2025 MDFF Official Selection Film:
Catch

Audrey Baran is a Charlotte-based AAPI dance artist who holds a MFA in Dance from Hollins University and a BA in Dance and a Graduate Certificate in Anti-Racism in Urban Education from UNC Charlotte. As the founder and artistic director of Baran Dance, she creates performances and mentorship with emerging and evolving dance artists. Baran was a selected choreographer for the Joffrey Ballet Academy’s Winning Works 2022 Choreographic Competition and has received awards from the Gold Standard Foundation, Mobile Dance Film Festival, and Movies by Movers. Baran is also a 500-hour Registered Yoga Teacher and MUNZ FLOOR® coach.

@audibaran

2025 MDFF Official Selection Film:
Our Nation Tory

Samson Bethel is a Nigerian multidisciplinary artist, emerging choreographer, and Artistic Director of Sammytee Creation. His artistic practice explores the interconnectedness of humanity, nature, and cultural heritage.

Through dance and filmmaking, he creates immersive works that challenge perspectives, spark meaningful conversations, and inspire positive social change. Grounded in movement and storytelling, his practice uses the body as a powerful medium for expression, healing, and transformation.

@Samsonbethel__

2025 MDFF Official Selection Film:
Don’t Look Down

Rosalind Joyce is a filmmaker, dancer, actress, and writer. Rosalind shot and directed the short film “Don’t Look Down,” which was featured in the 2026 LA Queer Film Festival and Berlin Dance Film Festival. Most recently, Rosalind performed in “JUNK MAIL!”, a dance-theater piece, at the ALab Theater Festival. This summer Rosalind will be making her Shakespeare debut in Smoking Mirror Theater’s upcoming production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”.

@rosalind.joycee

2025 MDFF Official Selection Film:
Conform Me Not

Jasmine Mejia, MFA, is an Assistant Professor of Dance and Co-Director of H2 Dance Company at Hope College. Jasmine is a recipient of ACDA’s ALVA Award for Choreographic Excellence (2024) and a Towsley Research Scholars Fellowship (2024-2028). Her choreography and dance films have been featured off-Broadway and in festivals and venues nationwide. Jasmine performed as a company member of Von Howard Project, MADArt Creative, LMproject, and Jamal Jackson Dance Company. Her current choreographic research focuses on the connections between sound, movement, and fortuity, using looping techniques and chance procedures. Jasmine is committed to creating work that brings lightness, joy, and humanity to the stage.

@jazzydoms

2025 MDFF Official Selection Film:
What’s Left?

Yuxin (Valkyrie) Yao is a multidisciplinary artist, researcher, and producer working across choreography, moving image, installation, and editorial practice. She is the Founder and Executive Director of ELSEHERE, an international arts nexus operating across development, production, publishing, and cross-border partnerships, and the Founding Editor of STRATUM Journal. Her choreographic and directorial works have been presented at Ailey Citigroup Theater, Gibney Dance, Dixon Place, The Tank NYC, the Ruth Page Center for the Arts, and the Detroit Institute of Arts. Her film Insert Coin to Play was officially selected for the Beijing International Film Festival and received major recognitions in China, Paris, and international dance film contexts. Her research and pedagogy focus on cultural heritage, embodied knowledge, decolonial methodology, and spectatorship across contexts. She has presented practice-based research through the National Dance Education Organization, the NYC Arts in Education Roundtable, and other public and academic platforms. Yao holds an MFA in Dance from Arizona State University and her work has been supported by the Folger Institute, Folger Shakespeare Library, Manhattan Arts Creative Engagement Grant, The Laundromat Project Create Change Fellowship, and CIPA fellowships connected to ISPA.

@vlkyink