FOUNDER & CEO

Kweighbaye Kotee is the founder of the Bushwick Film Festival (BFF) and MCCG; The Executive Director of OPEN; and creator and host of a talk show called Indie Cinema New York on BRIC TV. 

Dedicated to her community and the arts, she is the Executive Director of two Brooklyn-based non-profit organizations and is a Bushwick Community Board member serving as the co-chair of the Arts & Culture Committee.

Born in Liberia, she and her family immigrated to the U.S. at the brink of the Liberian Civil war. She attended public school in Newark, NJ where she was awarded a scholarship from the Wight Foundation to attend Blair Academy. She moved on to receive her B.S in Media, Culture and Communications from New York University. 

She has been featured on NBC, Fox News, Huffington Post, Brooklyn Magazine, Indiewire, UNWomen and Tribeca Film. She currently lives in Bushwick. 

Director of Marketing

Tilo is a digital marketing expert, with 6+ years of experience managing online marketing campaigns across various platforms and industries. He has worked as a content creator, strategist, and media manager, executing more than 100 campaigns with up to six-figure advertising budgets. Starting out as a consultant for SEO and SEA, he transitioned to Media Performance Manager for a Berlin-based social media and creative agency. There, he grew multiple highly engaged Facebook communities from 0 to 250,000+ fans and worked on award-winning campaigns for brands such as Microsoft, airberlin, Sky TV, Toffifay, merci & Super Dickmann’s (part of Storck group, also Werther’s Originals) and Desperados Beer (Heineken Group). He continues to consult on all things digital and social media marketing and currently heads the marketing department of the Bushwick Film Festival in Brooklyn. Tilo studied International Business (BA) in his hometown Berlin and Guadalajara, Mexico, and obtained a Master of European Sciences from Humboldt University in Berlin.

Director of Programming

Joseph Willwerth is the Director of Programming for The Bushwick Film Festival. He is a born-and-raised New Englander who moved to New York to earn his BA in film at Hunter College and stayed to immerse himself in the city’s bustling film industry. As someone who is always exploring new stories, Joseph stays busy creating short films and writing music outside of work. He can often be found meditating, listening to soul singers, or watching Philip Seymour Hoffman performances on repeat. Joseph lives in Flatbush, Brooklyn

Executive Assistant

Nathalie Thomas is a native New Yorker and thrilled to be part of Bushwick Film Festival. An alumni from the Center For Art Education program, Nathalie got her start working in arts administration right out of high school. Since graduation at the top of her class, she has gone on to be Miss Teen U.S.A and had the pleasure to work with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre. Nathalie has also danced and worked with Brooklyn-based dance company Nonalee Dance Theatre. Nathalie is currently a member of Brave New World Theatre Repertory Company and also a teacher at Power House Dance Company. She continues to pursue her career in the performance industry.

Feature Film Programmer
Muneeb Hassan was born in the city of lights—Karachi, Pakistan—and began writing and directing plays and skits at the age of 7. His Brooklyn College thesis film We Just Met, currently playing festivals, won the best screenplay award at the Chicago International Screenwriting Festival. His prior short films have screened internationally—from India to Tel Aviv to the Ukraine—and on New York television. Other credits include associate producing the feature film The Nearest Human Being and producing a Danish documentary short Left in a Box. He has received a recognition scholarship award from the Motion Picture Editors Guild, where he now works as a training coordinator while editing shorts for other filmmakers. Muneeb has never lost his childhood captivation with storytelling and the moving image and looks forward to continuing to hone his talents.

Feature Film Programmer

Derrick Cameron is a native of Chicago, IL. He graduated from Morehouse College in 2000 with a B.A. in history. He attended the Graduate Film Conservatory at Florida State University, where he graduated in 2002 with a M.F.A. degree in Motion Picture, Television, and Recording Arts.

While in graduate school, Derrick wrote and directed two acclaimed short films entitled “The Man” and “Caroline.” “Caroline,” which screened at the Toronto Film Festival, San Francisco Black Film Festival, and on the RAI channel in Italy. Derrick also produced three short films, most notably the short film “ANTS,” which won first place in the comedy category at the 2003 College Television Awards and screened at the Cannes Film Festival, both of which Derrick attended. Derrick also wrote and directed the 2008 feature film, “Right on Louise.”

Derrick works as the Filmmaker-in-Residence for the non- profit organization Ghetto Film School whose mission is to build the next generation of great American storytellers.

Copy Editor

Amy Chang was made in Taiwan, but grew up in Georgia by way of Kansas. She graduated from Brown University with a major in Art Semiotics and is presently an actress based in New York – specifically, the artistic and energetic neighborhood that is Bushwick.

She considers it a bit of serendipity that her upstairs neighbor, the lovely Kweighbaye Kotee, is the founder of the Bushwick Film Festival, and she is honored to join the BFF team as an editor. Recent works she edited include two fantasy novels written by Jaysen Headley, A Love Story for Witches and A Home for Wizards. For acting-related projects, Amy can be seen on Aziz Ansari’s Master of None, and opposite Michael Rooker (The Walking Dead) in the horror film Hypothermia. Check out www.AmyChangActress.com for more details about her work.

Feature Film Programmer

Teddy Collatos is the writer / director of "Tormenting the Hen", an Indie Memphis Film Festival winner that was featured in The Hollywood Reporter, Filmmaker Magazine, Indiewire and Film Pulse. His “Dipso” premiered in competition at EntreVues Belfort Festival du Film, won Best Film at The Athens Film Festival and is available on Fandor and Kinoscope. "Queen of Lapa", a documentary co-directed with Carolina Monnerat in Rio de Janeiro Brazil, was a Creative Capital Finalist and is currently in post-production. Past award winning shorts include “Time” available on Short of the Week, “Albatross” available on Filmmaker Magazine and “Truth with Wine” available on Fandor. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and cat Fellini.

Dionna is a director and writer residing in Brooklyn, NY. Her style of directing can be described as punchy and visually colorful. She loves all genres of film, but finds herself most drawn to comedy. She is best known for her short film, “Love, New York”, starring Sydney Morton of Spike Lee’s Netflix Series “She’s Gotta Have It”. “Love, New York”, screened at multiple film festivals, was featured on Issa Rae's #ShortFilmSundays, garnered nominations for, “Best Short Award” at the Academy Award qualifying Reel Sisters Film Festival, and “Best Director” at the Utah Film Awards Festival.  

She is currently working on multiple projects, including two comedic episodic series and a feature film. She enjoys creating and collaborating on projects that explore the space in comedy where farce meets pathos. She works to visually interpret scripts into cinematic shots, honest performances, and optimistic storytelling. Her overall goals are to make content that entertains, and inspires viewers.

Dionna holds a M.F.A in filmmaking from American University. During her time at A.U. she won a Student Emmy for Outstanding Achievement in (Non-News) Production, and was nominated for an A.U. Visions Award for Outstanding Graduate Fiction Work. Currently she works as the Post-Production Department Chair at New York Film Academy, where she is responsible for the editing curriculum for each department and teaches film editing.