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Becky Bruhn is a Seattleite, born and raised. She graduated from Queen Anne High School, has a BA in Economics from Western Washington University, and an MBA from Seattle University. After a short career in banking, she became a writer, co-founded a small theater, co-founded and ran a playwrights’ support organization, and has been a non-profit fundraiser for a genetics research institute for 13 years. She has been a playwright at 14/48 Theater Festival many times, has read her work on stage at Annex Theater’s Spin-the-Bottle and other venues, was on the board of Rain City Projects for seven years, is a volunteer cat foster parent through Seattle Animal Shelter, and won the blue ribbon at the 2021 Washington State Fair sourdough bread competition. In 2021, she began a video series called A Year of Baking Dangerously and a YouTube channel where she continues to explore the power of video storytelling.

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Matthew Dresden is an entertainment attorney based in Seattle. He provides finance, development, production, and distribution legal services for filmmakers and other creative artists, and has worked on behalf of film studios, cable channels, production companies, video game developers, magazines, restaurants, wineries, international design firms, product manufacturers, outsourcing companies, and computer hardware and software companies. He also advises a wide range of businesses on their corporate and transactional matters, with an emphasis on media and entertainment, international intellectual property, and cross-border work. Matthew is widely viewed as an expert in Chinese intellectual property law, and is regularly quoted in publications from the New York Times to The Economist to Variety.

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Mujale has a background in graphic design, videography, photography, and publishing arts. Combined with 12 years of experience being a small business owner and 5+ years of teaching Art and Animation classes in the greater Seattle area. Being a visual artist/business owner/ teacher and having a desire for community building has given Mujale the opportunity to work with many organizations and community builders on various projects and services. He hopes to further develop his skill sets and inspire innovation and a creative way of thinking that positively impacts communities.⠀

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Owen Davies is a Seattle-based consultant with 20+ years of experience in documentary film, philanthropy, fundraising, and environmental advocacy. Owen’s work with the film community includes several years helping organize the world’s largest environmental film festival, and as a researcher for several award-winning documentary productions. His film & television credits include the 2017’s Get Me Roger Stone (Netflix Original),  Torturing Democracy (PBS, Winner of the 2009 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award), Academy Award-winner Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy’s 2007 short film Assimilation No, Integration Yes (Al Jazeera), Bill Moyers’s 2006 documentary Capitol Crimes (PBS), and the long-running PBS political commentary roundtable The McLaughlin Group.  Owen currently works with a team of consultants supporting philanthropic efforts to advance global climate solutions.  His interests include coffee, crosswords, and cat photography.

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John DeShazo is a woodworker, theatre and film technician, firefighter, and actor. He was the manager of the Little Theatre from 1999 to 2001 and joined the board of Film Forum in 2001. He has collaborated creatively on projects with Northwest Film Forum, Annex Theatre, Empty Space Theatre, Firehouse Theatre Project, Typing Explosion, The Film Company, Megan Murphy, Matt Wilkins, Web Crowell, Susannah Anderson, John Castro, Kyle Loven, Herbert Bergel, Harry Kollatz, Jr., Amie Oliver, Ampersand, Implied Violence, Michael Chick, John Kaufmann, SJ Chiro, Matt Smith, Paige Barnes, Allie Hankins, Mary Margaret Moore, Corrie Befort, Paul Budraitis, Carl Lawrence, and Saint Genet, among many others. He lives in Norfolk, CT, where he is Deputy Fire Marshal and is on the Board of Education and the Norfolk Volunteer Fire Department. He directs the theatre program at NW Regional 7 High School and is the Fire Marshal in Salisbury, CT.

pronouns: she/her/hers

Kathy Fennessy serves as Planned Giving Coordinator at Cascade PBS (formerly KCTS 9), where she has worked since 2009, primarily in the Philanthropy department. She grew up in Connecticut, California, and mostly, Alaska. She graduated with a degree in studio art from Whitman College, and has lived in Seattle since 1988.

Kathy is a former music director, disc jockey, and/or specialty host at KWHL in Anchorage, AK and KCMU (now KEXP) and KNDD in Seattle. She is a proud member of IBEW Local 46 and SAG-AFTRA, and provided voice work for Microsoft, a former employer, for nearly 10 years. She has also worked at Cellophane Square (R.I.P.), Nordstrom, and Amazon, and written about film and music for Minneapolis’s City Pages, Resonance, Seattle Sound, Tablet, and other long-extinct publications. She got her start in Seattle’s film community by volunteering for the Seattle International Film Festival and Northwest Film Forum, and is a longtime supporter of both organizations. She currently writes for Rock and Roll Globe, Video Librarian, and Seattle Film Blog. She is a Tomatometer-approved critic, and currently serves as President of the Seattle Film Critics Society.

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Larry Marshall is a Sales Manager for the Hampton Inn & Suites Seattle Downtown who has been in the Hospitality Industry for 15 years. Marshall has been happily married for almost 19 years, with three wonderful kids – two girls and one boy. He also serves on the Welcome Committee for the Seattle Chamber of Commerce. Over the years, he has worked with various hotel brands like Comfort Suites, Holiday Inn & Suites, Residence Inn, Doubletree, Hilton Garden Inn, and Hampton Inn & Suites. He has a deep love for hospitality and for movies, and aspires to learn the magic behind the making of movies, TV shows, and cartoons.

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Louise Maxwell has been working in nonprofit communications for 16 years. She works as Director of Communications at Pacific Northwest Research Institute and has held various communications roles at Seattle Children’s, including overseeing video production for nine years.

Previously, Louise was a Los Angeles-based actor working in local and regional theatre, primetime television, independent films, and radio drama.

She earned a Master of Communication in Digital Media at the University of Washington and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting at Boston University.

Louise was born and raised in New York City and New Jersey and has made Seattle home for 20+ years.  In her spare time, she enjoys reading, traveling, adapting stories for different mediums, performing in radio dramas, attending theatre, Flamenco, and museums, and relaxing with her husband and their two cats.

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Alan Pruzan has been creating entertainment professionally in one form or another since the 1980s, as an artist, activist, and media arts enabler. He has served as a consultant, investor, and executive producer on many feature films, including THIN SKIN, THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION OF LITTLE DIZZLE, FRANK VS GOD, and the documentary SWEETHEART DEAL. He was a founder and principal of Forrest-Pruzan Creative, a prolific board game invention and design studio in Seattle. His company created and licensed hundreds of game titles over the years, including several multi-million selling titles. He retired from the toy industry after selling his company in 2019. He has served on the board of Northwest Film Forum since 2000.

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Peter J. Vogt is an award-winning filmmaker with over 30 years experience in the film industry. His work has premiered at festivals such as Sundance, New York Film Festival, Seattle International Film Festival, and Bumbershoot, as well as art centers such as the Center On Contemporary Art. His work regularly runs on regional and local PBS, and his 2004 Up Thornton Creek aired nationally. Highlights include: Hype! which premiered at Sundance and achieved worldwide theatrical release; Nuts&Bolts, winner of a special jury prize at the 2000 Seattle Film Festival and shortlisted for the prestigious AFI’s digital film award. Peter is part owner of Optimistic Camera.