FUSION'S INDUSTRY VISIONARY HONOREELOIRA LIMBAL

CEO and President of Firelight
Media and multi-media artist.

FUSION'S ARTIST OF
THE YEAREMMA SELIGMAN

Pictured: Rachel Sennott, featured in Shiva Baby written and directed by Emma Seligman

Wednesday, March 4th • 12:30pm

Fusion Industry Visionary Luncheon
with Honoree Loira LimbalHonoring Loira Limbal, CEO and President of Firelight Media and multi-media artist.

Event by invitation only

Thursday, March 5th • 7:00pm
Tisch Theatre 006, 721 Broadway

Artist of the Year, Emma SeligmanConversation with writer/director Seligman (Tisch ’17) on their journey with Shiva Baby and Bottoms to indie film heights.

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Friday, March 6th • 3:00pm
Tisch Theatre 006, 721 Broadway

Docs in the Works
Pitch CompetitionWatch finalists present to top industry judges!

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Friday, March 6th • 7:00pm
Tisch Theatre 006, 721 Broadway

Masterclass with Loira Limbal Exploration of her acclaimed documentary Through The Night with Fusion’s Industry Visionary Honoree.

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Saturday, March 7th • 12:00pm
Tisch Theatre 006, 721 Broadway

Future of Film is Female Shorts Program
Introduced by Caryn Coleman, with films from directors Giovanna Molina, LaTajh Weaver, Chloe Levine, and Maya Cueva.

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Saturday, March 7th • 1:30pm
Tisch Theatre 006, 721 Broadway

Curating New York's
Indie CinemaFilm programmers share their process, journey and challenges. Featuring Illyse Singer (Roxy Cinema), Cristina Cacioppo (Brooklyn Nitehawk), Aliza Ma (Criterion), and Emily Rose Apter (Solidarity Media Network).
Moderated by Valeria Rotella, Producer at Criterion.

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Saturday, March 7th • 3:00pm
Tisch Theatre 006, 721 Broadway

Make me Laugh!Career advice from industry pros Mahayla Laurence, Matt Gehring, Julia Scotti, and Suzette Simon.
Moderated by Hammerkatz’s Daisy Bookman.

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Saturday, March 7th • 6:00pm
Tisch Theatre 006, 721 Broadway

Fusion Competition Screening
and Award Ceremony
A showcase of the 2026 Fusion Film Festival finalists. Discover the next generation of storytellers.

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Saturday, March 7th • 9:00pm
Lower Lobby, 721 Broadway

Festival Reception

Abigail Sun
Co-Director, Co-Head of Production Management

Pavithra Velliyatt
Co-Director,
Head of Design

Arhana Singhania
Co-Director,
Head of Programming

Fusion's Faculty Advisor, Professor Susan Sandler

Susan Sandler and Lucy Walkowiak at Fusion's 2026 recruitment event

Faculty Advisor
Susan SandlerCo-Directors
Abigail Sun
Pavithra Velliyatt
Arhana SinghaniaAssociate Directors
Skye Muthuramalingam
Ashley BowerfindAlumni Relations
Angela Ananya RamkumarDesign
Pavithra VelliyattEditorial
Carly Burton

Finance and Sponsorship
Avani MoreMarketing
Hannah Loren BugarinPhoto/Video
Camden Colquhoun
Jordan WinickProduction Management
Abigail Sun
Ashley BowerfindProgramming
Arhana SinghaniaSubmissions
Ashley Bowerfind

Alumni Relations
Angela Ananya Ramkumar
Ava Lerner
Lisa Krest
Maya Mueller
Aubrey Chase
Rebecca Gutierrez-HaefeliDesign and Marketing
Pavithra Velliyatt
Aisling London
Olivia Tan
Samantha Del Rio
Sarah WinEditorial
Carly Burton
Miranda Liu
Ifeanyi Aliya Odita
Max Bolen
Lena Haziq
Andy Atzema
Abbie WalshMarketing
Hannah Loren Bugarin
Virginia Butler
Kate O'ToolePhoto/Video
Camden Colquhoun
Jordan Winick
Skye Muthuramalingam
Raveena Ganput
Andy Atzema
Jacob Watson
Erin Dornan
Mick Bongiovi
Annabelle Tang
Riley Shih
Candy Wei
Lena Haziq
Zahara Slovenski
Kamya Agarwal
Rae Kaucher

Finance and Sponsorship
Avani More
Emma Hong
Claire Wang
Maya Neiman
Abigail MaselliProduction Management
Abigail Sun
Aisling London
Alexis Korb
Ann Park
Lulu Chen
Grace Charles
Manuela Fernandes Viana
Mariana Hutchinson
Cecelia Irwin
Caitlyn Huang
Whitney Cabbagestalk
Ella Nelson
Julianna Sanchez
Alice Rope
Yasmeen Rifai
Astrid Taffarello
Alina (Yuke) ZhangProgramming
Arhana Singhania
Nadine Mamoon
Ally Stankard
Sydney Figueredo
Prakruthi Krishnan
Bette Barnes
Rory FoxSubmissions
Ashley Bowerfind
Tiana Lucero
Sophie Vernon
Lyra Dean
Mia Louisa Ortiz
Annie Xie

MARE
by Halle Skye

Not Valid For Travel
by Jiaying Lin

Wet Specimen
by Ann Marie Martin

Tropic of Cancer
by Alex Jiang

Crisis Actor
by Lily Platt

Pankaja
by Anooya Swamy

LAKE
by Sixuan Huang

FISH DON'T BLINK
by Natalie Cullen

AfterLife
byYimeng Wang

Syncopation
by Mia Cole

Two-Top
by Freya Golden

Saltwater Heart
by Megan Pak

Daily Worker
by Ting Su

Casa Amadeo
by Ariana Luque

Children of the Waves
by Kezia Sakho

Agnes and Eve
by Sky Parker

Just a Game
by Katie Walsh

Starbaby Empire
by Sarah Calone

Jin
by Aubrey Zehui
Wang

The Lucky Girls
by Becca Carter Freeman

Bun In The Oven
by Julia
Slaughter

Pressed
by Shiphrah Moses

Collected
by Maureen Zeufack

Dear Jesus, Please
Stop Looking
by Adrianna Reyes

Faux
by Sam Shane

Over the Hill
by Julia Slaughter

Children of the Waves
by Jacqueline Pothier

How Much Water Does A Plant Need in a Pandemic
by Mary Muromcew

The Delegate
by Morgan Bramwell

my dad lies through his teeth
by Vivian Nguyen

Grandma Swim
by Maryam Mir

The Pink Funeral
by Iven Tu

Melons
by Chris Piliouni

Requiem
by Hanna Tian

The God of Grand Central
by Katie McLean

The Expert
by Lily Bartin

Take Heart
by Yuhyeon Byun

Crayola Colors of the World
by Baani Kaur

American Dream
by Aidan Fine

Second Time Around
by Sofia Moreno Lima

Watch the Rain
by Jaibee

Another Man's Mom
by Yunny Huang

Keepsake
by Nichole McMinn

Together, I'm Pieces
by Kaylee Renaud

Jules, Kirby, and the End of the World as We Know It
by Campbell Howard

Brenadette
by Sophia Plaushin

Birthday Girl
by Jacqueline Pothier

Arya
by Julia Messick

Pa-Sapphic Islanders
by Kai Macapinlac

The Hypno-Church
by Chloe Johnson

Emma Seligman

Emma Seligman is a Canadian writer/director and winner of the 2022 Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award. Their debut feature, SHIVA BABY, was selected to screen at SXSW and TIFF in 2020 and was named a New York Times Critics Pick. In 2020, Emma was named one of Variety’s “10 Screenwriters to Watch” and one of Filmmaker Mag’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film.” Their second feature, BOTTOMS, made with Orion Pictures, premiered at SXSW 2023 to rave reviews and released in theaters on August 25, 2023.

String Theory
by Josie Blanke
“String Theory” follows two adopted subjects, Josie and Ellie, as they confront the alternate paths their lives could have taken. Were they brought to their adopted families by fate or simply by circumstance?

Dead End Sacrifice
by Tim Toliver
A secluded Queens island town is swept up in fear, escalation, and the politics of paranoia after finding a beach littered by animal carcasses allegedly killed in religious ceremonies.

Crossings
by Angela Shen
Silvia, an undocumented mother from Ecuador, works long hours while waiting through immigration delay, as the filmmaker documenting her faces the same barriers—revealing labor as a shared struggle shaped by power and access.

Ways of Seeing
by Dora Nano
Photographer David Cuka, the first openly transgender man in Albania, returns home after relinquishing political asylum in Belgium to continue his form of activism: portraiture.

Goodbye Yiwu
by Elena Lecun Xiang
Returning to Yiwu, the world’s largest wholesale market in China, a young filmmaker traces a childhood shaped by separation from her working mother. Filming another mother in the same market, she uncovers the unspoken love and sacrifices behind a generation of women powering global trade.

The Afterglow
by Riley O’Donnell
“The Afterglow” explores a filmmaker’s relationship with her younger self through the lens of the pressures that high-intensity performing arts environments place on children. Through a blend of documentary and performance, it reflects on the loss of innocence that can come from being pushed to create before fully understanding why. As the filmmaker revisits the world that once defined her, the film questions how early expectations can warp one’s relationship with art and how it blurs the boundary between passion and pressure.

Kerry LeVielle

Kerry LeVielle (she/they) is a queer filmmaker and Emmy-winning Coordinating Producer for both POV and POV Shorts, currently based in Brooklyn. During their tenure, several films received Academy Award nominations, such as Porcelain War, and Emmy nominations such as King Coal, Name Me Lawand, The Body Politic, and Emmy-winner, Eat Your Catfish. She is an alumnus of The Sundance Ignite and Creative Culture Fellowship Programs and was recently a finalist for the 2026 Sundance Development Track. Her work has screened at the Sundance Film Festival, Indie Memphis, and the National Film Festival for Talented Youth.

Rebecca Teitel

Rebecca Teitel is an Emmy® and Peabody Award-winning Media Executive currently Executive Producer at Midnight Films, where she oversees development and production of non-fiction and scripted projects forOscar-nominated director Rick Rowley (DIRTY WARS). At Sony Music Entertainment, Rebecca was VP Documentary where she oversaw development and production of film and television project about Sony artists ranging from Lil Nas X to June Carter Cash. As VP of Documentary for TIME Studios, she helped launch the Emmy Award®-winning television and film division for the storied global media company, building,curating and creatively overseeing a robust slate that helped define the Studio’s ethos.

Caroline Waterlow

Caroline Waterlow is an Oscar, Emmy & Peabody award-winning documentary filmmaker. Waterlow produced O.J.: Made in America, winner of Best Documentary Oscar in 2017. Between 2018 to 2025, Waterlow was President of Laylow Pictures whose recent projects include HBO docuseries STAX: Soulsville, U.S.A, and HULU docuseries Vow of Silence: The Assassination of Annie Mae. Earlier documentaries include: Qualified, for ESPN; Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon; and Academy Award-nominated Cutie and the Boxer. Waterlow graduated from Emory University in 1996. Originally from Montreal, Canada, she lives in Brooklyn with her husband Wyatt Smith, a feature film editor.

Merrill Sterritt

Merrill Sterritt is Field of Vision's Senior Manager, Partnerships & Innovation and Director of IF/Then Shorts, and a Burmese-American field-builder and filmmaker advocate. Previously the Head of Alliances and Cultural Engagement at Cinereach, they expanded Cinereach’s impact by developing methods of support for regional and community-focused film organizations. In 2010, Merrill co-founded Film Presence, leading theatrical outreach campaigns to connect films with audiences outside the arthouse bubble. They also worked in post-production and managed the Production Assistance Program at Women Make Movies. Merrill was named one of DOC NYC's inaugural New Leaders cohort and a 2022 Rockwood Documentary Leaders Fellow.

Loira Limbal

Loira Limbal is President & CEO of Firelight Media, a nonprofit organization that supports, resources, and advocates on behalf of documentary filmmakers of color. She is a multidisciplinary artist who works in documentary film and video installation and as a DJ. Her films include Through the Night (2020) (Tribeca Film Festival, du-Pont Columbia Award, and NYT Critic’s Pick), which aired on PBS’ POV Series, and Estilo Hip Hop (2009), which aired on PBS. Her recent accolades include a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Creative Capital Award, a USA Fellowship, a NAACP Image Award nomination, and a Sundance Institute Fellowship.

THROUGH THE NIGHT
dir. Loira Limbal. 2020. 76 mins.

Director’s Statement: “THROUGH THE NIGHT is my love letter to single mothers and caregivers. I was raised by an amazing cast of Black and Latinx women who performed miraculous acts of resilience, creativity, and subversion on a daily basis. Unfortunately, when I look around at our popular culture these women are rarely seen and when they do appear, they are represented in reductive ways that often amount to caricatures. My vision as a filmmaker is to flood our popular culture with beautifully complex portrayals of the lives of working-class women of color so that we have new gazes and new ways of seeing ourselves.”

Quaker
dir. Giovanna Molina. 2025. 16 mins.

Brooklyn high school seniors share their candid feelings with each other during their last Quaker meeting of the year.

Giovanna Molina

Giovanna Molina is a Mexican-Italian-American filmmaker from Brooklyn, NY, based in LA. Her films explore stories of isolation, belief and surrealism within a female coming-of-age context. She studied directing at UCLA and film and creative writing at Johns Hopkins University and has received grants and fellowships from Sundance, PBS, The Future of Film is Female and the Saul Zaentz Innovation Fund. Her most recent film, QUAKER, had its world premiere at the 2025 Berlinale and won Best Narrative Short at Bend Film Festival. Her screenplay, KISMET, was selected for Wscripted’s 2024 Cannes Screenplay list, presented by MUBI.

Budget Paradise
dir. LaTajh Weaver. 2025. 14 mins.

Black, non-binary painter Chester searches for space and belonging in their rapidly changing hometown, navigating identity, creativity, and the struggle for permission to exist on their own terms.

LaTajh Weaver

LaTajh Simmons-Weaver is a screenwriter and director from Oakland, CA. Their work blends humor, imagination, and irony to explore overlooked stories within Black Queer dynamics, examining how these communities learn to cope with everyday injustices. They are the director of two short films premiering in 2025: the short documentary HOLD ME CLOSE premiered in competition at the Sundance Film Festival and the narrative short BUDGET PARADISE premieres at SFFILM Festival. Weaver is now developing their first feature NO ONE TURNED AWAY FOR LACK OF FUNDS: A QUEER INCLUSIVE MEMOIR, a dark comedy challenging identity politics amongst the ever-gentrifying Bay Area. Their script is a recipient of SFFILM’s Rainin Grant for development.

Bloom
dir. Chloe Levine. 2025. 15 mins.

A teenager with violent tendencies is forced to reconcile with her past after a particularly volatile and random outburst.

Chloe Levine

Based in New York, Chloe Levine is an incredibly mutli-faceted artist, spanning across directing, producing, acting, writing, and acting. She recently wrapped the romantic drama Bird Song, in which she plays the lead. Levine also worked in Tribeca Audience Award winner King Jack, Sundance debut Adam, and and psychological thriller Somnium, which premiered at the 2024 Chattanooga Film Festival and earned her Best Lead Actress at FilmQuest. Her directorial debut was Dragon, winner of Best Experimental Short in the Tribeca Film Institute’s “Our City, My Story,” and later directed and co-wrote the Blubber, which premiered at 2024 Greenpoint Film Festival. Levine shares with us her newest short, Bloom.

Ale Libre
dir. Maya Cueva. 2021. 17 mins.

Alejandra prepares for the biggest moment of her life - her deportation case.

Maya Cueva

From Berkeley, California, director and producer Maya Cueva gives us her short Ale Libre. This doc has received numerous accolades, acquired by The New Yorker and screened at Big Sky Documentary Festival, Hot Docs, Aspen Film Festival, and SFFILM. She is currently working on a documentary about her grandfather, Dr. Quentin Young, the physician to Fred Hampton and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, exploring his fight for healthcare.Cueva’s other work has appeared in NPR’s All Things Considered, Latino USA, The Atlantic, and more, and her feature documentary On The Divide premiered at Tribeca in 2021, being broadcast on PBS in 2022 and receiving over a million views worldwide. As an artist, Cueva was named a Netflix Nonfiction Director and Producer fellow and listed on DOC NYC’s 40 Under 40 Filmmake

Caryn Coleman

Caryn Coleman is a film programmer based in New York and the founder of “The Future of Film is Female”, a non-profit that amplifies the work of all women and non-binary filmmakers. She was the co-curator of Horror: Messaging the Monstrous (2022) at the Museum of Modern Art where she also guest-curates the ongoing The FOFIF series, now in its fifth season. Previously, Caryn was the Director of Programming at Nitehawk Cinema where she founded the Nitehawk Shorts Festival in 2013. She is a fighter for gender equality in the film industry, a lover of horror films, a short film advocate, and an independent film supporter.

Illyse Singer

For anyone passionate about film, Illyse Singer is a name to know. Since moving to New York from Miami in the early 2000s, she has been deeply immersed in the downtown film, arts, and music scene. As the cinema director of the Roxy Cinema, Illyse draws on her encyclopedic knowledge of film and sharp curatorial eye to create cinematic experiences that honor film history while championing new voices. In her day-to-day life at the Roxy, Illyse programs eclectic film lineups and special events, from artist collaborations to curated series, and when the credits roll, you’ll often find her onstage in conversation with some of today’s most influential filmmakers.

Cristina Cacioppo

Cristina Cacioppo has been a film programmer for over two decades, for the past five years as Director of Programming at Nitehawk Cinema. She has also written for film publications including MUBI and Screen Slate, in addition to contributing essays and interview supplements for home video releases from Criterion, Vinegar Syndrome and Fun City Editions.

Aliza Ma

Aliza Ma is a New York-based film programmer and writer, currently serving as Head of Programming at the Criterion Channel. Previously, she was the founding head programmer at Metrograph and has held key programming positions at the Museum of the Moving Image and the Toronto International Film Festival.

Emily Rose Apter

Emily Rose Apter is a Brooklyn-based cultural worker, whose work explores overlapping spheres of cultural production, (counter)archives, labor, and collective struggle. She works in public programming for film and cultural heritage organizations, formerly as Director of Programming at Maysles Documentary Center in Harlem. Currently, Emily oversees programming for Solidarity Media Network, an grassroots abolitionist project supporting formerly incarcerated artists.

Valeria Rotella

Valeria Rotella is a Producer at the Criterion Collection, where she works on releases in the company’s physical media line and Closet Video series. A 2016 Tisch alumna, she is also a current MFA candidate at Hunter College. Her work was featured in the 2014 edition of the Fusion Film Festival.

Julia Scotti

Julia Scotti has been making America laugh since 1980. Her career has taken her from the stage of NY’s Original Improvisation in Hell’s Kitchen to appearance in films and television (Babes, Bros, Elsbeth.) Her performing credits include being a quarter finalist on NBC’s America’s Got Talent, featured on Showtime’s More Funny Women of a Certain Age and her own Dry Bar special, Jersey Fresh. She is the subject Susan Sandler’s award winning feature doc, Julia Scotti; Funny That Way, streaming now on Amazon Prime and Apple TV. A prolific writer, Julia is currently working on a memoir and continues to perform in theaters all over the country. She is repped by Omnipop Talent Management.

Mahayla Laurence

Mahayla Laurence (they/she) is a Colorado-raised, Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary artist, theatermaker, and educator with a penchant for genre-expansive work. In addition to performing, Mahayla regularly facilitates creative development programs and directs independent theater projects all over NYC, teaches playwriting to K-5th graders through Chautauqua Institution’s Young Playwrights Project, and seasonally roams the country with The Story Pirates National Tour. Recent work has been seen: Ars Nova, HERE Arts, The Bushwick Starr, Space at Irondale, Radio City Music Hall, Clubbed Thumb, The Brick, & Smith Street Stage. Mahayla is also a certified breathwork practitioner and an uncertified nerd.

Matt Gehring

Matt Gehring is an Off-Broadway Director of Art of Leaving (Signature Theater) and is currently the Comedy Division Director at Stella Adler. Credits include Alexis Gay: Unprofessional (SoHo Playhouse, EFF), The 1953 Thanksgiving Special (Joe’s Pub), Amazing Earth (UCBT-NY, featuring Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers), Harry Clarke (Berkeley Rep, asst. dir. to Leigh Silverman, starring Billy Crudup) and his long-running comedy show with Shaina Taub, SHIZ (UCBT-NY) which features talent like Emmy winner Jeff Hiller, SNL’s Chloe Troast and Tony-winner Nikki M. James. Matt holds an MFA in Theater Directing.

Suzette Simon

Suzette Simon considers herself New York City’s local LOL dealer, moving punchlines through the five boroughs like public service announcements for joy. She is the founder and Artistic Director of NYLaughs, a performing arts nonprofit built on a bold idea: comedy isn’t just entertainment, it’s a cultural force. She's turned NYC’s public spaces into stages and everyday New Yorkers into audiences partnering with institutions including the Brooklyn Museum, NYS Battery Park City Authority, NYC City Council, Bryant Park, and NYPL LIVE proving that comedy belongs everywhere culture lives. In 2025 , Suzette created NYLaughsFest in partnership with The Stand Comedy Club and Union Square Partnership. Today, NYLaughs produces summer comedy programming at Lincoln Center, continuing to elevate stand-up as a uniquely New York art form.

Daisy Brookman

Daisy Brookman is a senior in Tisch studying Collaborative Arts with a focus in comedy writing and performance. She is co-director for NYU’s comedy groups Hammerkatz and After School Improv.