Cucalorus Board of Directors

Peter Sweyer, Chair
Peter is a Realtor/Broker at Century 21 Sweyer & Associates and owner of Wrightsville Manor. He has been immersed in the real estate industry since early childhood and has gained great insight into all aspects of the industry through the family business. He has seen the ups and downs of this market over the past 25 years and knows that over the long range Wilmington will continue to grow because of its desirable location along the Southeast coast. He is a Centurion Award Winner and has also been recognized as a quality service Pinnacle Producer by Century 21 corporate.

Natalie Lentz Blake, President
Natalie is an interior designer at Barbour Spangle Design in her hometown of High Point, NC. She first came to Wilmington back in 1996, when she attended UNCW as an Art History major. Natalie’s studies took her back to the middle of the state, but 10 years of design and a master’s degree later she came back to Wilmington in 2012. It was then she discovered Cucalorus, and jumped head first into the staff position of Box Office and then Programming. In 2017, she decided to hop from curating films to back over to curating spaces, but can still be found behind the curtains when the festival rolls around.

Jason Sargis, Secretary

Jeff Sanchez, Treasurer
Jeff Sanchez is a musician and filmmaker, originally from New Jersey. He and his wife Monika moved to Wilmington in 2005, and Jeff has been a volunteer at Cucalorus since 2006, in many different roles. Two films that he worked on have been featured at the festival, in 2014 and 2016. Jeff was the director at Centro Latino and ran a Mexican radio station here for 3 years. He currently works for Freaker USA and has his NC real estate license. He plays with local rock and roll band THE CLAMS.

Byron Hurt
Byron Hurt is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, writer, anti-sexist activist, and an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s School of Journalism, in the Documentary Film Program. He is also the lead technical assistant for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Forward Promise initiative, a storytelling project for boys and young men of color. Hurt is also an Emmy-nominated TV show host. His critically acclaimed documentary, Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and broadcast nationally on PBS’ Emmy-award winning series Independent Lens.

Kristen Brogdon
Kristen directs the Office of the Arts at UNC Wilmington. She oversees UNCW’s Kenan Auditorium, curates the UNCW Presents series including Lumina Festival of the Arts, and coordinates programming in collaboration with five UNCW academic arts departments. Prior to her time in Wilmington she spent almost eight years at Hubbard Street Dance Chicago as Artistic Administrator and General Manager and nine years at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Kristen lives with her husband David and children Sophie and Nicholas in Wilmington, North Carolina. She knows that art and artists have the power to change the world.

Laura Brogdon-Primavera
Laura Brogdon-Primavera is the Manager of Programs and Operations at the UNCW Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. She served as the Administrative Assistant to the UNCW Chief of Staff in 2012 before moving to the CIE in 2013. Before that she lived and worked outside of Chicago, IL in environmental education and event planning with the Forest Preserve District of Will County. Mrs. Primavera received a BSBA in Hospitality and Tourism Management from Appalachian State University and an M.Ed. in Higher Education at UNCW. Laura also serves as Activities Director at Holiday Inn Resort in Wrightsville Beach supervising a team of 12 college-aged students and organizing all the fun there is to be had while vacationing at our beaches. She has three kids and another on the way and a loving husband that allows her the freedom to create and support her community in all the ways she does. When she slows down and has free time, she enjoys disc golf and watching all the animated kids movies with her little ones.

Norwood Cheek
Norwood Cheek is a filmmaker and musician known for his music videos, the Flicker Film Festival, and his work with Super 8 film. He is in the band Cardinal Family Singers along with Peyton Reed. His music videos range from bands such as She & Him, the EELS, Superchunk, Squirrel Nut Zippers, Ben Folds Five, AFI, Toenut, 12 Stones, French Kicks, the Donnas, Soul Coughing and many others. He is the founder and creator of 10×10 – a music video documentary project. 10×10 has been featured at the Atlantic Film Festival, Adelaide Fringe Festival, and Cucalorus Festival.

Christopher Everett
Christopher Everett is a Durham, NC-based producer and director of the award-winning documentary film “Wilmington on Fire.” He is the founder and president of Speller Street Films and currently works with the Southern Documentary Fund as Program Manager. Christopher is currently filming his next two documentaries, “Wilmington on Fire: Chapter II” and “Grandmaster,” which looks at the legacy of martial arts pioneer Vic Moore.

Georg Koszulinski
Georg is a filmmaker whose work addresses issues of the Anthropocene, merging his interests in science, poetry, ecology, the ongoing effects of colonization around the world, and radical forms of non-fiction filmmaking. His award-winning films have been presented at hundreds of festivals, museums, and microcinemas worldwide, most recently at Experiments in Cinema, the Camden International Film Festival, the Harvard-Yenching Institute, the Museum of Vancouver, and the Society for Visual Anthropology Film & Media Festival. His recent documentaries, White Ravens: A Legacy of Resistance, and America is Waiting are distributed through Docurama and Fandor distributes his Florida Trilogyamong other films. Georg is also a professor of Film Studies at UNCW, where he encourages his students to develop their filmic voices and to make work that critically engages the themes, topics, and social justice issues that matter most to them.

Malaika Paquiot
Malaika Paquiot splits her times between her 2 loves: film and tech. To this end, she is a Digital Strategist with ARRAY, formerly known as African American Film Festival Releasing Movement (AFFRM), founded by the director of the Oscar-nominated film SELMA: Ava DuVernay. Malaika’s led a group of 60 volunteers in the digital promotion of all but one of ARRAY’s acquisitions. Malaika is part of the Product Management team at a Wilmington, NC-based cloud banking startup focused on its international expansion. She has been in the software industry for 15 years during which time she has won the National Women of Color Technology Award. She merged the tech and film worlds by writing on online film distribution and crowdfunding and has done so for Focal Press’ Mastering Film blog, Filmmaker Magazine’s blog and her own blog Beyond the Box Office. Up since 2009, it focuses on innovative ways for filmmakers to distribute their films, including set-top boxes, streaming services and mobile apps. She is currently a member of the Sundance Institute, board member of Working Films and a former board member of the San Jose Multicultural Artists Guild.

Robert Redhead
Wilmington native and current Atlanta GA resident Robert Redhead works for software provider, Talend, helping companies and Federal agencies achieve data-driven decision-making nirvana. When not mired in the world of high-tech, Robert finds himself in the operational gears of Cucalorus as an architect of screenings efficiencies. He is also lucky enough to call himself a documentary programmer for both our beloved festival, and the Atlanta Film Festival.

Kate Miller
Bio coming soon!

Stefani Byrd

Jen West

Carla Forte
Carla Forte was born in Caracas, Venezuela and lives and works in Miami, Florida. Forte, first trained as a contemporary dancer, received a bachelor degree, earning the highest GPA at the Dance University Institute in Caracas – Venezuela (2000-2004). Forte incorpore on her practice dance, film and performance, focusing on the Latin-American community. Best Film Director by the Miami New Times 2023. She is the co-founder of the Bistoury Physical Theatre and Film. Her films and performances have been screened at prominent festivals and galleries such as: Festival Internazionale del Cinema di Salerno, Italy (2021); The University Galleries of Florida Atlantic University Boca Raton (2021); CICA Museum, South Korea (2021); SANFIC Santiago Festival Internacional de Cine Chile (2021); Rochester International Film Festival (2020); Miami International Film Festival, Florida (2020); Atlanta Film Festival, Georgia (2017); Cube Art Project, Nebraska (2017); Les Instants Video, France (2014), among others.

Kim Pevia
Kim Pevia is an experienced life strategist, an engaging keynote speaker, and a skilled workshop facilitator. Her workshops are experiential and transformational. She specializes in identifying the issues that keep us stuck and addresses them by developing a personalized toolbox to help us hurdle over them. Her favorite work is done in circles. Her favorite topics include Emotional intelligence, Gifts of Conflict, Impacts of Historical Trauma, Cultural Healing, Innocuous Nature of Fear, most of which she includes in Race, Equity and Inclusion work. Born and educated in Baltimore, MD she currently lives in Robeson County, NC where her roots run deep as a member of the Lumbee Tribe.