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csiff26 industry panels Oct 9th AT HB PLAYWRIGHTS THEATER
Panel #1: Translation, Memory & Migration: Who Gets Lost Between Cultures On Screen?
Filmmakers and cultural storytellers explore how stories travel across cultures and audiences, and what can be gained or lost along the way. From migration and diaspora to subtitles, accessibility, and adaptation, this conversation asks how filmmakers can reach wider audiences without losing the specificity and au
Industry Panel #2: Got a Film Idea? Here's How To Build The Business Behind It
You’ve got the story. Now build the business behind it. Learn the essential first steps—from LLCs and contracts to insurance, taxes, and legal support—that can help you protect your film, your collaborators, and your future as a filmmaker.
TIME: 12:30PM
LOCATION: 124 BANK STREET, NYC
Panel #3: How Playwrights Break Into Film & Television
Playwrights already possess many of the skills film and television producers are looking for but how do you turn those skills into screen opportunities?
Through candid case studies from their own careers, working playwrights and screenwriters unpack how theatre-trained writers can translate their strengths in character, dialogue, structure and c
Panel #4: Video On Demand Is Shutting Down! Now What?
An Indie Filmmaker’s Guide to Distribution, Audiences & Revenue
Vimeo On Demand is shutting down. So what happens to indie filmmakers who still need a way to get their work in front of audiences and generate revenue from it? This practical CSIFF industry panel explores what independent filmmakers need to know about today’s changing distribution l
Panel #5: Film & AI
Future or Failure?
Miriam Shamelashvili and Anita Walker, co-founders of The AI Play Lab, a collaborative storytelling collective, engage in a timely conversation with filmmaker Sekiyah Dorsett about the evolving role of artificial intelligence in media and storytelling. Together, they will examine how AI is reshaping creative labor, disrupting the industry, and creating new poss
Filmmaker Conversation: Short Film. Bigger Screen: How A Festival Short Becomes A Feature
Your short made the festival circuit. Audiences responded. Now what?
Stefon Bristol sits down with Sundance Award winning filmmaker Rashad Frett to unpack the real journey from festival short to feature film, from recognizing that a short has a bigger story inside it to developing, financing, expanding, and ult
festival jury
Stefon Bristol hails from New York with a distinctive voice in independent cinema. Inspired by his Guyanese heritage, his work blends genre storytelling with humanistic social commentary and cultural specificity. Bristol co-wrote and directed the time-travel movie See You Yesterday, produced by Spike Lee, which premiered at Tribeca before
Stefon Bristol hails from New York with a distinctive voice in independent cinema. Inspired by his Guyanese heritage, his work blends genre storytelling with humanistic social commentary and cultural specificity. Bristol co-wrote and directed the time-travel movie See You Yesterday, produced by Spike Lee, which premiered at Tribeca before launching on Netflix to critical acclaim. The film earned Certified Fresh and won Best First Feature Screenplay at the Independent Spirit Awards. His latest dystopian thriller, Breathe, stars Jennifer Hudson, Milla Jovovich, Common, and Sam Worthington. Bristol graduated from Morehouse College and earned his MFA in Film from New York University. IG: @stefonbristol
Lu Childs is the Co-owner of Street Team Productions. As a New York City native, he along with his friends decided to create a company that would make content that appealed to their demographic. Street Team is a New York City based company that creates entertainment content for different platforms. Currently, the company produces the Behi
Lu Childs is the Co-owner of Street Team Productions. As a New York City native, he along with his friends decided to create a company that would make content that appealed to their demographic. Street Team is a New York City based company that creates entertainment content for different platforms. Currently, the company produces the Behind The Boards Podcast, Weed Smokers Anonymous Podcast, THC x NYC Web Series. Street Team is also distributing the Madan Sara documentary and N'AP Boule short film.
They are currently working on a documentary about Haiti titled Haiti 1974. It is about the journey of the 1974 Haiti World Cup team. Childs also served as Co-Executive Producer of the Madan Sara Documentary.
IG: @StreetTeamProductions
Sekiya Dorsett is a GLAAD Award-winning filmmaker, educator, and founder of Seabreeze Media Inc. Her films center Black queer life, migration, memory, and liberation, earning international recognition. She is an Assistant Professor of Film at Hofstra University and mentors filmmakers.
IG: @sekiyadorsett
Gillian Isabelle is an engineer, an entrepreneur and the owner of Renderyard. a film and music distribution company in Boston. She has spent many years working in intellectual property and licensing, and now brings that knowledge to her work at Renderyard.
IG: @renderyard
Nambi E. Kelley is an award-winning playwright and television writer/producer. Television credits include Bel-Air, The Chi, Our Kind of People, and Lady in the Lake. Her plays, including Native Son and Toni Morrison's JAZZ, have been produced nationally and internationally.
IG: @nambi.e.kelley
Lamar Richardson is a 2x Tony®-winning producer and award-winning actor. He is the founder of Ivy Lion Productions. Select Broadway credits: Ragtime, Gypsy, Merrily We Roll Along, Appropriate. Columbia ’15.
IG: @lamarrichardson_
🏆 CSIFF26 Award Nominees Announced!
The 2026 Conch Shell International Film Fest Award Nominees are here!
We’re excited to celebrate the filmmakers, writers, performers and cinematographers whose work stood out among this year’s Official Selection.
A special thank you to our CSIFF26 jurors — Lamar Richardson, Sekiya Dorsett, Nambi Kelly, Lu Childs, Stefon Bristol and Gillian Isabelle — for sharing their time, experience and thoughtful consideration with this year’s films.
Congratulations to all of our nominees — we can’t wait to celebrate you at CSIFF26!