“The mutual investment by artists, organizers, and community alike -- you can feel it in everything. It's rare, it's precious, and it's worth protecting.” - Kayla Abuda Galang, Filmmaker, 2026 Sabbatical Fellow
2027 Facilitators (in-person)
Facilitators are seasoned filmmakers and industry professionals who are available to help sabbatical participants grow and connect.
Alexandria Bombach (they/them) is an award-winning director, producer, cinematographer, editor, and story consultant known for character-driven documentaries that capture human stories with empathy and depth. Their latest film, It’s Only Life After All, opened the 2023 Sundance Film Festival with an intimate portrait of the Indigo Girls’ forty years of music, friendship, and activism.
Bombach’s debut feature, Frame by Frame (2015), about Afghan photojournalists, premiered at SXSW and went on to win over 25 festival awards. Their 2018 documentary, On Her Shoulders, following Yazidi activist Nadia Murad, premiered at Sundance, where Bombach received the U.S. Documentary Directing Award. The film was shortlisted for the Academy Award, nominated for two Independent Spirit Awards, and recognized with both the Ridenhour Documentary Film Prize and a Dupont Award.
Most recently, Bombach served as Executive Producer and Editor ofThere Was, There Was Not (2024), directed by Emily Mkrtichian, which chronicles the lives of four women in Artsakh amid war and displacement. Alongside developing their next feature, Bombach frequently collaborates as a story consultant, working with new and seasoned filmmakers to shape narratives with clarity and integrity. They currently reside in the high desert of their hometown of Santa Fe, New Mexico where they serve on the advisory board of the Santa Fe International Film Festival.
Benjamin Wiessner is a producer and VP of Sales & Distribution at Vanishing Angle. He was named to Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Indie Film in 2012 as part of ornana films, where he began producing and distributing shorts and features with partners across the world. He has made numerous award-winning films with premieres at Sundance, Berlinale, SXSW, Cannes, and Tribeca, including producing and self-distributing THUNDER ROAD (SXSW 2018 Grand Jury Prize). Raised by educators, he frequently speaks about filmmaking, distribution, and film marketing at film schools, festivals, and conferences from Cannes to Kazakhstan. He is a founding board member of the Ouray International Film Festival, and co-founded the Ouray Film Sabbatical. In 2018, he co-founded the Short to Feature Lab and in 2020 he helped launch the Vanishing Angle Post Grant for short filmmakers.
Jake Abell is a co-founder and head programmer of the Ouray International Film Festival. Abell is also a filmmaker and scholar with research interests in film, medieval studies, and the environmental humanities. He received a joint Ph.D. in French Studies and Comparative Media Analysis and Practice in 2021 from Vanderbilt University. He published his first book on economic solidarity in medieval poetry in 2023 and has a forthcoming article on the films of the Dardenne Brothers. Abell graduated from Ouray High School in 2009. Abell also serves as a guest speaker and jurist for festivals and other film organizations, including recent engagements with the Native Lens Symposium and Salute Your Shorts Film Festival in LA. He is a co-founder and co-director of the Ouray Film Sabbatical.
Jared LaCroix is a co-founder and head programmer of the Ouray International Film Festival. He is also a filmmaker and creative director. He has directed music videos and fashion editorials for a range of clients, including Biyo and Vogue China. His films have been featured at the Nashville Film Festival, Palm Springs Shortfest, the British Film Institute, and Soho House. In 2021, he was a fellow at the Short to Feature Lab in Malibu. He is currently working on a feature documentary about tea master Yoshitsugu Nagano. LaCroix is a co-founder and co-director of the Ouray Film Sabbatical.
Curators
Curators are experienced filmmakers and industry professionals who help shape the cohort of Sabbatical fellows.
Tim Kirkman will serve as a narrative curator for the 2027 sabbatical. Kirkman’s debut feature DEAR JESSE, received Emmy, Gotham, GLAAD and Spirit Award nominations and was named Best Documentary by the Boston Society of Film Critics. He wrote and directed the Sundance hit LOGGERHEADS; and LAZY EYE (Netflix); He also directed the features THE NIGHT LARRY KRAMER KISSED ME and 2ND SERVE, and produced Joanna Gleason’s THE GROTTO. Recipient of an Alfred P. Sloan Award, Tim’s most recent film, the acclaimed documentary short FREEMAN VINES (co-directed by André Robert Lee) won audience awards at Tallahassee Film Festival and the 12 Lions Film Festival. He is the creator and host of the forthcoming Reel Lives Podcast.
Alejandra Vasquez will serve as a documentary curator for the 2027 sabbatical. Vasquez is a Mexican-American filmmaker whose award-winning films spotlight youth, art & culture, and convey a cinematic sense of place in rural and borderland environments. Her feature directorial debut, co-directed with Sam Osborn, GOING VARSITY IN MARIACHI, premiered at Sundance 2023, won the Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award in the U.S. Documentary Competition, and is now streaming on Netflix.
Her short films include “Folk Frontera” (Independent Lens), winner of Best Texas Short at SXSW; “Baca” (LA Times Short Docs), commissioned by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA); and “When It’s Good, It’s Good” (POV Shorts), a co-production with Latino Public Broadcasting currently streaming on the Criterion Channel. She was awarded the Concordia Fellowship in 2026.