Chaz Ebert To Moderate Panel On Purpose-Driven Filmmaking at

On Monday, May 20th at 2:00PM CEST Chaz Ebert will be moderating a panel at Roger Ebert Conference Center in the American Pavilion at the Cannes Film Festival. Entitled “Purpose-Driven Filmmaking: Empathy and the Movies,” panelists will discuss the trend toward purpose-driven filmmaking in today’s industry and how that is impacted by the diversity of filmmakers, film genres, and the changes in funding in the filmmaking system. How does what we see on screen reflect society, engender empathy, or affect international relations? What is the impact of the absence of companies like Participant Media?

Panel participants include Darrien Gipson, Executive Director of SAGIndie, Jacqueline Coley, Awards Editor at Rotten Tomatoes, Eric Pierson, Professor of Communication Studies at the University of San Diego, and Robert Daniels, Associate Editor at RogerEbert.com

The panel will be preceded by a book signing of Chaz Ebert’s new book “It’s Time To Give a FECK: Elevating Humanity through Forgiveness, Empathy, Compassion and Kindness” at 3:00PM CEST.

Keep reading to learn more about the panelists.

DARRIEN MICHELE GIPSON

Darrien Michele Gipson is the Executive Director of SAGindie. Darrien leads a team that is responsible for independent filmmaker outreach and specializes in teaching low budget producing, focusing on the process for hiring professional actors via SAG-AFTRA’s low budget contracts. She is a frequent interviewer, moderator, and speaker on panels and production workshops, negotiates sponsorship agreements with film festivals around the country, spearheads the annual national advertising campaigns, oversees SAGindie.org and throws several epic filmmaker parties.

JACQUELINE COLEY

Jacqueline Coley is the Awards Editor at Rotten Tomatoes and Host of The Rotten Tomatoes is Wrong Podcast. Prior to joining Rotten Tomatoes, Jacqueline worked as a freelance film journalist and critic, contributing to various publications. As a film journalist, she’s interviewed countless actors and filmmakers and moderated press conferences and panel discussions at prestige film events. Jacqueline’s energetic personality and deep love for film and television has made her a regular commentator on all things entertainment for programs including TODAY, Access Hollywood, CBS This Morning, Entertainment Tonight, New York Live, CNN, BBC, Sky Cinema, Good Day LA, Watch What Happens LIVE and E! where she also serves as the resident film expert on their Live from the Red Carpet awards pre-show.

ERIC PIERSON

Eric Pierson is a Professor of Communication Studies at the University of San Diego. He also serves as director of the Interdisciplinary Film Studies program. His work on images and audiences has appeared in Screening Noir, the Encyclopedia of the Great Black Migration, Journal of Mass Media Ethics, Watching While Black: Centering the Television of Black Audiences, Documenting the Black Experience and Beyond Blaxploitation. Eric can also be seen in the documentary Infiltrating Hollywood: The Rise and Fall of the Spook Who Sat by The Door. Eric holds two degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a BFA in Fine Arts and a Ph.D. from the Institute for Communications Research.

ROBERT DANIELS

Robert Daniels is an Associate Editor at RogerEbert.com. Based in Chicago, he is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association (CFCA) and regularly contributes to the New York Times, IndieWire, and Screen Daily. He has covered film festivals ranging from Cannes to Sundance to Toronto. He has also written for the Criterion Collection, the Los Angeles Times, and Rolling Stone about Black American pop culture and issues of representation.