GITA SAEDI KIELY
DIRECTOR
Gita joins FilmAid after decades of producing, programming and raising funds for documentary films. She spent many years with Kartemquin Films, a Chicago-based film collaborative that empowers documentary makers who create stories that foster a more engaged and just society.
At Kartemquin, she produced the acclaimed series The New Americans, a multi-part PBS series following immigrants and refugees from across the world through their first years in the US. Gita also served as Executive Director of the Big Sky Film Institute and the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, where she led thematic programming around Indigenous storytelling, youth programming and environmental justice.
She has taught documentary film at the University of Montana in the School of Journalism, where she also raised funds to build news literacy, environmental journalism and storytelling across rural and Native American communities and reservations in Montana. She currently sits on the board of the Independent Television Service (ITVS), an organization funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to bring diverse voices to American public television; and serves as a Grants Advisor to The Redford Center, a film funder that uses the power of storytelling to galvanize environmental justice and regeneration.
MICHELLE SOKOLOWSKI
OUTREACH MANAGER
Michelle joined FilmAid in 2020 to manage outreach and fundraising efforts. Before joining FilmAid she was a fundraiser at the American Geophysical Union focusing on individual and major giving, and an advancement associate in the central fundraising office at the Smithsonian.
Prior to joining the Smithsonian, Michelle spent 15 years working in theatrical and arts management in New York City holding positions at NAMCO, Lincoln Center Education, ICM Partners, the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society and Second Stage Theatre. She also stage managed at various venues throughout the city.
She received her MPS in Arts and Cultural Management, with distinction, from Pratt Institute and her BA from Hunter College. Since 2017 she has served as an Ambassador for the Pratt Institute Washington DC Regional Alumni Network, and currently volunteers for Code for DC, a Code for America Brigade.
ALISHA KALSI
PROGRAM ASSOCIATE
Alisha currently serves as a Program Associate at FilmAid. Her duties include managing its social media channels and working closely with Michelle Sokolowski, the FilmAid Outreach Manager, to support fundraising and outreach efforts.
Prior to joining FilmAid, she worked for the McCain Institute International Rule of Law and Security, where she assisted the International Development team to support the execution of projects surrounding the establishment of developing countries.
Originally from sunny Phoenix, Arizona, Alisha graduated as an Honors student from Arizona State University.
Sydney Blakeney
PROGRAM ASSOCIATE
Sydney currently serves as a Program Associate at FilmAid. Her responsibilities include managing the FilmAid Network, providing administrative support to FilmAid's global programs and supporting monitoring and evaluation efforts for our work.
Prior to joining FilmAid, Sydney studied International Affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She also worked as a writer at The Borgen Project and a research assistant at the International Foundation of Electoral Systems, supporting projects on misinformation and election monitoring.
Advisory Council
FilmAid only exists because of the unyielding commitment of an army of supporters through the years. Our advisory board consists of some of our fiercest industry leaders, FilmAid alumni and friends. Once acquired by Internews, the council has continued to stay connected to advise, support, and help us become what we have the potential to be.
Collaborators & Partners
Collaborators
“ARDEN/EVERYWHERE” RE-IMAGINES SHAKESPEARE’S “AS YOU LIKE IT”
Photo: Russell Rowland
"Arden/Everywhere" is theater director and Film Aid volunteer Jessica Bauman's reimagining of Shakespeare's "As You Like It" as a refugee story. Produced by her company, New Feet Productions, Jessica directed "Arden/Everywhere" Off-Broadway with a cast of professional and non-professional actors from the refugee and immigrant communities in New York - a cast of 16 people from 9 different countries. Jessica's time teaching a theater workshop for Film Aid in Kakuma was essential to her vision for the production, as well as providing inspiration for a TEDx talk about the experience.
Partners
FILMAID PARTNERS WITH PARTICIPANT MEDIA AND THE SILK ROAD ENSEMBLE
FilmAid partnered with Participant Media and the Silk Road Ensemble to create and launch workshops and screenings with young refugees in Jordan. Silkroad was established by cellist Yo-Yo Ma in 1998 to explore how the arts can advance global understanding. The workshops used the film The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble by Oscar-winning director Morgan Neville (20 Feet from Stardom) as a starting point to inspire refugee youth tell their own stories through art and music.
IMAGE NATION ABU DHABI PARTNERS WITH FILMAID
Image Nation Abu Dhabi partnered with FilmAid to launch screenings of “He Named Me Malala” in Syrian refugee camps in Jordan. The two-month outreach campaign utilized awareness-raising screenings and film-based workshops at three refugee camps in Jordan to provide girls and boys aged 12-18 the opportunity to express their own views on the importance of their own education after watching the film and to empower girls and parents to value and champion education in their homes and communities.
FILMAID KENYA
FilmAid Kenya works with refugee and marginalized communities in Kakuma, Dadaab, and Nairobi to provide life-saving information through the power of film.