Decisions on Deadline

Samantha Grant is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, journalist, and educator. Her approach to storytelling is influenced by both her undergraduate degree in American Studies/Literature from Yale University and her Master’s of Journalism degree from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Through her San Francisco-based production company GUSH productions, Grant has created work for clients including MTV, ABC, PBS, CNN, NPR, PRI, FRONTLINE, and Al Jazeera International. In 2007, she was named a Carnegie/Knight fellow as part of the News 21 Initiative on the Future of Journalism and in 2011 was named a BAVC MediaMaker Fellow. A Fragile Trust: Plagiarism, Power, and Jayson Blair at The New York Times, Grant’s first feature documentary, was released theatrically and aired nationally on PBS in May 2014 as part of Independent Lens. Grant's film Daughters of the Forest tells the story of a revolutionary girls high school being built in one of the last pristine forests in South America. When she’s not shooting or producing independent documentaries, you can find Grant lecturing at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism and Stanford’s Knight Fellowship program.

Brittney Shepherd is a newly Texas-based documentary and narrative filmmaker. Her films have screened at festivals around the world, and she has also produced numerous hours of quality programing for public and cable television for outlets such as the Smithsonian Channel, ESPN, CNBC, and PBS's award-winning series Independent Lens.. She is a CPB/PBS Producer’s Academy alum, a former Bay Area Video Coalition MediaMaker Fellow and Emerging Artist Professionals fellow. Brittney holds a B.A. from UC Berkeley in Ethnic Studies.