Guest Filmmakers

As a filmmaker, Yi Cui refrains from defining her work as representing a certain genre. Instead, she allows a leitmotif to develop freely, and to guide her as she looks for an articulate formal expression. The search for the rhythm and poetics that are unique to the cinematic medium is a recurring theme in Cui’s practice.

Cui is interested in weaving this formal pursuit into works that engage with pressing cultural and social questions. In her film Of Shadows (2016), for example, she intertwined two narrative lines to juxtapose urban spectacles with grassroots traditions, provoking viewers to encounter the profound dilemma faced by individuals situated between contemporary reality and the traditional past. Cui is currently working on a feature-length film essay based on her experience working in communities in eastern Tibet facilitating herdsmen, monks, and young students to make their own films.

Cui is a filmmaker from China and an Assistant Professor of Film and Video at Colgate University.

From Our Eyes: Shorts from Tibet with filmmaker Yi Cui (China/US, 90 min): Saturday, March 25, 1:30 p.m. at Cinemapolis  FREE

Deborah C. Hoard is a producer, writer, researcher, and the President of PhotoSynthesis Productions. Much of her work has focused on social justice and education issues, and she has won hundreds of international and national awards. Her films have been broadcast and screened at festivals worldwide and have won more than 200 film and media awards.

Two of her previous documentaries were both New York Times Critics’ Picks. They Call It Myanmar (2012) was called “a thing of beauty. . . .one of the top 12 documentaries of 2012” by Roger Ebert. Angkor Awakens (2016), about Cambodia’s emergence from the genocide of the Khmer Rouge, the New York Times called “absolutely harrowing,” and the Washington Post hailed it as “intimate and deeply humane.” She most recently directed and produced the documentary Move When the Spirit Says Move (2023) about Civil Rights icon Dorothy Foreman Cotton.

Move when the Spirit Says Move (Ry Ferro and Deborah Hoard, US, 2023, 90 min): Saturday, March 25, 7:00 p.m. at Cinemapolis   ticketed event (note:  multiple screenings of this film throughout the festival)

Greg Palast is known for his investigative reports for The Guardian, BBC Television, Rolling Stone, and his string of New York Times bestsellers including The Best Democracy Money Can Buy (2002) and Billionaires & Ballot Bandits (2012).

His latest film, Vigilante: Georgia’s Vote Suppression Hitman (2023) is narrated by Rosario Dawson and produced by Martin Sheen. Palast and his hat have been seen on over 2000 media appearances. Pacifica Radio Network broadcasts his weekly Election Crimes Bulletin.

Palast is known for complex undercover investigations, spanning five continents, from the Arctic to the Amazon, from the Congo to California, using the skills he learned over two decades as an investigator of corporate fraud on behalf of the US Department of Justice, 20 attorneys general, and governments from England to Brazil. Palast is Patron of the Trinity College Philosophical Society, and his writings have won him the Financial Times David Thomas Prize.

Vigilante (Greg Palast, US, 2023, 61 min): Saturday, April 1, 3:00 p.m. at Cinemapolis   FREE

Matthew Podolsky co-founded the Wild Lens Collective in 2011 while producing his first film, the documentary Scavenger Hunt (2013), about the plight of the California condor. .Since then, Matthew has produced the Emmy-nominated Wild Lens film Bluebird Man (2014), and the award-winning Souls of the Vermilion Sea (2017). He co-directed the feature film Sea of Shadows (2019), which won the Audience Award at Sundance 2019 and was distributed by National Geographic.

Matthew is also a podcaster and audio producer and is a core member of the production team behind the Wild Lens Collective’s flagship podcast series, Earth to Humans! — a bi-weekly interview series, this is one of the longest-running podcasts focused on environmental issues. In 2020, Matthew launched Common Land, a documentary-style radio and podcast series that explores the creation stories behind protected areas. Matthew currently lives in Boise, Idaho, with his wife Miranda and son Rowan.  He is a graduate of the Cinema program in the Roy H. Park School of Communications and Environmental Science in the School of Humanities and Sciences at Ithaca College

Wild Lens Shorts (Wild Lens Collective, US, 90 min): Saturday, April 8, 11:00  a.m. at Cinemapolis  FREE