Getting Real '26 Conference Team

Programming & Production

Conference Director

Abby Sun is IDA’s Director of Programs and leads the programming team of Getting Real ’26.

Programmer

Lisa Valencia-Svensson is an Emmy award winning and Academy Award shortlisted documentary producer based in Toronto. She has also worked and continues to work in senior management and mentorship positions throughout the film industry in Canada and the US, including for Hot Docs, Multitude Films, Fae Pictures, Racial Equity Media Collective, Telefilm and the Documentary Organization of Canada. She is a Documentary Branch member of AMPAS and was a programmer for Getting Real ‘24.

Programmer

Meghan Monsour is a film programmer and programming consultant based in Mexico. Her career has been dedicated to reimagining how films connect with their audiences and developing alternative distribution networks for documentary film. Previously, she was the director of programming at the Ambulante Documentary Film Festival and a programmer for Getting Real ‘24.

Conference Executive Producer

Camellia Cullen is the Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer of CM Events Co, an events agency that focuses on strategic event design and execution for a myriad of nonprofit and corporate organizations. She has worked with companies like Sundance Film Festival, Phoenix Art Museum, Catalina Island Conservancy, LA Festival of Movies and brings a passion for the overall creative approach and the little details that transform an event into a lasting experience.

Conference Executive Producer

Meg Smith is Co-Founder and Chief Operations Officer of CM Events Co, an events agency that focuses on strategic event design and execution for a myriad of nonprofit and corporate organizations. She has worked with companies like The New York Public Library, Sundance Film Festival, The James Beard Awards, Ansira, LA Festival of Movies, and brings an eye for streamlined execution and production.

Eynar Pineda, Travel and Hospitality Manager

Travel and Hospitality Manager

Eynar Pineda is a first-generation Honduran-American producer working at the intersection of festival production, operations, and audience engagement. He currently serves as Director of Operations at the SNF Parkway Theatre and Festival Producer of the Maryland Film Festival. His recent work includes Creative Festival Producer at True/False Film Fest, Associate Producer of Engagement at the Camden International Film Festival, and Co-Producer of the Flaherty Film Seminar.

Access Consultant

Emily Voorde is the Founder and CEO of INTO Strategies, a Disabled-led firm bringing people into moments, movements, and campaigns. Prior to INTO Strategies, Emily served as Chasten Buttigieg’s Body Woman and as the Biden-Harris Administration’s liaison to Disabled Americans.

Pass Sales Manager

Nehal Vyas is a filmmaker, programmer, and educator from India, currently based in Los Angeles. She is the Shorts Programming Associate at Camden International Film Festival and a film programmer for IFFLA. She is one-fifth of Bahía Collective, where she collaborates with friends and fellow filmmakers in cinematic practice and curation—imagining cinema that resists erasure and centers collective, alternative futures.

Travel and Hospitality Coordinator

Samantha Heth is a festival worker who has helped get feature and short filmmakers, artist fellows, conference speakers, industry representatives to events all over the US. She has programmed and coordinated activation spaces for conferences, programmed, managed venues, and coordinated volunteers for organizations like True/False Film Fest, Camden International Film Festival, New Orleans Film Festival, and more.

Tech Director

Sergio Andrés Lobo-Navia is a festival worker and filmmaker. His festival credits include technical director positions at New Orleans, Miami, Montclair, SeriesFest and the Los Angeles International Latino Film Festival. He is the co-director and producer of George Dureau: New Orleans Artist (2023) and Last Night At The Palm Court (2026).

The conference team is also supported by all of the IDA Staff and the Board of Directors.

Questions?

Programming, sponsorship, and partnership suggestions?

Email conference@documentary.org.

Testimonials From Past Getting Reals

“My experience was incredible. All of the staff and volunteers were kind and helpful. All of the filmmakers I met were so ready and willing to connect and share knowledge. There were many last-minute changes, but the email communication was clear and consistent, making it easier to navigate all the moving pieces. All in all, it was an incredible experience.” —Thanh Tran

Testimonials From Past Getting Reals

“I loved it. The quality of the curation was absolutely stellar, and attending was a communal event in the best sense: I really appreciate how you welcomed everyone from top-level industry insiders to film students (and all the rest of us in between) on an equal level. It felt democratic, accessible, inclusive. To be clear, I only attended the ‘live’ events, not the virtual ones, since I was there on-site. I really appreciated the variation in the programming, which had a clear theme, but which allowed for every talk to unfold on its own terms. In my experience, the talks felt genuine, honest, and ‘human’ in a way that some industry events do not manage to achieve. There was political commitment and a shared sense of cause, and I appreciate how it was made clear in text and talk that this was a forum in which everyone was encouraged to freely speak their mind and voice their opinion. I also really liked the ones about form and craft/art, as well as the one about using AI for concrete practices. For all those reasons, I find it hard to single out highlights, as Getting Real was so very rewarding as a complete experience. Also, it should be said that it was really great FUN too.”

—Mads K. Mikkelsen

“I loved connecting with the people there. The people were really great. I feel like I made some really organic connections, and it was also nice to reconnect in person with some folks that I had met virtually during the pandemic.”

—Anonymous