Joseph began his hospitality at Oxford-favorite Proud Larry's as a dishwasher and prep cook. Stinchcomb quickly advanced and began waiting tables and managing, eventually finding his true passion in bartending. In 2016, Joseph accepted the beverage director position at Saint Leo. In his five years at Saint Leo, Joseph contributed to James Beard Foundation nominations for Best New Restaurant in 2016 and Outstanding Beverage Program in 2019. Joseph also served as the Southern Foodway Alliance's Bartender in Residence in 2018, and currently serves as an SFA Smith Fellow. In 2020, Joseph was selected to participate in the Sam Beal Fellowship program sponsored by Blackberry Farm. During this fellowship, Joseph trained at hospitality institutions such as French Laundry, Post Ranch Inn, Hotel Jerome, and Blackberry Farm. In 2021, Joseph opened Bar Muse, an intimate craft cocktail bar where he serves as co- owner and beverage director.

An Oxford native, Mallory attended and graduated from the University of Mississippi with a bachelor’s in Integrated Marketing Communications and Business Management. After graduation, Mallory began working at High Cotton Wine & Spirits Warehouse as a shift supervisor and social media manager, where she found her passion for selling quality spirits. In 2018, Mallory then began work as a broker and sales consultant for Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits, the largest wine and spirits distributor in the United States, where she has won multiple regional awards for innovative practices in social media and digital advertising, as well as print merchandising. In addition to her sales career, Mallory is a loving plant mom to over 60 houseplants and also performs freelance graphic design work for local businesses.

Geoff is an animator, director, writer, producer and actor (who also teaches at CU Boulder). His work includes the feature films MARS, Loves Her Gun and Yakona (as producer), as well as the shorts Monkey vs. Robot, The Day Before and most recently The Phantom 52. These films have played at over 100 festivals including Sundance, SXSW and BFI London. He grew up a cowboy with an interest in physics, and has worked in both construction and the Naval Research Lab before becoming a filmmaker. He adores his cat named FatFace, and still genuinely loves making things.

Jennifer Merin is the Editor in Chief for AWFJ.org, the online magazine of the Alliance of Women Film Journalists, of which she is President. She also contributes the CINEMA CITIZEN blog for AWFJ.org. Jennifer has served as a regular critic and film-related interviewer for The New York Press, About.com and Women's eNews. She has written about entertainment for USA Today, The L.A. Times, US Magazine, Ms. Magazine, Endless Vacation Magazine, Daily News, New York Post, SoHo News and other publications. After receiving her MFA from Tisch School of the Arts (Grad Acting), Jennifer performed at the O'Neill Theater Center's Playwrights Conference, Long Wharf Theater, American Place Theatre and LaMamma, where she worked with renowned Japanese director, Shuji Terayama. She subsequently joined Terayama's theater company in Tokyo, where she also acted in films. Her journalism career began when she was asked to write about Terayama for The Drama Review. She became a regular contributor to the Christian Science Monitor after writing an article about Marketta Kimbrell's Theater For The Forgotten, with which she was performing at the time. She was an O'Neill Theater Center National Critics' Institute Fellow, and then became the institute's Coordinator. While teaching at the Universities of Wisconsin and Rhode Island, she wrote "A Directory of Festivals of Theater, Dance and Folklore Around the World," published by the International Theater Institute. Denmark's Odin Teatret's director, Eugenio Barba, wrote his manifesto in the form of a letter to "Dear Jennifer Merin," which has been published around the world, in languages as diverse as Farsi and Romanian. Jennifer's culturally-oriented travel column began in the LA Times in 1984, then moved to The Associated Press, LA Times Syndicate, Tribune Media, Creators Syndicate and (currently) Arcamax Publishing. She's been news writer/editor for ABC Radio Networks, on-air reporter for NBC, CBS Radio and for Westwood One's America In the Morning. She is also a member of the Critics Choice Association. For her AWFJ archive, type "Jennifer Merin" in the Search Box (upper right corner of screen).

MUSIC/SHORTS

Since 1999 Rich Gill has managed record stores, booked punk rock shows, and helped program the long running Midnight Madness film series at the historic Uptown Theatre in Minneapolis, MN, which he also managed for 17 years. He spent the majority of his 20’s touring the country in his own bands as well as working with respected indie artists such as Motion City Soundtrack and The Lawrence Arms which included stints on the Plea For Peace and Vans Warped tours. In 2007 Rich became Managing Editor and Writer for the popular and critically acclaimed Minneapolis film / music / comedy blog Switchblade Comb. It was through writing for that website that he became a friend of Sound Unseen, a relationship which culminated in joining the team in 2014. Since that time he has become Program Director for the festival and in 2015 was responsible for the first ever public screening of the 1999 "lost" Mitch Hedberg film LOS ENCHILADAS.

DOCUMENTARIES FEATURES

Jean Anne LAUER has promoted the development and exhibition of independent film and media on the festival circuit since 2004, specializing in Latinx, Iberoamerican, and Indigenous titles. She first discovered her passion for the field when working with the International Pitching Market at the Guanajuato International Film Festival (Gto, Mexico, 2004 through 2013). Since then, Jean has also joined the team at Cine Las Americas International Film Festival (Austin, TX, 2008 to present), and at Fantastic Fest (Austin, TX, 2013 to present). Along with building a professional résumé and working with filmmakers in the US and abroad, Jean completed her Ph.D. in Radio-Television-Film at UT-Austin in 2016, and is currently a Professor in the Dept. of Philosophy, Religion, and Humanities and the Dept. of Radio-Television-Film at Austin Community College.

NARRATIVE FEATURES

Kayla Myers is a film programmer, artist, and writer. Currently, she works as a programmer and Black Creators Forum Coordinator at the Indie Memphis Film Festival and as the Series Producer for The DocYard in Cambridge, MA. She is passionate about intersectional feminist practices within the arts, making films more accessible to those not living in large filmmaking centers, and developing audiences with a thoughtful, community-centered approach.

DOCUMENTARIES FEATURES

Nat founded the Lake County Film Festival in 2004, and has been programming at Nashville film festival since 2015. He used to own one of the biggest video stores in Illinois, and started a DVD label in the 2000's. He also produced the narrative feature QWERTY. By the time you read this, he will have started production on his directorial feature, a documentary about raccoons.

NARRATIVE FEATURES

As Manager of Development at SAGindie, Eliza's duties include traveling to film festivals, speaking on panels and at seminars, and interacting with independent producers worldwide in order to get the word out about the SAG-AFTRA Low Budget Agreements. She is also a writer, currently working on a project about football, gambling, and a lot of unhappy people, and can be seen looking very natural and cool in the background of some of her friend's films.

DOCUMENTARIES FEATURES

Rachel Morgan is the creative director for the Sidewalk Film Festival and Sidewalk Film Center & Cinema, as well as an instructor of Media Production at Lawson State and a Scriptwriting instructor at the University Of Montevallo. She was a co-instructor in the Documenting Justice documentary film program at the University of Alabama for 13 years and is a former contributor to Film Threat. She received a BFA from The Savannah College of Art and Design in Film/Video Production and a MA in Film Critical Studies from the University of Alabama where her focus of study was Children and Adolescence in Cinematic Horror. She recently served as the programming lead for the 2021 Sundance Film Festival Satellite Screen in Birmingham, AL and also co-hosts the cinema-centric podcast, SideTalks, in which she is usually right and her co-host, Corey Craft, is always wrong.