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.

Marketing & Production Coordinator

Nathalie Thomas is an exuberant native Brooklynite that loves stories and storytelling. She has previously worked with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Manhattan Theatre club, Power House Dance company is an actor with the NY Times reviewed; Brave New World Repertory Theatre.

As a 4th generation Afro-Caribbean in New York, Nathalie sees herself as living the dream forward as she continues to grow into her purpose - she hopes to blossom into an indefinite force in the Film/TV and theatre industry both in front and behind the scenes. Helping to tell stories that not only connect, inspire, uplift but also showcase the expression of social justice.

During her downtime, Nathalie enjoys taking dance classes, frequenting her favorite coffee shop’s, and getting lost in intriguing history books

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.

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

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.

Feature Film Programmer

Beanie Barnes is a Nicholl Fellowship Finalist, a BlueCat Screenplay Competition Winner, a Film Independent “Project Involve” Writer-Director Fellow and a Humanitas New Voices in Screenwriting Award Nominee. She is currently an Official Artist for the New York Television Festival.

Beanie began her career as a Casting Associate on movies like Barbershop and Spy Kids 2. She went on to become an Associate Producer on Lords of Dogtown and to work with various filmmakers and film companies across a range of capacities including investment strategy, production management, and distribution.

Beanie is an LA transplant who’s lived in NYC for 10 years and proudly calls it home. She was the 2017 Screenwriting Advisor for the Ghetto Film School, is a published opinion writer on matters of film, race and culture, and has been a guest speaker at institutions like the New York Film Academy and the NYC Screenwriters Co-op.

She earned her B.A. from the University of Nebraska, where she was the first woman to play with the men’s varsity football team. She holds an M.B.A. from Yale University.

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.

Feature Film Programmer

Chelsea Taylor is an award winning film editor and co-president of the Blue Collar Post Collective, a non profit organization that supports emerging talent in post production. She recently edited "Tangles & Knots" which screened at SXSW, Berlin International Film Festival, and the Sydney Film Festival. Chelsea has edited commercial and documentary films for Vice, NBC, MTV, Vogue, Facebook, Puma, and Maybelline. Check out ChelseaTaylorEdits.com for more info about her work.

Short Film Programmer

James is a documentary director based in Brooklyn. His award-winning web series, 1 Minute Meal, has screened twice at the Bushwick Film Festival, and as a 2018 Made in NY Fellow he is developing an community-driven podcast that helps Asian Americans become the subjects, authors, and stakeholders of America's greatest stories.

Short Film Programmer

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.

Short Film Programmer

Bi-continental film programmer, lover of corgis and international cinema, Chen has worked in programming and publicity at several dynamic film festivals. New travels, old movies, and buzzy after-screening conversations tend to ignite her ruthlessly curatorial mind. 

Programming Assistant

Matt is the Programming Assistant for the Festival. When he is not writing reviews for the BFF Film of the Week blog or screening films, Matt enjoys passive-aggressively whispering about being a Vegan and stalking Paul Schrader’s Facebook page.

Programming Consultant

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.