Jessica Hallenbeck (Co-Chair)

Jessica Hallenbeck is the founder and documentary producer at Lantern Films as well as an independent scholar and community planner whose work bridges filmmaking and critical geographic research. She holds a PhD in Geography from the University of British Columbia, where her multimodal scholarship—spanning film, writing, and exhibition—examines questions of place, history, and reparations. Her award-winning research received the Starkey-Robinson Award for graduate research on Canada and has been supported by multiple grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Hallenbeck is an alumna of the Sundance Institute and Chicken & Egg Films, and she has worked in documentary production for more than two decades. 

Lyana Patrick (Co-Chair)

Lyana Patrick is a director, writer and researcher based in Vancouver, BC. She is a member of the Stellat’en First Nation and Acadian/Scottish. Lyana brings a collaborative approach to her community-based work that centers Indigenous experiences and honours the principles of respect, responsibility and reciprocity. She studied film at the University of Washington’s Native Voices Indigenous Documentary Film Program. Her student short film Travels Across the Medicine Line screened at the American Indian Film Festival (San Francisco) and the Native Voices Film Festival (Seattle). Two short films, A Place to Belong and The Train Station screened at many film festivals globally, including the 2020 Vancouver International Film Festival. Her feature-length film Nechako premiered at the DOXA Film Festival in May 2025. Lyana is currently an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University where her work focuses on the intersection of Indigenous health, planning and justice.

Julia Aoki (Secretary)

Julia Aoki is an administrator, writer, researcher, and advocate. Currently a research manager on a multi-year grant-funded project in partnership with Uya'am Gaak Cultural Society, Julia has served as Program Manager at SFU's Vancity Office of Community Engagement, Executive Director of Megaphone magazine, General Manager of VIVO Media Arts Centre, and General Manager and Programming Director of the Powell Street Festival. Her past writing can be found in Megaphone, TOPIA, Space and Culture, the edited volume Communication, Culture and Making Meaning in the City, and the forthcoming Return to Paueru Gai: Fifty Years of Vancouver's Powell Street Festival. A reluctant optimist, Julia is proud to support organizations that do the hard and joyful work of bringing art, culture and publics into critical dialogue.

Brit Bachmann (Treasurer)

Brit Bachmann is an artist, curator and cultural worker based in Vancouver and Burnaby, Canada, on unceded lands belonging to the Musqueam, Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh and Kwikwetlem First Nations. Her practice combines ceramic forms, found objects, lens-based art, and writing. Brit is the Ceramic Arts Programmer for the City of Burnaby at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts, and has previously held positions in non-profit arts administration and consulting. She has served as Director of UNIT/PITT Society for Art and Critical Awareness, Communications Coordinator at DOXA Documentary Film Festival, Editor in Chief at Discorder Magazine (CiTR 101.9FM), and Community Engagement Coordinator at VIVO Media Arts Centre. Brit is co-founder of the art writing magazine, ReIssue.pub (2021-24). Since graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Art from the University of British Columbia in 2013, she has written about art and cultural criticism for galleries and independent publications. Brit was a member of DOXA’s Programming Committee from 2024-26, and is now Treasurer. 

Micahel Scoular (Vice-Chair)

Michael Scoular is a programming associate at The Cinematheque in Vancouver, where he has organized retrospectives for filmmakers in documentary, experimental, and narrative cinema. An arts worker in Vancouver since 2018, Michael has also worked as a public school teacher, film critic, and archival assistant.