Discovering New Voices and Developing Untold Stories

RECORDED LIVE: AUGUST 20, 2020
Time: 10:00 AM - 12:00 Pm LOS ANGELES TIME

On August 20th, Winston Baker launched a new virtual diversity workshop highlighting new voices and untold stories! Watch it here:

PROGRAM:

10:00 – 10:20 am
STATE OF THE INDUSTRY

The lack of representation of key minority groups in media and content is astounding and we all have to do our part to make changes in the way we approach storytelling. During this opening presentation, we will analyze the inequality in films, examine portrayals of Gender, Race/Ethnicity, LGBTQ & Disability and discuss some of the leading filmmakers and producers who are moving the needle forward towards a more inclusive film business.

10:20 – 11:45 AM
PITCH AND FEEDBACK

Winston Baker will select three (3) filmmakers/producers to pitch and randomly select three (3) additional filmmakers/producers based on registered participants. There will be a panel of Judges who will listen to each pitch along with the attendees. Each pitch will be limited to 5 minutes and at the end of each pitch, our panel of judges will provide feedback on why each pitch worked, why it didn’t and how they can be improved. At the end of all pitches, all participants will vote on a winner. The winner’s project will then be announced through Winston Baker’s email newsletter which reaches over 50,000 industry professionals worldwide.

11:45 AM – 12:00 PM
LIVE Q&A WITH AUDIENCE

For the last portion of our program, attendees will have the opportunity to ask our panelists questions which may not have been addressed during the pitch sessions.

KEYNOTE PRESENTER:

Celine Parreñas Shimizu
Award-Winning FilmmakeR and Film Scholar
San Francisco State University

Celine Parreñas Shimizu is Director of the School of Cinema and Full Professor of Cinema Studies as well as a Member of the Graduate Faculty in Sexuality Studies at San Francisco State University. A former Full Professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara for 15 years, she is an award-winning film scholar and filmmaker.

Her books are The Proximity of Other Skins: Ethical Intimacy in Global Cinema (Oxford University Press, 2020), Straitjacket Sexualities (Stanford University Press, 2012) and The Hypersexuality of Race (Duke University Press, 2007)—winner of the Best Book in Cultural Studies from the Association for Asian American Studies in 2009. She co-edited a special issue of ADVA with Jerry Miller and Richard T. Rodriguez on The Unwatchability of Whiteness (Brill, 2018) and co-edited with Tristan Taormino, Constance Penley and Mireille Miller-Young, The Feminist Porn Book (The Feminist Press, 2013). She recently completed her second feature film The Celine Archive (2019) which is soon to be released. Distributed by Progressive Films and Third World Newsreel, her award-winning films include Birthright: Mothering Across Difference (2009), The Fact of Asian Women (2004) and Super Flip (1997).

Her research and creative activity have received support from the Social Science Research Council, the Motion Picture Association of America, the James Pendleton Foundation and the Edie and Lew Wasserman Fund. She has received fellowships from the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney and the Research Institute for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity at Stanford.

She publishes widely in top journals in Film and Performance, Feminist and Asian / American Cultural Studies such as Cinema Journal, Concentric, Frontiers, Journal of Asian American Studies, Quarterly Review of Film and Video, Signs, Sexualities, Theater Journal, Wide Angle and Yale Journal of Law and Feminism. Currently, she is the Associate Editor for the distinguished journal Gay and Lesbian Quarterly (GLQ), and the former USA Area Editor for Asian Diasporas and Visual Cultures of the Americas (ADVA), and former editor of Oxford Bibliographies Online. She serves as a panelist for the Ford Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. She received her Ph.D. from the Program in Modern Thought and Literature at Stanford University, her M.F.A. in Production and Directing from the UCLA School of Theatre, Film and Television, and her B.A. in Ethnic Studies from U.C. Berkeley.

PANEL OF JUDGES:

Adhrucia Apana
Founder and Producer
Curiosity Entertainment

She is Producer, Executive Producer and Founder of the new label Curiosity Entertainment focused on developing, producing, and financing impact focused commercial content with a global appeal. Curiosity will also be launching a data based service in 2021 focused on aiding creatives with analytics, marketing, and innovative brand integration/partnerships for their IP. Her most recent credits include movies such as: "Capone" starring Tom Hardy directed by Josh Trank; the upcoming films "Needle in a Timestack" starring Cynthia Erivo, Leslie Odam Jr. and Orlando Bloom directed and written by John Ridley; and "Harry Haft" starring Ben Foster directed by Barry Levinson. Adhrucia previously worked as an Executive financing studio slates for BRON Studios with CWM, financiers of "The Joker" and last year's Oscar Nominee "Bombshell". Prior to that, she was a consultant and partner to American Idol Icon Randy Jackson focusing on TV development and brand integration and working as a partner with Atlantic Screen Media Group. Before transitioning into Entertainment, Adhrucia spent 10 years in brand and strategy. She is an active member of the diversity initiative lovingly called "Stone Soup" started by Rotten Tomatoes founder Patrick Lee and has served or been an advocate and volunteer for Young Storytellers, Project Paper Bag, and UNICEF Next Gen.

Rebecca Choi
Director of Development
Archer Gray

Rebecca Choi is the Director of Development at Archer Gray, an independent film and television production company based in New York City. She works with the production team to manage a slate of film and television projects in all phases of development and production and has contributed to films such as Lost Girls, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, 20th Century Women, Mr. Holmes, and The Diary of a Teenage Girl. Before joining Archer Gray, she worked at Sony Pictures Television. Rebecca received her BA from Wesleyan University.

Janaé Désiré
Media Finance Executive
Creative Artists Agency (CAA)

Janaé Désiré is a Media Finance Executive at leading entertainment and sports agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA).  Désiré is based in the Los Angeles office and focuses on client projects in early stages of development.

Désiré began her career in the unscripted space while working at RadicalMedia on Dean of Invention for Planet Green. From there, she worked at ABC News All Media as an Associate Producer on news magazine shows for TLC, Discovery I.D., and OWN Networks. In 2014, Désiré joined Participant Media and transitioned to the narrative film and television space. She joined CAA in 2019.

Désiré graduated from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey with a degree in Communications and a double minor in Africana Studies and Women & Gender Studies.

Elsa Ramo
Managing Partner
Ramo Law

Recently named to Variety’s 2020 “Legal Impact Report” and 2019 “Dealmakers List,” Elsa Ramo represented over 100 films and 50 television scripted and unscripted series in 2019 alone, providing comprehensive legal services to producers, financiers, creators and owners of film, television and digital content and projects across a range of budgets and production levels. 

Her clients include Imagine Entertainment, Fox, Balboa Productions (Sylvester Stallone’s production company), Scout Productions (creators and EPs of “Queer Eye”), Boardwalk Pictures (EPs for “Chefs Table”), LOL (Kevin Hart’s production company), The Jim Henson Company, and Skydance. 

Elsa dedicates substantial time to mentoring women through various organizations; and she has become a go to commentator and instructor on legal issues related to film financing and on the future of the industry.

VIVIANA ZARRAGOITIA
Vice President
Three Point Capital

Viviana Zarragoitia began her career in the entertainment industry working in production accounting at Millennium Films and Bold Films. She then spent 5 years at Lionsgate, where she started working in the accounting department and segued into the finance division, specifically, profit participation. While working in profit participation, she oversaw the preparation of multi-million dollar film and television distribution deals. She was then promoted to the group’s audit division, where she managed film and television royalty audits of producers’ profit participation statements. In 2013, she joined Three Point Capital, a boutique firm that specializes in senior lending on film and television projects. While at Three Point Capital, Viviana has been involved in the financing of over 70 independent films, and worked with such producers as Cassian Elwes, Rob Barnum, Anthony Bregman, James Schamus, Aaron Gilbert, Kimberly Steward, Nicolas Chartier and Kevin Frakes, among others. As Vice President, Viviana closes the financing on every film that the company is involved in, as well as manages the company’s operations in its satellite offices (Ohio and Louisiana). Viviana has received over a dozen Executive Producers credits on titles she has financed. She graduated Cum Laude with a double-major in Business and English from Loyola Marymount University.

PITCHES BY:

We will be featuring these film and TV projects:

• “CASA QUEMADA” - Christopher Oroza - Nostas

• “MOTHER OF THE RIDE” - Alicia Ontiveros

• “CHINDIA” - Sikandar Sidhu

• “FRIDA”- Lowam Eyasu and Jess Jacklin

• “DEFACEMENT” - Anthony Alleyne

• “DIS-GRACED” - Giovannie Espiritu

• “BORDER CHILD” - Stephen Jimenez and Michel Stone

HOSTED BY:

Katherine Winston
Co-Founder and Managing Partner
WINSTON | BAKER

Katherine Winston has been at the forefront of event production, marketing and emerging trends for nearly twenty years. As co-founder and managing partner of WINSTON | BAKER, she oversees business operations, event production, marketing strategies, and new initiatives. In her previous role as Director of Marketing for RealD, she was in charge of creative advertising, supervised public relations, and organized event participation, product launches, and screenings. Prior to RealD, Winston was Senior Marketing Manager for GoTV Networks, where she was responsible for all aspects of marketing strategy and execution, including corporate and consumer marketing, web-to-mobile advertising, print, online, and experiential marketing, public relations, and managing brand partnership deals. Before GoTV, Winston was Conference Producer for Strategic Research Institute where she was responsible for producing high profile investment conferences for various sectors, including e-commerce, nanotech, defense & aerospace, biotech, law, real estate, and entertainment, among others. Winston earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology with honors from the University of Washington and is a Phi Beta Kappa and National Association of Professional Women member. As a fervent advocate of entrepreneurialism, Winston is dedicated to connecting innovators with seasoned professionals who can fuel development and growth.

Amy Baker
Co-Founder and Managing Partner
WINSTON | BAKER

As Co-Founder and Managing Partner of WINSTON | BAKER, Amy Baker oversees the company’s global strategic planning, business development and vendor relationships. Amy co-founded the FILM FINANCE FORUM® in 2008, which provides the leading series of events dedicated to bringing finance and entertainment executives together from around the world. Prior to establishing Winston/Baker, she successfully directed B2B and B2C business development efforts for over 10 years by leveraging innovative sponsorship methods to engage business professionals. At ALM, as Vice President of Business Development, she provided finance executives and marketers with targeted channels for reaching decision-makers within the legal, entertainment, finance and tech sectors. In her previous position, Director of Business Development at RPMC, she worked with entertainment, music, and sports companies, creating event marketing programs, travel incentive services, sweepstakes, and media promotions. Amy received a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology with honors from New York University. Amy is honored to be on the National Board of Advisors for the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida.

In support of the independent entertainment community, Winston Baker will be offering webinars for free or at highly discounted rates so that you can continue to acquire strategic knowledge and connect with industry leaders through these challenging times. Space will be limited so we can allow our attendees time for questions after each webinar.