Hot Docs

Director/producer/cinematographer David Wilson is a graduate of Hampshire College in Massachusetts. Wilson’s short documentary, Big Birding Day had its world premiere at the 2010 SXSW Film Festival, went on to screen at Silverdocs and Sheffield Doc/Fest and aired nationally on PBS’ P.O.V. In 2010, Wilson was named on Filmmaker Magazine’s list of “25 New Faces of Independent Film.” He previously directed several short films about subcultures and small towns in the American Midwest. He was a photographer on Convention (2009). We Always Lie To Strangers, Wilson’s first feature, had its world premiere at the 2013 SXSW Film Festival, where Wilson and A.J. Schnack won the directing prize.

Together with Paul Sturtz, Wilson founded the Ragtag Film Society in 1998, the Ragtag Cinema in 2000, and the True/False Film Festival in 2004. Since then, True/False has become one of the most important documentary film festivals in the world, drawing international filmmakers and film fans to Columbia.

Along with running True/False, Wilson became a programming associate for the Sundance Film Festival in 2008. As director of True/False, David has been invited to be a panelist at the Sundance Film Festival and the IFP Markets in New York and Chicago to discuss film festival strategy, as well as serving as a consultant for the Creative Capital Foundation, the LEF Moving Image Fund and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Katherine Fairfax Wright graduated from Columbia University with a double major in Film Studies and Anthopology. She produced Gabi On The Roof In July, which premiered at Cinequest 2010, and won Best Narrative Feature and Best Actress at the Brooklyn Film Festival. Weaned on a school of vérité filmmakers, Wright has worked closely with Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt, Nelson Walker III, and Fellipe Barbosa. She associate-produced Perlmutt and Walker’s award-winning documentary Lumo, which aired on P.O.V. and won the 2007 Student Academy Award, as well as Perlmutt’s Les Vulnerables, the closing short at the New York Film Festival 2007. Wright has worked in a producing role on several other films and she is an award-winning photographer. She is a Chaz & Roger Ebert Directing Fellow, and an alumnus of the Film Independent Documentary Lab and the Garrett Scott Documentary Development Grant at Full Frame Documentary Film Festival.

Jason attended CalArts for his undergraduate degree where he directed “Thompson”, his first short documentary. The film won the Jury Award at SXSW 2009 and went on to play Sundance and a handful of other festivals. ONLY THE YOUNG is his first feature film.

Malika Zouhali-Worrall’s work as a print and video journalist has been published in The Financial Times and at CNN.com. She has reported for CNN.com from India, Uganda, China and the U.S. on politics, technology and LGBT rights. Zouhali-Worrall is a graduate of Cambridge University and holds an MA in International Affairs from the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po). She is also a Chaz & Roger Ebert Directing Fellow, and an alumnus of the Film Independent Documentary Lab and the Garrett Scott Documentary Development Grant at Full Frame Documentary Film Festival.

Elizabeth grew up in Austin, Texas and graduated from CalArts in 2010. She produced “Thompson” and also directed a short, “Weathered”, that played SXSW. Not to brag but she was also homecoming princess at Austin High School.