2021 Slamdance Film Festival Jurors

Juan Pablo Gonzalez

Named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film” in 2015, Juan Pablo’s practice spans between fiction and non-fiction cinema and is primarily set in Atotonilco el Alto, his hometown. Juan Pablo is concerned with representations of the rural, drug violence, immigration and the intersection between urban and country life in different communities around the Jalisco Highlands. He has been a grantee of the Mexican National Fund for Culture and Arts and his work has been supported by the Sundance Institute, the Mexican Film Institute, the Tribeca Film Institute and the Venice Biennale.

Effie Brown

Effie T. Brown is the CEO of Gamechanger Films, which launched in 2013 as the first film fund for women filmmakers and now under Brown’s leadership includes projects by and about people of color, LGBTQ+ and people with disabilities as well as its expansion into television and digital content. Brown has produced several critically acclaimed films and award-winning projects including Real Women Have Curves, Dear White People, HBO’s Project Greenlight, among several others. Brown also served as an executive producer on Lee Daniels’ STAR on FOX and Disney Channel’s Zombies. Brown’s dream is to change the world through film and TV – celebrating our differences while bringing us all closer together.

Mark Pellington

Mark Pellington worked at pioneering video channel MTV from 1984–1990, winning awards as a promo producer and co-creating the landmark TV documentary series Buzz (1990). He became a freelance director in 1988, directing music videos for U2, Pearl Jam, Demi Lovato, Foo Fighters, Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen and more. Pellington then began directing feature films, including Going All the Way (1997), Arlington Road (1999) and The Mothman Prophecies (2002). He directed the landmark mini-series The United States of Poetry for PBS and created the look of hit TV pilots including Blindspot, Red Widow, The Enemy Within and Cold Case. Pellington lives in Los Angeles with his daughter and runs his company Prolific Films.

Marina Zenovich

Marina Zenovich is an award-winning filmmaker whose films have been praised for their thoughtful approach to complex subjects and controversial people. Her films include LANCE, Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind, Water & Power: A California Heist, Fantastic Lies, Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic, Roman Polanski: Odd Man Out, Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired (Emmys for Directing and Writing, shared with Joe Bini and P.G. Morgan). She showed her first film, INDEPENDENT’S DAY, at Slamdance in 1998. Photo by Henny Garfunkel

Marie Jamora

Marie Jamora is a writer-director born and raised in Manila, Philippines. Her film, Flip The Record, won the Grand Jury Award for “Best Narrative Short” at Urbanworld and her first feature, What Isn’t There, premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival. She is the director of both seasons of Family Style, an Asian foodie show with Warner Bros. After graduating from Columbia University with an MFA in Film, she returned to Manila to direct music videos, commercials, and television. Marie graduated from AFI’s Directing Workshop for Women and the Warner Bros. Directors’ Workshop and is part of the Lifetime Director Shadowing Program. She is Adjunct Directing Faculty at the American Film Institute

Gabriel Cordell

Gabriel Cordell is an actor and motivational speaker, who happens to be a T6 Paraplegic. He has guest starred on some of television’s biggest shows and has traveled the world sharing his life’s story. ROLL WITH ME, a feature length documentary about Gabriel’s journey across America, was officially selected for Slamdance in 2018. The documentary was quickly picked up for distribution by ARRAY, Ava Duvernay’s production company & can currently be seen on NETFLIX. He is honored to have been asked to be part of this incredible and very needed film festival. He loves and adores everyone involved with UNSTOPPABLE!

Juliet Romeo

Juliet Romeo is a co founder of Slamdance Unstoppable & the founder of Media Jules Production based in Miami. She is an award winning filmmaker, writer and advocate for sickle cell awareness. Juliet’s short documentary titled JULES, about her life with sickle cell & her battle searching for a cure, was received with critical acclaim and support from PBS. She has a long standing working relationship with PBS through her films and advocacy. She is working on a feature length documentary based on JULES.