Since 2018, Orwa Nyrabia (he/him) has been the Artistic Director of the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, IDFA, the world’s largest documentary film and new media festival. At IDFA, Orwa is a member of the board of directors, overseeing the organization's various programs and offers.
Board Members
Born in North Carolina, graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill as a John Motley Morehead Scholar, Alfred Perry (he/him) is a graduate of Yale Law School. Worked as a Wall Street lawyer in NYC and since at major movie studios and now as an exec at AMC Networks. A world traveler who pursues photography, screenwriting, and documentary filmmaking as an avocation.
Marcia Smith is co-founder and President of Firelight Media, which produces documentary films, provides artistic and financial support to emerging filmmakers of color, and builds impact campaigns to connect documentaries to audiences and social justice advocates.
Amir Shahkhalili is a partner and co-runs the Non-Scripted Television department at William Morris Endeavor. He represents notable directors such as Allen Hughes, Seth Gordon, and Kirby Dick & Amy Ziering. Amir was named the city of Los Angeles' 2019 Entrepreneurs in Residence where he served a yearlong term to increase diversity in the film industry. Shahkhalili joined the William Morris Agency in 2005, after graduating from University of California, Davis.
Grace Lee (she/her) is a Peabody-award winning filmmaker whose credits include American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs, the doc series And She Could be Next and Asian Americans, and The Grace Lee Project. Based in Los Angeles, she is a member of the Documentary Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and co-founder of Asian American Documentary Network.
Chris Perez (he/him) specializes in representing independent filmmakers through development, financing, production, rights clearance and distribution. Chris also serves as counsel to writers, podcast producers, radio personalities, museums and foundations, as well as Film Independent, which produces the Spirit Awards and supports independent filmmakers around the world, and is a board member for the International Documentary Association. He earned his Juris Doctorate at the USC Gould School of Law. Prior to working with Donaldson + Callif, Chris worked for California Lawyers for the Arts, Technicolor, and the Cyberlaw Clinic at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School.