Team
For film lovers, by film lovers: The FBFF Team is composed of filmmakers, curators, producers, and immersive experience designers. This group brings together deep industry relationships with a genuine commitment to artist development. They understand both sides of the equation: what it takes to make daring work, and what it takes to get that work seen by the right people. With roots in a 15-year legacy festival and a forward-looking vision, the team is uniquely positioned to connect emerging “professional weirdos” with distributors, collaborators, and audiences who are hungry for something different.
Jaina Cipriano, Executive Director & Top Banana
Jaina Cipriana is an award-winning filmmaker, photographer, and creative director whose work lives at the intersection of visual storytelling and immersive experience. As the driving force behind Finding Bright Film Festival and Bright Night Studios, she has built a platform dedicated to elevating artists who exist outside traditional industry molds. Her work has been recognized for its distinct visual voice and emotional depth, and she has earned multiple awards across film and photography for projects that explore identity, memory, and human connection.
Jaina’s artistic practice spans narrative film, conceptual photography, and large-scale immersive environments. Her films, photos and installations are known for their tactile, handcrafted aesthetic and their ability to draw audiences into intimate, often surreal worlds. Whether through lens-based work or live experience, she consistently challenges the boundary between viewer and participant, inviting audiences to not just observe a story, but inhabit it.
Now, as she leads the evolution from AIFF into FBFF, Jaina is focused on building something far more than an annual event. Her vision is to create a lasting creative ecosystem, a home for ambitious filmmakers who are ready to take risks and connect with others doing the same. By blending industry access with radical, immersive programming, she aims to position Finding Bright as the go-to destination for artists who want to make work that matters, and make it on their own terms.
Driven by the ethos “Make Boston Weirder", Jaina envisions a lasting creative ecosystem through FBFF; a home for ambitious filmmakers who are ready to take risks and connect with others doing the same. By blending industry access with radical, immersive programming, she aims to position Finding Bright as the go-to destination for artists who want to make work that matters, and make it on their own terms.
Board
Christine O’Donnell (she/her)
BOARD MEMBER
Christine O’Donnell is the founder and Executive Director of ShowUp, a nonprofit contemporary art space in Boston, and a dedicated advocate for the arts. With a diverse background spanning global marketing, education, and curating, she brings a multifaceted, community-first perspective to her creative leadership. She actively contributes to the regional arts landscape through various advisory roles and board memberships, including Finding Bright Film Festival and Boston Art Review.
Paige Roehrig (she/her)
TREASURER
Paige Roehrig serves as the Executive Director of the Copley Society of Art (Co|So), an nonprofit art association dedicated to creating a thriving ecosystem for artists at all levels of their career. She is also an arts administrator, curator, educator, and community builder dedicated to expanding access, opportunity, and sustainable support for artists and creative communities. In addition to Co|So, she is also the Co-Founder of HerSector and Adjunct Faculty at Merrimack College, where she teaches Arts Management. With a background in development, operations, communications, and program management across nonprofit arts organizations, Paige brings a collaborative and artist-centered approach to leadership.
Staff
Bonny Chen (she/her)
IMMERSIVE TEAM
Bonny is a visual artist and experience designer working in Cambridge/Somerville. She creates playful worlds that synthesize the strange and the mundane. Bonny is excited about the intersection of immersive theater, installation art, and social games.
Ren Evans (she/her)
PROGRAMMING DIRECTOR
Ren is an interdisciplinary artist from a marsh in upstate New York. With a background in fine arts, Ren is gravitated to experimentally investigating moving image + design, and how to use the mediums in innovative and evocative ways. She currently works as an independent designer, film collaborator, and arts administrator collaborating with artists and community-focused arts organizations.
Wesley Scanlon (he/him)
TECHNICAL MANAGER
A gregarious ginger hailing from Hawaii, Wesley is a professional maker of controlled theatrical chaos, currently as the Technical Director at Boston Playwrights’ Theatre. With roots in NYC and Boston’s freelance scene, he’s built, lit, rigged, and wrangled just about everything imaginable for sets--bringing equal parts madcap fabrication, play, and a love of cinematic make-believe. As First Assistant Director, he channels that frolicsome chaos into momentum—keeping the cameras rolling, and the big, weird ideas on track & in focus.
Olive “Boy” Gawlik (them/them)
SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER
Working in the arts for 5 years in museums. Previous Museum Teacher at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Education Fellow at the Fitchburg Art Museum, and currently as the Internship Manager for the Institute of Museum Studies at the Farnsworth Art Museum. Passionate about the arts, close looking practices, and seeing films in the theater.
Noah Schachter (he/him)
TECH COORDINATOR & FILMMAKER LIASON
Noah Schachter is a filmmaker, editor, and creative collaborator based in the Greater Boston Area. He works on film, television, and webcast projects in a range of capacities, from pre-production to post-production. He is also involved in community theater, as an actor, member of AV team, and Director of Props at The Full Body Cast.
Lu Valena (they/them)
WEB DESIGNER
Lu Valena is a person of many interests exploring themes of expansion, the space in between, and a deep desire to put more power into the hands of creative people. They are a multi-disciplinary artist exploring the space in between two and three dimensions, a researcher examining the various places where food and art intersect, and a consultant/designer helping people chase their deepest dreams.
Lucy Yan (she/her)
OPERATIONS MANAGER
Lucy Yan is a Boston based representational oil painter who recently got her first patent! Trained at the Academy of Realist Art Boston, she previously served as Board President of Gallery 263 and is currently an artist member with both the Copley Society of Art and the Providence Art Club. At FBFF, Lucy keeps operations running smoothly to help cultivate the beauty and magic of finding your community through art.