Our Team

julie forrest wyman

Julie Forrest Wyman work engages issues of embodiment, body image, and the possibilities and problematics of media spectatorship - all informed by her experience of living with hypochondroplasia dwarfism.  Her 2012 documentary STRONG! premiered at AFI Silverdocs and was broadcast nationally on PBS’s Emmy award winning series, Independent Lens, where it won the series’ Audience Award. Wyman’s work has been awarded support from Sundance, Sandbox, IDA, SF Film Society, Points North, ITVS, the Creative Capital Foundation, The Princess Grace Foundation, California Humanities and NEH. She has been a fellow at the UC Davis Feminist Research Institute and a resident of SF Film Society’s Filmhouse, Siena Art Institute, Logan Nonfiction and Points North. Her films, including FatMob (2016) Buoyant (2005) and A Boy Named Sue (2000), have aired on Showtime, MTV’s LOGO-TV, and have been exhibited on five continents. She serves as Associate Professor of Cinema and Digital Media at UC Davis.

Director Producer Writer and Participant

lindsey dryden

Lindsey (she/her) is an Emmy® award-winning filmmaker. A 2024 Concordia Fellow, she is writer/director of THE CALLERS (2024, Frameline/Criterion Channel/Queer Futures); LOST AND SOUND (2012, SXSW); JACKIE KAY: ONE PERSON, TWO NAMES (2017, Tate Queer British Art), and CLOSE YOUR EYES AND LOOK AT ME (2009, True/False). She produced Academy Award shortlisted, Sundance Special Jury Award-winning UNREST (2017, PBS/Netflix) and 2x Webby- and Emmy-winning TRANS IN AMERICA: TEXAS STRONG (2019, ACLU / CondeNast). She executive produced BIFA-nominated THE FORGOTTEN C (2020, Uncertain Kingdom) and AHEAD OF THE CURVE (2020, Starz/Netflix), and consulted on DEAF PRESIDENT NOW! (2025, Sundance/Apple TV+). Lindsey is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and BAFTA, a former Filmmaker-In-Residence at Jacob Burns Film Center, and a Sundance Institute Documentary Producers Lab Fellow. She is a proud co-founder of FWD-Doc: Filmmakers with Disabilities.

Producer

shaleece haas

Producer

Shaleece is an Emmy Award-winning documentary producer and director based in Los Angeles. Producing credits include DELIKADO (2022; Hot Docs; POV); ASIAN AMERICANS: BREAKING THROUGH (PBS, 2020 Peabody Award); and TRANS IN AMERICA: TEXAS STRONG (SXSW; 2018 Emmy Award). Directing credits include REAL BOY (PBS/Independent Lens, 2017), which won 20 festival awards; and the animated short TO THE FUTURE, WITH LOVE (POV Shorts, 2021). Shaleece has been an Impact Partners Producing Fellow, a Film Independent Documentary Lab Fellow, and is a proud member of Film Fatales, New Day Films, and the Queer Producer's Collective. In addition to her work as a filmmaker, Shaleece is a certified somatic practitioner and facilitator supporting creatives and changemakers. She also supports documentary filmmakers as a somatic coach and film supervisor at Film in Mind, a UK-based organization providing therapeutic support for the film industry.

jonna mckone

Jonna is an artist and filmmaker whose work combines documentary, archives, and materials-based processes to explore themes of memory, power and land. Jonna’s first feature as a producer, ALL LIGHT, EVERYWHERE (Neon, Hulu) won a US Documentary Special Jury Prize for nonfiction experimentation. Most recently she produced THE TALLEST DWARF (SXSW, 2025),  MARGIE SOUDEK’S SALT & PEPPER SHAKERS (Sundance, 2023, The New Yorker); and the hybrid fiction film YOUR FINAL MEDITATION (Rockaway, 2024). Her films have been supported by Sandbox Films, Sundance, Ford Foundation|Just Films, SFFILM, Princess Grace, ITVS, Cinereach, and IDA, among others. Jonna is also a photographer whose work has shown in galleries around the US. She was a Center for Documentary Studies Lewis Hine Fellow, a Flaherty Film Seminar, a Points North Institute Fellow, a 2023 DOC NYC 40 Under 40 filmmaker, as well as an artist-in-residence at Monson Arts’ Photo Residency and Skidmore’s Storytellers Institute.

Producer

debra schaffner

Debra is a filmmaker who weaves reality, memory and imagined worlds to reveal deeper, stranger truths beyond the confines of traditional storytelling. Raised by robots in the suburbs of New Jersey, she eventually made her way west where she worked as a bike messenger, carpenter, and sound designer before finding her voice as a  filmmaker and video editor. Editor credits include FREE FOR ALL: The Public Library (INDEPENDENT LENS, 2025) and CELEBRITY EXPLORERS (2018) which was awarded Best Series by the Wildlife  Conservation Film Festival (2018). Her work has aired on PBS, Cartoon Network and screened at FRAMELINE and DOCS/MX. Debra is currently directing her first feature, CURSE OF THE MUTANT HEIRLOOM, a hybrid documentary supported by BAVC MediaMaker, SFFILM, Jewish Film Institute, Jewish Story Partners, California Humanities, and the Berkeley Film Foundation

Writer Editor and Co-Producer

Josh Lambert, Yvonne Lambert and Toto Miranda are the co-founders and core members of the multidisciplinary Austin, TX band, The Octopus Project. Since beginning in 1999, the group has released six studio albums, garnering praise from the likes of Rolling Stone, Pitchfork and The New York Times, toured clubs and festivals worldwide (Coachella, Lollapalooza, Austin City Limits), created a series of immersive performance/installation works and composed music for video games, commercials and feature films. In 2014, the band was awarded Sundance’s Special Jury Award for Musical Score for their work on the film Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter (starring Rinko Kikuchi). Their most recent film work includes 2024’s Sasquatch Sunset (directed by Zellner Bros., starring Jesse Eisenberg & Riley Keough) and 2025’s The Tallest Dwarf (directed by Julie Wyman).

Original Score

the octopus project

Executive Producer

sofiya cheyenne

Sofiya Cheyenne is a New York based multi-disciplinary artivist, community organizer and public speaker. She believes deeply in amplifying the voices and stories of disabled peoples through art. From the education field to the entertainment industry, She has appeared on episodic shows such as Amazon's “Loudermilk” (dir: Farrelly Brothers), TrueTV's “At Home With Amy Sedaris” (dir: Ryan McFaul), and Netflix's “StartUP” (dir: Ben Ketai). She has produced, written and directed short films as part of the Easterseals Disability Film Challenge including “You’re Up” and “Inspiring Women” as well as produced, co-wrote and directed her current project entitled “How We Look Series” all of which shine light on the little person's experience. SShe also facilitates self advocacy and anti-ableism workshops as part of the Disability Advisory Council for ART NY and Disability Working Group with the National Network of Consultants to Grantmakers.  You can learn more about Sofiya at www.sofiyacheyenne.com

nic novicki

Executive Producer

Nic Novicki is a comedian, actor, and producer that has performed on 6 continents including several tours through Armed Forces Entertainment, performing for troops.  His television credits include: Boardwalk Empire, The Good Doctor, The Sopranos, Loudermilk, Alone Together, Gotham Comedy Live, Jack and Triumph, The Neighbors, Austin and Alley, Private Practice, Drop Dead Diva.  He has appeared in several movies including: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Marry Me, L!fe Happens, November Rule, The Last 5 Years, Boston Girls, Breaking Wind, Dead Ant and the upcoming BitterSweet. He is the founder and director of the Easterseals Disability Film Challenge and is a board member of Easterseals Southern California.

jess devaney

Executive Producer

Jess Devaney (they/she) is an Emmy-winning producer and Founder of Multitude Films. Their latest films include Yance Ford’s Netflix Original POWER (Sundance 2024); Oscar-shortlisted HBO Documentary Films Original HOW WE GET FREE (Aspen Shortsfest 2023); the Indigo Girls documentary IT’S ONLY LIFE AFTER ALL (Sundance 2023); Emmy-winning Peacock Original LOWNDES COUNTY AND THE ROAD TO BLACK POWER (Tribeca 2022); Emmy-nominated Netflix Original PRAY AWAY (Tribeca 2020); Oscar-shortlisted CALL CENTER BLUES (Topic Studios); and APART, the Emmy-winning episode of the series THROUGH OUR EYES (HBO Max). Jess created the Ford Foundation-supported QUEER FUTURES series (Criterion) and produced Sundance Award-winning and IDA-nominated ALWAYS IN SEASON (Independent Lens) as well as THE FEELING OF BEING WATCHED (POV), dubbed “a real-world conspiracy thriller” by Variety. Her films have been programmed at top festivals including Sundance, SXSW, Tribeca, BlackStar, and Telluride, among others. Jess has been a Sundance Institute Documentary Edit and Story Lab fellow, Women at Sundance fellow, and Sundance Institute Creative Producing Lab and Catalyst Program advisor. They have been recognized with the Cinereach Producers Award, DOC NYC and Topic Studios' inaugural 40 Under 40 Award, Doc10’s inaugural Vanguard Award, and the 2023 Sundance Institute Amazon Studios Nonfiction Producers Award.

anya rous

Anya Rous (she/her) is an Emmy-winning Producer and the President and Co-Founder of Multitude Films. Her latest films include IT'S ONLY LIFE AFTER ALL (Sundance 2023); Emmy-winning Peacock Original LOWNDES COUNTY AND THE ROAD TO BLACK POWER, in partnership with Participant and The Atlantic (Tribeca 2022); Critic's Choice nominee Netflix Original PRAY AWAY, in partnership with Ryan Murphy and Blumhouse (Telluride, Tribeca 2020); as well as APART, the Emmy-winning episode of the HBO Max series THROUGH OUR EYES, in partnership with Sesame Workshop. Anya also advises on impact strategy for films produced by Multitude and leads a movement orientation within the company’s producing model where films are drivers of culture change.  he formerly served as the Director of Strategic Relationships at Just Vision and as a grantmaker at The Nathan Cummings Foundation. Anya was a 2019–2020 Sundance Creative Producing Fellow, a 2019 Impact Partners Documentary Producing Fellow, a 2020–2021 DOC NYC 40 Under 40 filmmaker, and a 2021 Gotham/Cannes Producers Network Fellow.

Executive Producer

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