FROM PITCH TO PREMIERE: THE REAL DEAL ON DISTRIBUTION & LIVE SPEED PITCH SESSION

OTV

Elijah is an award-winning entrepreneur, strategist and visionary from the future currently residing on planet earth.  They received a Bachelors of Science from the Art Institute of San Francisco in Marketing and Management with a focus in Campaign Development and New Media studies. In addition to serving as the Founder and Director of People Who Care, Inc., their independent consultancy and studio practice that works exclusively with nonprofits and grassroots initiatives such as AIDS Foundation Chicago, Northwestern University, Grindr for Equality,  and many more; they are also deeply involved in queer, creative and philanthropic communities around the globe. Currently, Elijah serves as the Co-Founder and Executive Director of OTV - Open Television, an Emmy-nominated non-profit streaming platform and media incubator that supports the cultivation of equitable and sustainable careers in the Film/TV industry for storytellers marginalized by their race, class, gender, sexuality, disability and nationality.

They are constantly moving and shaking in an attempt to build meaningful relationships and encourage resource sharing. Elijah co-produced and starred in Chicago's #PrEP4Love campaign, an award-winning and groundbreaking globally recognized initiative; is the former Co-Founder and Development Director of Reunion Chicago, an exhibition space and project incubator prioritized for LGBTQ+ and BIPOC in creative roles; and is the co-founder and Head of Strategy of The Blaq Agenda , a social-experiment and collective indexing the intersection of Black and Queer experiences, identities and histories.

Elijah’s artistic practice and activism sit at the intersections of healing, wellness, race, sexuality, gender, new media and storytelling. Their work explores themes of space-making, liberation, and resilience as seen in their highly acclaimed web series, Two Queens in a Kitchen (S1-S3), a turn-to-relevance cooking show exploring art, culture and politics; their web series developed in partnership with University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill and Duke University, Good Enough, a limited digital series exploring coming out, chosen family, depression, HIV-prevention and sexual health; and THANDO, Elijah’s first feature- length film exploring black, queer vulnerability was written and produced in Johannesburg, South Africa. They are currently developing their next feature-length film, Nothing But Clarity Remains, a psychedelic love letter to Black virtuosity, queer transcendence, and trans sorcery, all set during a meditative long drive through the Eastern Cape of South Africa.

Elijah’s professional, artistic, and advocacy work has been covered by the Forbes, The Advocate, Chicago Tribune, Out Magazine, CBS, VICE, Pride, PBS  and many more publications. They have performed and exhibited work around the globe in spaces such as the Museum for Contemporary Art Chicago, Soho House, The Labia Theatre (South Africa) , Raúl Anguiano Art Museum (Mexico) and more.

Over the years, Elijah’s work ethic and commitment to equitable solutions have garnered awards and acknowledgements including but not limited to being  one of dozen social entrepreneurs from around the globe to receive the 2023 Elevate Prize Foundation Annual Award;  a finalist of the Grinnell College Innovator in Social Justice Prize in 2021; a recipient of the prestigious New Leaders of Chicago award by the Field Foundation of Illinois and MacArthur Foundation in 2020; acknowledged as New City's Film 50 Issue as one of the Top 10 of 50 individuals changing the landscape of film in 2019; and in 2016 Elijah was named “Top 30 Under 30 LGBT People" in Chicago, Illinois by the Windy City Times and was invited to the first African-American LGBTQ Education Summit at The White House under the Obama Administration.

FOX

Stephen Brown is currently the EVP of Programming and Development for Fox First Run and Fox Television Stations and oversees the syndicated programs: Divorce Court with Judge Star Jones, 25 Words or Less with Meredith Vieira, and Battleground NYC: The Fight for Your Vote hosted by SE Cupp. He also co-manages strategy, programming and production at Fox Soul, a streaming platform serving the African American audience. Part of Stephen’s responsibilities at the station group is to consult on programming initiatives at the local O&Os - and help develop non-traditional news and talk programming. Prior to joining Fox as an executive in August 2005, Stephen Brown spent 17 years producing reality and game shows for network, cable and syndication, among them, the prime-time game show Winning Lines for CBS and Pyramid, starring Donny Osmond. Brown also co-created Shop ‘til You Drop, and the CableAce-winning Legends of the Hidden Temple, a kids’ game show on Nickelodeon, testing both brains and brawn and set in a fictional Mayan ruin. Brown was also Executive Producer on Sony Pictures Television's The Newlywed Game revival with Bob Eubanks. In 1995 Brown served as Vice President of Development for The Travel Channel before it was bought by The Discovery Channel. A native of upstate New York, Brown graduated from Colgate University and initially worked as an English teacher in Greenwich, Connecticut. His first television position was as a writer on Love Connection.

Vanishing Angle

Natalie Metzger is a Spirit Award-nominated producer and Vice President of Production & Development at Vanishing Angle, where she champions bold, genre-defying independent films. She has brought to life an impressive variety of features and shorts that have earned acclaim across the world, premiering at Cannes, Sundance, Berlinale, SXSW, Tribeca, and more. Her producing credits include It Ain’t Over (Sony Pictures Classics, WGA Award nominee), Thunder Road (SXSW Grand Jury Winner), Werewolves Within (IFC), Greener Grass (Sundance), The Wolf of Snow Hollow (MGM/Orion), The Beta Test (Berlinale), Spoonful of Sugar (Shudder), Poof (Cannes), The Robbery (Sundance), Alden Ehrenreich’s Shadow Brother Sunday (Tribeca), and upcoming Tina Romero’s Queens of the Dead (Tribeca Audience Award). She is currently in post-production on coming of age drama Under the Lights (Lake Bell, Randall Park, Mark Duplass, Nick Offerman) and murder mystery comedy Kill Me (Charlie Day, Allison Williams, Giancarlo Esposito, Aya Cash). 

She is also an award-winning writer/director whose credits include feature documentary ALONE IN THE GAME (AFI Docs, Outfest), Hulu’s Bite Size Halloween SLEEP STUDY (Best Horror - Indy Shorts), sci-fi short IMMORTAL (Best Narrative Short - Eastern Oregon Film Festival), and feature documentary SPECIAL BLOOD (Dolores Huerta Award for Best Director). Her feature script AMORTAL won the Gold Prize at the Page International Screenwriting Awards, the Grand Prize in Screencraft’s Sci-Fi Screenwriting Competition, and is in the top 1% of Coverfly’s Red List.  Her poignant PSAs and commercials, like “Topless Women Talk NFL,” have been featured in The Washington Post and Vice and have earned top honors such as Platinum “Best of Show” at the Aurora Awards and Telly Awards.

She has been an Artist In Residence at Sundance, Producer in Residence at Film Independent, and an alum of CoverFly’s Endorsed Writers Program and Eastern Oregon’s Filmmaker Residency. 

Metzger holds an MFA from CalArts and graduated Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Emory University, where she was also honored with the Sudler Award in the Arts and the Pioneer Award.

The Film Collaborative

Jeffrey Winter is the Co-Executive Director of The Film Collaborative, his areas of specialty are niche distribution/marketing and festival/nontheatrical distribution. Jeffrey’s previous experience includes managing U.S. sales/acquisitions for the largest media conglomerate in Spain (Sogepaq, Sogetel, & Sogecine), handling grassroots marketing for L.A.’s two largest film festivals (the Los Angeles Film Festival and AFI FEST), servicing festival distribution for Wolfe Releasing (the world’s largest catalogue of LGBT films), and 11 years as a panel programmer/programming consultant for the Sundance Film Festival’s Digital Center (now called New Frontier on Main). Jeffrey also directed and produced commercial video for numerous companies including Microsoft, Lucas Films, and the California Bar Association, and created/produced the 38- part documentary series FLIQ VIDEO, in association with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and The United Way.