SmartPhilm™ IS A JURIED FILM FESTIVAL .
An Emmy® award-winning filmmaker entering his fourth decade with work spanning the globe, Larry Engel has worked on more than 250 documentary projects for television and cable. He is an associate professor at American University’s Film and Media Arts division in the School of Communication, an associate director of the Center for Environmental Filmmaking, and filmmaker-in-residence at the Investigative Reporting Workshop.
In pursuit of environmental, wildlife and adventure stories, Engel has flown into hurricanes, been chased by tornadoes, and dropped into ice caves. He’s fled wildfires, gotten lost in jungles, and spent three years traveling the globe to come face to face with a lot of mummies.
A three-part series that he directed and shot, “The Human Spark” hosted by Alan Alda premiered on PBS nationally and recently won a prestigious AAAS-Kavli Science Journalism Award for In-Depth Journalism. He currently producing a long-form documentary called “Harvest Home: A Refuge for Wounded Warriors” that focuses on need for housing to help veterans who suffer from TBI and PTSD transition back into society.
Gabrielle Glore is the Festival Director and Head of Programming for the Urbanworld Film Festival, an initiative of the Urbanworld Foundation, Inc., as well as the ancillary Urbanworld Digital and Urbanworld Music offerings. As Festival Director, Gabrielle spearheads the overall planning and execution of all festival activity. Her role spans the areas of sponsorship, programming/content, marketing/media, talent, and operations. As Head of Programming, she focuses on curating an inclusive film slate reflecting a global sensibility and provides a platform for content creators of color, women, as well as films that are cross-cultural in their appeal.
As a Principal at The Glore Group, LLC (TGG) — a company delivering innovative branding, marketing, programming solutions, and production for corporate clients — Gabrielle leads strategic marketing, content curation, and event production initiatives primarily targeting the entertainment industry, with clients including HBO, BET Networks, Comcast, and Time Warner, to name a few. She also consults with nonprofit organizations including the Equal Justice Initiative, The Will & Jada Smith Family Foundation, and the Council of Urban Professionals (CUP).
Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, Gabrielle spent over a decade in various marketing roles at Time Warner, across businesses including HBO and Warner Music Group, as well as at Corporate. Gabrielle holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics, with a concentration in Marketing, from The Wharton School at The University of Pennsylvania.
Robb Montgomery is the author of “Smartphone Video Storytelling” (Routledge Press – New York & London) and a former visual journalist for the Chicago Tribune.
He is a distinguished visiting professor at journalism schools in Paris and Vienna and has trained more than 25,000 people in mobile journalism workshops worldwide.
His online certificate video courses, offered at the Smart Film School web site, are used by top universities and organizations.
Montgomery’s clients include Reuters, CNN, Radio Free Europe, and The New York Times. More: www.smartfilmbook.com
Malika Bilal is an international news journalist, TV host, and moderator based in Washington, DC. She is currently co-host of The Stream, an Emmy-nominated news talk show centered on online community participation, where she facilitates live on-air panel discussions while simultaneously bringing in viewer questions, comments and feedback.
A Chicago native, Malika graduated from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.
She has reported from across the United States and the Middle East, including Egypt, where she covered that country’s first post-revolution election campaign and subsequent violence, and Saudi Arabia, where she was deployed to cover the annual Hajj pilgrimage. Malika previously worked for Voice of America and has written for the Chicago Tribune and National Public Radio. Her career has afforded her the chance to interview former presidents and prime ministers, Hollywood and Bollywood stars, and artists and activists from around the world. Her favorite interviews, though, are with the people you haven’t heard of yet.