Co-Founder + Co-Executive Director

Sahar is a veteran documentary impact strategist, field builder, and researcher. Her career has focused on social and cultural transformation through nonfiction storytelling. She has led impact campaigns and strategy for over two-dozen documentaries, independently and with Active Voice. She has designed and led impact trainings and grantmaking programs to support impact producers and filmmakers of color with Firelight Media. She worked with Doc Society to update the second edition of their Impact Field Guide and wrote the 2019 Impact Hi5 case studies. She is on the Picture Motion Advisory Board, was a 2022 Intercultural Leadership Institute Fellow, and a 2021 Rockwood/JustFilms Fellow. In 2020 she authored the Ford Foundation commissioned report: Beyond Inclusion: The Critical Role of People of Color in the U.S. Documentary Ecosystem. Sahar is a second generation, Iranian American living in Oakland, CA on the ancestral lands of the Muwekma and Ohlone peoples.

For grants + funding inquiries:

sahar @ colorcongressinitiative.org

Co-Founder + Co-Executive Director

Sonya is a founding Co-Director of Color Congress, an ecosystem-builder that resources, supports, and connects organizations led by people of color that serve nonfiction filmmakers, leaders, and audiences of color across the US and US islands, with Sahar Driver. As Senior Fellow with the Perspective Fund, she examined issues of ethics, equity and accountability in the documentary field. A veteran strategist, she spent two decades devising impact campaigns and distribution strategies at Active Voice, California Newsreel and Firelight Media, where she piloted a fellowship for impact producers of color. She is a board member of the Center for Cultural Power, a member of the Documentary Accountability Working Group, a working group member for ‘The Lens Reflected’ study, a 2015 Rockwood JustFilms Fellow, a recipient of the 2022 Leading Light Award from Doc NYC, and a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.

For press + partnerships inquiries:

sonya @ colorcongressinitiative.org

Administrative Associate

Andrea is a documentary impact professional, writer, and filmmaker. Her work lies in the intersection of activating social change, empowering BIPOC artists, and multimedia, cross-cultural storytelling. She coordinated panel events and communications outreach as part of the Impact team for Unapologetic, a documentary highlighting two Black abolitionists in Chicago.

She is a member of Brown Girls Doc Mafia and the National Association of Latino Independent Producers. Andrea is a first-generation Mexican American, raised in Michigan on stolen Anishinabewaki land.

For general inquiries:

andrea @ colorcongressinitiative.org

Marketing Initiative Director

Alece Oxendine is a celebrated speaker, strategist, and writer in the film and media industry. She has made an impact on hundreds of emerging filmmakers in the areas of marketing and distribution at Film at Lincoln Center, BAMcinema, Rooftop Films, Athena Film Festival, Fandor, and Good Deed Entertainment. Most recently, she was the Director of Industry and Festival Outreach at Columbia University’s film program. Now, Alece brings her 15 years of experience to Color Congress to help build a marketing and distribution initiative for documentary filmmakers. Alece is an alumna of Columbia University where she serves on their alumni board, and she is a proud HBCU graduate from Winston-Salem State University. In her free time, she enjoys telling stories in various formats.

For Marketing Initiative inquiries:

alece @ colorcongressinitiative.org

Membership & Events Manager

Michelle has advocated for narrative sovereignty for diverse storytellers throughout her PhD journey in Visual Anthropology at Temple University and brings this passion to Color Congress as the Membership and Events Manager. She co-founded and developed Kin Theory, an Indigenous media makers database, and helped coordinate the 4th World Media Lab. With a 2022-2023 Fulbright Fellowship, she collaborated with the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival and Vtape in Toronto. Originally from San Francisco, Michelle (Cantonese American, Irish and French descent) did human rights and media work in Rio de Janeiro as part of her MA at New York University, received an MFA from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, worked with the Center for Artistic Activism, and with the Center for Media, Culture and History. She currently resides on Lenape land in Philadelphia.

michelle @ colorcongressinitiative.org