Yaara Bou Melhem is an intrepid independent journalist and filmmaker. Yaara’s films include exclusive reports where she crawls through Syrian rebel-held tunnels, films in lawless Libyan jails after the fall of Gaddafi, explores taboo subjects like youth suicide in remote Aboriginal communities, and reports more uplifting stories about doctors giving free health care in Nepal and conservation efforts in New Zealand. She has made two observational documentaries for Witness, Al Jazeera English about an Aboriginal man creating an independent Indigenous nation and two young women in Saudi Arabia hosting a design event that is pushing boundaries of art and tradition. She is currently completing her third film for the program about a Filipina editor battling against the forces manipulating social media giants to undermine democracies worldwide. Yaara is currently developing a feature documentary film, The Investigative Artist, a part human, part artificial intelligence–driven journey into the visualizations of one of the world’s leading contemporary artists as he battles to reveal the invisible forces shaping our lives and futures. She is also developing the series The Spectacle. Yaara has won two UN Media Peace Awards, a Bronze Medal at the New York Festival, a Hong Kong Human Rights Press Award and a Walkley Award for her reporting in Australia, Asia and the MENA region.

Lee Constable is a presenter and producer with a focus on science, technology and society. As the host of Australian science TV show, Scope, she researches, writes, presents and produces segments on diverse STEM topics. Lee’s background is in both science and the humanities, with a Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Science Communication. She has toured remote and regional Australia as a Questacon Science Circus presenter; founded, produced and hosted social justice and sustainability radio show, SoapBox; and is the founder of Co-Lab: Science Meets Street Art, where collaborations between scientists and street artists result in science-inspired murals that evolve live for the public. This year Lee was on board the largest ever all-female expedition to Antarctica with 80 international women in STEM. Lee filmed this adventure and is currently developing a YouTube series about the experience and the role of women in the planet’s future.

Katharine Fish is a development producer and producer who has worked on projects covering extremism and teen obesity, to wildlife conservation and A.I. social experiments. Having started her career in feature films, she went on to work at BBC Arts and then Double Act TV. There, she worked on documentaries for Channel 4, including The Robot Will See You Now and The Emergency Chefs, as well as developing projects for a range of British and international broadcasters. Since starting as a Producer at Sundog Pictures in October 2017, she has developed several projects to commission for Channel 4, the BBC and YouTube Red on subjects ranging from big brand access and gun control to anorexia and a series presented by Priyanka Chopra. While at Sundog Pictures, she has also produced and directed a documentary short for BBC3 called I Survived an Eating Disorder.

Ann Megalla is an independent and broadcast professional bringing over 15 years producing/directing factual content. Ann searches out stories across the globe and her work has taken her from Australia to Europe and the Middle East. Recently Ann was working on the reality series Go Back to Where You Come From Live, a multi-award-winning CJZ Production for SBSTV. Previously she has built a dynamic track record in short content production and promotions for leading broadcasters including The National Geographic Channel, UKTV / BBC Studios Australia and ABCTV.

Currently under her production company Fortuna Films, Ann’s slate for local and international markets includes factual entertainment and technology series The Spectacle, showcasing the biggest live shows in the entertainment world; Middle Eastern arts and culture–driven feature documentaries Rafik Majzoub The Screw and Remembering Palestine; plus Australian biopic feature drama The Sentimental Girl in co-production with The Full Box. Ann was named Screen Producers Association ‘Ones to Watch’ 2017, won SPA’s professional development award and is a recipient of SBS Diversity Talent Escalator Program 2018.

Joy Ng is a video producer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. She splits her time between Earth and sun science, covering stories from the effects of climate change on hurricane intensity to the mystery of the sun’s atmosphere, which is much hotter than its surface. Joy was recognized as one of NASA’s Videographers of the Year for her work documenting a field and airborne campaign to better understand water storage in snow over Colorado’s mountains. Her work at NASA has been featured by The Washington Post, NPR, The New York Times, and Vox. She has worked on productions for PBS, Discovery, National Geographic, The Royal Institution, and The Royal Society. She is a former biologist and a graduate of Imperial College London’s Science Communication Unit. She grew up in the UK and currently lives in Washington, D.C.

Ansell Tan is an independent filmmaker based in Singapore and Beijing. Prior to producing and directing, he was a video editor exploring the visual side of things. His past work covered topics on human interest, architecture and urban planning, and eventually moved focus to the narrative side of things. Having worked on both English and Chinese projects, he often wonders about their nuances in storytelling, just like he used to wonder about his own multicultural Filipino-Chinese roots. He was awarded a Bronze World Medal in New York Film Festival for Factory Towns in 2014, and a Silver World Medal for Futuropolis in 2018, a CG-animated series depicting a futuristic Singapore set in 2065. Currently he is co-producing a human interest feature documentary in China for Tencent Foundation, related to the restoration of the Great Wall.

Cecilia Vargas is a Mexican biologist with a Master of Science in Science Media Production from Imperial College London. Her career shifted towards wildlife filmmaking while working on The Bat Man of Mexico (1x60´, BBC2). Through her documentary work she wishes to explore the socio-political issues that drive us towards the degradation of the natural world, whilst telling the stories of those who fight to protect it. In 2016, she produced two short films about the Syrian refugee crisis in Lebanon for the UN. Returning to specialist factual, Cecilia completed the research for Ciencia en Todos Lados (Science Everywhere, 13x30´, Inmedia for Canal14), coordinating the production of four episodes. Cecilia co-founded the production company Zinzuni Media in 2017, directing their first co-production, Spiders (1x10´, M31 Medios for CuriosityStream). In her spare time, she enjoys capturing the natural world on canvas.

Sophie Wiesner has a passion for real stories. Her debut documentary Call Me Dad was broadcast on the ABC: “Pick of the Week” (SMH), “Pick of the Day” (The Age), “a high-stakes, extraordinary journey” (TV Tonight), “Unmissable viewing” (The AU Review). It was nominated for Best Standalone Documentary at the Australian Directors Guild Awards and Best Single Documentary at the Screen Producers Australia Awards. She has produced and directed on high profile and critically acclaimed programs including the ABC’s Keeping Australia Alive, Keeping Australia Safe and Country Town Rescue, SBS's Look Me in the Eye and Channel 10’s Bondi Vet. Her short film Marla was selected for the Venice International Film Festival. Her shorts have also screened at the Chicago International Film Festival, Brisbane International Film Festival and Frameline Film Festival, amongst others. She is currently working across Media Stockade’s development slate as Development Producer, alongside independent projects.