FILM TEAM
Ida Joglar, Director / DP
She/Her
Ida Joglar is a filmmaker, editor and video artist from San Juan, Puerto Rico. Currently based in Brooklyn, NY, after relocating to New York in 2009, where she completed her MFA in Photography, Video and Related Media at the School of Visual Arts.
Her first feature, Kili Big (2021), a documentary about a group of plus-sized women attempting to carve space for themselves in the outdoor community, premiered at Geena Davis’ Bentonville Film Festival where it won the Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature, going on to play at renowned film festivals such as Heartland, Tallgrass and Montclair (New Jersey Films Competition Winner). Athena Film Festival honored Ida with the Athena Breakthrough Director Award for her work on Kili Big.
Amity Hoffman, Co-writer/Producer
She/Her
Amity Hoffman is a filmmaker and producer originally from Wichita, KS and currently residing in Sarasota, FL where she writes and produces creative campaigns and commercials for a national communication company.
She brings 30 years of theater experience to her work, including 5 years of experience working with special needs actors. This inspired her first documentary feature The Best Show In Town (2021), which received recognition from Chagrin Documentary Film Festival, Portland International Film Festival, Naples International Film Festival and Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival
Lauren Coleman, Producer/UPM
She/Her
Lauren Coleman is a filmmaker, actor, songwriter and music festival coordinator from Long Beach, California.
She produced and edited her feature-length directorial debut, How to Throw Your Own Goodbye Party (2020), a documentary about a festival organizer who was able to succeed in his dream of pulling off one last production before passing away from complications due to alcohol addiction. To date, it has received recognition from the Portland Film Festival, Chagrin Documentary Film Festival, Flickers' Rhode Island International Film Festival, and Richmond International Film Festival.
Michael Coffey, Associate Producer / Advisory Board Member
He/Him
Michael is a filmmaker in Lawrence, Kansas and he has cerebral palsy. He is from Ulysses, Kansas and grew up mostly there before living in Amarillo, Texas during high school and college.
Michael started to get involved with filmmaking 18+ years ago, meeting filmmakers and making film-industry connections. He has invested in three feature films, and he is credited as an Associate Producer for the feature film, Nailbiter. His first speaking part is in the feature film, The Sublime and Beautiful, filmed in Lawrence, Kansas in 2012. He is the writer and a producer of Triumph, a teen sports-drama feature film starring RJ Mitte (aka Walt Jr. in Breaking Bad) and co-starring Terrence Howard. Triumph was officially released on April 30th, 2021 in 200+ Cinemark theaters nationwide.
Rachel Win, Editor
Rachel is a ten year tenured editor based in New York city, by way of England. After receiving a masters in Immunology and Microbiology and making a passionless entry into the research industry she made a hasty return to her first love of storytelling and film, starting as a sound operator then a videographer and eventually establishing her career as an editor. Since finding her niche in the documentary world she's gone on to win several awards including two Emmys and a Peabody for the Vice News series Transnational that told the stories of trans people from several countries, the bias they faced, overcame, and societal impact they were making.
Additional Advisory Board Members
Charlotte Woodward
Charlotte is a young woman with Down syndrome who has had four open-heart surgeries and a lifesaving heart transplant. She works at the National Down Syndrome Society as the Education Program Associate and advocates for inclusion and community integration of people with Down syndrome. There is currently legislation before both the House and the Senate of the U.S. Congress that bears her name: the Charlotte Woodward Organ Transplant Discrimination Prevention Act. Charlotte graduated from high school with a standard degree and graduated from Northern Virginia Community College summa cum laude; she then transferred to George Mason University, from which she recently graduated, summa cum laude, with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology with a concentration in Inequality and Social Change. Charlotte’s studies and her work perfectly complement each other. As a budding sociologist, she examines the structural and systemic inequalities in society that affect the lives of people with disabilities, and as an advocate, she uses this knowledge to raise awareness about them and to affect positive change.
Ray Mizumura-Pence, Ph.D.
He/Him
Ray received his Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Kansas (2006). He also has M.A. and B.A. degrees in English from Miami University (1996) and the University of Wyoming (1992). He began developing his Disability Studies background in 1998. His areas of expertise include the social and cultural histories of people with disabilities in the United States. Prof. Mizumura-Pence also focuses on language, terminology, and portrayals related to disability and people with disabilities in media.
Christie Scanlin Dobson
She/Her
Christie is a Doctoral Candidate in the Department of Special Education at the University of Kansas and a registered Drama Therapist since 2008. Her research agenda explores scholarship from the specialization Disability and Diversity in Education and Society. Over the past 25 years, Christie has worked as a social justice advocate and teaching artist with children, youth, and adults with identified and unidentified [dis]abilities in arts centers, schools, community settings and homes.
Monica Stewart
She/Her
Monica is currently living her best life as a busy mom of three in Draper, Utah. Her youngest daughter, Lydia, almost 3, has Down syndrome and has turned her family upside down in all the best ways. Alongside some other fierce mamas, she runs We All Belong, now a non-profit, dedicated to helping kids with intellectual disabilities get more educational options. She is enthusiastically working to ensure that systemic and legal changes happen in Utah that will allow her daughter meaningful inclusion in her school and community. Monica received her BA from Brigham Young University-Hawaii studying vocal performance and has performed with ensembles in concert halls across the world; most notably Carnegie Hall and the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing, China.