MAX BARROWS (ALL YOU HEAR IS NOISE)
Max was the story consultant for All You Hear Is Noise – reviewing iterations of the film and providing feedback to the creative team. Max is the Outreach Director for Green Mountain Self-Advocates. He mentors youth and adults with developmental disabilities to speak up for themselves and become leaders. He received a White House Champions of Change award in 2015 and a Champion of Equal Opportunity award from the National Association of Councils on Developmental Disabilities in 2019. Max served as a board member in VT for Self-Advocates Becoming Empowered from 2008 to 2016.

NED CASTLE (ALL YOU HEAR IS NOISE)
Ned is a director and cultural researcher with a background in ethnographic filmmaking. Ned works with media in cultural research, educational, and commercial contexts that emphasize collaboration and a deep engagement with the ethics of representation. His approach is influenced by more than a decade working as a researcher and media producer at the Vermont Folklife Center. He operates an independent production and research company, Frames to Life.

MIRYAM CHARLES – (CETTE MAISON)
Miryam Charles is a Haitian-Canadian director, producer and cinematographer living in Montreal. She has produced several short and feature films. Her films have been presented in various festivals in Quebec and internationally. Her first feature film This House was presented at the Berlinale, the AFI film festival this year and was also included in the TIFF Top 10 of the year. She also launched the short film At Dusk at the Locarno Film Festival. As a producer, she is currently working on the post-production of the series Still I Rise.

BRUCE GOLDSTEIN (THE ART OF SUBTITLING)
Bruce Goldstein is the founder and co-president of Rialto Pictures, hailed by the Los Angeles Times as “the gold standard of classic film distributors,” and founding repertory artistic director of New York’s Film Forum, which, under his direction, has premiered virtually every major film restoration of the past 38 years.  Goldstein has also personally curated over 500 retrospectives and festivals, many of which have been emulated around the world.  His work as a producer and filmmaker has been seen on HBO Max, the Criterion Channel, and TCM, as well as at TCM’s annual Classic Film Festival in Hollywood. Goldstein has been decorated with the French order of “Chevalier” and has received lifetime achievement awards from Anthology Film Archives, George Eastman Museum, and the San Francisco Film Festival, as well as a special award from the New York Film Critics Circle for “visionary film programming.”  Earlier this year,  the Museum of Modern Art in New York honored Rialto Pictures with a 30-film 25th anniversary retrospective. 

DORNAZ HAJIHA (LIKE A FISH ON THE MOON)
Born in 1988 in Tehran, Dornaz Hajiha received her Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design from Al Zahra University, Tehran, in 2011. She worked as a photographer and graphic designer while attending film workshops with maestros Asghar Farhadi and Bahram Beyzayi. Hahiha entered London Film School in 2013. She completed her MA in Film Production and graduated with distinction in 2015. She made short films as well as a documentary, for which she was the writer. Her latest shorts, Marzieh and Marlon, produced in 2017, have been shown and awarded in numerous film festivals. Her debut feature film Like A Fish On The Moon has been selected in Proxima Competition at the 56th Karlovy Vary Film Festival 2022. She is now developing her second feature Diaphanous produced by Chinese Shadows.

KRISTAN M. HANSON (WHITE BALLS ON WALLS)
Kristan Hanson is the Fleming Museum’s Curator of Collections and Exhibitions. Prior to joining the Fleming, she held a digital managing editorship and an academic year fellowship in plant humanities at Dumbarton Oaks. She has also worked at the University of Kansas’s Spencer Museum of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago.

MELANIE HOLMES (ALL YOU HEAR IS NOISE)
Melanie is one of the main participants of All You Hear Is Noise. She lives and works in Chambersburg, PA with her mother Jennifer Holmes-who also appears in the film. “Mel” was the first and only female to compete in a Special Olympics triathlon at the World Games level. She speaks to audiences about her experience during the film-making process and is looking forward to visiting Vermont.

EUGENE HÜTZ, (SCREAM OF MY BLOOD: A GOGOL BORDELLO STORY)
Eugene Hütz is a Ukrainian-born artist, songwriter and frontman of international punk band Gogol Bordello, for which he has shared stages with System of a Down, Rancid and Drop kick Murphys, dueted with Regina Spektor, and cut albums with Rick Rubin & Steve Albini. A lifelong lover of punk growing up in Ukraine, Hütz found himself playing acoustic sets in Ukranian bars in NCY’s Lower East Side, his group steadily growing to an 8-piece multicultural band, combining Eastern, Western and Latin traditions. A tireless advocate for Ukrainian solidarity, Hütz has partnered with Nova Ukraine and Art Dopomoga, and assembled benefits with Patti Smith, Matisyahu and more. Hütz has appeared in such films as Liev Schreiber’s Everything Is Illuminated and Madonna’s Filth and Wisdom.

VICTOR NUÑEZ (RACHEL HENDRIX and RUBY IN PARADISE)
“If you like a cinema that’s thoughtful and caring and you haven’t heard of Victor Nuñez, then it’s important that you see his work.” ~Todd Field, director of Tar and In the Bedroom. Native of Florida, member of the founding boards of the Independent Feature Project and the Sundance Film Institute, and currently teaching Writing & Directing at the Florida State University College of Motion Picture Arts,Victor Nuñez is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences, and has been making independent movies for over four decades. He is best known for his Florida-focused films, which include: Gal Young ‘Un (1979), which critic/historian Emanuel Levy said “helped shape regional cinema within the independent movement”; (1984), featuring Ed Harris, Richard Jordan and Blair Brown; Ruby in Paradise (1993), which won the 1993 Grand Jury Prize for Drama at the Sundance Film Festival; Ulee’s Gold (1997), which was funded with help from Victor’s friend Jonathan Demme, and earned a New York Film Critics Award, Golden Globe Award, and Oscar nomination for Peter Fonda, in what is widely acknowledged as his finest performance; Coastlines (2002), starring Timothy Olyphant and Josh Brolin; and Rachel Hendrix (2023), showing at VTIFF on Saturday, 10/18.

LAUREN OATES (AFTER THE FLOOD)
Oates is the Director of Policy and Governmental Affairs for The Nature Conservancy in Vermont. In this role, Lauren works with partners and key decision makers to advance nature-based policy and programmatic solutions. She is especially interested in initiatives that support climate adaptation, flood resilience and biodiversity.

FRED PEABODY (ALL GOVERNMENTS LIE: Truth, Deception, and the Spirit of I. F. Stone)
Vancouver based Fred Peabody is an Emmy-winning filmmaker and journalist whose credits include 7 years as a producer-director on the acclaimed CBC investigative program The Fifth Estate, and 7 years as a producer-director at ABC’s 20/20 in New York.

NATE POMMER (SCREAM OF MY BLOOD: A GOGOL BORDELLO STORY)
Nate Pommer is a director, editor and producer who has worked in a wide variety of genres for clients like Vice, HBO, Showtime, CNN Originals, and Paramount Plus. His short films and music videos have been featured at TIFF, Slamdance, and the New York City Ballet. His music video “Monkey Vs Robot” for Burlington’s own James Kockalka Superstar was one of the earliest viral videos, ripping up 56k modems worldwide. His film Nature of the Beast won best short at the 2007 Coney Island Film Festival. Scream of My Blood is his first feature length film.

PIERRE SIMENON (PANIQUE)
The son of Belgian novelist Georges Simenon, Pierre, born in Lausanne, Switzerland, worked as a financial analyst and portfolio manager in a private bank in Geneva before leaving for the United States in 1987. After attending Business School and Law School, he became an entertainment attorney in Los Angeles, and later worked as a SCUBA instructor in Malibu. A shark enthusiast and a history buff, Pierre Simenon currently lives in Vermont with his two children. Following his first novel, Au nom du sang versé, originally written in English and translated in half-a-dozen languages, he wrote an autobiographical story, De père à père, published in October 2015, and a second novel, L’enfant de Garland Road, published in 2019. While researching for his next book, he works as an AI linguist and knowledge graph curator. But his most important and wonderful job is, and always will be, father of his beloved children.

LORI SINGER (RACHEL HENDRIX)
Born in Corpus Christi, TX, Lori Singer studied cello with Barton Frank and made her solo debut with the Oregon Symphony at age 13. In New York City, Lori studied acting with Fred Kareman, Stella Adler, Sandy Meisner, and Leonard Rose. In 1984, she starred in Herbert Ross’ mega-hit Footloose, then appeared in such films as Robert Altman’s Shortcuts, Alan Rudolph’s Trouble in Mind and John Schlesinger’s The Falcon and the Snowman, to name a few. She currently stars in the title role of Victor Nuñez’s latest film, Rachel Hendrix. As a producer of documentaries, her films have won 5 Emmys and a Peabody.

ERIC WEINRIB (SCREAM OF MY BLOOD: A GOGOL BORDELLO STORY)
Filmmaker/Producer Eric Weinrib won a New York Press Club award for his HBO special The Paradise Papers and an L.A. Press Club award for his Hulu documentary Russia’s War on Hip-Hop. Prior to working with Vice, Weinrib produced and directed IFC’s feature documentary Roseanne for President!, and collaborated with documentary filmmaker Michael Moore for over a decade on films including Fahrenheit 9/11, Sicko, and Capitalism: A Love Story. Weinrib’s short film Jimmy Walks Away was an official selection of the Sundance Film Festival.

STEVE WOLOSHEN (ANIMATION FOR ALL)
Steven Woloshen is a multi-award winning Canadian film animator and a pioneer of drawn-on-film animation. Woloshen is heavily inspired by music, particularly jazz, and has made numerous short abstract works in which the images are created in synchronization to a music track. When not making his own films, Steve teaches and is also a Conservation Technician at the National Film Board of Canada.

CHRISTINE YOO (26.2 TO LIFE)
Yoo is a director, producer, writer, a volunteer at San Quentin State Prison. She has produced non-fiction series for National Geographic, History, Oxygen and PBS. Her independent work focuses on under-served voices and has been supported by Sundance, HOKA, The Marshall Project, Rogovy Foundation, LG Mobile, Hyundai and Korean Air. Highlights include, the documentary short, A Conversation With Claudia, a special project for Museum of Modern Art (MoMA); the cult anime series Afro Samurai starring Samuel L. Jackson; and the award-winning Korean-American rom-com Wedding Palace. 26.2 To Life is Yoo’s first feature documentary.

DEBRA ZIMMERMAN (ESTHER NEWTON MADE ME GAY)
Debra Zimmerman is the Executive Director of Women Make Movies, a NY non-profit social enterprise that has been supporting women filmmakers with distribution and production assistance of their independent films since 1972. Zimmerman is in great demand around the world as a speaker, panelist, and mentor. She has been on the juries of film festivals around the world including IDFA, the International Documentary Film Festival of Amsterdam, the Abu Dhabi Film Festival and the Cartagena International Film Festival. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including NY Women in Film and Television’s Changemaker Award and Hot Doc’s Doc Mogul Award, given to those who have made an essential contribution to the creative vitality of the documentary industry, both in his or her home country and abroad. Recently she was invited to be a member of the Documentary Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science.