BRIC Documentary Intensive Screening: 2025 Cohort

I’m a native of Brooklyn, New York, born to working-class parents who migrated to the U.S. from The Dominican Republic in the early 1970s. I graduated from the Film/Video program at The School of Visual Arts in 2008.

My fourth short film, Civic Mind, won Best Dramatic Narrative at the New York Short Film Festival after being screened at numerous festivals, including HBO’s New York Latino Film Festival, BlackStar Film Fest, and the Pan African Film Festival. I’ve written, produced, directed, and edited all five of my short films.

I recently completed the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) Mentorship Program with Biscuit Filmworks and, in August 2022, was honored to be selected as one of ten directors for Minorities In Film's 2022 Branded Lab. I was also named a finalist for AICP’s 2024 Commercial Directors Diversity Program.

In high school, I served as team captain of my varsity baseball team, an experience that taught me valuable team-building skills. I’ve also spent years as a board member for Brooklyn Young Filmmakers, a non-profit organization that introduces teens and adults from underserved communities to the various jobs available in the film and TV industry

Astrid Malter (she/her) is a documentarian from Sunset Park, Brooklyn. She graduated with a degree in Cinema & Media Studies from Carleton College in 2023. Her nonfiction work is interview based and revolves around urban and environmental change. Her senior thesis film on waterfront development in NYC, The Sixth Borough (2023), screened at the Coney Island Film Festival 2023 and Climate Film Festival 2024. As a Southern Exposure Film Fellow, she directed and edited Fl*shing Injustice (2023), which played at film festivals across the country and won the Social Impact Award at the World Water Film Festival 2024. When she’s not working, she enjoys knitting tiny animals and listening to WNYC.

Caroline Mardok is an award-winning French American visual artist whose work explores identity, belonging, and social movements. Based in Brooklyn, she creates long-form documentary projects, primarily in black and white, weaving together portraiture, street photography, and interviews to tell compelling narratives. With a background in portraiture, she brings an intimate and thoughtful approach to her documentation.

Her photography extends beyond traditional spaces, transforming into public art installations. Not Tired Yet is a mural honoring Black and Trans women leaders of the 2020 protests, In Honor of Black Lives Matter is a photo sculpture park reflecting the movement’s strength, and American Dream is a multimedia mural addressing public housing, climate challenges, and community resilience.

Her series Water Guardians and Lead with Love exemplify this approach, celebrating grassroots efforts in New York. Lead with Love captures a collective of trans and non-binary individuals reclaiming liberation, while Water Guardians documents inclusive surf lessons for children, fostering connection and equity in outdoor spaces.

Now expanding into filmmaking, Mardok is directing her first documentary with BRIC’s support, deepening her exploration of water access and surf culture in New York. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, CBS, and Artnet, and exhibited by ICP, Aperture, and the British Journal of Photography.

Chicava is a burlesque artist, creative producer and foremost scholar on the heritage of Black women in burlesque. She holds an MFA from Goddard College where she focused her studies on Black Burlesque herstory Taoism, and sacred sexuality. She is certified as both a Universal Healing Tao instructor and an Institute of Integral Qigong and Tai Chi instructor. 

For thirteen years, she served as the Creative Producer of New York City's Brown Girls Burlesque, where she created political and theatrical burlesque shows in New York and around the country at universities and venues. For six years she was an artist in residence at Joe's Pub at the Public Theater with her live blues and jazz burlesque revue, The Dirty Honey Shake. She also produced five annual political burlesque shows at The Brooklyn Museum.

As a BRIC Community Producer alumna of the '24 Podcast cohort, she now produces The SHERO Space Podcast, which focuses on the spiritual journeys of Black women. The second season of her podcast is scheduled to begin in May of 2025. She was also part of the Intimate Eye cohort, where she directed the short film SkinImIn.

Dr. Eunhye Choi works in higher education as an assistant professor of Special Education and is also devoted to her creative pursuits as a filmmaker, producer, and songwriter. Her focus areas include advocacy and awareness for individuals with special needs, creative content development, grief, trauma, and resilience.

With her diverse background in both academia and the arts, she is dedicated to meaningfully raising her voice for humanity through creative outlets such as film, music, art, and poetry. She has worked on various film projects, including the YouNY Project, Grief in College, and the WithKids Project, and has also produced music albums such as Stay Here More Christmas and Evenif Lullaby, where she sings in five different languages. She believes that creative works have the power to resonate with people's lives, fostering meaningful changes and transformations. Her utmost goal is to spread messages of healing and resilience through her creative endeavors.

Ian (Cryptic One) is a hip-hop music producer, instrumentalist, and rapper with a deep passion for the art of beatmaking. His work focuses on highlighting instrumental producers as artists in their own right, without the need for vocalists to take center stage.

Through his storytelling, he aims to bring awareness to the Brooklyn beat scene and provide audiences with a foundational understanding of what these producers do and why it is a unique art form. More than just showcasing the music, he seeks to tell the human stories behind the beats—exploring the motivations, inspirations, challenges, and creative journeys that drive producers to create and perform.

Jolie-Anne Brosseau is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker bringing the stories of New York neighborhood faces to the digital screen. Beginning her passion for filmmaking and documenting seven-years-ago in Savannah, Georgia, Jolie-Anne became fascinated with the agency and independence operating and creating with a camera can produce, and aims to allocate that power to her documentary subjects as they become the agents of their own stories, and as their stories collide and connect and become part of the myriad intricacies of truth that exists. Her work pushes to reveal and augment the concealed complexities of the menial.

Laura Palmer (aka Laura Rebel Angel) is an award winning multi-instrumentalist, song writer and creative professional based in Brooklyn, NY. Palmer has toured the US, Canada and Europe fronting the critically acclaimed Rockabilly band “Screamin’ Rebel Angels.”

Equally adept at slapping out the rhythm on an upright bass or picking on a big ol’ Gretsch, Laura Palmer’s on stage presence and powerful vocals have earned the 2020 Ameripolitan award for “Rockabilly Female,” as well as being named of the 2014 AOV “Artists on the Verge”. Palmer also writes, edits and directs music videos, produces records, and produces and directs . Palmer has been a staple of the NYC Underground music scene as a Promoter, DJ and event producer, and is currently looking to document the current musical scenes in NYC.

Mari Valdivia(she/her) is a writer, event producer and filmmaker based in Brooklyn, NYC. Mari was an Assistant Associate Producer on the Emmy-award winning season 5 of The Kelly Clarkson Show where she pitched and booked segments focused on Black and Brown
communities. Previously at NBCUniversal, she completed the NBC Page Program which
included a production rotation at The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Next, Mari hopes to develop a feature-length documentary on a 1960s Florida legislative committee whose persecution of gay and lesbian students set the stage for current state leaders.

Stephanie Lynn Jones is a multi-disciplinary creative living in Brooklyn, NY. Stephanie began her film production career working on production teams for Spike Lee. She then honed her creative voice, writing and performing many downtown NYC (and beyond) stage performances with her twin Suzanne and their band, as the Jones Twins.

The JTs were seen and heard at the Knitting Factory, Nuyorican Poets Cafe, PS 122, NYSF/Public Theatre, Smithsonian African-American History Museum, and more. As Curators, The Jones Twins’ performance series at Dixon Place made space for many legendary experimental playwrights, musicians, and performance artists. Pivoting back to a television career, Stephanie earned an Emmy nomination as a Producer of the iconic kids' musical TV program “Gullah Gullah Island,” airing on Nickelodeon for four seasons. With her sister, Stephanie had TV writing development deals with Universal Kids and TIME Studios. B.A., Howard University; MFA, NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. This is her first film.

Xavier Diaz is a videographer, digital content producer, and editor based in New York City. With a passion for exploring heritage, traditions, and identity, his work focuses on how different cultures are preserved and passed down from generation to generation. By using a blend of videography, photography, and storytelling, Xavier creates compelling narratives that celebrate cultural expression while amplifying diverse voices.

Their documentary work delves into themes of assimilation, family structures, and the resilience of immigrant communities. With an eye for visual storytelling, Xavier hopes to spark conversations, inspire connection, and honor the richness of different traditions worldwide.