BOARD MEMBERS & CREATIVE TEAM

Co-Founder and Creative Director - Billy Gerard Frank, born in Grenada, West Indies, is an Artist, Filmmaker, Production Designer, Educator, and founder of Nova Frontier Film Festival & Lab, which showcases and incubates the works of filmmakers and artists from and about the Global African Diaspora, The Middle East, Latin America. He is also a Lecturer in Directing and Design in the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale and has lectured at universities like NYU, the School of Visual Arts, and York University. He is one of the artists in the collective representing Grenada in the 59th La Biennale di Venezia (2022) and also represented the island at 58th La Biennale di Venezia (2019).

Frank's research-based practices interrogate issues dealing with migration, race, exile,  global politics, post-colonial, and queer decoloniality, challenging normative discourses around them. His mix-media artworks and films have been exhibited and screened in group and solo shows in museums and institutions like Brooklyn Museum (2020); Yale, and international film festivals like the Berlinale, and Sundance, and is also in several private collections and institutions like the National Academy Museum of Fine Arts and Design, among others. He is a recipient of many grants, including the Ford Foundation Grant for his La Biennale Di Venezia project (2022). 

He moved to London as a teenager, where he began painting and exploring experimental video art and installation before moving to New York to pursue further studies in studio art at ateliers like The Art Students League of New York, and The National Academy of Fine Arts and studied under the American abstract expressionist and realist painter John Hultberg, and was John's studio assistant for 5 years where he was introduced to artists like Robert Rauschenberg. He continued his studies in filmmaking and media arts at The New School for Social Research.

He lives between Grenada, Brooklyn NY, and Paris.

Co-Founder and Managing Director (CFO) — Lydia was born and raised in Paris (France), and is originally from Guadeloupe. She was first discovered as an actress at Age 17 when she was invited to audition for Mathieu kassovitz film''Cafe au Lait'' thus began her journey and passion for theater and films.

She was part of several experimental and avant-garde theater companies in Paris as a teenager, before her journey as aspiring actress and model took her to Rome, where she continued her passion for acting. She was featured in ''The Exorcist the beginning'' alongside Stellan Skarsgard and acted in several TV series in Rome.

Her love for American Cinema and desire to develop and perfect her craft took her to New York City. She studied at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute and the Susan Batson Studio.

Lydia is a an Award Winning Filmmaker and Actress. She was recently cast as Molly Bloom in '' The Ulysses Project'' featuring Aiden Gillen and John Turturro. Lydia is a frequent guest speaker in support of emerging indie filmmakers and women in film.  

Board Chair — Lauren Beck is an Oscar Nominated producer (2017) of Manchester By The Sea, and K Period Media’s founding Producer and Production Executive. Lauren has produced short and long-form projects fusing original content, emerging technology, and digital design. As Executive Producer at Moondog Edit, a New York-based advertising and film production company, Lauren opened the doors to a variety of new creative territories in original content development, film, and music. Lauren was responsible for establishing a fully integrated collective of five companies including creative development, production, post-production, VFX, and music supervision to form an e client and expansive model. With a wide range of executional expertise and armed with progressive entrepreneurial and artistic instincts, Lauren began curating and producing a talented team of writers and directors in the development of film and series opportunities. 

Board member — Lyle Ashton Harris — for more than two decades has cultivated a diverse artistic practice ranging from photographic media, collage, installation, and performance. His work explores intersections between the personal and the political, examining the impact of ethnicity, gender, and desire on the contemporary social and cultural dynamic. Known for his self-portraits and use of pop culture icons (such as Billie Holiday and Michael Jackson), Harris teases the viewers’ perceptions and expectations, resignifying cultural cursors and recalibrating the familiar with the extraordinary. Harris has exhibited work widely, including at The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York) and The Whitney Museum of American Art (New York) among many others, as well as at international biennials (São Paulo, 2016; Busan, 2008; Venice, 2007; Seville, 2006; Gwangju, 2000). His work is represented in the permanent collections of major museums, most recently The Museum of Modern Art, New York. In 2014 Harris joined the Board of Trustees of the American Academy in Rome and was the recipient of the David C. Driskell Prize by the High Museum of Art (Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A.). In 2016 he was awarded the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship and was appointed a trustee of the Tiffany Foundation and was in the 2017 Whitney Biennial.

Having studied at Wesleyan University, the California Institute of the Arts, and the Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program, Harris is currently an Associate Professor of Art and Art Education at New York University. 

Producer & Board Member - Patrick McCarthy — is a writer, film and video editor, and producer, he has worked in the arts & advertising for over a decade and enjoys long walks on his feet.

Rendah Haj

Director of Programming — Rendah Haj is an Egyptian-Australian documentary filmmaker from Melbourne. She made her film debut with her graduate documentary short, Hayat (SBS On Demand, 2021), which screened internationally including at DOC NYC, Slamdance, St Kilda Film Festival and the New York African Film Festival. Rendah's film work focuses on highlighting under-represented social issues through intimate portraits, with a strong emphasis on the experiences of young women, ethnic families and mental health. With an extensive history of curating community and youth-based arts and media projects, Rendah also assists in programming at independent film festivals such as Slamdance and Nova Frontier Film Festival.

Video Editor & Graphic Designer - Lucia was born in Sevilla, Spain and currently works in Brooklyn as a video editor, motion graphic designer, storyteller and marketing manager. 

She has a Bachelor`s degree in Film & Visual Culture and English from the University of Aberdeen, a Bachelor's in Digital Design from the Open University of Catalunya, and a Master’s in Video editing and Postproduction from the European University Miguel de Cervantes.

She has worked and lived in Scotland, the Netherlands, Greece, New York, and Spain, and is passionate about culture, cinema, literature, and overall: stories, and she is always looking for new ideas, inspiration, and inspiring people. 

Curator & Public Relations — Growing up in the South of FRANCE (near Marseille), Linda was inspired by the beautiful Mediterranean scenery and nature around her, the diversity of her working-class neighborhood, her Algerian parents immaculate style, and the french editorials of the 80s.

It's her love for hip-hop that brought her to NYC a decade ago :" I knew nobody , couldn't speak a word of English, didn't have a dollar to my name ... but my head was full of dreams, music and dance ". And dreams did come true when Linda started to style her " idols " of that time like A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Jungle Brothers, Nas, Common, Cindi Lauper to name a few ....

She now works with multiple fashion and beauty clients as well as established commercial directors and production companies from NY to LA.

She is also a Costume Designer and has worked on independent movies, TV  shows, and content. She is a member of Local 829.

Parallel to her styling career, Linda was the creator of a unique concept store in the Lower East Side of Manhattan called LE SOUS SOL. This fashion-forward boutique promoted and introduced new designers from Belgium exclusively. The store received numerous articles and attention from the International press and Fashion Editors.


When she is not working on different projects Linda finds inspiration and meaning in her creative sides traveling between The Sahara desert of her native country of Algeria and a small fisherman village on the south coast of the island of Jamaica.

Linda works between NY/ LA/ MIAMI and FRANCE and is available worldwide

Riad Bouchoucha

Producer — Riad Bouchoucha was born in Marseilles, France (1989). After graduating with an International Master's Degree in Law, he decides to pursue his passion for cinema. As a self-taught filmmaker, he directs his first short film in 2013. Eager to learn how to write, he participates in a screenwriting workshop in 2016, La Ruche. During this workshop, he wrote the short film, The Wake. (A NFFF winner 2020) which was produced with the help of producers Emmanuel Wahl and Adrien Bretet. The award-winning short was screened in over twenty international film festivals.

Riad is currently writing his first feature screenplay inspired by the youth of his parents in a slum during the 1970's in Marseilles.