Co-directors

Sam Sanders is a filmmaker, professor, and photographer whose work strives to uncover and share the nuanced stories that resonate deeply with human emotions and our connection to one another. She has written/produced/directed documentary programs for networks including National Geographic, The History Channel, MSNBC, A&E and PBS. Her most recent short documentary, Swimming Through, screened at more than forty festivals worldwide winning numerous awards and was released by The New Yorker Documentary in December 2023. She has directed Emmy-award-winning documentaries including Our Children: Purpose Over Pain, centered around families who have lost children to gun violence.

Sam co-produced the fiction feature film American Folk. Set against the backdrop of 9/11, this road movie musical, starring musicians Joe Purdy and Amber Rubarth, was nominated for the Panavision Spirit Award at the Santa Barbara Film Festival and won Best American Independent Film at the Cleveland International Film Festival and is distributed by Good Deed Entertainment. She also produced the feature film, Chicago Boricua, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and is distributed by Screen Media. She, along with her husband, editor John Farbrother, founded and runs Green River Films, an Emmy-award winning Chicago-based production company. Sam teaches film at Columbia College Chicago, where she received an MFA in filmmaking, and at DePaul University. 

​​Paula Froehle is a director with a strong visual style shaped by her years as a visual artist and filmmaker, collaborator and mentor. She has directed and produced films for over 30 years. As a filmmaker Paula has directed 12 films and 20+ media projects, including “The Faraway Nearby,” recently premiered at DocVille Belgium, and “The Show Must Go On, An Intimate Portrait of The Flying Wallendas,” which is distributed by MVD Entertainment Group.

A producer, director and entrepreneur based in Chicago, Paula is also the Co-Founder and CEO of Chicago Media Project (CMP) - the innovative multifaceted philanthropic community of documentary film lovers who believe in the power of media to bring about social change. Within CMP, Paula guides members in the philanthropic support of social impact films and filmmaker sustainability. She also co-manages CMP’s equity fund Chicago Media Project Invest/Impact (CMP I/I) which invests in commercially viable documentaries including the Academy Award-winning ICARUS, the Sundance hits KNOCK DOWN THE HOUSE (Netflix) and ONE CHILD NATION (Amazon) as well as the top-grossing biopic of all time WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR? (Focus Features), THE FEELING OF BEING WATCHED (Tribeca 2018), THE FOURTH ESTATE (Showtime) and STEP (Fox Searchlight) among others. She served as an executive producer on THE INFILTRATORS (Sundance 2019), 306 HOLLYWOOD (Sundance 2018) and FLY (SXSW 2024, NatGeo)