Sabrina Schmidt Gordon

Sabrina Schmidt Gordon is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and impact strategist from NYC. Since her Emmy-winning editing debut, Sabrina has distinguished herself as a leading voice in the field as a producer, editor and director. She is a Women at Sundance Career Fellow, recipient of the Dear Producer Award recognizing excellence in independent filmmaking, the Reel Sisters Trailblazer Award, and a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS).

Through her production company Vespertine Films Inc., her work continues to push creative boundaries, amplify marginalized voices, and illuminate issues that impact our global society. Sabrina is the producer of many critically-acclaimed films, including her latest, SEEDS, winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance this year. Other Sundance films include QUEST, TO THE END, the 2024 Emmy winner VICTIM/SUSPECT, and HIP-HOP: BEYOND BEATS AND RHYMES (producer & editor), which was one of MSNBC’s 10 Most Important Black Films of the Decade.

Sabrina’s feature directing debut, which she also co-produced and edited, is the Emmy-nominated BADDDDD SONIA SANCHEZ, winning her the ADIFF Best Director Award. Other credits include DOCUMENTED, which she also produced and edited, had record-breaking viewership on CNN; Peabody Award winner BELLY OF THE BEAST, CUSP, and BLACK GIRLS which premiered at Tribeca in 2024, nominated for the Social Impact Award.

Sabrina is an honors graduate from NYU, and a sought after speaker, consultant, mentor, film juror, and field builder, as president of Black Documentary Collective, founding member of Beyond Inclusion, and member of Brown Girls Doc Mafia.

Akunna Cook

Akunna Cook is an accomplished diplomat, strategist, and visionary creator and executive producer. In 2022, Akunna founded Next Narrative Africa, a media production company telling African stories for global impact. And in 2024, she launched the Next Narrative Africa Fund to finance the production of narrative shifting audio-visual content in Africa. Akunna served in the Biden-Harris Administration as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs. In that role, she oversaw the U.S. bilateral relationships with the countries of Southern Africa. Additionally, she led a global State Department team responsible for economic, multilateral engagement, and democracy and governance policy for sub-Saharan Africa. Earlier in her career, Akunna was the founding executive director of the Black Economic Alliance, a non-partisan organization focused on driving economic progress in the black community through policy development, advocacy, and supporting candidates for office. Akunna also practiced law at Covington & Burling LLP, where she advised a variety of clients on public policy and corporate governance.

Before practicing law, Ms. Cook served for almost ten years as a career diplomat with the State Department. Akunna is a graduate of the Yale Law School, the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and is a summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Howard University where she earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and business administration. Akunna is first and foremost a mom of two adult children. She is proud of her Abia State, Nigerian heritage and her Somerset, New Jersey roots.

Jacqueline Glover

Jacqueline Glover is currently executive director of the Black Film Project at Harvard. The newly created initiative by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. designed to support filmmakers focusing on the Black experience. Glover was formerly the Head of Documentaries for Disney’s Onyx Collective, where she produced, developed and acquired non-fiction projects, including the Oscar® winning documentary “Summer of Soul. Other projects included Peabody Award winner, and Emmy® Award nominated “Aftershock,” and Emmy® Award winner "The 1619 Project.” In addition to Onyx collective, Glover was also Head of ABC News Documentary Films and Executive Produced the duPont Award winner "Leave No Trace," Emmy® Award nominated "Sound of the Police,” "The Lady Bird Diaries,” and Emmy® Award nominated “Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields.” Previously, Glover was senior vice president, HBO Documentaries, and oversaw all aspects of the department’s programming. Projects included Emmy® Award winner and Peabody Award winner “True Justice, Emmy® Award winner “King in the Wilderness,” Oscar® winner “Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1,” and Spike Lee’s Oscar® nominated documentary "4 Little Girls,” and his Emmy® Award winning documentary “When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts.” Glover also produced “Unchained Memories: Readings From the Slave Narratives,” which received 4 Emmy® nominations. Glover’s projects have received numerous awards, including 10 Emmys® and 5 Academy Awards®. Glover holds a bachelor’s in fine arts from NYU Tisch School of the Arts and is a member of the documentary branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Producers Guild of America.