The Archives

Bernadette Wegenstein is an Austrian-born linguist, author and critically acclaimed documentary filmmaker living in Baltimore. Her work brings together her feminist thought and interest in human-centric storytelling. Bernadette has produced and directed several award-winning documentary features and shorts, including, Devoti Tutti (2023), which premiered at Biografilm Italia, and won the audience award at Ortigia Film Festival, and is currently in festival screening. The Conductor (2021) premiered at Tribeca Film Festival, played at over 60 festivals with five Best Documentary awards, aired on PBS, and was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Arts & Culture Documentary. See You Soon Again about Holocaust survivor Leo Bretholz, premiered at the Maryland Film Festival, and was broadcast on Austrian and German television. Her intimate breast cancer documentary, The Good Breast, premiered at the Geena Davis Gender Institute’s film festival at Bentonville. Her documentary short, See Me: A Global Concert, which was filmed during the pandemic in 2021, won numerous awards including Best Music Film and Best Musical Editing. Bernadette is also a professor of media studies at Johns Hopkins University, where she directs the Center for Advanced Media Studies. She is the author of several influential books in the field of feminist media studies with MIT Press.

Annette Porter, an award-winning documentary filmmaker, was drawn to the world of documentary filmmaking to explore ideas and to tell stories – to give voice to the unheard and challenge the status quo. She is drawn to and compelled to fight for stories of the disenfranchised, forbidden, forgotten, or ignored in hopes of making the world a more fair place. Creating a safe place for expression, where contributors can explore their innermost thoughts and feelings to an empathetic film crew with the talent and creativity to capture their unique identity on film is a hallmark of her producing. Through her company, Nylon Films, she produces and directs films from a female perspective for cinematic, broadcast, and corporate audiences on topics ranging from contemporary arts and culture to social and historical issues. Her work has been featured by broadcasters including PBS, BBC, ITVS, and NBC, by clients such as Estee Lauder, the World Economic Forum, and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, and in publications including the Washington Post, the New York Times and Vogue. In addition to filmmaking, Annette serves as the Director of the Saul Zaentz Innovation Fund and is a Filmmaking Instructor for Baltimore Youth Film Arts and Johns Hopkins University.