FILMMAKER BIOS 2007

* - denotes that filmmaker will be present at the festival

Anton Delfino
   Cogswell Polytechnical College

   Cereal Monogamy

Anton Delfino is an aspiring writer/director who hails from San Jose, CA. Since 2004, he has collaborated with Revival Arts Productions and Bindlestiff Studio, for whom he has written and directed several short plays. His recent production, Cereal Monogamy, is a digital short he wrote, produced, and directed to complete his undergraduate degree in Digital Motion Picture at Cogswell Polytechnical College in Sunnyvale, CA. Anton recently finished The Love Edition 2: Turned On, where he directed a short play called Overdue (Mike Ricca, writer). He is currently writing several short screenplays and dabbling with the idea of taking on a feature-length screenplay.

 

*Nayeem Mahbub
   Oberlin College

   Beneath the Surface

Nayeem Mahbub is from Bangladesh. He's a senior at Oberlin College majoring in History and Cinema Studies. He made "Beneath the Surface" on an incredibly low budget during a study-away semester at NYU's Tisch School of Arts in 2006. He's currently working on his senior Honors film, and like many college seniors, is not exactly sure what's going on after he graduates. But he eventually hopes to be making films...

 

*Kent Sanderson
   New York University

   Captain Valedor

Born in New York City and raised nearby on a steady diet of serials, comic books, and old Warner Bros. cartoons, Kent eventually attended New York University, graduating in 2006. He now lives and works in New York City, residing on the Upper East Side. He'd like to thank his tireless producers Kevin Hoyer, David Richardson, and Chris Golio, without whom "Valedor" would have never come to life, as well as his parents, who originally supplied him the archaic influences listed above.

 

*Elena Ni Megalos
   Columbia University

   Canvas

Elena Megalos has been fiddling with her father's video camera for some years now. A Columbia College junior, she studies English and Creative Writing and hails from Venice, California. She would like to thank Dad and David on this one if 'thank you's' are permitted.

 

Tom DesLongchamp
   Rhode Island School of Design

   Lunar Loons

   Earl Boone is Alive

Tom DesLongchamp is a 22 year old animation major from Seattle, Washington. He is currently a senior at the Rhode Island School of Design. He is married to Jessica Phoenix and has a cat named Renton. Tom enjoys collecting musical instruments, looking out windows, playing classic video games, and being on roofs--the higher, the better. His website is tomthinks.com.

 

*Peter Alex Duncan
   School of Visual Arts

   NON

Peter Alexander Duncan (21) is an undergraduate thesis student at the School of Visual Arts. Mr. Duncan hopes for the best with this being his first film festival. He sees each opportunity to show his work as a chance to connect with others without ever saying a word himself, and he believes there is a little magic in that. His undergraduate films range from short narratives, to mockumentries, to video art. He likes nice happy things like dandilions, puppies, and albuterol inhalors. He hopes everyone enjoys the film.

 

*Kyle Eaton
   Montana State University

   Case & Crowbar

Kyle Eaton currently lives in Bozeman, Montana and in the spring of 2007, he will complete his BA in film (media/theatre/arts) at Montana State University. He works as a writer/director/cinematographer/editor on several independent short films including narrative, experimental and documentary. His next project is currently in pre-production and is scheduled for production this summer.

 

*Kimberly Parker
   John's Hopkins University

   The Kiss

Kimberly Parker is currently a senior at Johns Hopkins University, where she double majors in Writing Seminars and Film and Media Studies. Next year, she will be attending NYU film school. "The Kiss" was her first solo film, shot on 16mm. She would like to thankProfessor John Mann, Helena Franceschi, Ashley Jones, and Maxwell Sindell.

 

*Colin Fowler
   Keene State University

   Footsteps: The Buddy Chancellor Story

Colin Fowler is a 22 year old senior majoring in Film Production at Keene State College in New Hampshire. His video short “Footsteps: The Buddy Chancellor story” was co-written by its star Rob Sheldon and made with no budget to speak of. Although unsure of the future Colin knows it will be a flourishing one.

 

*D. Christian Hagerman
   Cooper Union

   Tulip Delusion

Born in Virginia, D. Christian Hagerman is graduating from the Cooper Union. Coming from a background in painting and sculpture, his video installation work  has transformed into 16mm narratives, such as Tulip Delusion.

 

*Gil Levanon
   School of Visual Arts

   Real Magic

Born and raised in Israel, Ms. Levanon moved to NYC five years ago to explore her obsession with filmmaking.  She discovered an amazing group of people who fed her creative palette and together shared the same desire and obsession to share their life experiences through visual storytelling. "Real Magic" is her sixth short and the most personal journey she has taken so far.

 

Ben Weeks
   Northwestern University

   The Detention Teacher

Ben graduated from Northwestern University in 2006 with a degree in Radio/Television/Film and as a part of the school's Creative Writing for the Media Program. While in school, he directed the short comedy film FLY, which won three awards and screened at fifteen festivals, including the Philadelphia International Film Festival.  Ben wrote and directed The Detention Teacher during his senior year, and he is grateful for the new friendships that the film gave him late in his college life.

 

 

 

FILMMAKER BIOS 2006

Tadakuni Yasuda
   New York University

   Say That You Love Me
   WINNER: Best Picture, Best Screenplay, Best Acting


Tadakuni Yasuda is originally from Japan. He has had classical piano training since the age of 6, and his musical ability has allowed him to have a good discipline, artistic mind and excellent timing to touch human emotions. He transfered to NYU, Tisch School of Arts in 2002. Tada's films have been selected to school film festivals every single semester, enchanting and entertaning audience with his wacky sense of humor.  Check out more about Tada at ohmytada.com

 

  John Klein and Mike Molenda
   University of Notre Dame

   Case History
   WINNER: Best Directed & Frontiers Award for Most Original Film


John Klein and Mike Molenda, both graduates of the class of 2006 in the film department at the University of Notre Dame, have collectively filmed and edited over twenty short films on digital video and on film during their four-year career at Notre Dame.  Case History is their first collaboration.  They have experience in prior festivals as well, with John's first horror film "Duplicity" having been well-received at three other festivals and Mike's black-and-white fantasy film "Sketchbook" also winning praise.

Mike's short documentary, "Welcome to Snyderville," which he co-directed with two other ND students, has received immense publicity as of late in northern Indiana for its small-town politics subject matter.  It is currently being prepped for a run through the festival circuit, as is John's second short horror film, entitled "Curse," on which he served as director of photography. Both endeavor to become full-time cinematographers.  Mike will be residing in South Bend, IN as a freelance PA for the next year, while John will be moving to Chicago in the fall to pursue similar employment in the big city.

 

   Brad Wilson
   Cornell University

   Nun Hunt
   FINALIST

Brad Wilson is a senior at Cornell University.  His film "Penny: A Musical Comedy" recieved the Founder's Award at the Ivy Film Festival at Brown University in 2005, and his film "Nun Hunt" was awarded Best Undergraduate Comedy at the festival in 2006.  His work has also been shown at the New York International Independent Film Festival, the Columbia National Undergratuate Film Festival, and the North by Northeast festival in Toronto.

 

   Dalibor Stare
   University of Buffalo

   Srebrenica
   WINNER: Best Directed & Frontiers Award for Most Original Film

Dalibor Stare comes from former Yugoslavia. As the war started in 1992, Dalibor left and moved to Germany where, while working on his architectural design degree, he lived up until 1998. Since, he has resided and worked as arch. designer in Buffalo NY,  while attending film production & theatre program at UB. He hopes to combine the architectural background with his film experience, and write, develop and direct narrative feature films.

 

 

   Steve Desmond
   University of Southern California

   Life or Breath
   Centerpiece Presentation

A Chicago native, Steve recently graduated from USC Film School with a degree in Cinema-Television Production. Other notable alumni include George Lucas and Robert Zemeckis. They have buildings named after them. Steve does not.

However, Steve was chosen as one of only four students to direct a senior thesis project (480). His short films have screened at festivals around the country and have garnered Steve an impressive collection of badges, programs, and business cards. He also won a Student Emmy Award.

Steve currently resides in picturesque Burbank, CA and makes a short daily commute to Beverly Hills where he works at the Pitt Group, a management/production company. He continues to live his dream of writing and directing movies for a wide range of audiences.
 

 

 

FILMMAKER BIOS 2005

  John H. Kim
   The Art Institute of Chicago

   Or
   FINALIST

John H. Kim was born in Virginia, USA in 1980 and then moved to the Republic of Korea. In 1999-2000, he attended a course of design at Seoul National University. Back in USA, from 2002, on to the present day he has been studying at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Or has been or will be shown at following festivals: Milan International Film Festival, Milano, Italy, 2005 ; Just Another International Film Festival, Farmington, U.S., 2005 ; Filmstock International Film Festival, Luton, United Kingdom, 2005 ; Sopot International Film Festival, Sopot, Poland, 2005 ; Asian American International Film Festival, New York, U.S., 2005.

 

   Dara Silverman
   New York University

   Dolores Van Peaches
   WINNER
: Best Picture, Best Screenplay

After growing up in Lexington, Massachusetts, Dara Silverman continued her education at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she studied film production. After graduating in May of 2005, Dara has worked on several small projects and looks forward to spending her summer interning for artist, Charles Ross in New Mexico.

She plans to return to New York in the fall, where she will edit her senior film, The Destination Party, shot in April of 2005. Dara loves art and film very deeply, and consequently, her work is probably influenced by many of her favorite artists, including filmmakers Vera Chytilova, Jan Svankmajer and Guy Maddin, visual artists Dorothea Tanning and Joseph Cornell, and musicians Kate Bush and Jeff Mangum.

 

   Corey Baggett
   University of Notre Dame

   Screen Verde
   WINNER:
Soundtrack Award for Best Use of Music & Sound

Corey will be a junior at the University of Notre Dame. He is double majoring in Computer Science and Engineering and Film. He has made several films at home and school and hopes to be a director. Anthony is about to enter his senior year of high school in Colorado Springs and is currently spending the summer trying to put together some films and playing some calvin-ball on the side.

 

Kinetic  
Joe Wu, New York University

Fish in a Barrel
Jason Toledo, New York University

Friends…to the End
Noble Robinette & Dan Bulger, University of Notre Dame

Cause of Death
Lizzie Barcay, Harvard-Westlake High School

You Are Enframed By The Energy That Is Moving You
Eugene Kotlyarenko, Columbia University

Screen Verde
Corey Baggett & Anthony Baggett, University of Notre Dame

This Year’s Love
Michael Krepack, Harvard-Westlake High School

A Song for Our Lady
Andrew Wesman, University High School (San Francisco)

 

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