Cammy Awards Judges 2019

Aggie Ebrahimi Bazzaz

Documentary Maker and Professor at Georgia State University

Aggie Ebrahimi Bazaz is an Iranian American documentary filmmaker with interests in diasporic identity and migration. Aggie's first film, Inheritance (2012, 27 min), a poetic autobiography on the relationship between political and personal revolts, earned the Loni Ding Award for Social Issue Documentary at CAAMFest 2013 and the Best Short Film award at the 2015 Indie Grits Film Festival. Her current film, "How to Tell a True Immigrant Story," is a co-production with the Public VR Lab's Arrival VR national storytelling project and will be world premiering at Locarno International FilmFestival in August. Aggie has held artist residencies at the Wexner Center for the Arts, Skidmore Storytellers Institute, and Interlochen Center for the Arts.

She earned her Master of Arts degree in Multicultural Literature, where she served as a researcher for the Emmy Award-winning digital humanities project, the Civil Rights Digital Library. Aggie currently serves as Assistant Professor of filmmaking at Georgia State University in Atlanta and continues work on a long-term project embedded within a farm working community in California's Central Valley.

Alan Powell

Professor, Arcadia; Experimental Media Artist

Alan Powell has been working as a visual artist for over thirty years. From 1971 until the mid 1990’s he worked almost exclusively with video and electronic imaging. Powell was a founding member of the Electron Movers, Providence, Rhode Island’s first Media Arts Center after completing a BFA degree from the Rhode Island School of Design. His video work in collaboration with his partner Connie Coleman spans the past thirty years and has been exhibited at The Kitchen, The Alternative Museum, and The Museum of the Moving Image in New York; the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia; The Long Beach Museum in California and the Musee d’Arte Moderne in Paris.

Alan Powell’s artwork encompasses single channel experimental videotapes, sculptural multi-channel mixed media installations, audio compositions, digital photography and painting. Alan Powell’s current work investigates man’s relationship to his environment and the natural world. With Termite TV is has been developing “Walks” that use IPhones, IPads and other mobile devices as display platforms. He has been an Associate Professor of Communications at Bucks County Community College, an Associate Professor in the Film/Media Arts Department at Temple University and him currently a Professor in the Communications Program at Arcadia University in Glenside, PA

Alan Kobernick

Executive Producer CCPTV Director Multimedia Services Community College of Philadelphia

Born in Montreal, Canada and raised in Detroit, Allan Kobernick has been involved in the visual arts for his entire working career. Trained in still and motion picture photography, he ended up as an Associate Professor of photography and Chair of the photography department at Community College of Philadelphia for 14 years, resigning in the mid-80s to run his own video production company. After closing the business in 2008 he returned to CCP as the Executive Producer of CCPTV (Comcast 53, FIOS 21). During the past 10 years he has produced over 600 episodes including 18 regular shows for this educational cable channel accumulating numerous awards including 3 Emmy® nominations. He is currently directing and producing “Strange College”, a sci-fi, theatrical series for CCPTV, written by Frank Fritz, a professor at the college and with a cast a crew predominantly made up of students, staff and faculty. He developed the Digital Video Production Curriculum and continues to teach in that program. He also serves as Co-chair of the Advisory Council to the Rodborough High School Visual Arts Academy directly supporting the students in the video production program. He is a member of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and serves as a judge for the regional Emmys®.

Andres Nicolini

Independent Local Filmmaker

Andrés Nicolini is a producer and media consultant with a wide range of experience in non-fiction and fiction productions. His work has been shown in numerous festivals, television networks, and other venues nationally and internationally including PhillyCAM, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Los Angeles Latino Film Festival. He holds a MFA in Media Arts from City College of New York.

Beth McConnell

Policy Director, Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations (PACDC)

Beth McConnell has been the Policy Director at the Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations (PACDC) since 2013. She as more than twenty five years’ experience in advocacy and coalition building. She leads PACDC’s efforts to advance city, state and federal policies that help CDCs revitalize Philadelphia’s neighborhoods and rebuild communities. Prior to her work at PACDC, she was the Executive Director of the Media and Democracy Coalition, where she brought more than three dozen consumer, social justice and public interest organizations together around policies that make technologies more accessible and hold media corporations accountable. Beth was also the director of the Pennsylvania Public Interest Research Group (PennPIRG), where she won victories to protect consumers from unfair practices and strengthened air quality rules. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Pennsylvania’s College of Liberal and Professional Studies with a bachelor’s degree in Urban Studies. Beth serves as Board President of PennPIRG and the PennPIRG Education Fund, Board Secretary of PennEnvironment, and is a member of the Advisory Boards of PlanPhilly and the Community College of Philadelphia’s Power Up Your Business, and sits on the Employer Advisory Board of the University of Pennsylvania’s College of Liberal and Professional Studies.

Marija Tosic

Editor

Ms. MarijaTosic is a journalist and editor for Public Service Radio Television of Serbia. As a member of the Science and Education Department, she works on various television shows and is responsible for creating educative content for young people and the general public. She regularly write scripts, works on concepts, conducts interviews, and writes stories for their online portal. Though Ms. Tosic has extensive experience as a journalist, her passion is working with young people and students. In the past year, she had the opportunity to conduct press trips to several international schools and held discussions with youth about journalism and the digital age. Ms. Tosic is excited to hear the perspectives and ideas of professionals from other countries and learn creative ways for how to create new digital content.

Christopher Norris

Techbook Online CEO and WDAS FM Contributor

Christopher “Flood the Drummer®” Norris is an award-winning journalist, online content producer and professional drummer currently serving as the CEO of Techbook Online, a Philadelphia-based news and event company, and the host of the Drumming for Justice podcast. Subscribe here.

Geoffrey Baym

Department of Media Studies and Production, Temple University

Geoffrey Baym is a professor of media studies at Temple University, where he also served as chair of the Department of Media Studies and Production. A former broadcast news producer, he received a PhD in communication and media studies from the University of Utah. He teaches classes in media criticism, theory, and history, and studies the changing styles and standards of public affairs media and political discourse. The author of one of the first academic studies of The Daily Show and the genre of news parody, his 2009 book From Cronkite to Colbert: The Evolution of Broadcast News was named the “outstanding book of the year” by the Political Communication Division of the National Communication Association.

Helyx Chase

Bonfire Media  MMP

Helyx Chase Scearce Horwitz is a video artist, technologist, and activist who is committed to the power of story. Since learning to produce documentaries as a teenager they have continued to work in a variety of non-fiction video formats including multi-channel video installation, experimental documentary, archival video preservation, and oral history video production. Their video work is built by, about, and for televisions and computers. Helyx is fascinated by the ways in which we organize and process our information-saturated world. Helyx holds a BA from Hampshire College and is currently enrolled in the Masters of Information program at Drexel University.

Hye-Jung Park

Independent Filmmaker

Hye-Jung Park is currently high school teacher. For nearly 3 decades, Park worked in media for social change, with a range of roles, from media administrator to media activist, to independent curator and independent filmmaker – but consistently as a community activist for social change. She has made several films with J.T. Takagi, including The Women Outside and North Korea: Beyond DMZ.

Jesenia De Moya Correa

Latino Communities Reporter, The Philadelphia Inquirer

She studied media and communications in Dominican Republic, where she started her career in digital, print and radio journalism. In 2013, she was honor with the National Journalism Award in the category Sustainable Tourism for her reporting with newspaper Listín Diario, the oldest publishing paper in the Caribbean country.

In the US, she has worked in digital and print media, in addition to being a producer and social media coordinator for a hyperlocal web series in NYC, where she completed a Master's degree program in Spanish-Language journalism. This opportunity led her to now develop and cover the Latino Communities beat for The Inquirer, as one of six journalist of color that have been awarded a two-year fellowship position with the Lenfest Institute for Journalism.

Jeanette Woods

Story and Talent Curator, Association for Independents in Radio (AIR Media)

As Story & Talent Curator for AIR (Association of Independents in Radio) Jeanette seeks out innovative stories and diverse voices to bolster media's reflection and representation of multilayered and diverse people and topics.

She is a skilled producer, story editor, and reporter who has worked in public media, documentary film and digital news. She created The Remix, the first podcast at NPR member station WHYY and co-produced the Cosby Unraveled podcast.

Jeanette is an advocate for equality of racial and gender representation in media. She is a volunteer mentor for NPR's Next Generation Radio training project and a cohort member of Take The Lead’s 50 Women Can Change the World program in journalism.

Joanna  Wikander

Radio Show Host/Gtown Radio Board Member

Joanna Wikander, originally hailing from New Jersey, has lived in Mt. Airy section of Philadelphia for the past 10 years. Currently employed by Comcast Spotlight, Joanna is a media sales professional with over 20 years of experience in Regional/National TV, Radio and Digital advertising sales.

Joanna has strong roots in community broadcasting. Her love for community radio started in her adolescence when she began volunteering at a Free-Format community radio station, WFMU-FM. Happily she fulfilled marathon premium mailers, executed donor data entry, and screened music for profanity just so she could be around a community radio station. While at WFMU-FM she engineered a weekly program - RadioActive Theater. Passions continued for community radio when she transferred to Rowan University and got involved in the University’s radio station WGLS-FM. As a student she hosted multiple programs: The Early Bird, The Cosmic Lounge, and The Secrets of Lipstick and held the position of the Music Director. As an alumni she continued her involvement with WGLS-FM, returning during the summers of 2004 - 2011 to host a weekly specialty music program, UnderSigned.

Currently, Joanna is the host a weekly radio show The Sunday Dinner Mix Tape, broadcasting on 92.9 WGGT-LP Gtown Radio. In July of 2018 Joanna joined the Gtown Radio Board. Since her involvement with Gtown Radio, Joanna has spread headed fundraising initiatives and coordinated station outreach and participation in community events.

In this day and age of media consolidation, the LPFM movement has the power to provide a voice to the voiceless and a media outlet for a community, providing opinions, sounds, and art not found elsewhere. Community Radio has the power to inform, enlighten, entertain and unite a community.

Jos Duncan

Program Director, WURD Radio 96.1 FM/900 AM

Jos Duncan is a multimedia producer, social entrepreneur, and public speaker. She is the Program Director at WURD Radio 96.1FM/900am, and founder of Love Now Media, a social enterprise with a mission to build empathy through impact strategy, participatory design, and storytelling. She has consulted for start-ups, non-profit organizations, museums, and artists to develop brands and produce projects from conception through completion.

Robert Drake

Host/Producer, WXPN-FM

Robert Drake has worked in Philadelphia media and public relations for almost thirty-nine years. For the past thirty-one years, Robert has been with WXPN-FM as producer of the Peabody Award-winning program Kids Corner with Kathy O’Connell.

Additionally, Robert hosts Q’zine: a queer audio magazine (since 1996) and Land Of The Lost, a monthly Rock of the 80s program (since 2004).

Robert has won over two-dozen broadcasting awards including the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award for Excellence in Broadcasting and the Major Armstrong Award for Programming Innovations and Creative Use of Radio.

Prior to WXPN, Drake was co-founder and general manager of Au Courant Newsmagazine, a gay & lesbian newsweekly in Philadelphia from its inception in 1982 through 1986. Drake was also founder and publisher of Swirl Magazine – a full-color nightlife guide to Philadelphia.

Robert also wears the official club DJ hat (headphones?), having hosted Sex Dwarf, Philly’s only New Wave Dance Party since 2003.

http://DJRobertDrake.com

Marangeli Mejia Rabell

Co Founder, AfroTaino Productions Festival Director, PHLAFF

Marángeli Mejía Rabell is a Puerto Rico-born, Philadelphia-based cultural producer and community development practitioner whose work is centered on cross sector partnerships, collective impact arts & culture as a tool for social change and community revitalization. As Co-Founder of AfroTaino Productions, she curates, co-designs and executes arts/culture programming, campaigns, special events and projects in public and private arena targeting multicultural audiences. She also serves as the Philadelphia Latino Film Festival Director. Some of her most recent collaborations include Pepon Osorio’s reForm at Tyler Contemporary and BrideNext, a Building Audience Demand project with Marty Pottenger and Bienvenidos Blancos with Team Sunshine Performance Corporation.

Melissa Beatriz Skolnick

Independent Filmmaker

Melissa Beatriz Skolnick is a documentary filmmaker, media artist, and writer. Her work focuses on the intersection of racial/immigrant justice, cultural organizing, and social policy. Since 2010, she has collaborated with grassroots groups and media arts organizations throughout Philadelphia, with roles in communications, development, community engagement, film programming, teaching, and production. Her documentary work has been supported by Doc Society’s Good Pitch Local Philadelphia 2018, Double Exposure Scholars program 2018, Sundance Institute’s 2017 New Frontier Philadelphia Day Lab intensive, and the Public VR Lab. She is a Leeway Foundation Art & Change (2019, 2012) and Window of Opportunity (2017) grantee, and an MMP Movement Media Fellow (2014). She is a member of several media collectives, including Brown Girls Doc Mafia and CAMRA.

Michael Kuetemeyer

Associate Professor, Temple University
Co-director, Termite TV Collective

Michael Kuetemeyer is an award winning media artist and teacher of experimental and documentary media. He is a recipient of a 2017 Pew Fellowship and a is a founding member of Termite TV Collective. His work has been broadcast on PBS and screened at festivals and museums worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Flaherty Film Seminar & the Museum of Television and Radio, New York. He has been an Artist in Residence at the Village of Arts & Humanities as well as the Asian Arts Initiative in Philadelphia. He is committed to creating innovative, socially engaged participatory media art projects with communities. He has taught media production in India as a Fulbright Senior Scholar, in the United Arab Emirates as part of the USIS Specialist Exchange Program and in Cambodia as 2017 US State Department American Arts Incubator Artist. Michael currently teaches in the Film & Media Arts department at Temple University.
 

Sreedevi Sripathy

Director of Programming and Production at WHYY

Sreedevi is the Director of Production and Programming WHYY-TV, where she leads efforts to grow the impact of WHYY’s television service on people of the Philadelphia region, in the nation's fourth largest media market. Previously she worked at the Independent Television Service (ITVS), as the Managing Director of Distribution and Content Management, working with independent filmmakers, public television distributors and digital partners on the distribution of independent documentaries representing underserved voices and audiences. She supported the presentation of the Emmy award winning weekly series Independent Lens on PBS and the international documentary series, Global Voices on the WORLD channel. Sreedevi holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology from the University of California, San Diego

Wendy Cox

Film/Television Producer

A native of suburban Philadelphia and current denizen of Center City, Wendy spent 16 years in Los Angeles working on feature films you've most probably seen: Se7en, Dumb and Dumber, American History X and Blade II to name a few older projects. Recently, Wendy produced a short film based on Poulenc's opera, La Voix Humaine, a narrative treatment of the one act opera, with Director James Darrah and Soprano Patricia Racette and supported by Opera Philadelphia. Currently, Wendy is Producing a Philly unit of the hit NBC series, This is Us.