Through casual but open-hearted conversations, Embodied encouraged participants to discuss the challenges and lessons presented by the current stage of their lives.
Embodied, without fear, celebrates the voices of individuals facing their finitude and creates a meditation on what matters at the end of life.
Style frames and key art:
Participant Bonnie Queen describes a cremation at sea. Embodied will be animated in this oil pastel 2d style.
About the Filmmaker
SAMUEL WRIGHT SMITH is a multimedia artist based in Manhattan. His experimental animation work has shown at such festivals as DOCNYC and recently in a documentary produced by PBS. He is an NYU Tisch Film/TV graduate. Samuel is a trained VNS Hospice volunteer.
Sam is interested in projects that blur imagined boundaries and explore connectedness. Their animation work is primarily out-of-the-box physical media techniques such as watercolor, linocut print, collage cutout and chalk pastel.
He is a lover of nature, music and halal cart falafel sandwiches.
Samuel Smith’s most recent film, Landline, can be viewed here. Landline was a recent official selection at DOCNYC.
ZOYA BAKER
Animation Producer
Zoya Baker is a filmmaker, artist, and animator based in New York City. Her work includes independent films, video installations, documentaries, commercials, music videos, and animated television shows. As an artist, her work explores our complex relationships to the natural world through animation and hybrid storytelling. Her films have received awards and exhibited at festivals around the world. She has received grants from The New York Foundation for the Arts, The National Board of Review, and ASIFA Hollywood. Zoya has an MFA from Hunter College Integrated Media Arts program. She is an Associate Arts Professor of Animation at NYU Tisch School of the Arts
COLIN SEVELY-ORTIZ
Associate Producer
Colin Sevely-Ortiz (he/they) is a Cuban-American writer, director, producer, and photographer located in NYC and Los Angeles. He is dedicated to producing films that push creative boundaries and allow audiences access to oft-neglected topics.
As a director, his past work has screened at festivals including the American Cinematheque’s Proof Film Festival, the New York Latino Film Festival, and Catalyst. His previous project, “Humanized” won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Drama and a “Best Supporting Performance” award at Series Fest 2023. He is an NYU Film/TV graduate.
SEAN WEINER
Consulting Producer, Editor
Sean (he/him) is a film producer and artist community builder from the Hudson Valley of New York. He is a founder and co-director of the filmmaker support nonprofit, UFO. Previously, Sean was the Director of Programs and the founding Director of Creative Culture at the Jacob Burns Film Center. He is an assistant professor in Film & Media Studies at Purchase College. Sean has produced and edited award-winning films selected by Sundance, Berlinale, and SXSW, and acquired by Criterion, Searchlight, HBOMax, POV and New York Times’ Op-Docs.
MARTHA GREGORY
Consulting Producer, Editor
Martha (she/her) is a producer, editor and professor based in Brooklyn. She executive produced Billy Luther’s Frybread Face and Me which premiered at SXSW 2023 and was released by NETFLIX, Chloe Abraham’s The Taste of Mango which premiered at TRUE/FALSE 2023, won Best Documentary at BFI and is being released by Oscilloscope and POV. Martha taught at Kenyon College from 2017 to 2020 and she is now an adjunct professor at both Fashion Institute of Technology and School of Visual Art in New York. Her own short doc, Three Red Sweaters, played at festivals around the world and is a Vimeo Staff Pick.
ARNO MOKROS
Consulting Producer
Arno (he/they) is a queer/trans film producer and co-director of UFO (Untitled Filmmaker Org), a nonprofit that makes space for the next generation of truly independent filmmakers to work, connect, and thrive. Based in New York State, UFO's programs include an 18-month Short Film Lab for early-career directors hosted at Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), feature filmmaker residencies in The Catskills, and other partnership-driven initiatives to cultivate a more robust filmmaker support ecosystem. He is also a 2024 IDA Getting Real Fellow and is coordinator of NewFest's grant for emerging LGBTQ+ filmmakers. Most recently he produced the independent feature film, Summer Solstice (NYT Critic's Pick).
MARNE LUCAS
Project Consultant and Collaborator
Marne (she/her/they) is a queer multidisciplinary artist and end of life doula (EOLD) working at the intersection of art, science, and health, depicting life’s energy, the body, and mortality, in social practice investigations. Lucas’ long-term projects are informed by the events of the community around her, and inspired by the EOLD and palliative care movements. An infrared thermal video pioneer, Lucas uses heat-sensitive military grade imaging technology to illuminate the magic and fragility of human life cycles. Founder of ‘Bardo Project, Lucas explores creativity as a form of spiritual care in collaborations with terminally ill artists nationwide to establish their legacy. Lucas received EOLD training at INELDA under Henry Fersko Weiss, a role that supports the dying and their families. Lucas has collaborated with artists, choreographers, dancers, musicians, sex workers, health care & LGBTQIA non-profits, and the public at large.
Partners
Consulting from Peace Is Loud, a film ethics and social impact organization.
Support from 2025 BRIC Arts BRIClab Video Art Residency.
Project supported by Untitled Filmmaker Organization Short Film Lab.
2025 New York State Council on the Arts grantee.
Inwood Art Works 2025 Film Fund Recipient
Consulting from Emma Lewis Acker of All’s Well Initiative.
In-kind support from NYC MFTA.
Partnered with THE BARDO ∞ PROJECT, a spiritual care initiative for end-of-life artists.
Mental Health Coordination from Calm on Set available for participants
501 (C)(3) fiscally sponsored by Third World Newsreel.
