Erika Cohn has received numerous accolades for her work, including a Director’s Guild of America award for her film, When the Voices Fade, a narrative profile of the Lebanese-Israeli war of 2006, and recent admission into the CPB Producer’s Academy. Erika recently co-directed/produced, In Football We Trust, a feature documentary about the unique faith and culture that ultimately drives young Pacific Islander men into the NFL, which premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival and was broadcast on Independent Lens in January, 2016. In addition, she just completed a documentary/narrative fusion mini-series for Gatorade about young athletes overcoming adversity. Erika grew up attending the Sundance Film Festival as a native Utahn, where she first began her career. Although her films differ in place and time, her fascination with religion and culture remain a recurring theme and her passion for social change the driving factor. In 2008, Erika traveled to Cambodia where she shot Giant Steps, a documentary about the restitution of art after the Khmer Rouge rule, which aired on PBS. In 2010, Erika associate produced the six-part Frontline/American Experience historical series, God in America, which explores the intersection of religion and public life in America. Erika has been a featured panelist/speaker at various film festivals and university conferences and mentors youth filmmakers across the globe. She studied at Chapman University (California) and Hebrew University (Jerusalem) and has degrees in Film Production, Middle Eastern Studies, and Acting Performance. Erika currently has a feature film in development and two documentary films in production through her company, Idle Wild Films, Inc., which also creates branded content and commercial pieces. She is also an avid documentary photographer.

Lois Vossen, founder and executive producer of Independent Lens, is responsible for commissioning new work, curating the series, and working closely with ITVS and Independent Lens-funded filmmakers to provide creative feedback and editorial support related to broadcast standards. Independent Lens films have received 10 News & Documentary Emmy Awards, two Primetime Emmys, 15 George Foster Peabody Awards, five Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Journalism Awards, seven Academy Award nominations, and was the winner of the 2013, 2014 and 2015 IDA Award for Best Curated Series. Previously, Vossen was Associate Managing Director of the Sundance Film Festival and Sundance Labs. She serves on the Documentary Peer Panel for the Television Academy, and has been a juror at SXSW, DOC New Zealand, Toronto International, New Orleans, and Palm Springs International film festivals, among others.

Independent Lens films include The Weather Underground, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, Crips & Bloods: Made in America, Helvetica, The Order of Myths, Young@Heart, Waste Land, Hell and Back Again, The Waiting Room, Detropia, The House I Live In, The Invisible War, Let the Fire Burn, The Trials of Muhammad Ali, The Kill Team, 1971, Evolution of a Criminal, Best of Enemies, In Football We Trust, Welcome to Leith, and Meet the Patels, among others.