Engages, Educates, and Empowers
New Filmmakers
Film industry professionals teach and mentor students, young and old, to step out of their comfort zone and tell their stories. We unleash untapped creativity and encourage a new generation of working filmmakers to transform the culture of the industry.
YUCEF MAYES
Yucef is the Outreach Consultant at the Community Media Center for Express Newark,
a center for socially engaged art and design in Newark, NJ, where people co-create, collaborate, and make art for social change. He is a graduate of The New School University NYC, and a former writing fellow of Center of Black Literature of Medgar Evers College of Brooklyn. Co-Founder of Shine Black Art & Film, a film company that aims to broaden the narrative for underrepresented people of color. Yucef's 2nd short film ZAHRA AND THE OIL MAN was an OFFICIAL SELECTION of American Black Film Festival, BlackStar Film Festival, and Pan African-Film Festival. ZAOM was nominated for Outstanding Short Film in Black Reel Awards. ZAOM can be viewed on kweli.tv , Muslim Content Streaming Site https://www.alchemiya.com/ and Tim Reid's own streaming site, LegacyTV. ZAOM premiered on CBS Channel 2 NY as part of African-American Short Films collection. Yucef's next film The Patient, about a sickly mother who escapes the hospital for the most heartbreaking reason is Produced by Cinereach and Wavelength Productions. It was released in late 2021.
BEN NILES
Ben Niles is is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and editor. His film, “Note By Note (The Making of Steinway L1037),” won top honors at the Sarasota Film Festival, was nominated for an IDA award, selected to the prestigious American Film Showcase and has screened in over 30 countries. It has now been translated into 5 languages and has aired nationally on PBS since 2009. His sophomore effort, Some Kind of Spark was also selected to the American Film Showcase and is also airing on PBS. In addition, his film, “The 5 Browns: Digging Through the Darkness,” has won multiple awards (Impact Doc Award; Audience Award Best Documentary: Naples Film Festival, 2019 FIPADOC Grand Prix) and will premiered at the IFC Theatre in New York City. He also co-directed “Still We Rise” with producer Molly Raskin, a film about mental health in Liberia.
DUSTIN DUMAS
Based in LA, Dustin is an author, host and producer. She hosts and produces the television shows, Dustin’s Kaleidoscope and What’s Up Around Town. She was the station manager of the award-winning South Orange Maplewood Television station (SOMAtv), has been part of community television stations in Illinois, California and New Jersey and enjoys helping people tell their stories. She is also an avid family historian and has written extensively and given presentations on her Civil War veteran ancestors, Henry Beard and Alexander Branscomb. She has been invited to present on her Civil War ancestors at the African American Civil War Museum in Washington D.C several times. Through proof of her direct lineage, she has been admitted membership into the lineage groups, Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War and Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic. She has been working on a documentary about her Civil War ancestors. Ms. Dumas has a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Texas, Austin and a Certificate of Western and Eastern Europe: Institutions and Corporate Governance from the WHU Koblenz School of Corporate Management, Koblenz Germany.