Oscars And Indices: Case Studies On Storytelling For Impact
Speakers
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Director, JustFilms, Ford Foundation
Cara Mertes’ career focuses on supporting and connecting independent film communities globally as a public television executive, independent executive producer/director, funder, curator and teacher. Currently Director of Ford Foundation’s JustFilms, she funds content, networks and leadership fostering independent film/digital storytelling. She has served as Director, Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program and Fund and Executive Producer of the POV documentary series on PBS, where she was awarded with multiple Emmy, George Foster Peabody, and duPont-Columbia awards. She has executive produced several Oscar-nominated films, including Street Fight, My Country My Country and The Betrayal (Nerakhoon) and led major Ford Foundation funding and support for Academy Award winner CITIZENFOUR. She served as executive director of American Documentary Inc., and has taught and written about the independent documentary movement. Mertes is a member of NATAS, WGA and AMPAS.
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Executive Vice President, Social Action and Advocacy, Participant Media
Chad Boettcher is Executive Vice President, Social Action and Advocacy at Participant Media, the entertainment company devoted to feature film, television, and digital content that inspires social change. Boettcher is responsible for leading the creation, development and execution of strategies that leverage Participant’s content and investments across all its lines of business for social impact.
Under Boettcher’s leadership, the company has worked with experts and influencers to create dozens of social impact campaigns for films like Lincoln, Snitch, Middle of Nowhere, A Place at the Table, Last Call at the Oasis and Cesar Chavez; and for TV shows like the Emmy®-winning HitRECord on TV, Human Resources and Please Like Me. His team also leads digital initiatives that activate communities on important issues of the day, and manages the 100+ NGOs who have joined Participant’s Social Action Network.
Prior to joining Participant, Boettcher developed social innovation strategies and community affairs programming at MTV, Nike and Weber Shandwick; and worked for the US presidential campaigns of both Al Gore (2000) and Barack Obama (2008).
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Producer, Strongheart Group
CORI SHEPHERD STERN is an Academy Award nominated producer focused on both documentary and fiction film projects. Her most recent film, which she wrote and produced, is BENDING THE ARC - a feature documentary about the epic arc of the global health rights movement through the intimate story of the extraordinary team who led the fight. The film, which premiered at Sundance 2017, was called by The Hollywood Reporter "a stunning documentary...a glorious and uplifting film."
Cori's past projects include WARM BODIES, a box office smash for Summit/Lionsgate and OPEN HEART, a 2013 Oscar nominee for Best Documentary Short Subject. She has a first-look producing deal with Rocklin|Faust, producers of Oscar-winning Best Picture SPOTLIGHT. Current projects include THE ARIZONA PROJECT with Miramax and Adaptive Entertainment, a narrative feature. Cori has also executive produced two virtual reality films: COLLISIONS, which premiered at Davos and Sundance 2016, and FRANCIS, which premiered at the World Bank and WHO in support of world body policy change for global mental health.
In addition to film, her experience includes hands-on work as a social change strategist and social entrepreneur. She appeared in the Sundance Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award winning documentary SONITA, working to help the young woman/rapper escape child marriage in Afghanistan and pursue her art. Cori's social justice projects have been featured on BBC, NPR, The Today Show, and The Oprah Winfrey Show.
