Our Team

Board of Directors

Razid Season

Founder and Executive Director

Razid Season (he/him) is a filmmaker based in New York. He has worked as a freelance project evaluator for POV. He was a grand jury at the Plural+ Youth Film Festival 2022, run by UNAOC and IOM. He has received several awards for his films, including the NYMAN Award (2018 & 2019), the Best Director award from SAIFF 2020, Honourable Mention from Columbus Jewish Film Festival 2020, and ISA Los Angeles. His films have premiered at the 43rd Asian American Film Festival in New York, Phoenix Film Festival, the Buffalo International Film Festival, the Williamsburg International Film Festival, and the Polish Film Festival of Los Angeles. His films also aired on CUNY TV  in 2023, Yiddishkayt Initiative in 2022, and The Archeological Channel’s web streaming in 2021.

Boukary Swadogo

Co-founder and Director

Dr. Boukary Swadogo (he/him) as an African cinemas scholar and media professional, his multifaceted work seeks to give voice and presence work to film/media productions that developed outside of hegemonic paradigms of Hollywood cinema model. Dr. Sawadogo has published extensively on African cinema, including film reviews, articles, book chapters, and books. His three single-authored books on African cinema are required readings in several courses on African cinema that are taught at American universities. These books are: • “West African Screen Media: Comedy, TV Series, and Transnationalization” (Michigan State University Press, 2019) • “African Film Studies: An Introduction” (Routledge, 2018) • “Les cinémas francophones ouest africains, 1990-2005″ (Harmattan, 2013) Dr. Boukary Sawadogo has regularly appeared in the media to speak about cinema and media in Africa, Harlem, and African immigrants in the United States. He has experience serving as jury member in film festivals in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Africa. Dr. Sawadogo is also a regular guest speaker at universities, and research and cultural organizations. Beyond film and media industries, Dr. Boukary Sawadogo’s work is widening in scope and depth to interrogate the place and trajectory of Africa today in the world through the diasporas. In this respect, he has authored “Africans in Harlem: An Untold New York Story” (2022) with Fordham University Press.

Piotr Kajstura

Co-founder and Director

Piotr Kajstura (he/him) is a filmmaker and community organizer. A film he produced won the Student Academy Award in 2006. His work often addresses systemic racial discrimination. Additionally, he has served as a Polish translator at Mount Sinai Hospital and continues to work on an on-call basis with Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital, assisting immigrant parents in navigating their child’s treatment process.

Richard Kwolek

Treasurer

Richard Kwolek (he/him) is an architect and has worked for more than 20 years with many engineering and architect firms. Part of his job has been to create blueprints and plans that outline the structural, functional, and aesthetic aspects of a structure. He has been involved with raising awareness and understanding about ADHD within the community and the wider public.

Uladzimir Taukachou

Photographer

Uladzimir Taukachou (he/him) is an award winning filmmaker, cinematographer, FAA licensed drone pilot. He immigrated from Belarus. He worked on many different projects including Voice of America, Russia 1 TV channel, music videos, and narrative short and feature films. Most recent awards for his work: Best Cinematography, the TAC International Film Festival in 2021, American Drone Award for a short film La Îles de la Madeleine (Magdalen Islands), Canada at The American Film Award Film Festival (New York, 2018).

Advisory Council

Ed Moran

Advisory Council

Edward Moran (he/him/his), a writer and literary historian, has been an advisor to several documentary films, including Christine Choy’s Hyam Plutzik: American Poet and Jin Yang’s Once A Wall. He also served as literary advisor to the estate of poet Hyam Plutzik and was one of the first writers-in-residence at The Betsy Hotel in Miami Beach. Moran contributed articles to the Paris Review, CinemaDailyUS, Singapore Unbound, Anthracite Unite, and the Modern Asian Architectural Network, and served as associate editor of the World Authors reference series and or the Random House Dictionary of the English Language.

Melissa Sklarz

Advisory Council

Melissa Sklarz is a Democratic district leader from Woodside Queens and is the only transgender elected official in New York. Melissa has fought and advocated for transgender rights in New York City and New York State for the past 25 years and was with Governor Cuomo when he signed the New York State trans rights act GENDA in January 2019.

Sneha Jayaraj

Advisory Council

Sneha Jayaraj is a poet and attorney. She is a lover of humanity , music, and spirituality. During the day, she serves as a staff attorney at NAICA (Neighborhood Association for Inter-Cultural Affairs) championing New York’s right to counsel program, which guarantees all low-income tenants an attorney if they face eviction. She enjoys drumming on her tabla, practicing more Ayurvedic techniques, drinking oat haldi doodh (turmeric milk), and exploring the vast topic of love while we are fortunate to be here on this earth for a brief time together.

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