I Am God is a powerful short film based on a Israeli poem about a man traveling in Israel who has lost himself. He meets a grieving mother, her orthodox neighbor, a soldier, and a young Palestinian in his travels and discovers that sometimes finding yourself is not enough.

Javier Gutierrez is the film’s writer and director and Susana Jacques is the executive producer of the film. They have used their artist’s eye from the world of advertising at Ciber Films to develop a dark and enchanting tale of a Voodoo doll that comes to life and tries to escape from his nemesis, the witch-doctor.

This short represents the first film of three planned chapters. The captivating original score, which won First Prize for best score at RIIFF, was composed by Rodrigo Barbera.

A stand-up comic and writer, Stacy is the founder of the independent video production company Saffire Systems. A member of the Writers Guild of America (WGA), she’s also written, directed and produced several successful commercials and short films.

Billie started performing at the age of three and has appeared in several musical productions across the country. She currently works with Stacy and three others at Crazy Parkite Productions, where she works managing production in addition to acting.

The interview was recorded live at the 11th annual Rhode Island International Film Festival.

Chris has quite a varied background which includes having worked as a ballet dancer, stunt double, and actor - both on television roles in Tour of Duty and Growing Pains, and in numerous films including Pirates of the Caribbean and The Last Samurai, featuring his horsemanship. He even wrote and directed a Troma film cult classic, The Ruining.

Chris is touring the United States with his latest film Border aboard his “Big Blue Bus” in order to educate people on the situation on the southern border. Details on the tour dates can be found by visiting his website.

Born in Poland and living in Germany, Marcin is both an actor and director, as well as the founder of Jim Pansen Production, a Berlin-based film and television production company which focuses on the medical field.

The Stewardess is a black comedy short film which investigates over consumption and man’s relationship with nature. It is on the surreal side, both funny and gross, and ironically has a vegetarian edge to it.

In addition to the screening at the 11th annual RI International Film Festival, The Stewardess also screens at the 8th Annual RIIFF Horror Film Festival October 18-21, 2007.

Her first full-length play In Vitro received a workshop reading at the Public Theater in New York in 2004 and has been optioned; she is transferring the story from stage to screen. She has several other projects in the works including a fantasy/adventure TV show and a political documentary.

Currently living in LA, she makes her film directorial debut with A Casa, the first part of Tres, three stories of intense emotional connection captured in a fleeting moment from three directors, inspired by the poetry of her grandfather, poet and filmmaker Carlos Hugo Christensen.

She will be speaking at the Scriptbiz 2007 workshop later this Fall in Providence, RI.

The film is a surreal psychological thriller about the secrets of a middle-aged actress and former ballet dancer in Berlin and her tenant, a young, attractive female student. They choose to communicate their anger via the former actress’ diary.

Kristian’s film was the winner of the International Discovery Award at the 11th annual Rhode Island International Film Festival. This interview was recorded live at the Film Festival.

His mother, Earnestine Rodgers Robinson, received no formal music training, and with her faith and family, she rose from humble southern roots to become composer of sacred classical music that took her all the way to Carnegie Hall and to a world premiere in Prague.

Our conversation with the Robinsons was recorded live at the 11th annual Rhode Island International Film Festival.

On this episode, we speak with Emmanuel Jespers , writer and director of the short film Personal Spectator, which screened at the 11th annual Rhode Island International Film Festival.

Emmanuel Jespers is an Institut des Arts de Diffusion (IAD) graduate and has been directing and films and commercials for over ten years. His films include the short film The Last Dream (2000) which won many awards including Un Certain Regard in the Cannes Film Festival, A Night to Remember (2002), and Nervous Breakdown (2002).

More recent work includes the 2007 films Two Sisters and a feature he wrote, directed, and produced called Artefacts.

His short films have been selected to more than 50 film festivals worldwide, and he has won more than two dozen prizes, including his award at RIIFF for Personal Spectator.

Allocco began his career as a musician in the bands Law and Order and Dogma. From there, he joined the company Media Jelly, producing and designing projects including Goosebumps, The Magic School Bus, and Fox’s Dr. Dolittle 2. Allocco was also the creator of several original animated series including The Vanderfuls and Bratface and Waffle.

In 2005, Allocco joined Red Thread Productions working on many projects including producing and editing The Best of the GLAAD Awards for Logo. Earlier this year (2007), Allocco was one of fifty directors hand-picked by Steven Spielberg for the Fox TV series On The Lot.

More information on Phil Alloco is available at his company Make Things Work.

JD Kelleher is an actor making his directorial debut with the short film One Last Drink Before Morning.

JD studied English at University College Cork and has an extensive acting background in both film and television throughout the UK.

His television and film credits include: Batman Begins, The Art of Flirting (an homage to Buster Keaton), and the BBC productions Little Britain, Murphy’s Law, and Ballykissangel. Most recently, he is starring in the Channel 4 production of City of Vice.

One Last Drink Before Morning deals with three characters who come to terms with the crooked twists and turns that have led them to their desperate positions in life, set in a noir-like smoky dive bar.

He has worked behind the scenes in production in a variety of films including editing The Chris Isaac Show and the documentary Gulf War Syndrome: Killing Our Own.

The Stone Child is about an 11-year-old boy, half Lakota Native-American and half caucasian, in rural South Dakota, and his relationship with his father after a painful divorce.

There is feature length version of the film in the works as well.

The film screened recently at the 11th annual Rhode Island International Film Festival.

Ursula Burton is a Yale alumna who studied Theater and English Literature. Having done extensive theater work, she has more recently worked in television and film including The Office, The War at Home, and Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya-Sisterhood.

She founded Five Sisters Productions with her four other sisters. Together, they have produced three feature films in which she has also appeared: Just Friends, Temps, and Manna From Heaven.

Her most recent work is a comedy short which she wrote, directed, and acted in called The Happiest Day Of His Life, which won grand prize for best comedy short at the 11th annual Rhode Island International Film Festival.

In 1936, Oswald Mosley and his army of fascist Blackshirts planned to march through the East End. However, Segal’s grandfather, Ubby Cowan, and a host of others, including Jews, Irish, and dockworkers succeeded in stopping the march. This was a seminal event in British history as it loudly declared Britains refusal to accept fascism.

Blurring the line between live action and animation, The Battle Of Cable Street retells the event by presenting a young boy, Danny, who is taken inside the magical world of his own sketchbook by his grandfather and shown what it was like to live
through the events of 1936.

Danny learns, much as his granddad did, ‘Look up, see the world around you. Find a voice, express yourself.’

The film screened recently at the 11th annual Rhode Island International Film Festival.

On this episode, we talk with documentary filmmaker Carol Carimi Acutt of Safari Films.

Carol is a native New Orleanian and has directed three documentaries about Louisiana musicians: Getting It Together featuring bebop pianist Willie Metcalf, Jr., My Story, My Music, My Life about renowned jazz composer and arranger Harold Battiste, Jr., and most recently Been Down That Muddy Road featuring Louisiana Hall of Fame swamp pop legend Joe Barry.

Muddy Road had its world premiere at the 2007 Rhode Island International Film Festival.

The ceremony was hosted by Don Farias of RIIFF, Steve Feinberg of the RI Television & Film Office, and emceed by George Marshall of RIIFF.

The Rhode Island International Film Festival is the largest public film festival in New England, and is rated one of the top twelve film festivals in the United States. It is also a qualifying festival for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (the Oscars™). This year’s festival featured over 320 films from 70 countries around the world.

disclaimer: raucous applause was edited in the interest of time

Jason Connell has recently directed a documentary film about the lives of Hollywood background actors (or “extras”) called Strictly Background.

He also founded the Tulsa Uncensored Film Festival, which spread to both New York and Los Angeles, underwent a name change, and is now known as the United Film Festival.

Greg Cahill has recently written, directed, and produced The Golden Voice, a short film about the Cambodian rock singer Ros Sereysothea, one of Cambodia’s biggest stars of the 60’s and early 70’s before the advent of the Khmer Rouge. It is a tragic yet inspiring film featuring some undiscovered gems of rock and roll music.

The Golden Voice screened recently at the 11th annual Rhode Island International Film Festival.

Called Happy Monday, it is a unique experimental documentary, also referred to as a “documentary film object”. It represents the tragedy of unfinished work, the stasis of images captured on negatives but never given life through projection on a film screen.

Happy Monday had its World Premiere at the 11th annual Rhode Island International Film Festival.

Andrew now lives and works in New York City, where he heads the production company Telling Story.

On this episode we speak with writer George Harrar. George Harrar’s works have appeared in a number of literary magazines, and his 1999 work The 5:22 was selected for inclusion in The Best American Short Stories 1999, edited by Amy Tan.

The film was recently made into a short film directed by Bernadette Demisay and had its world premiere at the 11th annual Rhode Island International Film Festival.

We discuss storytelling from the writer’s point of view, and similarities between short film storytelling and its literary equivalent. We also discuss some of George Harrar’s other past and upcoming works.

On this episode, we talk with Brett Harvey.

Brett Harvey is President and founder of BKS Crew Productions, a Vancouver based multimedia production company and has worked as a director of photography on a number of film and television projects including two recent projects for the Canadian national television network CBC – Secrets and Lottery On Ice.

He has made the move from DP to director with his new film The Union: The Business Behind Getting High, a documentary film which explores the seven-billion-dollar per year business of marijuana in British Columbia, as well as the general history and current impact of cannabis prohibition.

The Union had its US Premiere at the 11th annual Rhode Island International Film Festival.

We speak with Montreal director Luc Beauchamp - writer, director, and producer of the film Arthur’s Paradise, which had its U.S. premiere at the 11th annual Rhode Island International Film Festival.

Arthur’s Paradise is a unique film, a blend of documentary and fiction, with almost no dialog and music from opera to mariachi. At times beautiful, at times disturbing, it explores the solitary life of a farmer and his animals.

Luc Beauchamp received a degree in music composition from the Université de Montréal before working on a number of short films including the award-winning The Lion & the Lamb.

Dana recently made his first short film Fetch, winner of the BAFTA Scotland award for best animation.

Fetch and another short film of Dana’s, Hip Hip Hurray!, both screened recently at the the 11th annual Rhode Island International Film Festival.

The Manhattan Short Film Festival is a unique film festival which presents twelve short films from several countries, all screened during one week, in venues across the globe.

Audiences at each venue then vote on their favorites, and the winner is determined at the end of the festival screenings.

The 2007 festival will be held around the world between September 23rd and 30th.

Alex Merkin is the president of Production and Development of
FiveLion Films, a music video, commercial, and film production company in New York City.

He is also the director, creator, and editor of the award-winning short suspense thriller Across The Hall.

Giovanna is an Assistant Professor in Communication at the University of California San Diego, and works professionally as a cinematographer and film/video curator and juror.

She is the director and producer of internationally exhibited documentary and narrative films including BeauteouS: The Trilogy and hand-some.

Her most recent film is Period: The End of Menstruation, a feature documentary film exploring trends in hormonal birth control which change the way we think of gender, health and the ‘natural’.

Barbara Silvestro is a 41 year old mother of three a who lost 65 pounds through diet and exercise, including using Leslie Sansone’s and other fitness DVDs.

She was eventually invited to be a participant in the filming of a new edition of Sansone Walk Slim DVDs. We talk about her experience.

A Hero For Daisy is a film about Title IX pioneer and two-time Olympian Chris Ernst who through her protests for gender equity athletic facilities for women has opened the door to daughters everywhere. The film is dedicated to Daisy, Mary’s daughter.

Apple Pie is a film about professional athletes and their mothers from the aspect of their mother’s stories and the connections to their children’s lives.

Lemonade Stories is a film about renown entrepeneurs and their mothers, highlighting each mother’s impact on the entrepeneurial spirit and success of their sons and daughters.

Danielson: A Family Movie follows Daniel Smith, an eccentric musician and visual artist, as he leads his four siblings and best friend Chris to indie-rock stardom, while mentoring a then-unknown Sufjan Stevens along the way.

The film deals with a number of themes, including the challenges of being a sincere Christian in the po-mo underground, balancing individual needs vs. commitment to family, and maintaining artistic integrity while reaching out to a wider audience.

David Dean Bottrell has appeared on a number of television series, most recently with a recurring role as the creepy Lincoln Meyer on the hit show Boston Legal, and co-wrote the screenplay for the film Kingdom Come.

This is the story of Mount Saint Charles Academy in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, a school that won twenty-six consecutive state champisonships between 1978 and 2003.

Craig also discusses his work in television sports features and plans for the future.

In 1969, the US launched secret bombing raids into Cambodia in pursuit of the Viet Cong during the Vietnam war. Until suspension as part of peace agreements in 1973, over one billion pounds of ordnance were dropped on Cambodia.

Over thirty years later, much of that deadly ordnance is still scattered unexploded across the Cambodian countryside, where it is “harvested” by enterprising - and desperate - people.

Bombhunters is their story.

Transgressions has been described as A Clockwork Orange meets Pleasantville. It takes place in the not-so-distant future, in a society combining the worst elements of the nanny state and reality TV. Domestic strife with a darkly ironic twist.

These questions were discussed on March 9th at Borders in Cranston, RI. Recorded guests included:

• Jonathan Raben, Producer/Director of the documentary film Italian Americans and Federal Hill.
• George T. Marshall, Executive Director of the Rhode Island International Film Festival (RIIFF), one of the country’s premier festivals.
• Steven Feinberg, Executive Director of the Rhode Island Film and Television Office, the state liaison to the filmmaking industry.

It is rare for a filmmaker to actually admit that their film is a failure – a poorly produced, written, and directed film. Luke did this and is using it as learning tool and now can laugh at a project that made him miserable. He uses Some Assembly Required to show others what not to do as a newbie filmmaker.

Films include The Saviour, Helmer and Son, One Too Many (Eramos Pocos), Binta and The Great Idea, and West Bank Story.

Animated nominee films include The Danish Poet, Maestro, The Little Matchgirl, No Time For Nuts, and Lifted.

T.J. Paolino travels from L.A. to Providence, RI and discusses the process of casting for the role of former Providence mayor and “renaissance man” Buddy Cianci for the upcoming film “The Prince of Providence”.

How did he get here and where is he going?