The Art of Film Funding

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Sarah Moshman is an Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker and TEDx speaker whose work has been featured on Netflix, PBS, Upworthy, Marie Claire, CNN, and Good Morning America. 

Sarah has directed and produced 3 feature-length documentaries: The Empowerment Project: Ordinary Women Doing Extraordinary Things (2014), Losing Sight of Shore (2017) and NEVERTHELESS (2020)

Sarah is an inspiring public speaker, author, and a teacher in documentary film, passionate about empowering the next generation of storytellers. In 2024 Sarah launched her own program to support women filmmakers over 30 called Look What SHE's Doing! which she intends to continue as part of her legacy for years. Her book Empowered Filmmaking is highly regarded as an excellent textbook.

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Our special guest today is Julie Rubio. Julie is an award-winning film producer, writer, director, and actor. As President of Women in Film San Francisco Bay Area and founder of East Meets West Productions, she produced the acclaimed “East Side Sushi,” which has enjoyed both domestic and international distribution via the Samuel Goldwyn Company, Sony Home Pictures, HBO North America, and Netflix. Rubio is the writer, director, and producer of the comedy “Too Perfect,” which found its audience domestically on Amazon Prime and through Osiris Entertainment. She was also the writer, director, and producer for "Six Sex Scenes and a Murder," available on Netflix and Apple TV. Other cinematic ventures Rubio has helmed include "Soledad is Gone Forever" for Haiku Films, "Oakland B Mine," the comedic "Del Cielo," "Everything is Temporary," and "Impression." Her films have graced numerous domestic and international festivals. Rubio’s latest work, "The True Story of Tamara de Lempicka & The Art of Survival," marks her debut as a feature documentary writer, director, and producer. For years, the enigmatic allure of Tamara de Lempicka's paintings and life story have captivated Rubio and we are thrilled to discuss the film with her today.

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Join Carole Dean and Kelly Mason and learn how to:

Break Into Cinematography

Transition from Cinematographer to Producing Cinematographer and

Become a Film Consultant & Create Impact Through Filmmaking

Kelly Mason

(Mom |Entrepreneur | Healer | Filmmaker | Cinematographer)

Kelly Mason’s priority is to make a lasting difference in the world for generations to come. A mother, entrepreneur, filmmaker, and intuitive healer, Kelly’s mission spans storytelling, advocacy, and transformational work. As an independent producer, her focus lies in creating stories that champion social justice, environmental protection, and well-being awareness. 

Kelly shattered barriers in 1997 as the first female cinematographer in IATSE (ICG 669). Over her 30-year career, she has collaborated with Tier 1 crews, A-list celebrities, and world-class directors for major companies like Netflix, Warner Bros., Disney, Apple TV, and the Berlanti Group. Her cinematography expertise extends across film, digital, green screens, LED environments, and virtual production alongside cutting-edge VFX teams. Notable projects include The Night Agent (Netflix) and Travelers (Netflix). She has worked with legendary producers such as Greg Berlanti, Shawn Ryan, and Seth Gordon, and Academy Award-winning filmmakers Ismail Merchant and James Ivory. 

Her career as an "A" camera operator has been shaped by mentorship from cinematographic masters like Vilmos Zsigmond ASC and Dante Spinatti ASC, contributing to over 200 productions. Kelly’s cinematic vision has also earned her acclaim in the impact filmmaking space, with 18 laurels for her feature documentary Pave the Road, including Best Documentary Feature at the 2021 Chelsea Film Festival.

In 2024, Kelly earned the Altitude Award recognizing her achievements in the industry through Women in Media. She is an Executive Producer and the Cinematographer for the docu-series The Frequency of Miracles, currently in post-production. She is also collaborating with Academy Award-winning producer Mimi Polk Gitlin (Thelma and Louise, The Breadwinner) to adapt Pave the Road into a narrative feature film.

Through the power of impact filmmaking, Kelly influenced environmental legislation in Costa Rica to mandate the use of plastic waste in road construction, triggering an investigation that led to incarcerating 72 corrupt government officials.  Beyond filmmaking, Kelly established the Trinidad and Tobago Film Commission, and created impactful educational programs for the American and Canadian Societies of Cinematographers. Her curated motion pictures with Getty Images has generated over seven figures in royalties and continues to enrich productions worldwide.

Through her extensive work in film, healing, and environmental advocacy, Kelly Mason exemplifies the power of storytelling to inspire, transform, and create a better future.

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Our special guest is Julie Hebért. Julie was born in south Louisiana. She has written and directed dozens of plays for some of the most daring theaters in the country including Steppenwolf, LaMaMa, the Magic Theater, Los Angeles Theater Center and many more. Her plays have received many accolades including two PEN Awards for Drama. After her musical drama Ruby’s Bucket of Blood was optioned by Showtime and Whoopi Goldberg, Julie wrote the screenplay, which was made into a film starring Angela Bassett. It was the first of many scripts Julie has written for film and television. She has written and directed for several hit television shows including Nashville, The Good Wife, Boss, Blue Bloods, The West Wing, ER, Numb3rs and most recently the Emmy Award-winning American Crime, where she is an Executive Producer. Julie has received grants from the NEA, TCG, AT&T New Plays, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Alexander Gerbode Foundation, and the California Arts Commission for writing, directing, and inter-disciplinary arts. Julie is also an activist who founded “Look What SHE Did!”, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that creates short films and events featuring female storytellers celebrating women who inspire them. Today we’ll discuss “Look What She Did” and how Julie is helping to bring to light stories of remarkable women who have changed the world. 

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Michael Holstein is a co-founder and executive producer at Mesmeric Media. He began his career writing for HBO’s The Wire and marketing major films like The Rock and Independence Day. After earning a law degree, Michael became VP of Business Affairs at WETA-TV in Washington, DC, where he produced numerous shows, including In Performance at the White House and PBS NewsHour. He later launched The Content Farm, where he created award-winning content across unscripted genres and platforms. His honors include being the only 3x winner of Real Screen’s "Summit Showdown" competition, being a 2017 Producer’s Guild Award nominee, and receiving the 2019 Washington, DC Mayor’s Arts Award for Excellence in Media Arts. Holstein has produced several series and won multiple awards, including Emmy and Telly accolades. Michael is a member of the Producer’s Guild of America and the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

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Join us for an inspiring and insightful conversation with Douglas Vermeeren, the visionary director behind The Science of Getting Rich, a transformative new documentary inspired by Wallace D. Wattles's timeless classic. Discover the mental and spiritual principles that lead to financial abundance and personal fulfillment, as shared by an extraordinary cast of personal development legends, including Bob Proctor in his final and most inspiring role. Douglas reveals the creative process behind the film, its profound messages, and how it's being distributed worldwide. Don’t miss this deep dive into unlocking the secrets to living a rich and meaningful life!

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Beth Dolan is an award-winning writer, producer, and documentary filmmaker. A graduate of Carnegie-Mellon University’s College of Fine Arts.

In recent years she has turned her attention fully, with producing and creative partners, Luis Remesar and Sheila Higgins, to social justice-themed documentary storytelling.

Their recently released documentary STRANGER AT HOME: Healing The Psychological Wounds of War currently airs and streams on national PBS and The WORLD CHANNEL. Their latest documentary WELCOME HOME, is a story focused on establishing a comprehensive national reintegration program for our services members 

Beth is also the proud producer and host of the Blog Talk podcast “Being Deliberately” and consults regularly on how to get a social justice documentary to distribution on PBS. www.coyotepassproductions.com

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Our special guest today is Karla Murthy, an Emmy-nominated producer who has been working on news documentaries for over 15 years. She began her career working for the veteran journalist Bill Moyers and has been a producer, cinematographer, and correspondent for several news programs on PBS. Her award-winning work was described in the Columbia Journalism Review as “compelling, informative, and compassionate.” Her directorial debut, the feature documentary The Place That Makes Us screened at numerous film festivals and had its national broadcast premiere on America ReFramed. She is now working on her next feature documentary film called The Gas Station Attendant, a co-production with ITVS for public television. Karla is of Filipino and South Asian descent. She grew up in Texas studying classical piano and graduated from Oberlin College with a degree in Religion and Computer Science. Today we’ll discuss her recent short film Love, Jamie, about a transgender artist incarcerated in Texas.