Panelist

Dan Farah

Director/ Producer

“There is a lot of daily activity that is happening, and it really is the biggest issue of our time. But as the film shows, the truth about this situation has been covered up from public, been kept from Congress and even been kept from sitting presidents.”

Panelists

Maxim Derevianko

Writer/ Director/

Cinematographer

Christine La Monte

Producer

Marta Zaccaron

Producer

“Ai Weiwei called this ‘an opera for peace,’ and I feel like we’re all activists. We all agreed that the best art makes you question preconceived ideas and hopefully offers you food for thought and ideas for change.”

Panelists

Bernard MacMahon

Writer/Director

Allison McGourty

Writer/Producer

“He went to these bags he’d brought by the door, poured the contents over the table, and he’d come with all his diaries going back to 1963. That meeting could have lasted 20 minutes or an hour and those bags would never have been opened.”

Panelist

Andrew Abrahams

Director/ Producer/ Principal DP

“It’s complicated because not only can the medical system not accommodate it, also the legal system, the child protective system can’t because basically we just don’t spend time.”

Panelists

Diane Warren

Songwriter/ Subject

Bess Kargman

Director/ Producer

“I’m not all that impressed with myself. If I’m done with the song, even if it’s great, I’m like, ‘OK, what’s next?’ It’s always what’s next.”

Panelist

Andrew Abrahams

Director/ Producer/ Principal DP

“We’ve heard that from distributors, even — that they’re afraid that people will be afraid to see the film. I call it ‘the must-see film you thought you couldn’t watch,’ that it’s something that you’re afraid of watching, but it’s not that difficult to get through.”

Panelists

Patrick Sean O’Brien

Co-Director

Evan Mathis

Co-Director

“One of the things that’s so special about Patrick is that his wonderful, brilliant, creative mind is still all gas no breaks, even inside a body that doesn’t do what his brain wants anymore. For those that don’t have the experience of someone with ALS in their life, it really shows that there’s a lot more going on than initially you would see just from the outside.”

Panelist

Eugene Jarecki

Writer/Director/ Producer

“Interviewing Edward Snowden about Julian Assange felt kind of like interviewing Superman about Batman. It was fascinating. … He’s an extraordinary person, also much smeared and assaulted by U.S. authorities for sharing with the public what we deserve [to know] …”

Panelists

Tamara Kotevska

Director/ Producer

Jean Dakar

Cinematographer/

Producer

“We didn’t expect this would happen on the landfill, and that Nikola will actually have the will and the decision to take care of this hurt animal. So that naturally prolonged the shooting for another year. … It [became] the third act of the film that brought a lot of hope to all of us.”

Panelist

Abraham Joffe

Director/ Producer

“I remember the first film I ever saw was Hoop Dreams that gave me that feeling of like, ‘Wow,’ to follow a story for so many years, not knowing how it would play out. I’d always sought to find such a story, and this for me certainly was that.”

Panelist

Maciej J Drygas

Writer/Director

“During one of my cardiology appointments, I actually recorded the sound of my heart beating. It’s barely, barely perceivable, but this way I kind of put my stamp on it. I literally inserted my heart into this work.”

Panelists

Yvonne Russo

Writer/Director/ Producer

Christine La Monte

Writer/Producer

Nicholas Pike

Music Composer

“When I walked in for the first time, I could hear almost like sonic colors that were floating through the hallways. I just knew, wow, this place is pretty magical. … Giuseppe Verdi willed his fortune to create this home, and there’s no other place like it in the world.”