Jillian Schlesinger (she/they) is an independent filmmaker and freelance producer, writer, editor, and creative director based in New York City. Jillian produced, edited, and co-directed Hummingbirds, in which debut directors/protagonists Silvia Del Carmen Castaños & Estefanía “Beba” Contreras worked with a team of fellow first-time filmmakers and creative mentors to craft a documentary self-portrait of their coming of age experiences on the Texas-Mexico border. Hummingbirds won the Generation Grand Prize at its premiere at Berlinale 2023 and will be released widely in 2024. Jillian previously produced and directed Maidentrip in collaboration with Laura Dekker on the latter’s quest to become the youngest person to sail around the world alone. Maidentrip won the SXSW 2013 Visions Audience Award among numerous festival accolades. The film was released globally by First Run Features and ro*co, garnering nominations for Gotham Awards and Cinema Eye Honors and a spot on Indiewire’s list of the Best Documentaries of 2014. Jillian’s work has been supported by Sundance, Field of Vision, Ford Foundation | JustFilms, SFFILM, IDA, Doc Society, and New York Foundation for the Arts. Jillian is an alum of fellowships including 2021 Sundance/WIF Producing Intensive, 2021 NBCU Original Voices, and Doc Society’s 2022 Co-Creation Cohort and 2023 Democracy Story Lab. Jillian teaches workshops at DCTV and has been a visiting speaker at Uniondocs, Austin Film Society, and Wexner Center for the Arts. Jillian’s freelance work has appeared in The Guardian, The New Yorker, and on PBS, among other platforms. Jillian was part of DOC NYC's “40 Under 40” in 2023.