Brian Gersten is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, editor, and teacher based in NY's Hudson Valley. His films have gone on to screen in ten countries and at dozens of film festivals around the globe. Brian's timely short documentary The Great Toilet Paper Scare premiered at Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in 2020 before going on a successful festival run, and his newest short documentary Balloon Boy won Best Short Director at Melbourne Documentary Film Festival in 2023 and subsequently received a Vimeo Staff Pick in 2024. Much of Brian's work can be seen on the likes of PBS, Amazon Prime, Kanopy, and The Atlantic. His films have been written about and featured in Forbes, Film Inquiry, The AV Club, and CBS Sunday Morning.


In addition to making short documentaries through his production company, Sufficient Films, Brian also works as a feature documentary editor. In 2019, Brian edited his first feature documentary Searching for Mr. Rugoff, which had its festival premiere at DOC NYC, its streaming premiere on the Criterion Channel, and is currently 100% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. Brian's most recent feature doc credits include the Netflix documentary Radical Wolfe, which examines the life and work of author Tom Wolfe, and Enter The Slipstream, a Peacock sports documentary that follows the EF Pro Cycling team through the 2020 Tour de France. Aside from making films, Brian has also taught filmmaking courses and workshops at Rutgers University, Northwestern University, and the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies.

Originally from Kansas, Sav Rodgers is a filmmaker whose feature directorial debut CHASING CHASING AMY (Tribeca ‘23) explores the complicated legacy of Chasing Amy (1997) and its profound impression on his life. The TED Talk he gave in 2018 kickstarted this filmmaking journey, and spurred the writing of scripts that center on highly specific, surprising stories about queer people. Named to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Media List in 2024, his screenplays have been recognized by GLAAD, Outfest, and ScreenCraft, among others. Sav is also the Founder and Executive Director of the Transgender Film Center, a nonprofit aiming to help trans creators bring finished films to audiences around the world. In 2025, Sav received the SXSW Community Service Award for Film & TV for his work at TFC.

Karen is associate professor of Film and Television at the University of Bradford (United Kingdon). She is co-producer of the audio project New Postscripts: Reinventing J.B. Priestley’s BBC broadcasts for a diverse and contemporary Bradford (2023) and has published on representation and natural history, advertising, theatre adaptation and documentary. She has written several film and media literacy resources and has delivered education-events across the museum sector, including organising conferences celebrating British independent television and the representation of animals on screen. Her latest publication Rolling Thunder Review and the (re)presentation of history is available in Marley, K. (2023) The Place of Poetics in Documentary Filmmaking: The Art of Fact Cambridge Press, with has two forthcoming chapters ‘Audacious spectacle or postmodern deconstruction? NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD – REMIX’ in Roche, D., Boutang, A. and Cornillon, C. (Eds.) Beyond Zombie Politics: The Art of George A. Romero’s Cinema University of Mississippi Press and ‘ Representing the real: Storyville, Spectacle and Public Service Broadcasting’ in Dean, L., Zhu, Z., Kishore, V., Whyke, W. and Frenneaux, R. (Eds) The Bloomsbury Handbook to Contemporary Global Documentary Bloomsbury, both due for publication later in 2025.

Hamidreza was born and raised in Tehran, Iran. After a successful career working as a senior editor and producer for IRIB (Iranian Republic of Iran Broadcasting), he made his international debut as a film-maker with ‘Cutstein’, a short film criticising censorship and media control. ‘Cutstein’ went on to be nominated in 44 film festivals worldwide, winning 10 of them, including Grand Prize of Best Documentary short at Flicker Rhode Island Film Festival and here at DFFB. Following this success, Hamidreza relocated to the UK to pursue postgraduate studies at Sheffield Hallam University, and then to become part of the Centre of Experimental Practice at the University of Huddersfield. He is currently working on several exciting film projects, together with an international team of fellow creatives.

Jamie Swaby is a filmmaker and writer from Manchester, UK, whose work explores themes of vulnerability, identity, and community. Deeply rooted in his experiences growing up in Longsight, his storytelling often reflects the realities of working-class life and the impact environment has on shaping identity and opportunity. His short films have screened at festivals across the UK and internationally, with his latest project, a hybrid live-action/animation film, currently in post-production, supported by the BFI. Alongside his directing work, Jamie is developing a slate of narrative projects for the screen. He is passionate about creating space for underrepresented voices and regularly collaborates with emerging artists across disciplines.

Ivan Mack is an artist who works with analogue and digital technologies to produce
objects, sculptures and mixed reality installations. He is based in Bradford, where he
worked for 15 years as a technologist for an Arts Council England National Portfolio
Organisation supporting artists to use technology in their work before embarking on
a solo career as an artist at the start of 2024, with support from an Arts Council
England “Developing Your Creative Practice” grant. He was one of eight artists
awarded “Explore” funding by Bradford Producing Hub in 2024, and was awarded a
bursary from the Artist Information Company (a-n) in 2025. Ivan is also a sound
designer and musician, primarily working with field recordings and found sounds.
Alongside Actor/Writer/Director Dermot Daly, under the collective name of Chocolate
Bear, Ivan has co-directed and produced several narrative short films that have won
awards in multiple categories on the international short film circuit. In 2024 Dermot
and Ivan released their first feature film, “Marsham” shot with zero budget over 14
days in the summer of 2023. Together they have continued to develop zero-micro
budget filmmaking practices as a means of circumventing gatekeeping in the
industry.
Ivan’s sculptural work reimagines the world through our interaction with technology,
and is playful with expectations of scale and permanence. His current work is
exploring the relationship between Neurodivergent modes of seeing and
experiencing the world and his artistic process by placing technology and systems
into precarious environments, or by utilising ubiquitous technology in ways other than
expected. His work also explores themes around sustainability, climate change,
post-civilisation milieux, and deep time.

Jan is a writer, filmmaker and Co-Director of Bradford International Film Festival (BradIFF). She was in the inaugural cohort of Screen Yorkshire’s The Mayor’s Script Diversity Programme funded by West Yorkshire Combined Authority and is a member of New Writing North’s Bradford Script Hub funded by Channel 4. She is also currently being mentored by Paines Plough to write a full-length stage play. Her company EmJay Arts produces films and theatre. Her most recent screenplay, ‘Only Words’ won best short screenplay at Leedsflix 2025 and is in the finals of two other script competitions. Production is planned for later this year.

Kenton is a writer/director from Bradford, with a passion for exploring stories about underrepresented characters, particularly those who are working-class and minority ethnic. After training as an actor at RADA, he has been a member of the Royal Court Writers group and the Soho Theatre writers group.

He currently has an animation in development with Bright little Labs and WarnerBros. Discovery, and has just written and directed his first feature length documentary for ITV. His one man show MyMan was performed at the Camden Peoples theatre, and is currently being adapted into a film for the BFI. Kenton also works in television as a producer director on factual and factual-entertainment shows, and has written & directed three short film that have won awards at festivals in the UK & Europe.

Dermot tells stories. Sometimes these happen as award nominated and/or winning films. With film company Chocolate Bear, he has written, produced and/or directed 20+ films; most recently 'Marsham'. Outside of filmmaking (and amongst many other things), he is also a theatre and audio drama director, dramaturg, academic researcher and lecturer.