Women in Film & Video DC

Connie St. John has been an entertainment industry executive for nearly 30 years. She began her career in publicity at Columbia TriStar Television in Los Angeles. She then joined Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. in Atlanta, first in their TNT Originals division, then heading the PR department for Turner Program Services.  Connie then joined Harpo Productions, managing PR for Oprah Winfrey. While there, she successfully pitched the idea for what would become Oprah’s Angel Network. She also oversaw the PR campaign for Oprah Runnin’ Wild with Tina, traveling on tour with Oprah and Tina Turner.  Later, Connie joined the Public Responsibility department at Sara Lee Corporation, where she and her team addressed issues of concern for women and minorities on a local, national and global scale.  In 1999, Connie returned to LA, and founded her production company No Weapon Productions, which produces family friendly entertainment for the screen and stage. Her award-winning first short film, THE MESSAGE, screened in festivals around the country, as well as at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. In addition to writing shorts, television spec scripts, and full-length features, Connie has written and produced nearly 100 stage plays and skits.  While in LA, Connie launched the marketing department of the Entertainment Industry Foundation and served as the executive director of various nonprofit companies, including the Neighborhood Music School.  After 20 years in California, Connie returned to Washington, DC in 2019. She has re-launched No Weapon Productions, and established a consulting company, the St. John Consulting Group, through which she works with the Duke Ellington School of Performing Arts, among other clients. She also serves on the board of the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts.

Candice Bloch is a creator. She has over a dozen years of experience as a Director of Digital Media, producing and editing both video productions and graphic exhibits that illustrate key aspects of auto safety defect litigation cases. Her work not only helps provide justice and compensation for victims of defective vehicle design, but has even been used to successfully lobby for improved safety standards. She believes in the power of using visual storytelling for advocacy and education as well as entertainment. In addition, Candice enjoys doing occasional freelance art production work for any variety of screen-based media, whether it be short or long format, episodic or stand-alone, documentary or narrative. She is also a co-producer and co-host of WIFV’s podcast, “Media & Monuments.”

She earned a degree in American Studies from the University of Maryland with concentrations in Media and Popular Culture. She has also studied film editing and production at Corcoran School of the Arts and Design. In addition to mediamaking, Candice is a visual artist and sculptor that specializes in three-dimensional mediums. She has studied art domestically and abroad, and continues to hone her craft, working and collaborating throughout the region. She is an ever-curious creative that wholly embraces the entirety of the quote, “A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.”

Jacquie Greff has been involved in the production industry since 1990 when her husband, Kraig Greff, founded Tonal Vision, initially a music and audio production house.  In 2002, she accepted an early retirement package from Procter & Gamble and joined Tonal Vision full time.  The company chose to remain small to allow Kraig to continue his music career.  Currently, Jacquie is responsible for all aspects of video production, as well as managing and marketing the business, which has a staff of 4-6.

Prior to Procter & Gamble, Jacquie had her BA in Chemistry and an MBA.  She earned her law degree while working at P&G, where she worked in R&D Regular Affairs.  At Tonal Vision, Jacquie studied for her MA in Producing Film & Video at American University and volunteered for 6 years as President and Treasurer of TIVA, including the pivotal period when then ITVA split off from MCAI.

Jacquie’s work has helped Tonal Vision earn a series of Peer, Telly, and other awards, as well as many film festival appearances.

Carolyn Dodd’s career has been focused on Production & Project Management for media companies developing skills in business operations, financial management, production workflows, client support, and negotiation. After graduating from Princeton University, Carolyn’s career began in the 1980’s on the NOVA science series at the WGBH Educational Foundation. Carolyn then attended Harvard Business School and returned to television where she spent many years in Production Management at Discovery Communications (primarily Animal Planet, Science, and Velocity networks) until moving to Blue Ant Media on the Love Nature network.

Carolyn recently has been consulting for the KID Museum which supports STEM education through the maker model. Throughout her career, Carolyn has most enjoyed training and bringing together teams for creative problem solving.

Sara Barger is an award-winning filmmaker based in Washington, DC who specializes in short form documentaries. Her recent film, LITTLE BUT FIERCE, highlights one mother’s journey into the illegal drug market to buy her daughter medicine to treat a rare form of brain cancer, and was part of the Docs in Progress Fellowship Program. She has worked for the U.S. State Department and USAID, filming in developing countries including Iraq, Congo, India, China, Tibet, El Salvador and Honduras. Sara currently teaches filmmaking at American, George Washington and George Mason universities. She previously taught at Old Dominion University and worked for Discovery Channel, as well as developed the production departments for two national public policy think tanks. Sara holds an MA in Journalism from American University and an MFA in film from the Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Sandra Abrams is currently a federal contractor, helping a government agency revamp and improve its content strategy, increase its audience, and develop web standards. Prior to her current assignment, she did event planning, marketing, and content writing for two other government agencies including co-producing a short video about the military health system. Her background also includes working as a television producer first in New York at CNNfn and at MSNBC and again at Reuters in DC after relocating to her hometown. At Reuters TV, she produced in-studio and on Capitol Hill and at the White House. She has also worked as a print reporter covering Wall Street and was the co-lead for the military’s annual Remembrance Ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery for fallen military medical members. Abrams’ undergraduate degree is from the University of Maryland as well as a Certificate of Digital Media Journalism, and she has a MA in media education from New York University.

Abrams was a guest speaker at the 2019 ScriptDC on the topic of How to Market your Media Project and has volunteered at many WIFV events. In a previous WIFV board term, she served as Chair of the Marketing Committee and outlined recommendations on how to build WIFV’s social media audience. Abrams served as a board member for American Women in Radio and Television (AWRT) where she created a program to increase diversity in membership and that board resulting on the Bell Award for Best Education program. Sandra was recognized as AWRT’s Woman of the Year. She has also been selected for two journalism fellowships.

Ariel Baska is an award-winning, multiple Disabled queer horror and documentary filmmaker, who believes in advocacy and accessibility for historically underserved communities. Her work has played at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the Portland Art Museum in Portland, Oregon, and at film festivals from Berlin to Mexico City to Mumbai. She has presented at SXSW (South by Southwest) on various topics in disability and accessibility in the film and television industry, and is the creator of ACCESS:HORROR, a film festival and summit celebrating disability and horror.

She graduated from the College of William and Mary in 2005 with a B.A. in Latin and worked as a Latin and Theatre teacher for 15 years in Fairfax County Public Schools, where she won national awards for teaching. She pivoted to podcasting and filmmaking when her disabilities forced her out of the classroom and won the BAFTA-eligible Advocacy Award from Superfest Disability Film Festival for her first film, OUR FIRST PRIORITY, a horror film about medical gaslighting. She has also produced several projects, both narrative and documentary, including Mike Mignola: Drawing Monsters, about the creator of HELLBOY.

She is a podcaster, non-profit owner, and published author who curates creative spaces. Her work can be seen many places, but her creative multiverse is most visible on Ride the Omnibus, her podcast and non-profit parked at the intersection of pop culture and social justice.

Regardless of what story she’s telling or what work she’s doing, Ariel cares passionately about the margins.

Sandra Brennan started her career as an intern at WTTG-TV, now FOX 5, and later, at WBUR-FM.  She likes news and storytelling, but found her producing niche in educational settings – first at Georgetown University, and later, at Fairfax County Public Schools, one of the largest public school systems in the nation. At FCPS, Sandra created videos and interactive, online courses for staff certification, parent outreach, teacher training and student enrichment. She enjoyed the challenge of using technology to support the needs of a diverse, multilingual audience as she crafted scripts, recorded videos, edited material, produced podcasts, and developed live, studio centered-programming. Autism awareness, language acquisition and waste water science are just a few of the topics she highlighted in the course of her work. Sandra was the recipient of numerous Telly and Communicator awards, as well as local Emmy nominations during this time period. Currently, Sandra is developing her own narrative scripts and documentary projects, after taking full advantage of WIFV resources, such as SCRIPTDC, and volunteering on short, locally produced films. Her non-media time includes a few mornings each month serving as a docent at the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture, facilitating brief talks about some very cool objects. Sandra is a graduate of Boston University.

Akima A. Brown (she/they) is a self-proclaimed “artist-activist” with nearly twenty years’ experience in the public and private sectors. Her professional credits include writer, producer, and casting professional for the award-winning docu-narrative series, A HAUNTING, on Discovery Network; the feature film IN-LAWFULLY YOURS – streaming on Netflix, and the critically-acclaimed, short-form, festival favorites ORANGE MORNING (2019), KIDS & COUTURE (2020), and THE CHAMPION (2021).

She is the founder of Reel Families for Change – a nonprofit advocacy agency, committed to eradicating barriers to workplace justice for screen industry professionals – and the CEO of BTG Multimedia Group; a for-profit social enterprise that aims to disrupt the accessibility pipeline for underrepresented populations in the film and television industry. Her organizations have been responsible for cutting edge research, diverse worker retention efforts, and economic advancement opportunities for poor and marginalized demographic groups. As an inter-industry, multimedia professional and social entrepreneur, Akima creates books, films, software applications, and assistive technologies to bridge divides, close gaps, and empower others. Her work centers around generating equitable solutions that ensure opportunity access and expressive freedom for all who desire it.

Tara Jabbari graduated in 2011 from Bradley University with a B.A. in E.lectronic Media. She worked for nonprofits in their media department in the USA and New Zealand for a couple of years. She produced, edited, and marketed online videos for nonprofits on their missions. She also helped share stories such as people escaping religious persecution and teenagers building a better community throughout the globe.  She went on to get her M.A. in Communication, Culture & Technology from Georgetown University. Her research concentrated on two things: marketing in the digital age and how technology can be used as a productive tool for communication despite differences such as generational gaps and locations. She freelances with nonprofits, small businesses and influencers to help with their online presence. Her duties have included editing video, social media marketing and producing podcasts.  Some of her work included spearheading the first online campaign for GoodWeave, a nonprofit advocating for child labor-free products. Within her first week of working for them, their reach increased by 80% and their online audience has continued to steadily grow. She also worked on producing and marketing for the Lauren Ignited Podcast, contacting and scheduling potential guests to interview and participant for the podcasts 5,000+ listeners and online followers each week.  Jabbari serves as the WIFV Liaison with Women in Film and Television-US (WIFT-US).

Anna Jhirad was in a Ph.D. program in French and Italian, when she realized that her real love was film. She switched to earn a Masters in film production; launched her first documentaries (exploring the racial violence in Boston); and landed at WGBH, the local Boston PBS station. Since then, she has been a writer/producer on many films on topics from history/biography to science/environmental issues. She has worked with numerous PBS stations, but also with international IMAX Films and independent film producers on programs, a number of which have won significant awards (Emmy, Cine Golden Eagle, Dupont Columbia Award, among others). She has been active in WIFV as a workshop panelist/speaker and as program attendee. She served for a number of years on the Board of Directors for Docs in Progress in Silver Spring, MD, which supports experienced and emerging filmmakers. She is currently directing a historical film on Washington, D.C.’s struggle for representation in Congress.

Steve Lack is a sound designer and post-production audio mixer with a 25-year career currently working in the DC area. Steve began his career in L.A. working on music production for broadcast television including SEINFELD and WHO’S THE BOSS? He transitioned into post production audio and sound design in Miami in 2004. A position at Discovery brought him to the DC area in 2006, where Steve does audio mixes for Discovery, Science Channel, TLC, and Investigation Discovery. In 2016, Steve contracted with Mandy.com as business development manager for the Eastern US. This position involved traveling to numerous post-production facilities, setting up meet-ups, and manning booths at industry events such as NAB In Las Vegas and New York. Steve discovered a passion for mentoring and helping industry professionals find production work through connecting and networking. Recently Steve has been working as a freelance audio mixer out of his studio in Northern Virginia working with television producers on post-production sound design and audio mixes.  Steve has served on the Board of Governors for the Chesapeake Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) and as a board member for the American Society of Music Arrangers and Composers (ASMAC), and is an active member of AES, SMPTE and CAS. In addition to his work in audio Steve, is also the founder of Genlack, LLC, a web hosting and internet infrastructure provider that started out as a production industry resource and has since branched out to small business website hosting services.

In a career spanning more than a decade, Emma Mankey Hidem has had the privilege of working with and learning from talented filmmakers such as Academy Award-winning director Ross Kauffman (BORN INTO BROTHELS) and Emmy-nominated director Joe Fab (PAPER CLIPS). She has experience with practically every type of non-fiction media, from feature-length documentaries to news segments to multimedia touch-screen exhibits. She learned to create 360° video in 2013, when VR headsets didn’t even exist, and she immediately saw the potential of this vibrant new medium. In 2015, she launched Sunnyside VR, a video and virtual reality production company. Since then she has created content for brands such as Twitter, Mercedes, Honda, Estee Lauder, and more. During the 2020 pandemic, she expanded her interactive media repertoire and launched THE GAME SHOW OF LOVE, a virtual interactive dating game show that takes place live over Zoom.

Mark Maxey is an Emmy award-winning producer based in Virginia and EVP of Rolling Pictures, a boutique motion picture company in Burbank, delivering creative services, development, finance, production and editorial for independent feature films and television. Maxey wrote, directed and produced the documentary feature UP TO SNUFF about musician/composer W.G. Snuffy Walden, featuring Aaron Sorkin, Martin Sheen, Tom Arnold, Timothy Busfield, Fred Savage, Ed Asner, and Lawrence O’Donnell. Other film credits include BEYOND SIXTY, SOUL PRISON, and SENIOR ENTOURAGE. Maxey’s television credits include unscripted programs AMERICAN VALOR, THE HONORS: A Salute to American Heroes, NATIONAL MEMORIAL DAY PARADE, and ON STAGE AT THE KENNEDY CENTER WITH MARVIN HAMLISCH. Maxey is a member of the Producers Guild, Television Academy, Documentary Producers Alliance and WIFV. Maxey is co-founder and chairman emeritus of the Washington West Film Festival, the only film festival to donate 100% of box office proceeds to help at-risk youth and communities in need.

Emmy Award-winning producer and director Amy Oden currently directs the video team at the Human Rights Campaign, where she produces and supervises the production of video content advocating for the LGBTQ+ community. Prior to this role, she was a senior producer and manager of multiplatform strategy at PBS’s Maryland Public Television, where she shed light on a variety of social and scientific topics, including the Baltimore uprising, fracking, mass incarceration, and the opioid crisis. Her most latest independent short, LIPSTICK AND LEATHER is distributed by PBS’s Reel South, and her other recent short CALASAG was fiscally sponsored by the International Documentary Association, and was granted a fellowship in the Saul Zaentz Innovation Fund at Johns Hopkins. Amy holds a BA in Journalism from the University of Maryland, and an MA in Gender and Media from George Washington University. Her work has won Communicator, Emmy, Davey, and W3 Awards.

Amy has been active in WIFV for a number of years, speaking on panels about “guerilla filmmaking” and documentary. Additionally, she was the recipient of the 2020 WIFV Past Presidents Mid-Career Development Scholarship. Amy is also an active member of Film Fatales and the Baltimore Women’s Media Alliance. She was a fellow at Docs in Progress in 2014, and a finalist for Baltimore’s Baker Awards in 2020. Amy has taught courses at the University of Maryland and the University of Guam.

Malikkah Rollins is the Director of Industry and Education at DOC NYC, the largest documentary film festival in the U.S. Malikkah brings 15 years of education experience to her DOC NYC role. She is a former Sundance Collab Community Leader, D Word Ambassador, and is on the board of Women in Film and Video (Washington, DC). As a mental health professional for a decade, she recently co-founded  Documentality, a new initiative designed to elevate the conversation around mental health in the documentary community.   Malikkah was a 2019 Docs in Progress Fellow and has held a variety of producer roles on several feature and short documentaries. When she’s not busy watching films, Malikkah likes to plot her next international travel adventure and make homemade ice cream.

May Santiago has been using film as a research tool since 2013 with the accomplishment of her undergraduate thesis, LITTLE GIRLS, both a short original film and a product for research into the effect of teen films on female teen societies. Since then, she has advocated for the importance of research in the filmmaking process, repeating the process with her masters thesis. Currently, May focuses more on the expansion of theoretical work in underdeveloped film economies, such as cinema from the Spanish-speaking Caribbean or queer authorship in genre cinema, and interventions into Amazon Studios and their labor practices.

May has presented Understanding Horror Tropes at ScriptDC in 2019. She currently runs a podcast, HORRORSPIRIA, which is focused on genre cinema and its international connections. She has been teaching Global Horror Film among other classes at George Mason University (GMU) since 2019 and also at a few of the NOVA campuses since 2020. She is about to start her second year of the Cultural Studies’ program at GMU.

Kirk Schroder is a nationally recognized entertainment lawyer primarily working in film and television matters. Kirk is a past chair of the American Bar Association’s entertainment law section. He is the Co-Editor of The Essential Guide to Entertainment Law. He is listed in “Best Lawyers in America” in the field of entertainment law. He has been honored as a “lawyer of the year” from Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts for his pro bono legal service. He is ranked an AV attorney by Martindale Hubbell, its highest available rating. He chairs several national entertainment law programs and is a frequent lecturer at national entertainment courses. Kirk has been a member of WIFV-DC since 2019. He is currently a partner at Schroder Brooks Law Firm, PLC and is admitted in New York, DC, Virginia, and Georgia.

For several years Lisa Scott was a Washington DC catering chef whose work life was literally a party, as she hopped from one high-powered DC event to the next in the nations’ capital… with a variety of long, sharp knives. But after years of feeding some of the most prestigious people in politics Lisa discovered she is plagued with a vivid fantasy life, filled with fantastic daydreams and has declared, “it is no longer my destiny to feed people’s bellies.  My destiny is to feed people’s imaginations… with my storytelling.”

And so, she began writing… writing… and writing unique and interesting stories about people who have traditionally been unrepresented in Hollywood films, giving a voice to those who need to be heard. Lisa has placed well in major screenwriting awards, including Athena Film Festival and TV Lab, and twice placed in the Top 5% of the Nicholl Fellowship.  Lisa has been a part of several small and independent productions. She started her own production company, 51st State Productions where she penned, directed, and produced a TV pilot Bud Appétit which is set here in Washington, DC.

Sheila Smith is an award-winning director of photography and Steadicam owner/operator with extensive experience filming political spots, documentaries, television, commercials, independent features, PSAs, dance, and music. She’s worked for political firms like Dixon Davis, SKDK, Braun Films, and production companies like Brooklapping, (BBC), PBS, NBC, ABC, Lifetime, and many others. She specializes in lighting, political spots, commercials, visual storytelling and Steadicam. She has Sony FX9 and F5 camera packages with lenses, lighting, Steadicam, etc. She travels across the country, and the world, working on corporate videos, television and documentaries. Among a long list of awards, she was recently recognized for Best Cinematography for Feature Film in the North Europe International Film Festival in London in 2020. Sheila was named Woman of Vision by WIFV in 2009 and has been an active WIFV member since 1990.

Judith Snyderman is a freelance producer who has worked across digital media platforms for news organizations, private sector companies, and government agencies. Currently, she is a contract senior producer for AARP.org and an assignment-based location news producer for the U.S. Foreign Press Center’s media cooperative. She continues to provide archival image and footage research services to independent documentary filmmakers. Previously, she wrote, produced and directed feature television segments for syndicated magazine shows including HISPANICS TODAY, RETIREMENT LIVING HEALTHLINE, and international broadcasts at Voice of America. Print assignments included home and style features for Washingtonian magazine. Judith has a M.S. degree in broadcast television production from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications. She has served previously served on the WIFV Board of Directors.

sheri ratick stroud graduated from the University of Maryland with a degree in Theatre. After marriage she moved to New Jersey where she spent 4 years in the administrative offices of the Paper Mill Playhouse, as the Director of Group Sales and Volunteer Services. Upon returning to DC she was hired by the Kennedy Center to produce the Holiday Festival. Leaving there Sheri spent 2 years on cable TV as a segment of the Shoppers Club of Virginia where she gained some local notoriety. Sheri was also part of the Once Upon a Mime traveling children’s theatre troupe. More recently Sheri has been directing, winning the Best Director and Best Production awards for her production of Agnes of God. In the 2019 Capital Fringe Festival, the play she directed, Stuck received 4 out of 5 stars from the reviewers. In 2010 Sheri formed Wonder Pictures along with Rich West of West Production Services. Their first short SPANISH LESSON won a Silver Leaf Award at the Mexico Film Festival in 2011. Their second film THE LAST PAPERBOY won the silent film competition sponsored by Signature Theatre. In 2020, PAPERBOY was selected to be screened at the Rehoboth Film Festival and also won a Recognition Award in the Accolade Global Film Competition along with SPANISH LESSON and their latest film HEROES’ HONEYMOON. In addition to acting and producing, Sheri has also served as a judge for the DC Shorts Film Festival, for the American University’s Media That Matters short script writing contests, for the DC Shorts script writing contest, and has served on selection panels for grants for the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.

A college internship with Newsday while attending Wells College, and daily reporter job with News World, led to monthly magazine editorship with The World & I.  Going freelance after children were born, Kate Tsubata worked for national and local daily and monthly publications. She founded the nonprofit WAIT in 2002, to teach HIV/AIDS awareness through performing arts, eventually reaching 27 nations.  She worked in video production since the late 1990s, and added film production in 2006 with independent feature films, including both narrative and documentary features. Her most recent film, DANCING JOY, involved 200 dancers from 21 cultures all over the world, traveling and shooting all within a two-month period. She has produced or done scripting for more than 200 Profile/messaging short form videos for clients.  She writes song lyrics, newsletters, books, and is active in community outreach and humanitarian activities.

Monda Raquel Webb is an award-winning author, filmmaker, and performing artist. She is an independent storyteller dedicated to telling little known stories hidden in the crevices of history’s pages. A visual archeologist, she’s committed to organic storytelling from a woman’s lens, that elevates, educates, and uplifts humanity.

Monda participates in her fair share of activism and social impact and curated a monthly discussion series, The Healing Chronicles: Reframing Race Relations in America during the pandemic. The goal is to mitigate racism by deep diving into history, drawing parallels to the present, and developing viable solutions for the future.

Monda, voted Filmmaker of the Year in 2020 by the National Black Movie Association,  wrote, directed, and produced her first award-winning short, ZOO (Volkerschau) in 2015. Monda’s second film, POOCH SITTER (2019) donated $1,600 to non-profit organizations focused on homelessness, women and children. Collectively, both films have played over 50 festivals and won over 30 awards.

Monda served as WIFV Executive Vice President (2021-23) and is the Programming Coordinator and Board Member of the Chesapeake Film Festival. She is a member of the first Black Sorority for Women, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.  and a member of Gamma Xi Phi, a Fraternity for the Arts. In 2021, Monda won a Leader Award for Consumer Advocate from the National Association of Women in Real Estate for her work in the arts. She was also a regular Host for Black Art in America (Readers and Reel Folk) online programming for the arts.

Monda’s current project is PORTRAITS IN BLACK: Honoring Our National Treasures which tells the stories of eight African-Americans who’ve lived through moments that changed the trajectory of this country’s history.