’s Day 2021 and fast-became a press magnet garnering coverage from CBS Sunday Morning, NPR, MSNBC, The Tamron Hall Show, AARP; the film was also a #1 Apple News story through the weekend. It premiered on PBS’s Independent Lens. Prior to filmmaking, Regis was a journalist and on-camera contributor to CNN, HLN, and MTV and founded Swagger, an online lifestyle magazine for millennials with over 1.5 million fans. He is a Firelight Media fellow and Film Independent Documentary Lab Fellow.
William Tyner (he/him) is a director, producer, and founder of DELU Productions. He is also a Researcher at Google where he works across questions of justice, equity, and product inclusion. His latest film is The People’s Way, a feature length documentary that follows Jeanelle Austin, Robin Wonsley, and Toshira Garraway, three Black women in Minneapolis who embark on interweaving journeys to care for their communities and find inner healing in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. William is currently a Firelight Media Documentary Lab Fellow and the recipient of the 2018-2019 Fulbright-National Geographic Digital Storytelling Fellowship, Code for America Fellowship, and San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Civic Innovation Fellow. He studied Anthropology at Wesleyan University.
Meredith Broussard is an associate professor at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute of New York University and the research director at the NYU Alliance for Public Interest Technology. She is the author of an upcoming book, More Than a Glitch: Confronting Race, Gender, and Ability Bias in Tech (MIT Press, 2023), as well as the award-winning 2018 book Artificial Unintelligence: How Computers Misunderstand the World. Her research focuses on artificial intelligence in investigative reporting, with particular interests in AI ethics and using data analysis for social good. She appears in the Emmy- nominated documentary Coded Bias, now streaming on Netflix. Her work has been supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, the Institute of Museum & Library Services, and the Tow Center at Columbia Journalism School. A former features editor at the Philadelphia Inquirer, she has also worked as a software developer at AT&T Bell Labs and the MIT Media Lab. Her features and essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Slate, Vox, and other outlets. Follow her on Twitter @merbroussard or contact her via meredithbroussard.com.
Tess Skadegård Thorsen, PhD (she/her/hers), is a researcher, educator, and consultant, specialized in representation and ethics in tech, media, and film practices. A former managing editor of the Danish journal for gender research, Tess was awarded the 2022 Kraka Award for gender research. Her research has been published internationally including in ‘Women in the International Film Industry: Policy, Practice & Power’ and ‘Black Film British Cinema II’. With a BA and MA in film and media studies from Copenhagen University, and a PhD from Aalborg University, Tess decided to expand her knowledge in the AI/ML space, by joining the 2021 cohort of NYU’s Institute for Public Interest Technology. Having specialized in questions around anti-discrimination and bias identification in tech, particularly AI, in the past years, Tess currently works in the media and tech industry and serves on multiple boards, including on the board of the Danish Pioneer Centre for AI.
Eva Kozanecka is a Polish-born director and producer, based in Brooklyn, New York. She has produced and directed films for Google, Microsoft, and the Museum of Modern Art. Her work has been recognized by the New York Times and The Museum of Modern Art. Since 2018, she co-leads a research program at Google investing in artistic projects using A.I. technologies.
How does a documentary filmmaker fulfill their role in the midst of a pandemic and an uprising?
Firelight Media joined The Movement for Black Lives' national call to action on June 19 with a panel conversation that explored the history of Juneteenth and the burning of Black Wall Street in Tulsa, and grappled with the path toward economic justice for Black America.
As physical distancing continues to be the new norm, how can we still make an impact when apart? Sonya Childress, senior fellow at the Perspective Fund, takes us through case studies of documentary film campaigns that have launched in this moment and raise key questions around audience access, care, and how to reach social justice impact goals.
A live event featuring a music set by DJ Frotasia to give our community the opportunity to dance, sing, and shout during a time of tremendous difficulty.
Conversations on representation, labor, and equity featuring the work and perspectives of Undocumented storytellers.
A conversation with Black filmmakers on how they are navigating the ubiquitous images of Black trauma in this moment, documenting Black life, and forging new cinematic languages, practices, and formal approaches.
The recent announcement that golfing icon Tiger Woods would be the subject of a two-part HBO documentary series set in motion a heated debate in the documentary industry about equity, power, and BIPOC filmmakers' demands for structural change.
A conversation to lift up the life and legacy of the former Congressman with inside stories and reflections on his leadership.
