CRAFT & COLLABORATION
2025
Welcome to our third edition of Craft & Collaboration!
Join us for a 2-DAY skill-building and networking experience on:
Friday, June 13 from 5:30 pm to 8:30 pm
AND Saturday, June 14 from 10:00 am to 5:30 pm
Where? At the Northwest Film Forum.
Get ready to meet fellow doc film enthusiasts, connect, and learn from one another. Whether you're a seasoned filmmaker or just starting out, this event is perfect for anyone looking to get inspired and connect with like-minded individuals. Don't miss out on this opportunity to learn, discuss, and create community!
Speaker Line-up
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Speaker Line-up ~
Jessica Kingdon
Jessica Kingdon is a Chinese-American director/producer named one of “25 New Faces of Independent Film” by Filmmaker Magazine and selected for the 2020 DOC NYC “40 Under 40” list. Her feature documentary, ASCENSION (2021), was nominated for an Oscar at the 94th Academy Awards and won three Cinema Eye Honors, Best Documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival and Hamptons International Film Festival, and Best Editing at DOC NYC. Her award-winning short COMMODITY CITY (2017) is an observational documentary about the world’s largest wholesale mall in Yiwu, China and played at over 50 film festivals. Her work has been supported by organizations including SFFILM, Chicken & Egg, Cinereach, Sundance, Field of Vision, and Firelight Media. She is currently working with Real Lava to produce the Redford Center supported UNTITLED PANDA FILM (dir. Devon Blackwell). She is working with Actual Films to direct a documentary for PBS about the Getty’s art event PST ART. Past residencies include a Macdowell Fellowship, Yaddo, and UnionDocs.
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Ryan Davis
Ryan Davis is a film publicist and communications professional with almost twenty years experience in the film industry and arts marketing. She is co-founder and principal at Smarthouse Creative. Ryan has worked in almost every aspect of the film business--from production and festivals to distribution and exhibition.
As a publicist, Ryan has worked with outlets ranging from CNN and The New York Times, to community newspapers and local radio. During her time at Arab Film Distribution/Typecast Films she was part of the production and release of the Academy Award-nominated Iraq in Fragments. Since then she has worked for a variety of nonprofit arts groups and organizations, including heading the marketing departments for Northwest Film Forum and Northwest Folklife, and was the assistant director of Couch Fest Films from 2010-2014. Ryan currently sits on the board of The Grand Cinema in Tacoma, WA. She has presented at Sundance Collab, Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, DOCNYC, and the American Film Market (AFM), among other places.
Since co-founding Smarthouse, Ryan has worked on the promotional campaigns for award-winning documentaries, cross-cultural ballet companies, women-centric film festivals, freethinking comedy events, and blood-spattered thrillers. Ryan loves working on movies and projects that make the world a better place, either by bringing joy and entertainment to people's lives, or because they have a message of social justice and challenge viewers to think in new ways. Her favorite projects push the boundaries of art and filmmaking.
Shana Hagan
For over 25 years, Shana Hagan, ASC, has shot Oscar and Emmy-winning documentaries and television shows with such distinguished filmmakers as Michael Apted, Jay Duplass, Rory Kennedy, Jessica Yu and Paul Feig. She is a member of the ASC, the DGA, AMPAS, BAFTA, the ICG, ATAS and the IDA.She was also recently elected Governor of the Cinematographers Peer Group of the TV Academy.
Shana’s documentary credits include the Academy Award-winning “Breathing Lessons”, Academy Award-nominated “Walk Run Cha-Cha” and 22 Sundance Film Festival selections including “Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore”, “Generation Wealth”, “Queen of Versailles”, “Taylor Swift: Miss Americana” and “Shakespeare Behind Bars”.
Shana won an Emmy for her work on “Little Richard: I Am Everything” and was nominated for an Emmy for her work on “Survivor: China”. Shana’s scripted work includes all three seasons of the critically acclaimed, Peabody Award-winning series “Somebody Somewhere” for HBO and two seasons of Fox’s half hour docu-comedy “Welcome to Flatch”.
Jon Kasbe
Jon Kasbe is an Emmy Award-winning Australian-Indian filmmaker. Most recently he directed, executive produced, and shot THE DEEP END, a FreeForm / Hulu four-part docu-series exploring one of today’s most controversial spiritual teachers and her dedicated followers. Filmed over three years, it is an up-close portrayal of the incredible lengths people will go to in their search for connection.
He also recently directed (alongside Crystal Moselle), produced, shot, and edited SOPHIA, a Showtime feature documentary following the story of a relentless inventor fighting to bring consciousness to the world’s most recognized humanoid robot. The film premiered in competition at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival.
His debut feature, WHEN LAMBS BECOME LIONS, received the 2017 Sundance Documentary Fund, won Best Editing at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival, and was nominated for two 2019 IDA Awards in Best Cinematography and Best Editing. The film was released theatrically by Oscilloscope Laboratories and is now available on Netflix Africa and VOD worldwide.
Liz Perlman
Liz Perlman is a filmmaker, editor, story producer, and photographer with over 10 years of experience working in the creative industry. They have edited both narrative and feature documentaries, commercials, and short films, which have screened at festivals worldwide. Their work includes the critically acclaimed and Emmy nominated Southwest of Salem (Tribeca Film Festival World Premiere), a feature documentary about four Latina lesbians wrongfully convicted of gang-raping two little girls in San Antonio. Most recently they edited Shoulders Deep, a short experimental dance film about Hurricane Harvey and the effects of environmental racism, which won best film at Dallas VideoFest. Other credits include working as an assistant editor and primary archival researcher for Paramount Network's Revelations of Waco, a six-part documentary series in support of Paramount's scripted drama Waco. They also served as a co-editor + associate producer for Above All Else, about the Keystone XL pipeline, which premiered at SXSW. They are currently based in Seattle and have also edited corporate and branded content for companies such as Microsoft, Amazon, Starbucks and National Geographic.
Rocky Collins
Rocky has credits on over 300 hours of film and television, including Oscar®-winner SUMMER OF SOUL, and the Oscar®-nominated shorts LEAD ME HOME and HUNGER WARD. Other recent award-winning feature documentaries include MASTER OF LIGHT, THE REASON I JUMP, OLIVER SACKS: HIS OWN LIFE, THE COLD BLUE, and GHOST FLEET. Rocky has held executive positions at Red Bull Studios, Vulcan Productions, and The Science Channel, and he has been a principal in two independent production companies. He has worked as executive producer, producer, writer, director, and editor of fiction and non-fiction films covering a wide variety of topics for virtually every broadcaster. Projects to which he contributed have won numerous Emmys, Peabodys, Writers Guild Awards, and prizes at major festivals.
Gilda Sheppard
Gilda Sheppard is an award-winning filmmaker who has screened her documentaries throughout the United States, and internationally in Ghana, South Africa, at the Festival Afrique Cannes Film Festival, Germany at the International Black Film Festival in Berlin, and in Canada and British Columbia. Sheppard is a 2017 Hedgebrook Fellow for documentary film, a 2019 recipient of an Artist Trust Fellowship and 2023 Best Director for Documentary at the New York Independent Film Festival.
Sheppard is attracted to the power of film as a tool for human interaction, healing and justice to promote dialogue and action across significant differences. Her work explores oppression, and activism particularly in relationships to power, and the triumph of the human spirit to inspire imagination and creativity.
Her documentaries include stories of resilience of Liberian women and children refugees in Ghana; three generations of Black families in an urban neighborhood; and a film ethnography of stories from folklore started by Zora Neale Hurston in Alabama's AfricaTown and the award winning documentary Since I Been Down.
For over a decade, Sheppard has taught sociology classes in Washington State prisons and is a co-founder and faculty for Freedom Education Project Puget Sound (FEPPS) an organization offering college credit courses at Washington Corrections Center for Women. Gilda is faculty emerita in sociology, cultural and media studies at The Evergreen State College Tacoma Campus in Washington State.
Jared McGilliard
Jared McGilliard is a documentary filmmaker and television producer/director whose work explores the edges of human endurance and extraordinary stories from around the world. A partner at Nomadica Films, Jared has helped shape award-winning documentary series and specials streaming on platforms including Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, National Geographic, Animal Planet, and Discovery. His most recent work includes directing the 2025 Netflix documentary series Gold & Greed: The Hunt for Fenn's Treasure.
Jared’s filmmaking journey began as a deliberate departure from the predictable, driven by a thirst for adventure and transformation. From Himalayan expeditions to underground fight clubs, his path has led him to the frontlines of war and the ice roads of the Arctic. Along the way, two elements have remained constant: extraordinary people and powerful stories.
His credits include National Geographic’s Inside Combat Rescue (2013), the long-distance ocean challenge The Swim (2018, 2021), and an evolving body of work that seeks not only to inform but to challenge beliefs and expand perspectives. Through each project, Jared returns home with a deeper understanding of the world—and often, a bigger beard.
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Gold and Greed: The Hunt for Fenn’s Treasure
Carole Tomko
Carole Tomko is a recognized global media executive who has been managing portfolios of businesses and producing award winning content for years. As a mission-driven leader, she has launched and led networks, studios, philanthropic and content ventures. She has extensive experience working with distributors and platforms, creative content providers, internal and external stakeholders, boards, committees, funders, policy leaders, and NGOs.
Tomko launched Peanut Productions to provide strategic counsel to organizations producing content and social impact entertainment to advance their mission. Working at the intersection of philanthropy, technology, and storytelling, she helps organizations articulate and execute on short and long-range business plans. She serves as executive producer on premium series and feature documentaries with the goal of driving awareness and impact around critical issues.
She held executive leadership positions at Vulcan and as General Manager and Creative Director of Vulcan Productions, she strategically shaped and developed projects across genres and platforms, increasing volume, scope, and impact of documentaries, series, digital content, campaigns, and scripted programming. The body of work under her Vulcan tenure represents a wide range of substantive projects that have won over 200 industry awards at prestigious film festivals including Tribeca, Sundance and received Oscar nominations and an Emmy for Body Team 12.
Tomko’s experience as President and General Manager of several networks at Discovery Communications helped to rebrand Discovery Health, FitTV, Discovery Kids, and launch Discovery Studios and MyDiscovery. She led Discovery Studios divisions, Production and Development, Casting, Discovery Pictures, Footage & Music services, and Branded Entertainment. During her leadership, she established the west coast production facility and Discovery Studios became the largest domestic producer for DCI. She served on the executive committee of the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival, lead the nominations committee, and was a board member of the King Country Sexual Assault Resource Center (KCSARC). She is currently co-chair of the Nominations and Governance Committee at Cascade PBS.
Stan Shields
Stan Shields has been programming for the Seattle International Film Festival for nearly 20 years, in a variety of capacities. Starting as a programming assistant in 2006, Stan worked his way up. He became SIFF’s Festival Programming Manager in 2017 and, in 2024, took on the new title of Associate Director of Festival Programming.
Outside of his work for SIFF, he has served as the operations manager for Intiman Theatre, curated for the Bumbershoot Arts Festival and On the Boards. He also taught at Cornish College of the Arts, and currently serves as Artistic Director for The 14/48 Projects (Seattle’s 2008 Mayor’s Arts Award winner).