FWD Fellows 2025

Presented by Docs in Progress in partnership with FWD-Doc.

Adam Villani, a man with short black hair and a tan windbreaker, holds a cine camera while filming outside, focused on the shot.

Breanna E. Perera

Adam Villani

Adam Villani is a Chicago-based documentary filmmaker and artist originally from the suburbs of Washington, DC. His work focuses on telling human stories and exploring ideas and perspectives that have often been overlooked or misunderstood. He is passionate about creating films that encourage empathy, challenge assumptions, and provide new ways of thinking. Adam graduated from Columbia College Chicago with a degree in Cinema Art and Science, specializing in documentary film. His most recent project, CHASING WESTBORO, is a personal documentary chronicling my journey of reckoning with the Westboro Baptist Church; the most infamous hate group in the country, known for picketing anyone who does not align with their beliefs.

Aschalew Chechebo is a brown-skinned Ethiopian man with short curly hair, a moustache and a patterned blue button-up against a white background.
Breanna is a woman with short brown hair with bands, bold eye makeup and rosy lipstick.

Aschalew Chechebo

Aschalew Chechebo is from Ethiopia. As a disability advocate with lived experience of disability, he is deeply passionate about fostering disability inclusion within the film industry. His commitment is evidenced by four international certifications in disability inclusion and accessibility. Aschalew is in the final stages of establishing a disability organization dedicated to empowering individuals with disabilities in filmmaking. Academically, he excelled in his law studies, graduating as the top-scoring student among persons with disabilities. Professionally, he serves as a federal prosecutor, representing vulnerable groups, including individuals with disabilities, in legal proceedings.

Breanna Perera was born and raised in Los Alamos, NM and comes from a long line of artists, hard workers, immigrants, and those who strive to make the world a better place. She graduated from the College of Santa Fe with a Bachelor of Arts in Moving Image Arts (Film). Currently, Breanna is an Information Research Specialist 2 at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), where she supports the National Security Research Center (NSRC) on the Digital Collections Team. Prior to joining LANL, Breanna worked on film productions in New Mexico including EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH, SPOKEN WORD, APPALOOSA, BROTHERS, LEGION, GAMER, THE KEEPER, DID YOU HEAD ABOUT THE MORGANS?, FRIGHT NIGHT, BREAKING BAD and BETTER CALL SAUL.

Corey Evans is a Black man with a bald head, a tailored suit jacket and a light blue button up. He leans on a white wall near a fence casually.

Corey Evans

Corey Evans is a native Arkansan with a Mass Communications degree from the University of Central Arkansas and an MFA in Film Production from the University of Miami. He honed his skills in news editing at KATV (Little Rock) and WSVN (Miami) before relocating to the Los Angeles production industry. Corey's career as a filmmaker and editor, marked by the silent challenge of undisclosed low vision and widespread misconceptions about disability, is a testament to his skill and resilience. He proactively overcame limitations, proving that potential isn't defined by perceived boundaries. Corey advocates for people with disabilities through PSAs and mini-documentaries.

Dashiell Meier

Dashiell Meier is a white man with Trisomy 21/Down Syndrome. He has shaggy brown hair and a grey knit sweater against a tan wall.

Dashiell Meier is a disability advocate, filmmaker and college student. His passion for storytelling leads to a wide range of projects, including film scripts, storyboards, comics, novels, and live-action and animated shorts. He also collaborates on screenplays to ensure accurate representation of people with Trisomy 21/Down Syndrome and intellectual disabilities. Dashiell hosts a YouTube talk show called “Playing Favorites” and has appeared in film, theatrical and commercial productions. As a disability rights advocate at the national and international levels Dashiell has spoken at the United Nations, U.S. Department of Education and Stanford University and is the 2025 National Down Syndrome Ambassador of the Year. He has written and produced videos for the Center for Youth Voice, Youth Choice and Special Olympics Northern California. Dashiell’s short thriller, DAY 21, which he directed, co-wrote and co-edited, won him the Best Actor for the 2025 Easterseals Disability Film Challenge and will be part of The BraveMaker, HollyShorts, and Heartland Film Festivals later this year.

Under dramatic studio lighting, Derek Dabkoski is a white man with a yellow brimmed hat and gingham button-up shirt, looking off to the side in front of a red background.

Derek Dabkoski

Derek Dabkoski is a native of San Francisco and an award-winning filmmaker whose work has been shown in festivals that include the San Francisco Documentary Film Festival, Indie Memphis, the Seattle Film Festival and the Portland Film Festival. He completed his undergraduate degree from NYU despite a debilitating physical attack that left him permanently physically disabled. He achieved his MFA from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts in film and television production, where he pursued his dream of directing. With a passion for telling stories about the underserved disabled community of which he is a part, his previous feature documentary, DEREK CHANGES HIS MIND, followed his participation in a years-long study of the effects of stem cell therapy to treat his traumatic brain injury.

Isabella Vargas

Isabella Vargas is a filmmaker and multimedia artist who works at the intersection of media and activism. She works with nonfiction forms by combining captured footage and drawn animations to rewrite narratives about her intersectional communities. Vargas questions the marginalization of people and their relationship with disability, ethnic identity, queerness, and their ties to intergenerational trauma. In tandem with her art practice, Vargas is a disability activist and gleans her narratives from direct interaction with members of the communities for whom she is advocating, striving to give a platform to their voices. Her storytelling prioritizes community building and care when amplifying the voices of those traditionally silenced.

Rachel Handler

Rachel Handler is a woman with long, black wavy hair, a leather jacket and a gold prosthetic leg, hand resting gently on her temple.

Rachel Handler is a filmmaker and actor known for her stint as Peg Leg Doris on AMC’s INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE and her award-winning Slamdance films COMMITTED and HOW MUCH AM I WORTH? Other acting credits include, “NEW AMSTERDAM, GOLIATH, LAW & ORDER: SVU, NCIS: NEW ORLEANS, BEST FOOT FORWARD, BULL and THE UPSIDE. Handler became an amputee after a tragic car accident in 2012. As an artist and activist, she strives to find humor and hope in even the most awful circumstances. Her awards as a director/writer/producer include the AT&T Underrepresented Filmmaker Award, Best International Film in Focus on Ability, and she won the Sundance Collab Monthly Challenge for her script, DERAILED. After performing in the Off-Broadway play, The Lucky Star, Rachel recently played Ani in Cost of Living at Philadelphia Theatre Company. When she isn’t performing or writing, Handler works to expand disability equity within arts organizations, corporations and schools.

Rachel Kolb

Rahel Kolb is a white woman with freckles, long blonde hair and a black v-neck shirt who smiles while outside in a yard, background blurred

Rachel Kolb is a writer whose work explores communication, language, and disability as central components of human experience. A graduate of Stanford University, she was the first signing deaf Rhodes Scholar at Oxford before receiving her PhD in English literature from Emory University and then completing a junior fellowship in the Society of Fellows at Harvard University. She has been published in the New York Times and the Atlantic, among other outlets, and has been a speaker at TEDx Stanford and several national conferences on deafness and disability. Her first book, Articulate: A Deaf Memoir of Voice, is forthcoming with Ecco Press in September 2025.