KY DICKENS

Director

Award-winning filmmaker Ky Dickens is best known for her acclaimed documentaries that shift public policy and culture. She’s been hailed a storyteller at the intersection of film and complex social issues – demonstrated by receiving the Focus Award for Achievement in Directing from Women in FIlm and the Ford Foundation Change Maker Award for influencing social change through art and film. Her film, #TimeToCare premiered at SXSW in 2021 and then for the United States Congress. #TimeToCare, highlights influencers whose surreal caregiving journeys made them TikTok sensations. Ms. Dickens’ film Zero Weeks, about America’s paid leave crisis, premiered its trailer at the White House Summit on the United State of Women, hosted by Oprah Winfrey and Michelle Obama in 2018.

From 2019-2021, she rolled out a series of award-winning short films about hard working people dying of curable diseases due to the Medicaid Gap. These films (Critical Condition, On The Edge & Left Behind) were in partnership with the American Cancer Society, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and local governments  throughout the country. Her 2019 film, The City That Sold America is about Chicago’s crucial, yet often-overlooked, place in American consumer culture. The film is a sequel to Emmy Award-winning Art & Copy. Ms. Dickens documentary Sole Survivor (CNN Films), profiled four survivors of otherwise fatal plane crashes. Her first feature documentary, Fish Out of Water, was recognized for its instrumental role in changing the national faith perspective on LGBTQ human rights.

Collectively, her films have won more than 20 awards for best picture and audience choice. In addition to her feature film work, she directs commercials for some of the biggest brands in America. Her clients include Netflix, Google, Facebook, Tylenol, McDonald’s, Hershey’s and Kellogg’s. Ms. Dickens’ is featured on the “Free the Work” list of the female directors in America. She’s an active member of Film Fatales Los Angeles and a member of the Directors Guild of American. She graduated with magna cum laude honors from Vanderbilt University and lives in beautiful Burbank, CA with her wife, two kids, Devon Rex cats and a Kombucha scoby. 

CATHERINE GRAY

Producer | Executive Producer

Ms. Gray is a producer, author, TEDx speaker, podcast host, founder of She Angel Investors and co-founder of the non profit She Angels Foundation. She Angel Investors is a multimedia platform designed to connect women business owners to funding, and to encourage women to become angel investors. She also hosts and produces the popular podcast series Invest in Her, focused on ways to accelerate the funding of women, and provide resources and inspiration to listeners. The show features both female founders and funders and is distributed on Apple, Spotify, IHeart Radio and wherever you listen to podcasts. Ms. Gray has produced, co-produced and directed several documentaries including I Can’t Marry You, with Ellen DeGeneres’ mom Betty as narrator for PBS, Millionaires True Stories and several LGBTQ films for LOGO. She also helped start a gay cable network and produced a series called Way-Off Broadway with trailblazing entertainers and recording artists. Currently, she is co-producing Millenials Are Killing Musicals, off Broadway in NYC. This female driven show focuses on motherhood and the impact of social media. The team behind it is 80% women.

LIZ KAAR

Editor

Liz Kaar is an independent editor, director, and producer. She was born and raised in Minnesota and cut her filmmaking teeth in the great city of Chicago. She collaborated closely with Kartemquin Films, Chicago’s documentary powerhouse, for over a decade. She started as an intern there and soon discovered her love for small editing rooms, tackling the monster of long-form story structure, and the resulting trail of potato chip crumbs. Her editing projects have been honored with a variety of award recognition, including short-listed for the Academy Award, nominated for Emmy and IDA awards, and winning the Alfred I. Some recent documentary edit projects include Body Parts (Tribeca 2022), Any Given Day (Hot Docs 2021, PBS) and The Dilemma of Desire (SXSW 2020, Showtime). She co-directed and edited Hard Earned, a six-part television series for Al Jazeera America about people living on low wages across the United States. She directed, produced, shot and edited Stranded by the State, a web series and TV mini series, co-produced by These Times magazine and Kartemquin Films, about the human cost of the two-year Illinois budget impasse. In the past, she associate-produced and edited the music documentary Andrew Bird: Fever Year, and short film On Beauty.

BRIAN O’CONNELL

Cinematographer

Mr. O’Connell is a director of photography based in Venice, California. He graduated from NYU Tisch School of the Arts and worked for many years in New York before moving to Los Angeles. He works primarily on documentary films, commercials, and corporate projects. Documentary credits include: Shakespeare High (Tribeca selection); They Came to Play, about The Van Cliburn Amateur Competition. Day One, about a school for immigrant children in St. Louis, MO; and currently in festivals, Living Wine, about natural winemaking in Northern California. He is also creating ongoing content for a minority, female-owned athleisure wear startup company. 

Outside of work, Brian is an ice hockey player and as a result of the lockdown, he is finally realizing his lifelong desire to learn how to surf. He is married with two grown sons and an extraordinary granddaughter. He is a passable Spanish speaker as a result of his childhood years living in Latin America. He is very excited about the potential impact and influence of Show Her the Money.

JENNA BOSS

Camera Operator