Producing for impact: social justice documentary filmmaking

Lizzie Bankowski

Nonfiction Writer and Documentary Filmmaker

Lizzie Bankowski is a photographer, documentary filmmaker, and nonfiction writer. Born and raised on the waterways of Virginia Beach, Virginia, she has cultivated a deep appreciation, respect, and love for Planet Earth. Her films have played at Cucalorus Festival, Women's International Film Festival, Oaxaca Film Festival, and American Conservation Film Festival among others. Lizzie recently completed a documentary short about the future of watermen in Virginia Beach.

Andy Myers

Senior Campaign Coordinator, Working Films

Andy Myers joined Working Films in 2011 and now serves as Senior Campaign Coordinator. A longtime proponent of connecting film with activism, he has led the development and implementation of Working Films' state based film driven organizing campaigns. Andy facilitates dozens of partnerships between local, state, regional, and national partners using documentary to advance their goals for social and environmental justice. He also appreciates music's revolutionary role throughout history and currently plays saxophone in the Asheville-based radical marching band Brass Your Heart.

Brooks Lee

Video Editor, CARE USA

Brooks graduated from UNCW in December 2013 and currently lives and works in Atlanta, GA. When he isn't working as Video Editor for CARE USA, he enjoys playing with his dog Abram, listening to old Genesis albums, and hiking.

Hillary Pierce

Documentary Filmmaker/Producer, At the Ready

Hillary Pierce is an Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker who floats between the city life of Austin and the deserts of Far West Texas. She spent several years working in scripted film and television in her native North Carolina before relocating to New York City to begin a career in documentary film under the tutelage of Direct Cinema pioneer Albert Maysles.

She has spent the better part of the last decade producing feature documentaries in Texas, including Keith Maitland's 2016 films TOWER and A SONG FOR YOU: THE AUSTIN CITY LIMITS STORY and Ben Masters' 2019 THE RIVER AND THE WALL. TOWER won the Grand Jury Documentary Prize and Audience Award at SXSW in 2016, broadcast nationally on PBS’ Independent Lens, was shortlisted for an Academy Award, nominated for a Peabody, and won the 2018 Emmy for Outstanding Historical Documentary. THE RIVER AND THE WALL premiered at SXSW in 2019 and won the Louis Black "Lone Star" Award. It was released theatrically and digitally in May of 2019 and broadcast on Starz the following October. THE RIVER AND THE WALL was nominated for the 2020 Emmy for Outstanding Nature Documentary.

She most recently produced Emmy Award-winning director Maisie Crow's forthcoming documentary feature, AT THE READY, premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival.