Lorenzo Benitez

Lorenzo Benitez is an award-winning director and producer based in New York City. His critically-acclaimed films have been streamed on Amazon Prime Video; programmed by institutions including the Maysles Documentary Center and Harvard University; selected by more than 45 festivals around the world including the LA Comedy Film Festival and Filmfort; and nationally televised in Australia by the ABC. Six Months to Salvation (2017), his feature-length directorial debut, is the first documentary of its length to question the positive impact of ‘voluntourism’. He has also produced videos with millions of views for Fortune 500 brands, and has directed collaborators including political activists and Emmy-nominated crew. His writing ranges from disaster relief reporting in the Philippines to undergraduate research published in peer-reviewed journals. Born in the Philippines and raised in Australia, he holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy with honors from Cornell University.

Maria Clinton

Maria Clinton is a New York based Emmy award-winning filmmaker, producer, photographer, and a consulting editor. She is the recipient of the Vermont College of Fine Arts Thesis Grant for her documentary, Side by Side. She is also a 2018 Telluride Mountainfilm Commitment Grant recipient and a 2018 recipient of the Roy W. Dean From The Heart grant for the film that she co- directed, The Love Bugs. The Love Bugs has been the recipient of 14 awards at both national and international film festivals.

Maria Clinton has presented at various conferences discussing the intersection of media and humanitarian affairs. Maria previously worked as an Adjunct Professor of Film for five years. In addition to teaching she also worked with companies including NBC, CNN’s Great Big Story, about.com and Hudson Group. She is currently working in television now.

Taylor Taglianetti

Taylor Taglianetti is the Founder and President of the National Organization of Italian Americans in Film & Television (NOIAFT). She is also a producer, director, and celebrity interviewer.

Under her new production company Half House Productions, she produced the short documentary, Heirloom, which made its world premiere at the Los Angeles-Italia Film Festival in March 2022. The film, which stars Isabella Rossellini, received a grant from the Russo Brothers (Avengers: End Game, Captain America: Civil War). Taylor is currently directing a feature documentary on the oldest practicing doctor in the world.

Taylor’s debut short documentary, Generation Hollow, was produced by the leading non-profit Reel Works and was an Official Selection at the 2014 Girls Film Festival and the Juror’s Choice for Outstanding Filmmaking at the 2014 Women of African Descent Film Festival. In 2018, she helped cast Shiva Baby (SXSW Film Festival).

A graduate of NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Taylor has worked at Paradigm Talent Agency, NBCUniversal, Silver Pictures and Maven Pictures.

To learn more about her organization, please visit: https://noiaft.org

Breton Tyner-Bryan

Breton Tyner-Bryan is an American born director, choreographer and actor with Canadian roots, based in New York City. A classically trained ballet dancer and award-winning filmmaker, she grew up in the theater in Hartford, CT. Her films have won numerous awards including Best Director, Best Editor, Best Narrative Short, Best Dance film at Vegas Movie Awards, Silk Road Film Awards Cannes, Barcelona IFF, Madrid IFF, World Independent Cinema Nice, France, World London Film Festival, La Jolla International Fashion Film Festival, New York Shorts International Film Festival, Big Apple Film Festival, CANIFFF, ASVOFF, Flickfair, Jellyfest, and International LGBTQ Shorts. She is known for Manifest (Netflix), Gossip Girl (HBO), Billions (Showtime), Divorce (HBO), Shackled, working alongside Sarah Jessica Parker and Molly Shannon, The Knick alongside Clive Owen, choreographing for BD Wong and Donny Most of Happy Days, Studio City (VICE), Manhattan Love Story (ABC), Shackled (in production), TEST, and Stories from the Microchasm with John Sanborn. She often plays detectives and tough seductive characters collaborating regularly with cinematographer Michael J. Burke. Her heritage is Native American, Jewish German, Spanish, Italian, Irish, French, and Indian. She is named for Cape Breton, Nova Scotia where her family created a commune.

Directing credits include Merryn John's "Love Is A Blue Jay", Village Playwrights NYC, "All About Love" New Victory Theater, installations for New York Fashion Week, The Pierre Taj Hotel, Madonna-Washington Square Park, Don Most from Happy Days, and Sonas Denim Commercial. Choreographic works include Divorce HBO, Saturday Night Fever Engeman Theater, "Heading East" starring BD Wong, Prospect Theater, "Vinegar Tom", "Retrofactoy" Theater C, Peter Pan Dreamland Stages, "Cotton Candy and Cocaine" New York Theater Barn, choreographic men-tee under Sergio Trujillo for The Donna Summer musical on Broadway, choreographic labs for Waitress (Broadway), Twelfth Night (Public Theater), Encore's God Bless You Mr. Rosewater, commissions for NYU, Marymount, AMDA, and performing alongside The Martha Graham Dance Company at its Benefit for Haiti. She is a CUNY awardee and Dance Lab New York connect artist with Sam Pinkelton and Josh Prince. As ballet mistress for Sleep No More she has choreographed and performed for McKittrick Follies, and was ballet mistress for Ballet Hispanico.

She is the executive producer and founder of Breton Follies Productions, featured at New Victory Theater 42nd Street, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, City Center, and has taught for New York University, Broadway Dance Center, Peridance, Joffrey Ballet School, The Place (London), Dance Base Scotland, San Francisco State University, LINES Ballet, and Complexions Contemporary Ballet. She holds a BFA in Ballet Performance from the University of Utah and received her training at the School of the Hartford Ballet. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The New York Post, Curve Magazine, Broadway World, Pointe Magazine, Dance Magazine and the Huffington Post. She is the creative director for Sarina Film Productions, and a teaching fellow on faculty at Smith College.

Tom Sladek

Tom Sladek is the head of digital and ancillary sales at Oscilloscope Pictures. Founded by the late Adam Yauch (MCA of Beastie Boys), over the last 13 years O-scope has released more than 150 films across all platforms - including projects from award-winning film makers like Andrea Arnold, Kelly Reichardt, Marshall Curry, and more. Tom has represented the company at Sundance, Tribeca, South By Southwest, and TIFF, and is a lot of fun at parties (pre-COVID) due to his degree in English and Communications from Fairfield!