Irene Taylor Brodsky is a filmmaker who traffics in extreme empathy and honesty. Oscar-nominated, and Emmy and Peabody Award-winning, her second documentary memoir “Moonlight Sonata” premiered at Sundance and will air on HBO this winter. The film interweaves the stories of her son, Jonas, with that of Beethoven and her father Paul – all of whom lost their hearing. The film explores sound and memory through animation, home video, and other tools to create a vivid portrait of expression and loss. Other projects by Brodsky include “Beware the Slenderman,” “Homeless: The Soundtrack,” and the Oscar-nominated “The Final Inch.” She’s worked as a news journalist, a Himalayan mountain guide, and recently founded The Treehouse Project, a nonprofit dedicated to greater accessibility of documentary film to blind and deaf audiences.

Ahmed Bharoocha is half Irish Catholic, half Pakistani-Indian-Burmese-Muslim, and 100% hilarious. He’s performed on “Conan” and Comedy Central, hit the festival circuit at places like Just for Laughs Montreal, Riot LA, and the Great American Comedy Festival, and produced viral sketch hits. His debut album, “Almond Badoody” (a play on how people pronounced his name) was called “playful and absurdist” by “Paste Magazine.” In addition to stand up, he’s also a series regular on the Adult Swim show “Dream Corp, LLC.” Add all that to his high energy performance punctuated with striking social commentary, and it’s clear that Bharoocha is the complete comedy package.

Matthew Zapruder wants to play with your perception of poetry. He’s the author of five collections including “Come On All You Ghosts,” a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and “Father’s Day,” as well as “Why Poetry,” a book of prose. A master of the form himself, he’s an editor-at-large for Wave Books, served as the Editor of the Poetry Column for the New York Times Magazine, and currently works as a college professor at Saint Mary’s College of California – all ventures which allow him to expand the understanding of poetry for writers and readers alike. If you’re looking for poetry that can expand your mind and broaden your appreciation of the form, Zapruder is for you.

What began as a solitary exploration for one artist has evolved via the additive property into the unique, full sound of the band Bodies on the Beach. Navid Eliot, of the nationally-celebrated band Planes on Paper, upleveled his home recordings from art project to art-centric rock and roll when he began working with Evan Gackstatter and Andrew Ginn, two Seattle music scene mainstays. Eliot’s fingerpicking stands out as a star when mixed with and supported by Gackstatter and Ginn’s musical prowess, and their first EP together “Ghost” will be released in late 2019. Three’s not a crowd, but instead a musical revelation when it comes to the music of Bodies on the Beach.