Educate/Incubate
NEW! WIF-PDX Educate & Incubate program is designed to help folks with historically marginalized access to the film industry (BIPOC, LGBTQ, disabled, women, people experiencing poverty) get their projects made and support career advancement in the film, media, and entertainment industry. Our goal is to help storytellers bring their work to fruition, ultimately diversifying our culture’s media. This diversification of stories is at the heart of WIF PDX’s mission and belief that we will only see clearly when everyone is allowed to offer their point of view. Through our program, Educate/Incubate, we will help local filmmakers make meaningful connections with professionals, learn new skills and create accountability with each other.
EDUCATE will teach necessary skills to local filmmakers in 1 to 2 day workshops to help them get their next project made and/or help improve career marketability. Visiting and local filmmakers will give quarterly classes which will be open to the public and WIF members to attend.
INCUBATE creates a cohort of 5-10 local, early- to mid-career female directors that will be selected through an application process. They will have a particular project they want to bring to fruition, which will take them to the next stage of their career. In addition to being in all of the larger EDUCATE seminars, the smaller INCUBATE group will meet regularly throughout the year with our mentors and guest speakers. The goal is to help the cohort bring their projects to completion through the program and the connections with each other and the larger community.
This project was supported by a grant provided by the Creative Opportunity Program and Oregon Film – OregonFilm.org.
Additional support for this program is provided by filmscience and Open Signal.
Meet the 2024 Cohort
Meet the 2024 Mentors
Dawn Jones Redstone
Dawn Jones Redstone (she/her) is a queer, Mexican American writer/director in Portland, Oregon. Her multi- award-winning feature film Mother of Color is now out on major streamers. Prior to that she directed multiple short films including the acclaimed Sista in the Brotherhood, distributed by Collective Eye, tweeted about by the Governor of Oregon, and purchased by the US Dept of Labor.
Rooted in cinema as the ultimate empathy machine, her narratives often feature women of color exploring themes of resistance, emotional spirituality, and self actualization. She believes in using her hiring decisions to help create an inclusive filmmaking community that reflects and brings needed perspective to the world we live in.
In addition to running her own video production business, Hearts+Sparks, Dawn currently works part-time as a Creative Director at Funnelbox, a commercial video production/animation studio. Her project, Appliance of Science, was selected for the Stowe Story Feature Campus. She is also a mentor for the Women in Film Portland chapter’s new Educate/Incubate program.
In 2017, she was selected to shadow Debra Granik on the set of Leave No Trace. She was named a Woman of Vision by the Daily Journal of Commerce and is the recipient of OMPA’s Inspiration and Service Award for her work helping to bring equity to the state film incentives in the form of HB 3010. Additionally, Dawn was a nominee for the Lynn Shelton grant.
Grant awards include Regional Arts and Culture Council, Portland Art Museum, Seeding Justice, Oregon Futures Lab, Story Changes Culture, Prosper Portland and more.
Alicia J. Rose
Alicia J. Rose has directed over 3 dozen music videos for artists like First Aid Kit, Cake and Bob Mould as well as visually branding popular bands like The Decemberists and many others with her imaginative portraiture, as well as creating striking broadcast commercials and branded doc-style shorts. Her approach to directing utilizes her unique sense of visual style, grounded humor and snappy storytelling to deliver authentic narratives that resonate deeply with viewers.
Scripted comedic web series “The Benefits of Gusbandry” was her first foray into digital episodic storytelling and over its two seasons received wide acclaim from press outlets like The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, A/V Club, PASTE, OUT and others. Her feature directorial debut – hybrid narrative/musical A KADDISH FOR BERNIE MADOFF was an official selection at the New York Jewish Film Festival, San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, Estonia’s Black Nights of Film and won the Narrative Audience Award and the 2021 Ashland Independent Film Festival. It continues to screen at independent venues and on demand in North America. She is currently working on an episodic version of Alicia Jo Rabins “Girls In Trouble” and various personal and commercial projects.
Jackie Weissman
Jackie Weissman has worked as a media producer, director, editor, and educator. Rock N Roll Mamas, her documentary featuring Zia McCabe of The Dandy Warhols, Kristin Hersh of Throwing Muses, and up and coming hip hop mc, Ms. Suad, has shown around the world to sold-out audiences. Her award-winning documentary, The Gorilla and the Piker, was featured on WNET, Channel 13 in New York, as a part of its Reel New York series.
She is a founding board member of Women In Film-Portland and was Board President for two years. Jackie is also a founding organizer of Oregon Doc Camp and has served as Director for the past ten years. Jackie is the Pacific Northwest Regional Coordinator of The Documentary Producers Association. In 2020, Jackie co-founded Oregon Media Lab, a production company that produces and collaborates with media makers and organizations to expand their reach.
