Festival Director: Emily Ratner
Emily Ratner graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. in Latin American Studies from Tulane University in 2007 where she was awarded the singular distinction of Senior Scholar in Latin American Studies. Emily studied film production with the New York Film Academy and the Cleveland Film Society and has trained in social justice organizing and conflict resolution with a number of organizations, including Seeds of Peace and Witness for Peace. She has worked for the Galería Indigo in Oaxaca, where she led English- and Spanish-language tours of the gallery and researched gallery pieces for informational materials. In addition to her work with Patois, she also organizes with several New Orleans social justice organizations, including New Orleans Palestine Solidarity (NOLAPS) and the Organizers’ Roundtable, and is a member of the curatorial and organizing committees of State of the Nation V, a city-wide art and performance festival in New Orleans.
Festival Managing Director: Holly Hobbs
Holly Hobbs is currently a PhD Candidate in Ethnomusicology at Tulane University in New Orleans where she is working to design and launch a digital archive of hiphop music/oral history post-Katrina. Prior to relocating to New Orleans, Hobbs directed a youth media nonprofit organization called New Media Network in Columbia, Missouri while working to develop the Missouri Rural Crisis Center Documentary Film Series. Along with her academic work, she serves as Co-Director of the nonprofit organization, Hiphop for Hope, and the Managing Director of Patois: the New Orleans International Human Rights Film Festival. Hobbs Hobbs interests include musical activism, documentary filmmaking, and digital media literacy.Festival
Associate Director: Rene Broussard
Rene Broussard is an award-winning, gay video artist whose Auto-biographical video series The Fatboy Chronicles has screened in over 100 film festivals internationally. He is also the Founder/Director of Zeitgeist Multi-disciplinary Arts Center, a non-profit, artist run, alternative arts center that has been presenting films, music and performances in New Orleans regularly for over 22 years. He is also the founder/Director of the New Orleans Middle East Film Festival and the International Rights of the Child Film Festival. Rene was the Film Curator for Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center in Buffalo, NY for three years (1990 – 1993), taught in the Orleans Public School system for 8 years and was the recipient of the 2003 Mayor’s Arts Award from the Arts Council of New Orleans. In 1995, Rene received an artist fellowship from the Goethe Institut in Berlin, where he was a guest curator for six months at Arsenal - Institute for Film and Video Art juror for the Teddy Awards at the Berlin Film Festival.
Board of Directors:
Abdul Aziz is a social justice activist, photographer, and filmmaker. He currently works with Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana (JJPL) organizing among, and advocating for, youth in the criminal justice and juvenile incarceration systems. He is a founding member of the photography collective Monde Noir and recently produced the film Member of the Club, which is currently on the film festival circuit.
Melonee Griggs is an administrator and educator at the Southern University of New Orleans Center for African and African American Studies.
Corlita Mahrspreen is a long-time New Orleans activist and organizer in criminal justice reform and an active participant in the Katrina Information Network.
Brian Knighten is the founder and operator of Las Américas Film Network, a film distribution company that brings the best films of Latin America to US audiences, particularly on university campuses.
Tory Pegram is a longtime social justice and human rights organizer and activist. She is currently the organizer of the A3 Campaign to Free the Angola 3.
Shantrelle Lewis is the director and curator of the McKenna Museum of African American Art and the founder of the Young Friends Society of African Diaspora Institutions, a nonprofit organization that supports the work of cultural institutions globally through a collective of young artists, activists, scholars, entrepreneurs, and professionals.
Rebecca Snedeker is the Director of the award-winning film By Invitation Only. She is currently working on several film projects as a director and assistant director, and also works with Video Veracity, our 501c3 fiscal agent.
Broderick Webb is the Co-director of the award-winning film Cut Off: It’s Not About the Buildings. It’s About the People. Broderick is currently organizing social justice events around public housing in New Orleans and speaking at screenings of Cut Off around the country. He is also an adult advocate of New Orleans’ Fyre Youth Squad.