Cutting to the Truth: Storytelling and the Art of Editing

Cutting to the Truth: Storytelling and the Art of Editing

Free Talks
| 60 MINUTES
This panel explores the vital, often invisible role that editing plays in shaping the stories we see on screen. Through a candid conversation with acclaimed editors, we will examine how choices made in the edit room are fundamental to narrative, emotion, and meaning. Highlighting both the technical and creative aspects of the craft across all film genres. Organized with support from the Blue Collar Post Collective.

Panelists

Shannon C. Griffin

Shannon C. Griffin is a film editor whose work spans films, music videos, and commercials. Born in Tokyo, Japan, and raised around the world, from Connecticut to Tianjin, Shanghai, and Hawaii, her work is informed by a broad range of cultural influences and lived experiences. Her recent feature credits include ONE WOMAN ONE BRA (dir. Vincho Nchogu), which premiered at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival and went on to win the Sutherland Award at the 2025 BFI London Film Festival. She also edited IN TRANSIT (dir. Jaclyn Bethany), starring Jennifer Ehle and François Arnaud, which received the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature at NewFest. Shannon's short film work includes YOUR OWN FLAVOR (dir. Alisha Ketry), winner of the Best Comedy Short Award at Palm Springs ShortFest 2025. Her music videos have been nominated at the 2020 MTV Video Music Awards and the 2024 CMT Awards. A 2024 Film Independent Project Involve Editing Fellow, she hopes to amplify unique stories that foster a more inclusive and equitable world.

Michael  Taylor (Moderator)

Michael Taylor (Moderator)

Michael Taylor, ACE, member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, has recently joined the board of advisors of Blue Collar Post Collective. He helped create and continues to help curate the long-running ACE Presents at Metrograph series, which pairs film screenings with moderated Q&A’s with the film’s editor. Michael moderated the inaugural evening and has returned to moderate several times. The series has recently expanded to the West Coast. He has been a film editor for the past 25 years, working on both fiction and non-fiction features. His recent film “My Undesirable Friends: Part I - Last Air in Moscow” won best documentary at the Gotham Awards, the New York Society of Film Critics, the Los Angeles Association of Film Critics, and the National Society of Film Critics, and was shortlisted for the best documentary Oscar. He was nominated for best editing at the Cinema Eye Honors. His fiction features include “Nine Days,” winner, Waldo Salt Award at Sundance, “The Farewell,” winner, Best Feature at Spirit Awards and an ACE Eddies nominee, “Free in Deed,” Winner, Best Feature, Orrizonti section, Venice Film Festival, and “Day Night Day Night,” winner Prix de la Jeunesse, Cannes Film Festival. Michael won the James Lyon Award for best editing of a feature documentary for “Babushkas of Chernobyl.”

Ian Holden

Ian Holden

Ian Holden, ACE is a New York City film editor known for editing over fifteen award-winning narrative and documentary features across multiple genres. A drummer as well as an editor, he brings rhythmic sensibilities to pacing, flow, and performance. Ian was recently inducted into American Cinema Editors (ACE) for his professional achievements and dedication to the craft. Recent projects include Take Me Home, directed by Liz Sargent, which premiered at Sundance, where it took home the prize for screenwriting, and also internationally premiered at the Berlinale, and will have its New York Premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2026; Adult Best Friends, nominated for Best Narrative Feature at Tribeca (2024), Birder, which was on Esquire’s list of top six erotic thriller/horror films of 2024, and Quantum Cowboys which is on Collider’s list of top ten animated time-travel films of all time, and garnered 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. Other notable works include Loves Her Gun, which won the Lonestar best Texas Film Award at SXSW 2013, and was on the New York Times best films of 2014 list. While Ian edits a film, you can often find him dancing or even acting out the performances of the actors on screen.

Lee Haxall

Lee Haxall

Emmy award winning editor (pilot for “Arrested Development”) Lee Haxall originally hails from Pennsylvania. After attending USC film school, she became a sound editor and post-production producer before finding her passion as a picture editor. She got her big break when a friend produced a show called “Strange Luck” which he wanted cut on this newfangled piece of equipment called the Avid, which she had learned how to use the year before - long story! After several years cutting television movies like Disney’s “Brink” and dramas and comedies ranging from “Arrested Development” to “The Shield,” she began her feature editing career in 2003. She has a knack for comedy, and is perhaps best known for “Crazy Stupid Love,” “Meet the Fockers,” “Sisters,” and “Always be My Maybe.” Nothing pleases her more than blending comedy with heart, and working with fun, nice people, which is why she so loved working on Rob Burnett’s wonderful “In Memoriam.”

Joshua Z Weinstein

Joshua Z Weinstein

Joshua Z Weinstein is the editor, cinematographer, writer, producer and director of Here I’m Alive. He directed Menashe, released by A24, and nominated for a Gotham Award for “Breakthrough Director” and Independent Spirit Award for “Best First Feature.” He fdirected the documentaries Drivers Wanted (PBS), Flying On One Engine (IDFA/SXSW), and I Beat Mike Tyson (Hotdocs/Camden). As a cinematographer he has lensed I'm Your Venus (Netflix/Tribeca), Sell/Buy/Date (SXSW), Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me (IFC Films/Tribeca), and Bikini Moon. Weinstein’s advertising work was nominated for a Cannes Lion. His comedy Holocaust Survivor Band for the NY Times won POY’s “Multimedia Project of the Year.” Born in NYC, he spent the aughts playing bass in the post-hardcore band Trophy Scars, a legacy that will live on through the tattoos on his dedicated fans. The DIY punk culture is enmeshed in his filmmaking.

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