We’re told the future is predictable and the present is inevitable. What if what we all call history were editable?

Join the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation for a conversation with courageous multidisciplinary artists and scholars who are crafting more accurate, just, and inclusive narratives about the past, present, and future. Featuring Eve Ewing, Assia Boundaoui, Violeta Ayala, Aymar Jean Christian, and Gene Luen Yang. Moderated by Lauren Pabst, MacArthur Foundation.

Violeta Ayala

Violeta Ayala is a Quechua filmmaker, artist, and writer whose credits include Cocaine Prison, The Fight, and The Bolivian Case. She has won over 50 awards, including a Walkley, and her films have premiered at such festivals as the Toronto International Film Festival and have been distributed by The Guardian, PBS, and Amazon Prime. Violeta is currently working on the feature version of The Fight and developing the VR episodic animation Prison X. She has a degree in journalism from Charles Sturt University in Australia, and she is a founding member of United Notions Film.

Assia Boundaoui

Assia Boundaoui is an Algerian American filmmaker and investigative journalist who has reported for PRI, BBC, AlJazeera, and CNN, among others. Her documentary film credits include a short about hijabi hair salons for the HBO series Lenny (2018 Sundance Film Festival) and the award-winning feature The Feeling of Being Watched, about FBI surveillance in her Muslim-American community (2018 Tribeca Film Festival). Assia was named one of Filmmaker magazine's “25 new faces of independent film” and is a fellow of New America National and the MIT Open Documentary Lab’s Co-Creation Studio, where she is developing a machine-learning-fueled sequel to her feature. She has degrees in journalism and political science/Islamic world studies. 

Aymar Jean (AJ) Christian

Aymar Jean "AJ" Christian is an associate professor of communication studies at Northwestern University. His first book, Open TV: Innovation Beyond Hollywood and the Rise of Web Television, argues the web brought innovation to television by opening development to independent producers. His work has been published in numerous academic journals, including the International Journal of Communication, Television & New Media, and Social Media + Society. He has juried television and video for the Peabody Awards, Gotham Awards, and Tribeca Film Festival, among others. Dr. Christian founded OTV | Open Television, a research project and Emmy-nominated, two-time Streamy Award–winning platform for intersectional television.

Eve L. Ewing

Dr. Eve L. Ewing is a sociologist of education and a writer from Chicago. Her work includes the nonfiction piece Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago's South Side and the poetry collections 1919 and Electric Arches, the latter of which won multiple awards and was named one of the year's best books by NPR and the Chicago Tribune. She currently writes Marvel’s Champions series and previously wrote the Ironheart series, in addition to co-writing the play No Blue Memories: The Life of Gwendolyn Brooks. Ewing is an assistant professor at the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration. 

Lauren Pabst – Moderator

Lauren Pabst is a senior program officer for journalism and media at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, where she leads investments in nonfiction multimedia storytelling, co-manages the journalism portfolio and works on initiatives such as U.S. democracy, migration, and criminal justice. Her work has been published in Documentary magazine, and she previously worked in development and production in documentary film, including with the Rada Film Group on American Promise and with Black Public Media and Public Policy Productions. Lauren is a member of the steering committee of Nuestro Futuro, which builds philanthropy in Chicago’s Latino community.

Gene Yang

Gene Luen Yang writes and sometimes draws comic books and graphic novels. As the Library of Congress’s fifth National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, he advocates for the importance of reading, especially reading diversely. His first graphic novel, American Born Chinese, was a National Book Award finalist and the winner of the Printz Award and an Eisner Award. His other works include the award-winning graphic novel Boxers & Saints, include Secret Coders, The Shadow Hero, Superman, and Avatar: The Last Airbender, Dragon Hoops, and Superman Smashes the Klan. Yang is a MacArthur Foundation fellow.

This event is open to all credential holders, so please arrive on time to guarantee admittance. The program will begin at 3:15PM. If you have any questions, please send an email to events@sundance.org.