BIO:
Adrian is a Seattle-based filmmaker, community organizer, and film scholar. He is currently pursuing his graduate studies at UW’s Jackson School of International Studies, focusing on Southeast Asian Cinema. He also helps organize the Seattle Asian American Film Festival and the Diwa Filipino Film Festival of Seattle. His films have been shown at various film festivals in Manila, Iloilo, Honolulu, Tijuana, Seattle, San Francisco, Eugene, Chicago, Philadelphia and New York.

BIO:
Allison Morton is a poet, visual artist and filmmaker originally from Apollo Beach, FL. She received her BFA in Filmmaking from Ringling College of Art and Design and her MFA in Creative Writing and Poetics from the University of Washington, Bothell. She most frequently lives in outer space between poetry and painting. And Seattle. Her work can be found on the cover of the current issue of Poetry Northwest, and in Peach Magazine, The Sonder Review, and others.

BIOS:

Amaranth Borsuk is a poet, scholar, and book artist whose work encompasses print and digital media, performance and installation. Her books of poetry include Pomegranate Eater (Kore Press, 2016); Between Page and Screen (SpringGun Press, 2016), a book of augmented-reality poems created with Brad Bouse; As We Know (Subito, 2014), an erasure collaboration with Andy Fitch; and Handiwork (Slope Editions, 2012). Her intermedia project Abra (1913 Press, 2016), created with Kate Durbin and Ian Hatcher, received an NEA-sponsored Expanded Artists’ Books grant from the Center for Book and Paper Arts and was issued in 2015 as a limited edition hand-made book and free iPad / iPhone app. This spring, The MIT Press will publish her volume The Book, an examination of the technology we think we know intimately that considers it as object, content, idea, and interface. Amaranth is currently an Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington, Bothell, where she recently became Associate Director of the MFA in Creative Writing and Poetics.

Andy Fitch’s most recent books are Sixty Morning Talks, Sixty Morning Walks, and (with Amaranth Borsuk) As We Know. With Cristiana Baik, he recently assembled the Letter Machine Book of Interviews. He has a weekly conversation column for the Los Angeles Review of Books, and dialogic books forthcoming from 1913 Press and Nightboat Books. He edits Essay Press, and teaches in the University of Wyoming’s MFA program.

CREDITS:
Directed by April Larson, edited and written by Joseph Assi, starring Justin Henry

BIO:
Living and working all over the globe, from LA to Lebanon, has widened our lens and has helped share stories through film on issues that address social justice. We are international, award winning, versatile, creative problem solvers that work like John Henry, and adapt like animals from the Galapagos Islands. We are the disciples of Stewart Stern, Monte Hellman and Tom Skerritt.

We are proud and excited to be a part of Seattle’s Heyou Media’s core creative team, we have been collaborating with Skerritt since the inception of the company.

BIO:
Barrett White is a writer, editor, and artist. Since 2014, he has edited Tagvverk, a journal of digital literature. He previously served as Exhibition Coordinator for INCA (Institute for New Connotative Action) Seattle, and has worked variously for art and cultural institutions in the Pacific Northwest, including the Henry Art Gallery, Wave Books, Corridor Festival, and Red May. He received his MFA from Bard College, Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts. Recent writing has been published in or is forthcoming from Hysterically Real, Gauss PDF, Emergency Index, Fanzine, Document, and elsewhere. His visual art has been exhibited most recently in Helsinki, FI; Dordrecht, NL; and Los Angeles, CA. barrettwhite.info

BIOS:
Ben-Alex Dupris is an enrolled member of the Colville Confederated Tribes. He was a 2017 Sundance Institute producers fellow, and spent several months on the ground during the occupation at Standing Rock, North Dakota. During this time, he worked with The Redford Center, Ford Foundation, Bertha Docs, Sundance Institute, and the Executive Alliance of Boys and Men of Color to bring the social justice issues of Native American people to the forefront. He has also worked for VICE, Disney, and HBO.

Alex Goetz is a two-time Emmy nominated documentary filmmaker and photographer, who has been recognized by Nat Geo Wild as winner of the 2016 “Wild to Inspire” film competition at Sun Valley Film Festival, and a 2017 TEDx presenter. An Ohio native whose extensive travels have taken him from the countryside of Tasmania, to Alaska, the vibrant islands of the Caribbean, and road-tripping around four amazing African countries. documenting wildlife. Alex has worked with Nat Geo Wild, Kodak, the National Park Service, and PBS.

CREDITS: written by Brandon Jordan Brown & directed by Dru Korab

BIOS:
Brandon Jordan Brown is a 2014 PEN America Emerging Voices Fellow, winner of the 2016 Orison Anthology Poetry Prize, a scholarship recipient from The Sun, and a former PEN in the Community poetry instructor. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Grist; Winter Tangerine Review; Tinderbox Poetry Journal; Forklift, Ohio; Birmingham Poetry Review; Radar Poetry and elsewhere. Born in Birmingham, Alabama, he currently lives in Portland, Oregon.

Dru Korab is an award-winning director, editor, and producer hailing from the Middle West. After working with national brands in the worlds of culinary, sports, and educational television, he began delving into more narrative, comedic, and personal-themed storytelling through his production company, WG Visual. Dru continues to produce original and branded content for both Fortune 1000 companies and startups alike. You can find his work on the TV, the Internet, and places in between.

CREDITS: Haus des Rodriguez

BIO:
Catalina Rodriguez is an award-winning cinematographer who brings together her many mediums of art to create poetic-driven, cinematic imagery to the screen. Her work consistently seeks to implement the beauty of this world while exploring human interaction and their relationships to the world around them. Influenced heavily by a cross-cultural upbringing, Catalina’s unique work is derived from personal experiences, adventures and memories of the multitude of countries and cultures she grew up in.

Beginning her career as a photographer in Kiev, Ukraine, Catalina worked as a freelance fashion and portrait photographer. She has been published in magazines for her photography in both Ukraine and the United States. Through the practice of meditation she began painting in 2015. She is a strong believer in meditation and completes all paintings in a meditative stage. She has found it allowed her to access a deeper level of her creative self and a more in-depth personal understanding of art. She has been featured in international art exhibitions in London, Ukraine, Spain, and Canada. Within the United States she has been exhibited in Los Angeles, Detroit and Seattle.

It is with this artistic background that Catalina brings together her many talents together to focus on film cinematography. Her passion for this work is evident as she continually breaks ground with her thought-provoking, paradoxical and experiential work. Her work has played in big film festivals including Twist Seattle Queer Film Festival, ChellaVision Magazine Film Festival, and the Canada Short Film Festival. Catalina hopes to influence others to follow their dreams and create positive change in the world. She is passionate about her work and wants people to feel and see the beauty and the sentimental moments of small and daily adventures.

CREDITS:
Director/Producer: Fiona Tinwei Lam
Animators: Toni Zhang and Claire Stewart
Sound Design: Tinjun Niu
Poet/narrator: Fiona Tinwei Lam

BIOS:
Fiona Tinwei Lam has authored two poetry books, Intimate Distances and Enter the Chrysanthemum and the children’s book, The Rainbow Rocket. Her poetry and prose appear in over 30 anthologies, including The Best Canadian Poetry in English 2010. She co-edited the non-fiction anthology, Double Lives: Writing and Motherhood, and edited The Bright Well: Contemporary Canadian Poetry about Facing Cancer. Her video poems have been screened locally and internationally. She currently teaches creative writing at Simon Fraser University Continuing Studies in Vancouver, BC, Canada. www.fionalam.net

Toni Zhang graduated with a Bachelor of Media Arts from Emily Carr University’s animation program and attended a semester abroad at the University College of Falmouth. She has worked as an animator, asset artist, flash revisionist, and freelance illustrator in Vancouver (at Point Blank Creative, Atomic Cartoons for its “Rocket Monkeys”, “Martha Speaks”, and “John Test” series, Artie Time Productions Ltd. and Studio Voltz). Her work has been screened at the Toronto International Asian Film Festival, the Vancouver Asian Film Festival, the Canadian Student Film Festival, the Auburn International Film Festival, and Sprockets Toronto International Film Festival for Children and Youth. http://zedlastportfolio.tumblr.com/

Claire Stewart is a Scottish animator and illustrator who attended Emily Carr University’s animation program. http://worldspoorlyimagined.blogspot.com/

Tinjun Niu is a freelance sound designer who graduated from Vancouver Film School with a diploma in Sound Design for Visual Media who is currently employed at UBC. He has worked on short films, PSA’s, YouTube commercials, and mobile games. https://vimeo.com/99003146

BIO:
Jack Chelgren is writer from Seattle currently living in western Massachusetts. His work has appeared in Poetry Northwest, The Rumpus, The Seattle Review of Books, Fog Machine, SPAM, and Real Change. He’s currently an assistant editor at Slope Editions and an MFA Candidate at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

CREDITS:
Starring Umberto Lenzi
Written and Directed by Jay Kim

ARTIST STATEMENT
An escape from the mundane rhythm of everyday life into one of Seattle’s local spots, the UPS Waterfall Garden Park.

Joe Nasta is a writer and mariner who splits his time between Seattle, New York, and the ocean. His work has been been featured or is forthcoming in Brooklyn Poets The Bridge, Running Wild Press Anthology of Stories, and Yes Poetry. He edits a digital zine of PNW art and writing at stonepacificzine.com and his own zines at issuu.com/joenasta.

CREDITS:
Kamari Bright (Writer, Director, Producer, Actor, Narrator); Amina Maya (Videographer); Nyakuiy P. (Actor); Jacintha G. (Actor); David R. (Actor); Tarik A. (Actor); Barry J. (Actor)

BIO:
Kamari Bright is a St. Louis-born creative whose work focuses on introspection and understanding, from a personal and societal standpoint. She has created three short films, and is currently working on a new project titled “Respek”.

ARTIST STATEMENT:
I wanted to highlight the hidden nobility of the persecuted parts of Black culture by showcasing the “tall tee”, or oversized T-shirt, that was very common in a certain era of Black street fashion. The shirts collectively read “THEY DON’T KNOW”, a reference to lyrics by rapper DMX that was held through all iterations of the “Royaltee” project. The one-minute film was paired with poetry to shed light on the people behind the fabric.

BIOS:
Karen Perry was a poet, photographer, and filmmaker. She organized the San Carlos Poetry Reading on Bainbridge Island for more than 2 decades and served as the literary editor for Exhibition, Bainbridge Island’s Journal of Visual and Literary Arts. Her poetry was seen on busses in Seattle, in the ferry walkway, in the Poetry Corners exhibition, and were published posthumously in Swimming to the Edges, 2012. Her films have appeared in festivals from New York City to Brussels to Port Townsend.

John F. Williams is a filmmaker who specialized in underwater video since the turn of the century, but has recently turned his camera to terrestrial subjects, such as our iconic PNW forests, and of course trilliums. From 2006 to 2010 he produced the TV series SEA-Inside: Pacific Northwest which aired on over 60 community stations around the country. His films have appeared in a number of West Coast film festivals and at science conferences. He is now developing a transmedia periodical about natural wonders around Puget Sound.

BIOS:
Nikkia Atkinson is an award-winning filmmaker with a background in screenwriting, theatre and poetry. Nikkia has worked on screenplays for episodic competitions such as Sundance. She has participated in film festivals all over the east coast and has had a script chosen for the Northwest Screenwriters Guild Showcase in Seattle. Currently, Nikkia is writing several independent short films and a web-based mini series. Moreover, she will be directing a film she wrote titled “Sincerely, Token” which is a social justice narrative piece following a young black girl from a predominantly white high school career as she enrolls in a historically black university. You can learn more about Nikkia from various interviews that are available online including thd University of Washington Tacoma homepage and The Tacoma Ledger.

Long Tran is an award-winning filmmaker with a background in documentary work. His social justice oriented films have screened in every major city in the United States and recently had screenings in the United Kingdom. Long has worked on television shows and major movies that have filmed in the Pacific Northwest. Currently, Long is producing several independent short films and web-based projects. Moreover, he is editing a film he directed called “Jap” which is an avant-garde, fictional reexamination of Executive Order 9066 while preparing for his feature, directorial debut on an unnamed film that takes place after a hypothetical nuclear conflict. You could learn more about Long from various interviews that are available online including NBC News, University of Washington Tacoma, Renton Reporter, The Tacoma Ledger, and NW Asian Weekly.

BIOS:
Nikkita Oliver is a Seattle-based writer, teaching artist, attorney, and organizer. Her writing has been published in the South Seattle Emerald, Crosscut, the Establishment, Last Real Indians, The Seattle Weekly, and the Stranger. Oliver holds a J.D. and Masters of Education from the University of Washington. She is also the case manager for Creative Justice, an arts-based alternative to incarceration, and has worked for arts organizations such as Writers in the Schools and Arts Corp.

Nikkita is one of the Seattle Met’s 2018 50 Most Influential Women in Seattle, and the recipient of the 2018 UW Women’s Center Woman of Courage Award, 2018 UW Evans School of Public Policy NOW (Network of Womxn) Award, 2017 City Arts Artists of the Year, Gender Justice Power Award (2017), Seattle King County NAACP President’s Leadership Award (2017), Columbia Legal Services Imagine Justice Visionary of the Year (2017), the University of Washington Women’s Law Caucus Outstanding Achievement as a Young Lawyer Award (2017), the Seattle Office of Civil Rights Artist Human Rights Leader Award (2015), and the 2014 Seattle Poetry Slam Grand Champion. She has opened for Cornel West and Chuck D of Public Enemy and performed on The Late Night Show with Stephen Colbert. She is also the first political candidate of the Seattle Peoples Party; running for Mayor of Seattle in 2017 where she finished in 3rd (of 21 of candidates).

Bryan is an Emmy-nominated documentary filmmaker based in Seattle. His first feature-length documentary film, Closure (2014), secured national cable broadcast distribution, and digital distribution on Netflix, Hulu and Amazon VOD. Bryan works with a variety of freelance clients in the Pacific Northwest and beyond, and seeks out projects that elevates marginalized voices and address social justice issues.

BIO:
Nisha Burton is a creative filmmaker who uses her degree in Digital Arts and Film to incorporate an element of magic into all of her projects. With a skilled cinematic eye she is able to blend animation, digital effects, and cinematography.

ARTIST STATEMENT:
“Learning How to Fly” was constructed from a series of poems that Nisha wrote during Naropa University’s Summer writing intensive. After combining these poems she felt deeply inspired to share her story not only through the written word but also visually. In a sense we are all learning how to fly through our creative expression, and remembering who we truly are.

BIO:
Peter Berkley is a multimedia visual artist and poet whose work has been published and produced in the forms of video art, poetry, music videos, album covers, graphic art, and paintings.

BIO + ARTIST STATEMENT:
Rebecca Starkey is a Seattle based filmmaker and video editor at Cut.com. She recently graduated from Central Washington University’s film program, where in her senior year, she received the Entre Rios Book’s Emerging Filmmaker Award. This led to the creation of this film to accompany the book of poetry, Alchemy for Cells & Other Beasts. Keeping with the poetry’s themes of women’s health, Rebecca’s mother, Sandy, acts as the model in the film as she herself has struggled with chronic illness (and also loves her daughter enough to lay still for hours on end.) The film was shot using stop motion animation in order to bridge the gap between the book’s artwork, poetry, and reality.

BIO:
Sarah Baker is a writer, designer and editor living in Seattle. She has an MFA in Creative Writing & Poetics from the University of Washington Bothell. She is an editor at Letter [r] Press and was a co-director for APRIL, Seattle’s (discontinued) annual festival of small and independent publishing. She is currently a lecturer in creative writing for undergraduates at UW Bothell.

BIOS:
Shin Yu Pai is a poet, cross-media artist, and curator for the collaborative global exploration project Atlas Obscura. Her poetic origins inform an artistic style that has grown beyond the written word—manifesting in photography, installation and public art, cross-disciplinary collaborations, and sound. She recently completed a two-year term as the fourth poet laureate of the City of Redmond.

Michael Barakat is a designer, front end developer, photographer, video artist, and shoemaker. He got his start with film working on a college sports television show where he eventually worked his way up to assistant producer head editor. From there he transitioned into the art department on a few feature films – building, decorating and dressing sets, and managing and making props. His love of technology brought him back to the editing room where he learned more about leveraging motion graphics and animation. These core skills became mainstays in his day to day life as a designer and artist as he began using them to communicate the complex ideas in the tech industry. In our modern and often ambiguous professional world this chameleonic approach to design, art and development has kept him and his clients well afloat.

CREDITS:
Poem Text & Reading: Sierra Nelson
Scenario & Costume: Rachel Kessler and Sierra Nelson
Camera & Edit: Britta Johnson
Performers: Sierra Nelson, Rachel Kessler, Eric J. Olson, Anne Bradfield, Ruby Kessler Seiwerath, Michael Seiwerath, and Alden Miller
Poem Recorded at: Jack Straw Cultural Center
Sound Engineer: Daniel Guenther
Made possible with the support of: National Endowment for the Arts, Jack Straw Cultural Center, and Poetry Northwest

ARTIST STATEMENT:
Commissioned by Poetry Northwest and using Sierra Nelson’s original poem “Four Imagined Movies” as the inspirational catalyst and script, this poem-film was conceived collaboratively between poet and performance/installation artist Sierra Nelson; filmmaker, animator, and installation artist Britta Johnson; and writer, comix maker, and performance/installation artist Rachel Kessler, and shot in one day in Seattle.

MOVIE DESCRIPTION: A short poem-film moves lyrically through four seasons — from spring’s potentially corny exuberance to winter’s desire to relive what we felt before — with an id-like wandering uterus, longing to connect.

CREDITS:
Troy Osaki + Quinn Russell Brown

BIO:
Troy Osaki is a Filipino Japanese American writer, performer, and teaching artist from Seattle, WA. He has received a fellowship from Kundiman and is a Youth Speaks Seattle alum and mentor. His work has been featured by platforms such as Buzzfeed, the Seattle International Film Festival, and online literary journals. He’s a three-time Seattle Grand Slam Champion, a grassroots organizer with Anakbayan Seattle, and a graduate of the Seattle University School of Law. Troy writes in hopes to build a safe and just place to live in by uniting the people and reimagining the world through poetry.

BIOS:
Anisa Jackson (b. 1995) is an artist, writer, and organizer based in Seattle. With a background in geography, Anisa’s research-based practice draws on care ethics and black feminist thought. Their work has appeared as installation, moving image, and as print and digital text.

Victoria Harrell is a Cuban-American writer and musician, and uses both mediums to explore the intersections of mixed identities. As a long-time social media coordinator for KEXP’s latinx-focused show El Sonido, Victoria is deeply invested in the cultural significance music holds in the latinx community.

BIO:
William Myers is a DJ, creative producer/audio editor and writer for Seattle-based radio station KEXP 90.3fm. He’s the producer and host of KEXP’s modern Latin mixshow “El Sonido” and is also a club DJ with the Seattle Latin/global bass crew ¡Manos Arriba! and an avid soul and funk vinyl collector and Polaroid photographer. Aside from passionately discovering and sharing music from Latin America and Spain, he’s also a huge hip-hop fan, and classic funk and soul vinyl collector.