Jacob Fertig is a New York-based nonfiction filmmaker, archival producer, and Co-Founder of Denizen Studios. His films have played at festivals including SXSW, AFI, Hot Docs, and NOFF, and published by Scientific American, New York Magazine, and New York Daily News. His archival producing work spans museums to magazines, including permanent exhibits at Ellis Island and The Holocaust Center and frontpage articles in Tablet. His projects have received support from Field of Vision, Tribeca Institute, If/Then, Docs by the Sea, Amnesty International, Forensic Architecture, Doc Society, and thousands of donors.

President, Documentary Producers Alliance

Stacy Robinson has 20 years of experience writing and producing documentaries for television networks such as CNBC, National Geographic, Discovery and Disney+. She wrote and directed the Emmy Award winning documentary on “Ida B. Wells and the Birth of Gospel Music” for PBS and received a National Emmy nomination for her work as Co-Director of “We Are Witnesses: Chicago”.

She is currently Artistic Director of Kartemquin Films. With its legacy of award-winning documentaries (“Hoop Dreams”, “The Interrupters”, “Life Itself”) Kartemquin champions filmmakers who understand that documentaries are powerful vehicles for truth that can transform the world around us.

Christina Gonzalez has worked in independent documentary production since 2005 as a line-producer, production manager, and post-production supervisor with NYC-based Loki Films. In her television work, she has overseen the development and production through delivery of domestic and international films for HBO, Netflix, Showtime, Comedy Central, PBS, MTV, ESPN and CBS.

Marsha Hallager is a writer, director, and producer whose work centers emotionally honest storytelling, cultural nuance, and underrepresented voices. She directed and produced the PBS American Masters RENEGADES Thomas “Blind Tom” Wiggins project, and wrote and produced the American Masters RENEGADES Celestine Tate Harrington project. She also directed, wrote, and produced the PBS American Experience: The Curb Cut Effect - Closed Captioning: From Niche to Necessity short. Marsha’s work often explores disability, identity, history, and resilience through intimate, visually compelling narratives. With a strong background in creative development and impact-driven storytelling, she brings a thoughtful, collaborative approach to every project. She is currently directing and producing The Color of Pain: Invisible Disabilities, a documentary exploring Black women living with chronic pain and invisible illness through an immersive, art-forward lens.

Max Asaf is a Chicago-based, award-winning freelance documentary filmmaker. From 2016-2019, Max worked at Kartemquin Films, helping raise over $5 million for the organization and its documentaries. Max produced the 2024 IDA shortlisted documentary short Bad Hostage which reveals the pernicious origins of Stockholm Syndrome. Bad Hostage premiered at the 2024 Sheffield DocFest and won a special jury award at the BendFilm Festival. Max is the co-producer of The Last Strike, an upcoming feature documentary from Kindling Group on the 1981 PATCO strike, and was the producer of The Last Drop, a short sci-fi fiction film exploring the overlooked signs of relationship abuse. Max is also in early post-production on his feature directorial debut, Within the Box, a personal documentary about the memories, stories, and familial identity contained and lost in a box of photos smuggled out of Poland eight decades ago.