Supported by JustFilms, Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program, Catapult Film Fund, Good Gravy Films and The International Documentary Association (Pare Lorentz) and The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, In The Bones is a feature length documentary film in post production.

Structured as a triptych where each story seeks to inform the next, In The Bones, set in Mississippi, travels from the Gulf Coast where women-run households are the norm and domestic violence is commonplace, to the rural pockets of the Delta where cowboy culture is king, to the State Capitol where a bipartisan group of women are waging an uphill battle to pass an Equal Pay law.

FILM TEAM

KELLY DUANE DE LA VEGA: Kelly’s films have screened at film festivals worldwide, opened theatrically and broadcast nationally on POV/PBS and Netflix. Her films have received the WGA’s Best Documentary Screenplay Award, Gotham Independent Film Best Documentary Award and multiple national Emmy nominations. Her film BETTER THIS WORLD won Best Documentary Feature at the San Francisco International, received an IDA Creative Achievement Award and was selected to screen at NY MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight. THE RETURN, a Peabody Award Finalist, won the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival Audience Award for Best Documentary, screened on Capitol Hill and in prisons across the country. She has produced short-format work for The New York Times, Mother Jones, and IFC, among others. A Sundance and HBO/Film Independent Fellow, she has guest lectured at various universities and taught a documentary forms course at UC Berkeley.

JESSICA ANTHONY: Jessica is a Sundance Creative Producing Fellow with over two decades of experience in short and long form narrative and documentary films. She produced the documentary THE MASK YOU LIVE IN, which premiered at Sundance in 2015. In 2016, Jessica partnered with Duane de la Vega to direct and produce PROJECT TURNOUT, creating media partnerships with Mother Jones, the Nation and the New York Times. As part of this effort she directed and produced the Op-Doc SUPREME COURT V. THE AMERICAN VOTER. She produced director Guetty Felin’s narrative feature AYITI MON AMOUR (Toronto 2016, Oscar contender 2018) about the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Jessica’s career began in animation and visual effects where she produced award winning ads and short films for MTV, Disney, Universal, Nickelodeon, BBC, and Comedy Central.

ZANDASHÉ BROWN: Zandashé is an award-winning genre filmmaker born and bred in and inspired by Southern Louisiana. A self-proclaimed storyteller, Brown writes and directs stories that showcase her perspective on identity, spirituality, and healing for black women in the American South. In 2014, she became a fellow of the New Orleans Film Society’s emerging voices program for emerging directors of color. Her film BLOOD RUNS DOWN, was one of 5 projects funded by the New Orleans tricentennial story incubator grant.

HANNAH CHOE: Hannah Choe is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker with eight years of experience in documentary film. She was recently an associate editor for Dark Money (Sundance, 2018) and an assistant editor for Gavin Grimm Vs. and Geographies of Kinship. She graduated from San Francisco State University with a degree in Cinema and a minor in Asian American Studies. Hannah strongly believes in the art of film as a powerful and transformative tool for promoting healing and compassion, building platforms for under-represented communities and inspiring social change.

MARIO FURLONI: Mario is an award-winning Brazilian filmmaker and cinematographer based in Oakland, CA. He is the cinematographer and co-producer of the critically-acclaimed documentary THE RETURN. Mario has directed a number of documentary and fiction projects, including POT COUNTRY and the Brazilian short fiction film SOMEONE IS HAPPY SOMEWHERE, official selection for San Francisco International Film Festival, and the Havana International Film Festival, and the feature documentary FIRST FRIDAY, which broadcast nationally on PBS' AfroPop. He has a master’s degree from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.

SELINA LEWIS DAVIDSON: Selina has produced more than 15 nationally broadcast documentaries including: THE FEDERATION OF BLACK COWBOYS (directed by Eric Martz), released in 2003; FAMILY NAME (directed by Macky Alston), released in 1997; HARD ROAD HOME (director: Macky Alston) released in Feb. 2008; and OCCUPATION DREAMLAND, a cinema vérité portrait of American infantryman serving in Iraq (directors Garrett Scott and Ian Olds), released theatrically in 2006.

CLARE MAJOR: Clare is a cinematographer and documentary filmmaker from Louisiana who specializes in intimate observational camerawork and in stories that illuminate the intersection of cultures and the lives of women and girls. Clare’s work has appeared on HBO, Netflix, PBS, and the Discovery Channel, as well as the New York Times, Guardian, Wall Street Journal, TIME, and many others. Clare is a graduate of UT Austin’s Radio-Television-Film Program and the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. 

HANNA MILLER: Hanna is a documentary filmmaker from Collins, Mississippi. She's a graduate of Sewanee: The University of the South, where she was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to Russia, and of UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism. Hanna has made multiple films about the South, including her first feature-length film, which premiered in Spring 2019. Hanna has won a National Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence and UC Berkeley’s Gobind Behari Lal Award for Exceptional Reporting.

OUR EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS

ANNE DEVEREUX-MILLS: Anne has experience and passion for leadership, and is focused on activities that connect and mobilize women. She is a frequent public speaker on the topic of female empowerment and equality, having recently been featured at the MIT Executive MBA Program, the DLA Piper Empowering Women Worldwide panel, the Tech Stands Up rally, and in Forbes magazine. She spent the first 25 years of her career building and leading advertising agencies in New York City with a specialty in healthcare, and has been widely recognized as one of the most influential women in that industry. In 2012 Anne founded Parlay House, a national salon-style gathering of over 1,500 women who meet to pull each other forward through a combination of shared experiences, meaningful content, and peer-to-peer connections. She was Executive Producer of The Return, an Emmy-nominated documentary about the experience of people returning to society post-incarceration. She and her husband were the lead sponsors of California’s Proposition 36, which restored fairness in sentencing to the State’s excessive Three Strikes Law.

MAUREEN PELTON: Maureen is a social scientist with 30 years of professional experience as an Integrative Psychotherapist, Executive Coach, Organizational Consultant, Teacher and Group Facilitator. In addition, she has served as host of the Edge Learning Well Talk Radio Show and has taught courses at the Integrative Health Education Center and the Institute for Health & Healing. Maureen specializes in Transformational Leadership, Healthy Relationships, Human Development & Conditioning, Mind-Body Skills, Nonviolent Communication, and Non-Ordinary States of Consciousness. Currently, Maureen serves on the Advisory Council of The Representaion Project and is Associate Producer of the documentary film, The Mask You Live In, which explores how society is failing our boys. She serves on the Board of Visitors for the School of Social Work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Board of the Penny George Institute Foundation, and is a Trustee of The Eagle & the Hawk Foundation. As a disrupter, Maureen is committed to a new social consciousness so that false and limited structures give place to the experience of service and love in the world.

OUR ADVISORS

GLENDA CARPIO: Glenda is Professor of African and African American Studies and English at Harvard University. Her book, Laughing Fit to Kill: Black Humor in the Fictions of Slavery was published by Oxford University Press in 2008. She is currently working on a book on immigration, expatriation, and exile in American literature. Professor Carpio recently co-edited  African American Literary Studies: New Texts, New Approaches, New Challenges (2011) with Professor Werner Sollors. Professor Carpio started her teaching career in Compton, California where she taught 8th grade English and 4th grade through the Teach for America program. She recently received Harvard University's Abramson Award for Excellence and Sensitivity in Undergraduate Teaching.

MYRNA COLLEY-LEE: Myrna is a longtime resident of Charleston Mississippi and has a distinguished career as a costume designer.  An advocate for the arts, an avid collector and an artist herself, Colley-Lee is credited as one of the foremost costume designers in the Black Theatre Movement.  Colley-Lee serves on the board of commissioners for the Mississippi Arts Commission, is a member of the National Advisory Council for the Mississippi Museum of Art and is involved with other art institutions throughout the state. She started a Literary Arts Organization in the Mississippi Delta, is a foundation member of Phi Beta Kappa at MS State University, is an Honored Artist from the National Museum of Women in the Arts, and holds a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters. She spends her time in MS, DC, NYC and the British Virgin Islands. 

OLETA GARRETT FITZGERALD: Oleta Garrett Fitzgerald has devoted her life to the pursuit of justice and equality for all. As Director of the Children's Defense Fund's Southern Regional Office, Oleta has placed special emphasis on education, including early childhood education, children’s healthcare access, and breaking the insidious cradle to prison pipeline pattern, which is all too prevalent in communities of color. Oleta is the Regional Administrator for the Southern Rural Black Women's Initiative for Economic & Social Justice (SRBWI). SRBWI operates across 77 counties in the Black Belts of Alabama, Southwest Georgia and the Mississippi Delta. Ms. Fitzgerald is a member of the MS Equal Voice Network and serves on the boards of the Mississippi Low Income Child Care Initiative, Excel by 5, Operation Shoestring, and Mississippi Head Start Association; is a member of the Stennis Institute of Government advisory committee and a member of the Southern Rural Black Women’s Initiative Executive Committee.  Ms. Fitzgerald contributed to the Covenant with Black America introduced by Tavis Smiley, and numerous news stories by the New York Times, Huffington Post, the BBC, National Public Broadcasting, Commercial Appeal and national and local network affiliates as well as other broadcast and print media. 

CINDY KENT: Cindy is a healthcare executive, corporate director, and philanthropist widely recognized for her transformational leadership. She is known as a visionary who serves as a role model across industries and among many communities. With over 25 years of experience in the healthcare industry, Kent has held leadership roles with 3M, Eli Lilly, and Medtronic – the world’s largest medical technology company. Most recently, Kent served as the President and General Manager for the Infection Prevention Division of 3M – a $32B diversified technology company known worldwide for its innovation – and was a member of 3M’s Executive Conference, the company’s top 100 senior executives. In October 2018, Kent was named to the Best Buy Co.’s Board of Directors. In 2017 Black Enterprise Magazine named her one of the “Top 100 Most Powerful Women in Business” and one of the “Most Powerful Executives in Corporate America”. A native of Tennessee, Kent lives and works in the Twin Cities of Minnesota.  

KALPANA KOTAGAL: Kalpana is a Partner at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll, PLLC and Chair of the firm’s Hiring and Diversity Committee. A member of the firm’s Civil Rights and Employment Group, Ms. Kotagal has represented victims of discrimination in the workplace and in other settings. A noted speaker, Ms. Kotagal often is called on to address topics such as gender and race discrimination, impediments to achieving greater numbers of women and people of color in leadership roles, class actions and class arbitration, and public interest career paths. With more than a decade of experience, Ms. Kotagal currently represents a class of more than 50,000 female sales employees in a sex discrimination case against Sterling Jewelers, one of the nation’s largest jewelry chains. She also represents transgender individuals challenging their insurers’ denial of transition-related care. Ms. Kotagal served as a law clerk to the Honorable Betty Binns Fletcher of United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She graduated from Stanford University with honors and earned her J.D., cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania, where she served on the Law Review.