Women Trailblazers: The Power of Perseverance

Speakers for this event

• Amy Seidenwurm

  Amy Seidenwurm

  Founder Antler

  Amy Seidenwurm is a globally recognized innovator and technology leader. She is an advisor to Agog: The Immersive Media Institute, which helps creators and nonprofit leaders harness the power of emerging technology to imagine a more just, sustainable world. Previously, she was Executive Producer of Meta’s VR for Good initiative from 2016 to 2023, where she created VR experiences within the social impact space.  Amy has produced award-winning VR projects that have been selected for over 50 festivals and social good events, including Sundance, SXSW Film, Tribeca Film Festival, Skoll World Forum, Venice Film Festival, The Nobel Peace Museum and the UN General Assembly. She ran digital initiatives for the Los Angeles Philharmonic and The Hollywood Bowl, where she produced a traveling orchestral VR experience called VAN Beethoven that brought classical music and VR to underserved arts communities in LA.  Earlier in her professional life, Amy spent time as a record industry executive at Elektra, Virgin, and Sub Pop before she got sucked into the technology vortex at the height of the grunge years in Seattle. She’s been running tech-driven initiatives focused on philanthropy and culture ever since.  Outside of work, Amy is a beekeeper, a licensed pyrotechnician, and a jalapeño enthusiast. 

  Founder Antler

• Kerry Swanson

  Kerry Swanson

  Chief Executive Officer Indigenous Screen Office

  Kerry Swanson is the Chief Executive Officer of the Indigenous Screen Office (ISO), an independent funding organization serving First Nations, Inuit and Métis screen-based storytellers across Canada. She is a co-founder of Indigenous Fashion Arts Festival, a celebrated multi-platform biennial event in Toronto, where she now serves as advisor.  For over a decade, she helped build the imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival, the world’s largest presenter of Indigenous screen content, serving as Executive Director and later as Board Chair. Kerry is a member of the Board of Directors and Indigenous Steering Council for Forge Project, an exciting new space for Indigenous creative experimentation in upstate New York. She sits on advisory committees for the City of Toronto and the Toronto International Film Festival. Kerry has a Master of Communications and Culture from Toronto Metropolitan University. Kerry was born and raised in Treaty 9 territory in a Cree/Ojibwe/Irish and French family. She is a citizen of Michipicoten First Nation with familial ties to Chapleau Cree First Nation.   

  Chief Executive Officer Indigenous Screen Office

• Liz Rosenthal

  Liz Rosenthal

  Curator, Venice VR, Venice International Film Festival, Executive Producer CreativeXR, Founder Power to the Pixel

  Liz is Curator of the Venice International Film Festival’s Official Selection and Competition programme Venice Immersive and was instrumental in the launch of the only official immersive content selection and competition in an A-list festival. She is an Executive Producer of award-winning immersive content and helped found and lead accelerator programme, CreativeXR, managed by Arts Council England and Digital Catapult, with three projects in official selection in this year’s SXSW XR Experience section; Soulpaint; Maya,The Birth of a Superhero; and Buried in the Rock. Liz is CEO & Founder of trail-blazing innovation company Power to the Pixel which was the first organisation to create international project finance markets and incubator programmes for immersive and interactive works. 

  Curator, Venice VR, Venice International Film Festival, Executive Producer CreativeXR, Founder Power to the Pixel

• Shannon Walsh

  Shannon Walsh

  Writer/Director

  Shannon Walsh is a filmmaker and writer whose award-winning films cover topics ranging from labour rights, to grief and climate change. Shannon’s most recent film, The Gig is Up (2021) was hailed by Variety for being “galvanizing and moving” and The Hollywood Reporter called it “a devastating reality check”. Her films have been theatrically released and broadcast globally, screening in festivals around the world such as IDFA, Hot Docs, CPH:DOX, Doc NYC and many others, as well as playing art spaces, such as the Venice Biennale and the Pompidou Centre in Paris. Her new film “Adrianne & the Castle” is premiering at SXSW in 2024. 

  Writer/Director