Attending Filmmakers 2018

FILMMAKERS AND SPEAKERS ATTENDING SCREENINGS 

NILIMA ABRAMS (NEQ: Kali Yuga Chants)
Abrams is a documentary filmmaker and social entrepreneur with extensive experience in India. She wrote an award-winning honors thesis on schools and media in India while studying at UVM. She also made a film on child labor prevention in India, and went on to complete an MFA in documentary film at Stanford. Nilima received a Fulbright Fellowship to spend a year in India filming for Kali Yuga Chants. She also teaches Documentary filmmaking at UVM.

 MILA AUNG-THWIN (Anote’s Ark)
Mila is an award-winning producer and activist. He had a multi-disciplinary education in arts, journalism and photography. In 1998, he met his fellow director/producer Daniel Cross and co-founded with him EyeSteelFilm specializing in making documentaries. Eyesteel, a RealScreen Magazine Global 100 Company, is at the forefront of documentary production in Canada, dedicated to socially engaged cinema, bringing social and political change through cinematic expression. Mila is the vice-president of the company.

CHARLOTTE BARRETT (NEQ: Rooted: Cultivating Community in the Vermont Grange)
Charlotte is Community Preservation Manager for Historic New England, a regional cultural heritage organization working to engage diverse audiences in developing a deeper understanding and enjoyment of New England home life by being the national leader in collecting, preserving, and using significant buildings, landscapes, archives, stories, and objects from the past to today. The film Rooted is part of its Everyone’s History series, through which it partners with communities and organizations in the region to collect and share their stories.

ASHLEY BELL (Love and Bananas)

Ashley is known for her starring role in the The Last Exorcism films for which she garnered an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress and an MTV Movie Award nomination. On the small screen, Bell is recognized for her recurring role as Tonya on Showtime’s Emmy-winning series The United States of Tara. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Ashley is the daughter of actor/voice animator Michael Bell and actress/Groundlings co-founder Victoria Carroll. She studied acting and directing at Cambridge University, where she was awarded “Best Actress” for her portrayal of “Ophelia”. Bell later graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts with honors, and was mentored by Kathleen Turner. A vegetarian, Bell is involved with multiple charities that focus on rescuing and adopting animals.  Love and Bananas is her directorial debut.

JON BOWERMASTER (Hudson River Trilogy)

Writer, filmmaker and adventurer, Jon is a six-time grantee of the National Geographic Expeditions Council. One of the Society’s ‘Ocean Heroes,’ his first assignment for National Geographic Magazine was documenting a 3,741 mile crossing of Antarctica by dogsled. Jon has written a dozen books and produced/directed more than fifteen documentary films.
Jon lives in New York’s Hudson Valley. He is the Executive Producer of Oceans 8 Films and President of One Ocean Media Foundation, Chairman of the Advisory Board of Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation and a Board Member of Mark Ruffalo’s Water Defense.

 NED CASTLE (NEQ: Rooted: Cultivating Community in the Vermont Grange)

Ned Castle is an ethnographic researcher and documentarian working in photography, audio, and film at the Vermont Folklife Center in Middlebury, Vermont. The Center’s mission is to broaden, strengthen, and deepen our understanding of Vermont; to assure a repository for our collective cultural memory; and to strengthen communities by building connections among the diverse peoples of Vermont

RAYE FARR (The City Without Jews)

Raye joined the staff of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum after more than twenty years in documentary television production and historical film research, much of it focused on World War II and 20th century European history. Her work as producer, director, archive producer or consultant has been seen in many television documentary series, including: World at War; The Struggles for Poland; A Different World: Poland’s Jews, 1919-1943, Hitler’s Germany, China in Revolution; Stalin; Vietnam – a Television History; The Nuclear Age; Heritage – Civilization & the Jews. After the 1993 opening of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, she oversaw the establishment and expansion of the museum’s Steven Spielberg Film & Video Archive, which she directed until her retirement in October 2013. She was awarded the 12th annual FOCAL International Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2015.  Since retiring in 2013, Farr has continued to consult for the National Institute for Holocaust Education and the Office of Collections.

 AUBE GIROUX (NEQ: Modified)

Aube Giroux is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, organic gardener, and food blogger who works on food, agriculture, and sustainability issues. She previously directed two documentaries for the National Film Board of Canada and several independent productions. Her work has been shown on CBC and at international film festivals. Aube is the creator of Kitchen Vignettes, an acclaimed farm-to-table food blog and online cooking show on PBS. The show received the 2012 Saveur Magazine Best Food Blog Award and is a two-time James Beard Award nominee. Aube holds an MFA in Film Production from York University. Modified is her first feature-length documentary. 

CHRIS HARDEE (NEQ: The Best Day Ever)
Hardee is a lifelong environmentalist and lover of nature. He co-founded a non-profit media organization in the 1980s where he focused on environmental topics for conservation organizations, as well as writing, directing, and producing numerous video, film, interactive, and multimedia productions for museums, parks, and historic sites around the country.

KARL A HEARNE (NEQ: Touched)

Writer/Director Karl R. Hearne earned a graduate degree from the University of Nanjing, China.  His shorts have premiered at TIFF, SXSW and New Directors/New Films.  Touched is his first feature.

JACKIE HELTZ (NEQ: Lake Effect)
Heltz is a native Vermonter living and working in New York City. She produces several series focused on learning through EdLab, a research, design, and development unit housed in Teachers College, Columbia University. In January 2018, Jackie graduated from The New School with a master’s degree in Media Studies.

 DANIEL HOUGHTON (NEQ: Estrellita)

Daniel Houghton directs the Animation Studio at Middlebury College where he teaches intro to Computer Animation and leads small teams of undergraduate students through collaborative animation production projects. His animations have screened internationally in Europe, Asia, Africa; domestically in New York and Los Angeles; and online at The Atlantic, Huffington Post, Wired, PBS and over 250 blogs

HUEY (NEQ: Henry David Thoreau: Surveyor of the Soul)
For 40 years Huey has been making films on artists, education, the environment, and Maine. His films have been shown at film festivals throughout the US, on PBS, and on television in Europe. He is the recipient of the first “Huey” award from the Maine Film Commission. This award, named after Huey, is given to an individual who exhibits “Exceptional contributions in film and education in Maine.” Huey is a founder and director of the Maine Student Film and Video Festival now in its 40th year. Huey is an adjunct instructor in Communications and New Media, Southern Maine Community College, South Portland, ME.

NORA JACOBSON (NEQ: Raghead)

Nora makes documentaries and narrative films. In addition to Raghead, her films include The Hanji Box (Best Narrative Screenplay, Eurasian Film Festival), Delivered Vacant (New York Film Festival, Sundance), My Mother’s Early Lovers (Maine Int’l Film Festival Audience Award), Nothing Like Dreaming (Lake Placid Film Forum Best of Fest,) the collaborative 6-part film Freedom & Unity: The Vermont Movie (featured on Vermont PBS and Maine PBS), and Land & Legacy of an Art Colony (featured on Vermont PBS). She is currently editing a documentary about the poet Ruth Stone and developing two feature screenplays about historical subjects. She teaches part time at Dartmouth College and is a part time coordinator for the Vermont Archive Movie Project.

 DEEYAH KHAN (White Right: Meeting the Enemy) Via Skype

The focus of Deeyah’s work and access to voices that are often overlooked and misunderstood has led to increasing demand as a speaker at international human rights events and platforms including the United Nations. She was described by The Times of London thus: “To say Deeyah Khan is an inspiration is an understatement. She is one of the bravest, most indomitable women… facing down bullies and extremists with intelligence and unflinching spirit.” 

ILANA LAPID (Yochi)

Lapid is a filmmaker and educator interested in telling stories that put a human face on global conflicts. Lapid has directed multiple films that won awards at international film festivals. In 2017, her film Yochi was selected by ShortsTV as one of ten films that they Oscar qualified. Yochi is used by Wildlife Conservation Society for conservation education in Central America. Lapid is an Assistant professor at the Creative Media Institute of New Mexico State University. She is developing a feature film based on Yochi, dealing with the illegal wildlife trade in the Chiquibul jungle in Belize.

ROBBIE LEPPZER (Bread and Puppet: Theatre of the Possibilitarians)

Leppzer is an award-winning independent documentary filmmaker, DoP, location sound recordist and video editor who has directed over thirty television and public rado documentaries over the past forty years. His work has been broadcast by CNN International, NHK, CBC, HBO /Cinemax, PBS, Sundance Channel and more. His production company Turning Tide Productions is located in Wendell, MA. 

JOE LAROCCA (NEQ: Smoke Grenade)
Joe received his MFA in Film Production from Boston University. Once he completed his thesis short film One Track Mind he took up a job as Production Manager at WinCAM, a community access television station.  Joe is currently teaching Filmmaking I & II at Boston College. He is also Head of Videography at Brunner Communications. He continues his work on the prolific Month Movie Series and is in preproduction on his first feature.

ERIC LINER (Bird of Prey) via Skype
Liner is a director and cinematographer who has filmed wildlife, wild places, and wild people around the globe. Prior to joining the Cornell Lab in 2005 Eric worked in the freelance worlds of independent film and television broadcast. In 2007 he helped launch the Lab of Ornithology’s Multimedia Unit. Bird of Prey is his first documentary feature.

ROBIN LLOYD  (Bread and Puppet: Theatre of the Possibilitarians)

Lloyd is a filmmaker, peace activist and philanthropist. She is co-founder of Green Valley Media and of the Peace and Justice Center of VT. In 2018 she received the VTIFF Community Champion Award for her services to local filmmaking.

JAMES DUFF LYALL (Crime + Punishment)
James Lyall is Executive Director of ACLU VT which he joined in 2016 after five years as a staff attorney for the ACLU of Arizona in Tucson. He is a graduate of Middlebury College and has a law degree from Georgetown University. He will lead the discussion after the screening of Crime + Punishment).

MALINA MANOVICI (NEQ: Lemonade)
Manovici received her first major role in a feature as Sandra in Cristian Mungiu’s Graduation, which premiered in Competition in Cannes in 2016. She studied Dramatic Arts in Timisoara in Romania and in 2008 started her collaboration with the National Theater of Timisoara. Lemonade is her first lead role.

MICHELLE MEMRAN (The Rest I Make Up)
Michelle is a journalist, illustrator, and filmmaker. For nearly twenty years she’s worked as a reporter and researcher in New York City and has written for numerous publications. The Rest I Make Up is her first film, for which she has received funding from the New York State Council on the Arts, the Frameline Completion Fund, the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, piece by piece productions, and numerous individual donors. The film had its World Premiere at MoMA’s Doc Fortnight in February 2018.

RICK MOULTON (NEQ: Lowell Thomas: Voice of America)
Rick’s career began in the 1960s with Freedom and Oceans surf movies in Hawaii and California. In the early 1980s, his film Legends of American Skiing won the Banff Mountain Film Festival and was nationally released on PBS. He produced numerous films for the ski industry. Rick also set up the Care Collection for the NY Public Library, a film archive for the National Ski Hall of Fame, and most recently working with the Lowell Thomas Collection. He says: “Presenting stories from the past so we can hope for a better future has been a driving force for me throughout my 40 years of filmmaking. Over these years my home and family here in Vermont have enriched my appreciation of life and abilities to tell these stories. I like to think that my films, as they preserve and present our past, are a way of giving back.

MIKE OVERTON (NEQ: A Certain Kind Of Man)
Overton is a filmmaker based out of Los Angeles. He graduated from Chapman University in 2018 with a B.F.A. in Film Production, with an emphasis in Directing. Since moving from his home state of Vermont in 2014, he has continued to grow his collection of short films and hopes to be directing his first feature film soon

BRIAN PACCIONE (NEQ: David and the Kingdom)
Paccione is a writer and director, known for Heartland (2008), Young at Heart (2009), David and the Kingdom (2018). 

TAMARA PERKINS (NEQ: Life After Life) via Skype
Tamara uses film as a vehicle for change. She has been a leader in the social justice and juvenile justice reform movement within the San Francisco Bay Area for over a decade. As a grief support facilitator since 2001, Tamara has led grief support groups for children, youth, and adults, and organized a free grief support camp for children and youth. Continuing her community film work, she developed programs such as the Wisdom Project and San Quentin Media Project which train at-risk youth and incarcerated men in filmmaking as a tool for transformation. 

PASCAL PLANTE  (Fake Tattoos)

Plante studied film production at Concordia University in Montreal and is a co-founder of Nemesis Films production company. Besides having made numerous short films, he also produces the cinema podcast ‘Point de Vues’ with more than 160 episodes to date. Fake Tattoos is his debut feature-length film.

PIERCE RAFFERTY (The Atomic Cafe)
Rafferty grew up in Connecticut and moved to New York City in 1982. Pierce and his former spouse, Margaret Crimmins, founded Petrified Films, Inc. in 1984, a pioneering independent stock film footage library that held the Elmer Dyer Film Library, Warner Bros and Columbia Pictures outtakes. Pierce spent more than a decade organizing and cataloguing vaults all over NYC that were filled to the ceilings with cans of film. Located in New York City’s Meatpacking District Petrified licensed archival footage to film, television, and commercial producers. He is now Director of the Henry L. Ferguson Museum, Fisher Island, NY.

MATTHEW RAMEY (NEQ: A Certain Kind Of Man)
Matthew Ramey is a writer and producer. His previous films as producer were Eyes of the Beholder (2017) and Savior (2016). 

DAVID SCHUMACHER (The New Fire)

After receiving his B.Mus. from Berklee College of Music, Schumacher began his career touring the US and Canada as a rock and jazz guitarist. He entered the world of film and television as a sound recordist, working with such esteemed filmmakers as Barbara Kopple and Ken Burns. Inspired by their example and drawn to environmental issues, he has since gone into producing and directing. The New Fire marks David’s first turn directing a feature film. David earned a 2010 New York Emmy for creating, producing and directing the TV series NYCMusicShow. He has produced award-winning branding and identity campaigns for leading media companies, and has made documentary, educational and promotional films for clients including Columbia University and The World Economic Forum.

BEN SILBERFARB (NEQ: The Hike)
Ben is a multi-award winning Vermont filmmaker who owns a small production company that imagines and creates content for those who wish to hire him. He is an experienced DOP, writer and director. His projects range from feature films to television commercials and everything in between.

E. W. STETSON III (Environmental Justice strand)
Bill is an independent film producer, a Non-resident Senior Fellow on the Atlantic Council, and serves on the Board of Directors of the Environmental Film Festival in Washington DC, among many other public activities. A Harvard graduate in Energy and Environmental Policy, he lives in Norwich, VT and Washington, DC.

IOANA URICARU (NEQ: Lemonade)
Ioana was born and raised in Romania where she studied biology before turning to filmmaking and film studies. She holds an MFA in film and television production and a Ph.D in critical studies, both from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. She is an alumna of Berlinale Talents, the Cinefondation Residence Programme, the Sundance Labs and the Torino Film Lab. Recently Ioana was granted a fellowship at the American Academy in Berlin.

PETER VANDERWILDEN (NEQ: Response: A Portrait of Four Environmental Artists in Vermont)
Peter is a recent UVM Graduate. This is his Undergraduate Thesis project. 

REBEKAH WINGERT-JABI (Naila and the Uprising)
Rebekah has over twelve years of producing, directing and editing experience in film and television. She worked on films that aired on Al Arabiya, the Discovery Channel, and PBS. Rebekah lived in the West Bank for eight years where she worked with Palestinian and Israeli filmmakers to produce films (Swish, Swish) and documentaries (A Good Samaritan).  She also taught filmmaking at Al Quds University and Dar Al Kalima College. Rebekah has managed several youth media projects in the Middle East including a Palestinian-Israeli video exchange project.  Rebekah achieved a Master of Fine Arts in Film and Television Production from the University of Southern California School of Cinema-TV where she was awarded the Thomas Bush Cinematography scholarship.

MIKE WIRKKALA (NEQ: “Lil” Hybrids)

Mike is a TV commercial producer living in New Hampshire. He has been creating commercials for clients throughout New England since 1996. He is an animator at heart, and loves creating both 2D and 3D content.

STEVE WOLOSHEN (Scratchatopia)
Woloshen is a Montreal-based camera less animator who has been making films since the late ‘70’s.  His works have screened worldwide and won many awards.