Pathways, Power, and Purpose: Women of Color Navigating the Directing Landscape: A WIFSFBA dialogue on Creative Identity, Narrative Responsibility, and Sustainable Industry Growth
When: Thursday, 4/30
Time: 6:30 - 8pm PT
Where: Zoom
Tickets: $10 Members / $15 Non-members / $5 Students
Our panel will explore how female directors of color are shaping narrative, genre, and leadership in today’s film landscape — from navigating access and opportunity, to sustaining creative careers, to expanding what stories are told and how.
Panelists
Discussion Themes
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Pathways into directing across indie and studio ecosystems
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Industry challenges
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Identity, authorship, and narrative responsibility
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Genre, experimentation, and creative risk
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Leadership, collaboration, and building inclusive sets
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Community, mentorship, and long-term sustainability
Our Panel
Julie Rubio
Julie Rubio is an award-winning film director, producer, writer, and actor, and the President of Women in Film San Francisco Bay Area. She is the founder of East Meets West Productions and has created films including East Side Sushi, Too Perfect, Six Sexy Scenes and a Murder, Soledad Is Gone Forever, Oakland B Mine, Del Cielo, Everything Is Temporary, and Impression. Her work has been distributed across major platforms such as Netflix, HBO, Amazon Prime, Apple TV, as well as through Samuel Goldwyn and Sony Home Entertainment.
Her latest project, the award-winning documentary The True Story of Tamara de Lempicka & The Art of Survival, has become a major success, premiering to sold-out audiences worldwide. The film has now achieved theatrical distribution through AMC Theatres across the country and continues its momentum with an upcoming streaming release, further expanding its global reach.
IMDb:https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2178299/
https://www.tamaradoc.com/
https://vimeo.com/726392634
Kristina Thomas
Kristina Thomas is an award-winning writer/director known for her work on FBI: International, Demimonde, and acclaimed scripted podcasts that won her two NAACP awards. Her directing has screened at numerous festivals including BronzeLens and BraverMaker film fest. Currently she’s developing her feature "WORTH IT" while in the Rideback Rise Circle program and teaching at DePaul.
Websitehttp://www.kristinareneethomas.com
MDb: https://m.imdb.com/name/nm3554616/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_0_nm_8_in_0_q_kristina%20thomas
Saray Bravo Guidetti
Saray is a director passionate about dynamic narratives that explore complex, multi-dimensional characters. Her films have been featured at the Los Angeles Film Festival (American DREAMers), San Francisco Latino Film Festival (Entanglement) and the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival (Lady Justice). Saray served as an associate producer on CW’s Supergirl, HBO Max’s pilot Dead Boy Detectives and feature film Home Delivery. And was a supervising producer on HBO Max’s documentary Love, Lizzo. In 2023, she directed an episode of The Blacklist (Sony/NBCU). She is currently developing a rally racing romance feature called Sin Aliento.
Links: bravoguidetti.com
IG: @storiesby_saraybravo
Kealani Kitaura
Kealani Kitaura is a Bay Area– and Los Angeles–based filmmaker, producer, and actor focused on intimate, character-driven stories that bridge cultures and perspectives. Through her company, Tiny Rabbit Productions, founded in 2017, she has developed and produced 20+ short films and wrapped her second feature in May 2025. Her work explores themes of family, identity, and belonging, with a commitment to elevating underrepresented voices in independent cinema, and she has also starred as a lead actor in feature film, Kintsukuroi, bringing a performer’s insight to her work behind the camera.
Website:www.tinyrabbitproductions.com
IMDb: https://m.imdb.com/name/nm9013860/
IG: @kealani777
