Sally is a director for Longleaf Film Festival and believes in the power of independent film to make connections, generate reflection, entertain, and form community. Inspired by filmmakers and film fans, she looks forward to Longleaf each year, as work on the event goes on year round. Sally finds many connections between her “other work” for our home base (the Museum of History) and Longleaf because “everything has history!” That other work includes writing and producing videos for the museum website and its YouTube channel, reaching students through live-streaming classes, and, oh, you know, making history cool. Sally is a native North Carolinian, and attended that “light-blue” school . . .

Stephen served as an editor for publications and exhibits at the Museum of History (off and on) from 1992 to 2021, editing exhibit labels, online text, and other materials, as well as information related to the Longleaf Film Festival. After hours, he runs a freelance editorial services business, where he actually enjoys analyzing the occasional script for continuity and logic.

Mark John has a degree in marketing management from Informatics College, Philippines, having graduated with flying colors, along with 10 years of experience as a marketing coordinator in retail sales. A recent arrival to North Carolina and the Triangle, he believes in hard work and ran across Longleaf while serving a museum internship to hone his online marketing skills by creating e-newsletters, designing postcards and e-flyers, and developing websites and Facebook business pages. He is a film enthusiast, television programs and movies, and has become a big fan of classic movies—one of his favorites being The Wizard of Oz, though he understands why it didn’t run away with all the Oscars for 1940.

Chelsea received her BS in public history from East Carolina University in 2015 and hit the ground running! As outreach coordinator at the Museum of History, she manages one of the museum’s largest outreach efforts—its History-In-a-Box program, which serves more than 60,000 students annually. Chelsea enjoys binge-watching Netflix series, dominating in fantasy football, cheering on her alma mater (go, Pirates!), and making as many pop-culture references as humanly possible

A native of Raleigh, Joel has been with the Museum of History as audiovisual and lighting specialist since 2002. Be it live events, live-stream programming, audio and video production, exhibit installation, or anything else tech related, Joel is on the job—and an integral member of the tech team for Longleaf. In his spare time, he enjoys playing trumpet, listening to live music, sailing along the coast, gardening, and, of course, watching movies! Of all the events he works each year, Joel says, “the film festival is one of my favorite annual events: Watching great independent films while at work? YES, PLEASE!”