Level Forward is an ecosystem of storytellers, entrepreneurs, and social change-makers balancing artistic vision, social impact, and stakeholder return. We work on project and industry levels to expand the access and opportunity of creative excellence in pursuit of equity and economic transformation, by developing, producing, financing, and distributing entertainment for screen and stage. Films include Body Parts, The Year Between, The Big Payback, The Assistant, Holler, Rebel Hearts, Topside, You Resemble Me; and on stage, the Tony-nominated POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive, What the Constitution Means to Me, Tony-winner Oklahoma!, the most Tony-nominated play in history Slave Play, and the most Tony nominated musical of 2020-2021 Jagged Little Pill. Learn more about Level Forward and their projects at www.levelforward.co and www.moretotalkabout.com.

Liz Kaar worked at Kartemquin Films for over a decade. Projects she edited have been honored with Academy Award shortlist, Emmy nominations, IDA awards, and the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Journalism Award. She recently edited The Dilemma of Desire (2021, SXSW) and co-directed/edited Hard Earned, a six-part television series for Al Jazeera America.

Anne Alvergue is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and editor in the greater New York area. Her editing credits include Love, Gilda and Bully. Coward. Victim: The Story of Roy Cohn, nominated for Outstanding Editing by Cinema Eye Honors. Her short films have screened at film festivals and galleries worldwide, including most recently The Martha Mitchell Effect, screening at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival.

Two time Emmy and Ivor Novello nominee and RTS award winning composer, Nainita Desai, is the World Soundtrack Awards 2021 winner for Discovery of the Year. Amongst various BAFTA, Oscar and Emmy acclaimed productions, Nainita’s recent projects include the hit Netflix documentary 14 Peaks executive produced by Oscar winner Jimmy Chinn for which her score earned an Emmy, HMMA and ASCAP Composer Choice nominations, Oscar 2020 nominated and BAFTA & Cannes winning feature doc For Sama, and Sundance and multi-award winning feature The Reason I Jump for which her score was nominated for an Emmy, BIFA and Cinema Eye Honors Awards.

Mindbomb Films is made up of artist and designers Chris Kirk and Syd Garon. They creative direct a group of talented animators and artists. Together, Chris and Syd have worked on documentaries, commercials, feature films, TV, and art installations. Past and present clients include Sony, Pepsi, Apple, Google, and PBS. With their graphics and design based approach they have worked regularly with artists such as Shepard Fairey, Marcel Dzama, Sage Vaughn and many more. Their documentary projects include: The Defiant Ones, The Way Down, Jodorowsky’s Dune, Blackfish, Wiener, Red Army, Belly of the Beast, Console Wars, Saving Capitalism, Heaven’s Gate: The Cult of Cults, Bathtubs Over Broadway, MLK/FBI, Cocaine Cowboys: The Kings of Miami, and A Glitch in the Matrix.

Kelly Gallagher is a filmmaker, animator, and Associate Professor of Film at Syracuse University. Her award-winning films and commissioned animations have screened internationally at venues including: Netflix, PBS, Sundance Film Festival (2019, Words from a Bear), SXSW (2018, Special Jury Prize winner Garry Winogrand: All Things Are Photographable), the Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery of Art, the Smithsonian Institution, Anthology Film Archives, and International Film Festival Rotterdam. She has presented solo programs of her work at institutions including: SFMOMA, Close-Up Cinema London, SF Cinematheque, and Wexner Center for the Arts.

Ruth Ann Harnisch is a philanthropist and activist who has supported over 100 independent feature films including Academy Award winner Icarus, Unrest (Oscar short list), On the Record, The Hunting Ground, Won’t You Be My Neighbor (top grossing bio doc of all time), Trapped, Hot Girls Wanted, Audrie & Daisy, The Eagle Huntress, Roll Red Roll in addition to other films by, for, and about women. Ruth Ann is the founder and president of The Harnisch Foundation, which has over 20 years of experience working to create a fair, equitable and inclusive world by investing in effective leaders and creative communities.

Daniel J. Chalfen is a Peabody and DuPont-winning and multiple-Emmy nominated film and television producer and a co-founder of Naked Edge Films. His films have premiered at the world’s foremost film festivals, including Berlin, Sundance, SXSW, Toronto, and Tribeca, have been released theatrically by companies including Samuel Goldwyn Films, Participant Media, Kino Lorber, and Focus Features, and have played globally including in the US on Amazon, DirecTV, Discovery, HBO, Hulu, Netflix, Showtime, and PBS. Chalfen’s recent films include Loudmouth (Closing Night Film, Tribeca Festival 2022, executive produced by John Legend); Captains of Zaatari (Sundance 2021, Hulu); the Netflix Original Pray Away (executive produced by Jason Blum & Ryan Murphy); the 2019 Sundance award winners The Infiltrators and Always in Season; United Skates (executive produced by John Legend); Bathtubs Over Broadway (executive produced by Jason Blum & David Letterman); the GLAAD-award winner Call Her Ganda; The Feeling of Being Watched, Southwest of Salem, and Silenced (executive produced by Susan Sarandon). Chalfen is a Documentary Branch member of AMPAS and a voting member of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA).

The deNovo Initiative is a private foundation dedicated to supporting storytellers creating content and to ensure their perspectives are widely seen and heard, giving their stories the opportunity to educate, engage, and empower audiences. Recent films supported include Reid Davenport’s I Didn’t See You There, Debra Souza Silva’s Black Mothers, David Siev’s Bad Axe, and Kristy Guevara-Flanagan’s Body Parts.