Shouting down midnight

Gretchen Stoeltje

A Texas-based filmmaker, director Gretchen Stoeltje makes independent documentaries about women's experiences. VENOM IN A JAR, A KISS FROM THE QUEEN explores the role of Miss Snake Charmer, the teenaged beauty queen chosen to adorn snake handlers at the annual Sweetwater, Texas Rattlesnake Round-up. A.R.M. AROUND MOSCOW follows American men who travel to newly-opened Russia in search of a wife. The poetic meditation BIONIC BEAUTY SALON makes its teen stars the experts on the forces of power and beauty in their lives. Stoeltje's films have played festivals and on television in the US, Canada and Europe, and curated art venues including the Whitney Biennial.

Richard Linklater

Executive Producer, Richard Linklater, is an American director and screenwriter, who has won more than fifty awards for his work. He is the writer/director of the “Before” trilogy (Before Sunrise, Before Sunset and Before Midnight), comedy films like Dazed and Confused (1993) School of Rock (2003) and Bernie (2012) and dramas like Me and Orson Welles (2008) and Boyhood (2014). In his films, he's mostly focused on suburban culture and realism. Linklater also serves as the Artistic Director for the Austin Film Society, which he founded in 1985 to showcase films from around the world that were not typically shown in Austin. Now one of the nation’s top film organizations, The Austin Film Society shows over 200 films a year, has educational programs, and has given out over $1,500,000 in grants to Texas filmmakers since 1996.

Kristi Frazier

Kristi Frazier is a documentary and commercial animation producer with multiple films and national advertisements to her credit. She recently produced and directed the feature film TAKE PAINS about the University of Texas’ legendary Shakespeare at Winedale program, which is broadcasting nationally on PBS. THE SECRET LIFE OF LANCE LETSCHER, a documentary she produced with Oscar-nominated editor Sandra Adair premiered at the 2017 SXSW film festival. Other films include A SINGLE FRAME, honored at the Austin Film Festival and Santa Barbara International Film Festival and WRENCHED, garnering numerous festival awards. She worked as a commercial animation producer at the celebrated Celluloid Studios working on iconic national commercials for top advertising agencies such as Foote, Cone & Belding, Leo Burnett and Saatchi and Saatchi.

Kristi thrives on collaboration and good humor and enjoys being a consulting producer on creative projects.

Katy Drake Bettner

Katy Drake Bettner will produce damn near anything but is most excited about enabling talented creatives to scope, advance, refine, and execute their unique vision. She is an art form agnostic and has produced and/or managed projects in the game industry, music industry, non-profits/start-ups, and film, both narrative and documentary. Katy serves on the board of Austin Film Society, is a member of the Women at Sundance Leadership Council, has served as an advisor for the Sundance Creative Producing Lab and Summit and has advised for the Women in Film/Sundance financing strategy summit as well as the Documentary Producers Alliance.

In 2019, Katy and Amy Redford (dir. The Guitar, Professor Marsden and the Wonder Women) created BetRed Stories as a collaboration hub for their shared projects. She has a specific affinity for the Texas creative community and is most proud of having been blocked on Twitter by the states indicted Attorney General, Ken Paxton.

Amy Bench

Amy Bench is a cinematographer and filmmaker based in Austin, Texas and works nationwide. She has been twice nominated for the Kodak Excellence in Cinematography Award. She lensed the feature films LOVES HER GUN (SXSW 2013), and THE GOLDEN RUT (Austin Film Festival 2016). She was recently named a “DP on the Rise” by Paste Magazine. Amy was an additional cinematographer on the CNN documentary HOLY HELL (Sundance 2016). Her short film BAD AT DANCING won the Golden Bear at Berlinale (2015). Her work has screened worldwide, at festivals including Sundance, Berlin, New York, and MOMA/PS1.

Nina Vizcarrondo

Nina Vizcarrondo is a Texas-based filmmaker and editor who has worked in the non-fiction film industry for over a decade. She most recently edited the documentary AT THE READY, which premiered at Sundance 2021. Her work often focuses on the Latinx diaspora and immigration issues. Prior to that, she edited several short documentaries for director Ben Masters and was the additional editor on his feature THE RIVER AND THE WALL which won the Lone Star Award at SXSW 2019. Nina holds an MFA from UT Austin.

Maggie M. Bailey

Maggie M. Bailey is an award-winning producer and director, working in film, video, & photo. She is interested in making work that promotes sex positivity and explores unheard voices and niche communities. Her work has screened in festivals including SXSW, Frameline, DOC NYC, Atlanta Film Festival, New Orleans Film Festival, EnergaCAMERIMAGE, BAMcinemaFest, CineKink, Sidewalk Film Festival and more.