Director Jason DaSilva has been a prolific filmmaker for the past 10 years. He has directed four short films (OLIVIA’S PUZZLE, A SONG FOR DANIEL, TWINS OF MANKALA, and FIRST STEPS) and two feature-length documentary films (LEST WE FORGET and WHEN I WALK). Many of his films have won awards; OLIVIA’S PUZZLE premiered at the 2003 Sundance Festival and qualified for an Academy Award. Three of his films have had national broadcasts on PBS, HBO, and CBC. He also produced Shocking and Awful, a film installation on the anti-Iraq war movement, exhibited at the 2006 Whitney Biennial. Each one of these works advanced Jason’s objective to give voice to those on the periphery of society. In 2006 Jason took a short break from filmmaking to earn his MFA in Applied Media Arts from Emily Carr University.

He recently produced and directed an Op-Doc (opinion documentary) for the New York Times called ‘The Long Wait,’ published in January 2013. DaSilva’s latest film, WHEN I WALK, was an Official Selection of the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and won Best Canadian Feature at HotDocs 2013. Following the film’s theatrical release this fall, it will air on POV on PBS in 2014. He currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. For more information about Jason DaSilva, read his blog here.

Yael Melamede is a co-founder of SALTY Features – an independent production company based in NYC whose goal is to create media that is vital and enhances the world, like salt. Melamede’s producer credits include: the documentary film INOCENTE, directed by Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine; BRIEF INTERVIEWS WITH HIDEOUS MEN, written and directed by John Krasinski, based on the book by David Foster Wallace; THE INNER LIFE OF MARTIN FROST, written and directed by Paul Auster; and MY ARCHITECT, directed by Nathaniel Kahn and nominated for an Academy Award in 2004. Melamede was trained and worked as an architect before becoming a filmmaker.

Aubrey Gallegos is the Community Engagement & Education manager at PBS’s POV. Aubrey and her team work with public television stations, community organizations and educators to present screenings of POV films nationwide, and develop and distribute accompanying resources such as discussion guides and lesson plans. Prior to joining POV, Aubrey worked as an environmental educator and deckhand aboard historic tall ships, including the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, co-founded by Pete Seeger. She has also worked as an event manager at UnionDocs and as a production assistant on a number of independent film and theater productions. Aubrey graduated from Whitman College with bachelor’s degree in Rhetoric and Film Studies.