Live Round table Discussions

Marcela Morán is an award-winning filmmaker and educator. Morán is a border woman, raised on the US/Mexico border in Laredo, Texas and Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, México. Her work deals with migration/immigration, border landscape and bicultural issues. Morán has a Master of Fine Arts degree from Ohio University’s School of Film and a an undergraduate in Radio/TV/Film from the University of Texas at Austin. Her work has been showcased at numerous international film festivals, galleries and conferences. As of 2013, Morán's documentary short titled "Audiencia" became part of Mexic-Arte's permanent collection. She is an Associate Professor of Communication at Texas A&M International University in Laredo, Texas. For more information visit www.marcelamoran.com.

Sally Lewis Heims is an independent writer and producer covering a variety of topics and genres for South Florida PBS, ranging from Florida’s starving manatees for Changing Seas, to a documentary about the life and career of Dr. Anthony Fauci (Fauci: The Virus Hunter). Over the years, the productions have garnered two regional Emmy’s and more recently, two regional Emmy nominations as series producer for film-maker (2019) and On The Town in the Palm Beaches (2022). She spent a decade working as a media producer for an environmental non-profit in Martin County, Florida, focused on clean water initiatives. Sally began her career as a news anchor & reporter, after graduating from the University of Florida’s College of Journalism with a B.S. Broadcasting.

Djassi DaCosta Johnson is a native New Yorker, classically trained modern dancer, choreographer, photographer, filmmaker, designer, writer, Doula and mother. She holds a BA in Anthropology from Barnard and an MFA in Dance, New Media & Technology from NYU Tish as a Dean’s Fellow. Djassi has worked internationally as a dancer, actor, choreographer and creative director for stage, screen, fashion films, photo shoots and industrial showcases for over two decades. As a published cultural writer, Djassi writes in English, Italian and Portuguese about dance, culture, women’s issues and highlights artists of color for outlets such as KINFOLK, {DIYdancer}, Harvard Design Magazine, VIBE, TRACE and Playbill among others. She is a mentor for the national writing program, Girls Write Now and was the Assistant Professor at The University of Virgin Islands from 2020-2022 where she led the initiative to start the first Dance Performance BFA and open the first dance studio on the St. Croix campus in 2022. As a performance artist, she collaborates with jazz musicians and visual artists and for festivals such as PERFORMA and Vision Fest and has had her choreography & performance commissioned by Brooklyn Museum, Eddie Peak, Brendan Fernandez, lia chavez, Isabella Rossellini and Alice Walker, among others. Djassi shoots and edits her own films and recently served as a DP for a documentary on Indigenous and Black mental health workers who utilize psychedelics and indigenous plant medicines for healing in Oakland, CA in 2022. Her choreography, photography and films have been showcased at Museums, Galleries and exhibitions internationally including Photoville (Brooklyn), National Museum of Women in The Arts, Brooklyn Museum and Shed Halle (Zurich). Her latest dance film, “Gaia & Luna: a mermaid dream” was recently accepted to be screened at the environmental film festival, Cinema Verde, in Portugal, for its world premiere in February 2023.