2021 IBWF JURORS
Portrait by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
Daughters of the Dust is a fictionalized telling of her father's Gullah family who lived off the coast of the Southeastern United States. The film features black women's stories, striking visuals shot on location and a non-linear narrative. It's included in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress for its cultural, historical and aesthetic significance."[5] Dash has written two books on Daughters of the Dust—a "making of" history co-written with Toni Cade Bambara and bell hooks, and a sequel, set 20 years after the film's story.
Daughters of the Dust was named one of the most significant films of the last 30 years, by IndieWire.[6]
Dash has worked in television since the late 1990s. Her television movies include Funny Valentines (1999), Incognito (1999), Love Song (2000), and The Rosa Parks Story (2002), starring Angela Bassett. The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center commissioned Dash to direct Brothers of the Borderland in 2004, as an immersive film exhibit narrated by Oprah Winfrey following the path of women gaining freedom on the Underground Railroad.[7][8] In 2017, Dash directed episodes of Queen Sugar on the Oprah Winfrey Network.
At the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, it was announced Dash's next project will be a biopic of civil rights icon Angela Davis, to be produced by Lionsgate.
In 1991, he founded Ken Sunshine Consultants (later to become Sunshine Sachs) and over the past three decades his firm has represented clients ranging from leading corporations, nonprofits, and unions, to some of the most prominent names in entertainment. Sunshine Sachs has 200 employees, with offices in with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Washington D.C. Atlanta and Austin, and specializes in media relations, corporate image programs, crisis communications, reputation and issues management, event promotion, and communications skills training.
Ken Sunshine currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the City University of New York, the Board of Directors of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Community Service Society, the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, the Type Media Center, the Mayor’s Fund to Advance NYC and is a voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In addition, he has recently been appointed to both the Governor’s and Mayor’s Task Forces on Economic Recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over the course of his career, Sunshine has received many accolades for his achievements, which include the City and State Responsible 100 Lifetime Achievement Award, the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, the National Action Network’s Presidents Award and its Dream Keepers Award, the Amsterdam News Friendship Award, the Bella Abzug Leadership Institute’s Bella Fella Award, among other honors for his leadership in the civil rights movement.
handmade food company, Sticky Acres.
Golden Globe® winning Producer working under the banner of Antidote Films, the
company he founded in 2000. He has also directed two documentaries.
Kusama-Hinte's latest production was John Turturro's FADING GIGOLO, starring Mr.
Turturro, Sharon Stone, Sofia Vergara, Liev Schreiber, and Vanessa Paradis. Prior to this,
his most recent production was Lisa Cholodenko's THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT,
starring Annette Bening, Julianne Moore, and Mark Ruffalo. This film received four
Academy Award® nominations, including Best Picture, and four Golden Globe®
nominations, winning two Golden Globes® for Best Actress (Annette Bening) and Best
Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy).
Kusama-Hinte directed and produced the documentaries CHARLOTTE: A WOODEN
BOAT STORY and SOUL POWER, which screened at the Toronto and Berlin
International Film Festivals, and won the Los Angeles Film Festival Audience Award.
Kusama-Hinte also produced the documentary THE DUNGEON MASTERS, directed by
Keven McAlester, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, and
Marina Zenovich’s ROMAN POLANSKI: WANTED AND DESIRED, which received
five Primetime Emmy® Awards nominations, winning two Emmys® for Outstanding
Writing and Outstanding Directing for Nonfiction Programming. Kusama-Hinte’s other
productions include the critically acclaimed eco-horror thriller THE LAST WINTER
directed by Larry Fessenden, the Jon Reiss-directed graffiti documentary BOMB IT,
Julian Goldberger’s THE HAWK IS DYING, Gregg Araki’s MYSTERIOUS SKIN,
Catherine Hardwicke’s THIRTEEN, Lisa Cholodenko’s LAUREL CANYON and HIGH
ART, and Larry Fessenden’s WENDIGO.
Jeffrey Kusama-Hinte resides in Brooklyn New York, with his spouse and two children.
He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and serves as
Chairperson of the Board of Trustees for Type Media Center and as Treasurer of Board of
the Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival.
Robyn Greene Arrington is an award-winning creative consultant with varied experience in the media industry. Her superpower is producing. Writing is her gift. And now, she has added directing to her portfolio.
As Head of Programming & Production at TV One & Cleo TV, she was an integral part of the team that shaped the networks' creative vision for scripted, documentary, non-fiction, lifestyle, and digital content. Robyn was a driving force behind the networks' most acclaimed content, including the top-rated movies "Bobbi Kristina," When Love Kills," "Love Under New Management: The Miki Howard Story;" the investigative crime & justice limited series "Two Sides of the Truth," which Viola Davis narrated and executive produced; and the multi-award-winning music documentary series, "Unsung."
Early in her career, Robyn worked in creative services at HBO, Lifetime, A&E, and BET. Producing "Hav Plenty," the nationally distributed, theatrically-released indie, remains a highlight of her career. Greene Arrington holds a Master of Science in television-radio-film production from Syracuse University and a Bachelor of Art in broadcast journalism from NYU.
Robyn's mother taught her, "you can't take anything to the grave," and her father showed by example the importance of social responsibility. Thus she frequently "pays it forward" by mentoring, giving speeches, participating on panels, and in other events that contribute to the growth of aspiring souls.
She is in constant search of the ultimate mind-body-soul spa experience. Her other extracurricular activities are meditating, spending time with her family, aqua fitness, traveling, reading, frequenting museums, watching films and documentaries.
Early in her career, Robyn worked in creative services at HBO, Lifetime, A&E, and BET. Producing "Hav Plenty," the nationally distributed, theatrically-released indie, remains a highlight of her career. Greene Arrington holds a Master of Science in television-radio-film production from Syracuse University and a Bachelor of Art in broadcast journalism from NYU.
Robyn's mother taught her, "you can't take anything to the grave," and her father showed by example the importance of social responsibility. Thus she frequently "pays it forward" by mentoring, giving speeches, participating on panels, and in other events that contribute to the growth of aspiring souls.
She is in constant search of the ultimate mind-body-soul spa experience. Her other extracurricular activities are meditating, spending time with her family, aqua fitness, traveling, reading, frequenting museums, watching films and documentaries.
Greenfield-Sanders has produced and directed 13 films including Lou Reed: Rock and Roll Heart (Grammy Award, 1998), The Black List (NAACP Spirit award, 2008), The Latino List, The Out List, About Face (HBO), The Boomer List, The Women’s List (PBS), The Trans List (HBO and Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am.
His most recent film, Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2019, played in theaters worldwide, won the NAACP Image Award in 2020 and was nominated for three Emmy Awards that year. The film is currently on Hulu and PBS’ American Masters.
Greenfield-Sanders’ photographs are in numerous museum collections including the Museum of Modern Art, The National Portrait Gallery, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and The Brooklyn Museum.
Greenfield-Sanders’ books have been published by Bulfinch, Atria, Luxury and Powerhouse. He received his B.A. from Columbia University and his M.F.A. from The American Film Institute.
As a former corporate director of Reliance Group Holdings, a publicly held fortune 500 holding company; with 10 years as the first Black to serve as a Trustee on the Board of The Wharton School of Business; and as an advisor for board development for RRE an Information Technology Venture Capital firm with $1.3 Billion under management recognized and respected for building industry-leading companies; her, depth of experience and range of contacts have been key elements in her effectiveness.
Ms. McCabe currently serves on or has been a director on the boards of: Reliance Group Holding; the New York City Investment Fund, L.I.C. (1996-2001); The Wharton School of Business; Bard College; The Deloitte & Touche Diversity Advisory Board; The New York City Partnership (founding member 1981-2001); Research America; New York City Commission on the Status of Women (1982-2002); and The Economic Club of New York. She is currently board president of The Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP) ifp.org.
As President of Jewell Jackson McCabe Associates – a bi-lingual (English-Spanish) management consulting firm specializing in strategic communications, executive coaching and competitiveness training -- including Diversity and Inclusion – she has advised a wide range of corporations in the private and public sector.
These corporations include: American Express; Time Warner; The Coca-Cola Company; Matsushita Electric Corporation of America (Panasonic); International Business Machines Corporation (IBM); Tyco International; The Williams Capital Group; The Royal Bank of Canada; NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc; Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and The College Board. Her strategic communications company is a full service minority owned organization, combining a broad range of marketing skill, competitiveness training on effective internal and external management capabilities.
Ms. McCabe was appointed by President Clinton to the United State Holocaust Memorial Council with oversight of the Holocaust Museum, where she was a member of the Holocaust Council’s congressionally-mandated Committee on Conscience. Governor Mario M. Cuomo appointed Ms. McCabe to the New York State Council on Fiscal and Economic priorities. She was also appointed chair of the New York State’s Job Training Partnership Council federal employment block grant, which spends $250 million dollars annually to train the disadvantaged.
Ms. McCabe is the recipient of two honorary doctorates and numerous awards. She distinguished herself in 1993 as a candidate on the “short list” for the presidency of the NAACP becoming the first woman in 84 years to be considered for chief executive officer of America’s venerable civil rights organization.
Ms. McCabe has been a featured guest on news and general interest programs including Charlie Rose and the Today Show, notably interviewed by Katie Couric, with New York Times columnist and senior writer for The New York Times Magazine, Frank Rich and former Republican National Committee Chair, Haley Barbour, analyzing, President [43rd] Bush’s State of the Union Address.
Jewell Jackson McCabe is the founder and chair of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, which has a membership of 7,000 women in 35 states and the District of Columbia. It was established in 1981 to engage professional black women in a network to meet their career needs and facilitate their access to mainstream America; her overriding objective, as noted in an article in Fortune Magazine, “Is to establish common ground for women-of-color between the public and private sectors.”
At the age of sixteen, Guy-Sheftall entered Spelman College where she majored in English and minored in secondary education. After graduation with honors, she attended Wellesley College for a fifth year of study in English. After a year at Wellesley, she entered Atlanta University to pursue a master’s degree in English. Her thesis was entitled “Faulkner’s Treatment of Women in His Major Novels.” A year later Guy-Sheftall began her first teaching job in the Department of English at Alabama State University in Montgomery, Alabama. In 1971 she returned to her alma mater, Spelman College, and joined the English Department.
Guy-Sheftall has published a number of texts within African American and Women’s Studies which include the first anthology on Black women’s literature, Sturdy Black Bridges: Visions of Black Women in Literature (Doubleday, 1979), which she coedited with Roseann P. Bell and Bettye Parker Smith; her dissertation, Daughters of Sorrow: Attitudes Toward Black Women, 1880-1920 (Carlson, 1991); Words of Fire: An Anthology of African American Feminist Thought (New Press, 1995); an anthology she coedited with Rudolph P. Byrd entitled Traps: African American Men on Gender and Sexuality (Indiana University Press, 2001). Her most recent publication is a coauthored monograph (with Johnnetta Betsch Cole), Gender Talk: The Struggle for Equality in African American Communities, which was published by Random House in 2003. Upcoming publications include an anthology of Audre Lorde’s writings (with Rudolph P. Byrd and Johnnetta Betsch Cole, Oxford University Press); a new edition of But Some of Us Are Brave (with Stanley James and Frances Foster, Feminist Press); and a collection of writings on the race/gender debate during the 2008 U.S. presidential election (with Johnnetta Betsch Cole, SUNY Press). In 1983 she became the founding editor of Sage: A Scholarly Journal on Black Women which was devoted exclusively to the experiences of women of African descent and published from 1983-1996.
Guy-Sheftall is the recipient of numerous fellowships and awards, among them a National Kellogg Fellowship; a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship for dissertations in Women’s Studies; and Spelman’s Presidential Faculty Award for outstanding scholarship. She has been involved with the national women’s studies movement since its inception and provided leadership for the establishment of the first women’s studies major at a historically Black college. Beyond the academy, she has been involved in a number of advocacy organizations which include the National Black Women’s Health Project, the National Council for Research on Women, and the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, on whose boards she has served. In her role as Director of Spelman’s Women’s Center, she has also been involved with the development of student activism around misogynist images of Black women in hip hop as well as a broad range of social justice issues, including reproductive rights and violence against women. She teaches women’s studies courses, including feminist theory and global Black feminism.
Mona is co-founder of Raising Change which develops strategies to close the critical funding gap in mission-driven organizations for social change. She also founded the Asian Women's Leadership University, to bring liberal arts pedagogy to train future women leaders. To date, she has catalyzed close to $1billion for social change initiatives and advised over 87 organizations.
She is currently the Board Chair of Women Moving Millions, a community of women who fund big and bold ($1 million+) to create a gender equal world. She is also the Board Chair of the ERA Coalition Fund for Women’s Equality which seeks to codify the 28th constitutional amendment of equal rights on the basis of sex. She is an Executive Producer of Disclosure, a documentary film on the representation of trans people, which premiered at Sundance in January 2020, was released on Netflix during Pride month in June 2020 and has won numerous media awards.
With a focus on governance, strategic planning and sustainability, Mona serves on several non-profit boards including Breakthrough USA, which uses digital media and popular culture to shift gender norms, and the Center for High Impact Philanthropy at the University of Pennsylvania. She is on the Advisory boards of Apne Aap International to end sex trafficking, and of the Columbia Business School Tamer Center Social Enterprise Program that pioneered the concept of connecting business leaders to purpose beyond profits, and funds social ventures. She also works with the Columbia Global Mental Health program that aims to destigmatize mental health through research and global collaboration. She is a trustee emerita of Smith College, where she was Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees and co-led the $486 million Women for the World capital campaign (the largest to-date for women’s education) as well as the transgender admissions policy.
Mona is a respected philanthropist, financial investor in women-led businesses and mentor to several hundred young people. She has a BA in Economics and Art History (magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) from Smith College and an MBA in Finance and Marketing (Beta Gamma Sigma) from Columbia University. She is a published contributor to "What I Told my Daughter - Lessons from Leaders on Raising the Next Generation of Empowered Women" edited by Nina Tassler & Cynthia Middleton. Her story is featured in She is Me-How Women will Save the World, by Lori Sokol. She is a speaker at global conferences and academic institutions.
In 2021, Columbia Business School will recognize Mona with the Horton Award for Excellence in Social Enterprise. Women's eNews named her one of 21 Leaders for the 21st Century. In 2019, Breakthrough honored Mona with a Lifetime Inspiration award. She received the 2018 Exemplary Leadership in Development award from Smith College. In 2017, Mona was awarded The Last Girl Champion award by Gloria Steinem on behalf of Apne Aap. In 2015, she received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, which is presented annually to US citizens whose accomplishments in their field and service to the world are cause for celebration.