More than great shots of daring feats, the story makes a film's most memorable impact. In this interactive session, Michael will examine the narrative structure of films, including adventure films. How can you shape your stories, enhance characters, and approach the filmmaking or writing process so that you have a memorable and impactful tale at the end?

Michael Brown excels as an adventure athlete and a filmmaker. He has been to the summit of Mount Everest five times, each time with cameras rolling. Michael's lens has captured science at the South Pole for National Geographic, ice caves in Greenland for NOVA, tornadoes for The Discovery Channel, avalanches in the Alps for the BBC, and rock and mountain climbing for several giant-screen IMAX movies. Michael has been awarded many film festival & industry awards, including three national Emmy Awards, the International Alliance for Mountainfilm’s Grand Prize, and the Explorer’s Festival’s 'Camera Extreme.' The University of Colorado has awarded Michel the George Norlin Award, their highest alumni honor. Michael's films have also been awarded multiple times at BIFF, including the 'Audience Choice Award.' Michael’s other passion is teaching adventure filmmaking with an emphasis on storytelling. Outside Magazine described the cerebral filmmaker as a ``swashbuckling librarian,`` Men's Journal calls him ``a master of gut-dropping action.``

Daniel Wright and Olivia Ahnemann have a combined 38 years of documentary producing experience. They learned their trade making films like ``The Cove,`` ``The Social Dilemma,`` ``Racing Extinction`` and ``Porcelain War.`` In this interactive workshop they will take you from development to distribution, through production and post production by showing film clips and breaking down how their films made it onto the big screen and streaming platforms.

Daniel Wright (he/him) is an Emmy-nominated documentary producer known for ``The Social Dilemma`` (2020), ``The Human Element`` (2018), ``Maurizio Cattelan: Be Right Back`` (2016), and ``Racing Extinction`` (2015). He is presently producing a hybrid animated/documentary series at Exposure Labs. Daniel strives to build teams upon strong foundations of trust and collaboration, ones that are collectively invested in telling stories that shift viewers' perspective through creative and empathetic leaps.

Olivia Ahnemann is the producer of Academy Award nominated documentary, ``Porcelain War,`` which won Sundance’s US Grand Jury Prize in 2024. She co-produced the Academy Award winning feature documentary, ``The Cove,`` which garnered over 70 awards globally, including the Producer’s Guild of America’s Best Documentary award. Other select producing credits include Netflix’s ``Youth v Gov`` (Doc NYC, Jackson Wild Grand Teton Award); ``The Human Element,`` featuring photographer James Balog (SCAD Savannah Film Festival’s Best Feature Documentary Award); ``Under the Gun`` (2016 Sundance Film Festival), distributed by Epix/Lionsgate; and Discovery’s ``Racing Extinction`` (2015 Sundance Film Festival). Olivia was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking and she has served on the board of the Documentary Producers Alliance. She lives in Boulder, Colorado with her husband and teenage daughter.

Thumbs up. Thumbs down. You like a movie, you don’t. But do you really know why? Want a real film buff’s eye? Get literate in the language of cinema. Youth (14-18) are invited to watch movies in a new way with Jack Hanley, Boulder-based film critic, filmmaker, and podcaster who will change how you watch movies forever. In less time than a feature-length film, Jack will upgrade your knowledge and viewing skills about how movies are directed and shot and how they tell stories to reflect today’s world. This class will forever change the way you think about, appreciate, and talk about your favorite films!

Presented by Jack Hanley, Boulder based film critic, filmmaker and podcaster.