Film Exhibitor Schedule SPEAKERS FOR RUFF CUTZ PRO PANELS & WORKSHOPS 2008

 

NANCY BUIRSKI
Founder Full Frame Documentary Film Festival

NANCY BUIRSKI is a film producer, curator and advisor to media companies and film productions. She is the Founder and until, recently, the CEO and Artistic Director of the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival and Institute. She is currently an advisor to the festival and serves on its Board of Directors.

Buirski was the Executive Producer of Film Content for Pangea Day, the TV broadcast and multi-platform special created by Jehane Noujaim and the Sapling Foundation. She is the Executive Producer of SWEET DREAMS, directed by Eric Scott Latek, and co-producer of TIME PIECE, an anthology of documentary shorts by American and Turkish filmmakers. Filmmakers contributing to the anthology include Alex Gibney, Nathaniel Kahn, and Albert Maysles. Buirski has three films currently in development.

In addition to curating content for Pangea Day, Buirski curated special programming for Full Frame, most notably the sidebars, Katrina and 9.11. She collaborated with IndiePix on THE KATRINA EXPERIENCE, a DVD Collection marketed exclusively to libraries and with Docurama on five DVD Collections of Full Frame shorts. Buirski consulted with IndiePix on new business and film funding and with ClickStar, Morgan Freeman's on-line start-up, on film acquisition.

In addition to consulting on industry trends and production of documentary and fiction films, Buirski speaks publicly on these subjects, appearing on radio and television, notably THE NEWSHOUR WITH JIM LEHRER, and at industry functions. She was a New York Women in Film and Television Power Breakfast speaker, and she has moderated panels at such events as the Tribeca Film Festival, the Sundance Film Festival, the IFP Market, the Paley Center for Media, the Real Screen Summit and Full Frame. She has written on documentary film for the Independent Magazine and other publications, has been quoted in numerous newspapers and magazines and serves on many film juries.

Buirski assembled a stellar board of film professionals for Full Frame including Martin Scorsese, Jonathan Demme, John Sayles, Mira Nair, Ross McElwee, Martin Sheen, D.A. Pennebaker, Ken Burns and Ric Burns among others. Her festival was attended by such luminaries as Scorsese, Demme, Nair, McElwee, Pennebaker, Michael Moore, Abbas Kiarostami, Senator Bob Kerry, Faye Dunaway, Richard Leacock, Sydney Pollack, Danny DeVito, Albert Maysles, Harry Shearer, Kent Jones, and St. Clair Bourne.

Buirski developed initial funding for Full Frame, a not-for-profit, and she created marketing and publicity campaigns for the Festival and Institute.

Prior to launching the festival, Nancy Buirski, was the Foreign Picture Editor at The New York Times, where she published the 1993 Pulitzer Prize feature photo. She was the Keynote Speaker at the United Nations Environmental Program's "Focus on Earth" event in 1994. Buirski published a book of her photographs, Earth Angels: Migrant Children in America in 1995 . She was awarded a DeWitt Wallace Fellowship in Media and Journalism at Duke University in 1996. She served on Governor James B. Hunt Jr.'s task force on film production, and is currently a member of the North Carolina Film Council. Buirski serves on the Advisory Board of the Fledgling Fund.

 

 

 

 

 

Eduardo Sanchez
Writer / Director

One-half of the brainpower behind "The Blair Witch Project" (1999) phenomenon, Cuban-born Eduardo Sanchez (along with co-editor-screenwriter-director Daniel Myrick) engineered one of the greatest rags-to-riches stories in cinema history, putting hope into the hearts of independent filmmakers everywhere that they too might someday make a blockbuster for peanuts. Central to their success was a potent premise that enabled them to turn all the weaknesses of low-budget filmmaking into the picture's strengths. Fed up with a genre that had come to rely on irony and special effects, they conceived the ultimate campfire ghost story, a 200-year-old legend about an outcast, a cursed town and a series of child murders and unexplained disappearances. Long before they had assembled their actors, they created an eight-minute trailer that was essentially a mock documentary of the back story of the Blair Witch. A fortuitous meeting with John Pierson led to the trailer playing on Pierson's "Split Screen" (Independent Film Channel) in 1997, and the strong reaction from many viewers buying into it as a genuine story buoyed their enthusiasm.

Years before, the filmmakers, friends and collaborators since film school at the University of Central Florida, had discovered that they both got a kick out of the intersection of horror and documentary. "Our common vision for this film," Sanchez told THE BOSTON GLOBE (July 11, 1999), "sprang from having felt the same fear as kids watching that stupid show 'In Search Of' with Leonard Nimoy. It still creeps us out." They came up with the inspired concept of casting three actors with improvisational skills to play student filmmakers who had come to investigate the Blair Witch and disappeared without a trace, except for their "found" footage. Having selected their actors, they embarked on an inventive shoot that thrust them and their production team into the role of the witch, hectoring the filmmakers during their eight-day ordeal in Maryland's Seneca Creek State Park, chosen for its varied terrain that could convince viewers the characters were lost in the middle of the woods. The cast and crew's exploits, which Sanchez and Myrick call method filmmaking, produced 20 hours of footage and some surprisingly naturalistic performances.

In fact, the film taken by the actors proved so good that Sanchez and Myrick abandoned their original plan to use it only for the last half-hour of the film after vainly trying to incorporate their own 1940s-style newsreel and a reality-based TV show called "Mystical Occurrences". Recognizing that a coherent narrative existed in the "found" footage alone, they took the daring leap of making the movie a completely shaky-cam affair, and as Sanchez recalled in EMPIRE (November 1999): "We were definitely scared. We were scared we were making a piece of shit." Though "Blair Witch" was not for everyone's tastes, it definitely touched a nerve without showing any acts of violence, proving that the unseen is often more frightening than the seen. The universal terror of being out in the water and unable to touch bottom that "Jaws" (1975) exploited so well was certainly analogous to the archetypal fear of things that go bump in the night, and Sanchez and Myrick put horror back into the imagination of the viewer by revealing some very raw emotion on the faces of their worn-down actors.

Sanchez was also responsible for creating the Blair Witch web site (www.blairwitch.com), a repository for the mythology which helped drive the hype and spur interest in the movie. The site's deadpan look at the disappearance of the students, as if it were a continuing news story, gave no clue that the story was fiction, though the filmmakers certainly never tried to pawn it off as truth on the interview trail. They had originally hoped to sell it to cable and make a modest return on a film that Sanchez has joked "cost about as much as a new Ford Taurus with all the options," but when its debut at Sundance led to a deal in excess of $1 million from Artisan Entertainment, they still had no idea of what was to come. Material originally intended for the film appeared as the pseudo-documentary "The Curse of the Blair Witch" on the Sci-fi Channel just prior to the film's July release and helped fuel a runaway box office. By November it had grossed over $140 million domestically, a testament not just to clever marketing but to two men who had set out to scare people and created a video verite masterpiece in the process.

 

 

 

 

 

Michael Corrente
Writer / Director / Producer

Michael Corrente is is an American film director and producer from Pawtucket, Rhode Island. His films include A Shot at Glory , American Buffalo, Outside Providence, Brooklyn Rules and Federal Hill.

Growing up in Rhode Island, Michael Corrente was exposed to the movie by his father who regularly took his son to see whatever foreign-language films were playing in the area. Those motion pictures and a high school field trip to Providence's Trinity Square Repertory Company to see a production of "A Man for All Seasons" convinced the youngster to pursue a career in the arts. Following completion of his studies at the Trinity Repertory Conservatory in 1981, Corrente bartered his abilities as a contractor in return for rehearsal spaces and production opportunities, mounting over 25 productions. In 1984, he set out for Manhattan where he wrote the one-act, semi-autobiographical "Federal Hill" and eventually established the Studio B Theatre Ensemble.

Eventually he expanded the one-act to full-length and produced and directed its Off-Broadway premiere. Drawing on his experiences living in a slightly insular Italian-American community, he crafted a story about a group of buddies--small time hoods whose lives are upended when one falls for a coed. Knowing he had strong material, Corrente teamed with film director Bill Durkin to shoot "Title Shot" (1989), a nine-minute reel which they hoped could be used for fund-raising purposes. Over the course of the next few years, the script for Corrente's debut feature, also titled "Federal Hill" took shape. Shot in less than a month in 1993 on black-and-white stock and a very low budget, "Federal Hill" utilized the city of Providence as a major character as well. While modest in scope, the film's expert cinematography and Corrente's spin on what could have been familiar material won over critics. There was a slight brouhaha when Trimark, the film's distributor, made public its plans to issue "Federal Hill" in a "colorized" version, claiming that contemporary audiences wouldn't go to see a black-and-white movie. While the director was willing to consider such a move for a video release, he greatly opposed tinting the theatrical release. Eventually Trimark backtracked and agreed to let the release print remain in black and white and allowed Corrente to oversee the "colorization" of a home video version.

Corrente was signed by Castle Rock to helm the feature adaptation of David Mamet's three-character drama "American Buffalo" with Al Pacino set to star. When Pacino balked at using a relatively novice helmer, the studio put the project in turnaround where it languished until the Samuel Goldwyn Company agreed to distribute it. Teaming Dustin Hoffman and Dennis Franz, "American Buffalo" premiered at the 1996 Boston Film Festival. The majority of critics again were impressed with Corrente's handling of actors but as Mamet retained the claustrophobic settings of his original, the overall effect was that of a filmed play rather than a re-imagining or reinterpretation of a work.

While he worked on developing other projects (including "The Yellow Handkerchief"), Corrente and his actress wife Libby Langdon (who co-starred in "Federal Hill") served as producers for the romantic comedy-drama "Say You'll Be Mine" (1998), the screenwriting and directorial debut of Brad Kane. At the same time, he was working on a long-cherished project, the film adaptation of Peter Farrelly's novel "Outside Providence" (1999). Corrente had bought the book for one dollar at a second-hand store in 1988 and quickly obtained the screen rights from its author for the same price. Responding not only to the story's Rhode Island setting but also its skewed sense of humor, he was certain it could be translated into a screenplay. Success, however, intervened. Corrente went off to make his films and Peter Farrelly with his brother Bobby crafted the low-brow comedy hits "Dumb and Dumber" (1994) and "Kingpin" (1996). When the three convened to pen the script, the Farrelly brothers were impressed with Corrente's disciplined approach, which was in direct contrast to their more laid-back style. Financed partly by Wall Street investors and Rhode Islanders, "Outside Providence" began shooting in the fall of 1997 with Corrente's pal Alec Baldwin in the pivotal role of a hard-drinking, blue-collar parent and newcomer Shawn Hatosy as the protagonist. Harvey Weinstein at Miramax picked up the film and allowed the director to fine-tune it until its release in the summer of 1999 to generally positive reviews.

 

 

 

 

THE JERMANOK BROTHERS
(Jim pictured on right)

Jim Jermanok
Screenwriter, Director, Producer

Stephen Jermanok
Screenwriter, Journalist, Author

PANEL TOPIC: How to Make a Living Creatively

Writer, Director and Producer in both film and theater, Jim Jermanok draws from his current experience as an active filmmaker and from his prior professional background as an Agent at International Creative Management to discuss How to Make a Living Creatively . While at ICM, Jim was privy to understanding how actors, singers, comedians, writers, directors and producers succeeded.  He learned what qualities they had in common in contrast to the majority of creative folks who fail to make a living in their chosen field.   He'll be joined by his writing partner and brother Steve, who together wrote, “Passionada,” released by Samuel Goldwyn Pictures in 2003.

Jim Jermanok:

An award-winning writer, director and producer who divides his time between Newton and New York .  Jim wrote and produced the highly acclaimed romantic comedy, “Passionada,” which was released in over 150 countries.  The film was shot in the Portuguese community of New Bedford . It starred Jason Isaacs, Seymour Cassel, Theresa Russell, Sofia Milos and Emmy Rossum.  Jim recently won the Grand Jury Prize at the Seattle International Film Festival for his film “Em” a compelling romantic drama about loss and love.  He is currently directing “Agganis” a feature documentary about Harry Agganis, the legendary Red Sox and Boston University star.


Steve Jermanok

In 1990, Steve Jermanok booked a year-long ticket to the South Pacific, where he would write his first article, “Learning to Scuba Dive in the Cook Islands ”  for The Miami Herald .   Since that time, he had explored more than sixty countries and written hundreds of articles on a broad range of subjects, from art to adventure. He writes regularly for The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine, National Geographic Traveler, Art & Antiques, Forbes, Outside , Yankee Magazine, Travel & Leisure, and Town & Country.

Mr. Jermanok is the author of New England Seacoast Adventures and Outside Magazine's Adventure Guide to New England and co-author of Lonely Planet's Guide to New England , Discovery Channel's Backcountry Treks, Discovery Channel's Paddlesports , Outside Magazine's Guide to Family Vacations and Men's Journal's The Great Life . He is the family travel columnist for www.away.com and many of his other stories can be found on www.activetravels.com .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ROBERT L. SEIGEL
Entertainment Attorney

Robert Seigel is an entertainment attorney who is a partner in the law firm Cowan, DeBaets, Abrahams & Sheppard LLP which specializes in film and theatre as well as television, publishing, art, new media and intellectual property matters on a transactional and litigation basis. He has represented such clients as directors, producers, writers, distribution companies and foreign sales agents concerning development, production, marketing, distribution and exploitation in film, television, music and new media.

He has represented the award-winning independent films “FORTY SHADES OF BLUE” (Capital Entertainment/First Look) directed by Ira Sachs and starring Rip Torn (winner of the 2005 Sundance Film Festival Dramatic Grand Jury Prize), “BROTHER TO BROTHER” (Wolfe Video) and “WHAT ALICE FOUND” starring Judith Ivey (Castle Hill). He has served as Production Counsel for such projects as “10 & WOLF” (ThinkFilm) starring James Marsden, Giovanni Ribisi and Brad Renfro with Dennis Hopper, "DUMMY" (Artisan/Lion's Gate/Curb Entertainment) starring Adrien Brody and Milla Jovovich, SWIMMERS” starring Sean Hatosy, Sarah Paulson and Cherry Jones (Skouas/Netflix/Sundance Channel) which had its world debut at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival and “INTERVIEW” the Theo van Gogh remake directed by Steve Buscemi and starring Buscemi and Sienna Miller.

He has served as Production Counsel for such recent projects as "PHARAOH'S ARMY" (Cinepix Film Properties) starring Kris Kristofferson, Chris Cooper and Patricia Clarkson, “NATIONAL LAMPOON'S PLEDGE THIS!” starring Paris Hilton, “RUNAWAY BOYS” starring Aaron Stanford and Robin Tunney, and “WASHINGTON HEIGHTS” (MAC Releasing).

He has represented such documentaries as the critically and financially successful “ TREMBLING BEFORE G-D” (New Yorker Films), the Emmy-Award winning “TELLING NICHOLAS,” “SISTER HELEN,” the Academy Award-nominated documentary "ON TIPTOE: GENTLE STEPS TO FREEDOM,” “RUTHIE & CONNIE: EVERY ROOM IN THE HOUSE,” and “SHELTER DOGS,” the last five of which premiered on HBO/Cinemax.

He has also been involved in the development, marketing or distribution of the films “UNDER HELLGATE BRIDGE ” (CAVU Releasing/Lion's Gate Entertainment), "THE HOLY LAND" (CAVU Releasing/Hart Sharp Home Entertainment), and "DECEMBER BRIDE" (Fox Lorber/Orion Home Video). He consulted on the films “PIECES OF APRIL” (United Artists) and "EYE OF GOD" (Castle Hill) starring Martha Plimpton and Hal Holbrook and the documentaries “THE BRANDON TEENA STORY” (Zeitgeist Films) and “RHYME AND REASON” (Miramax).

Mr. Seigel has also represented the producer, director and/or screenwriter for such projects as the Academy Award-nominated "BLOOD TIES: THE LIFE AND ART OF SALLY MANN," (Strand Releasing), “IT HAD TO BE YOU" starring Natasha Henstridge and Michael Vartan (Regent Entertainment), “MILWAUKEE, MINNESOTA” (Tartan Films) starring Randy Quaid and which won the Critic's Prize at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival, "WEDDING BAND" starring Deborah Gibson, Dom DeLuise and Mo Gaffney, (Atmosphere Entertainment), "DIRTY LAUNDRY" (Trident Releasing/Artistic License) starring Jay Thomas and Tess Harper) and "DEAR JESSE" (Cowboy Booking International/Cinemax).

Mr. Seigel has represented such television projects as the ABC News "TURNING POINT" special "MASTER THIEF: ART OF THE HEIST," the "GREAT PERFORMANCES" specials "SAM SHEPPARD: STALKING HIMSELF," the Duke Ellington tribute, "SWINGIN' WITH DUKE" (PBS) and "BRAVO PROFILES: JULIE TAYMOR" (Bravo).

Mr. Seigel has written articles on business and legal topics for such publications as INDIE SLATE (for which he is a Contributing Editor), Entertainment Law & Finance , The Independent (for which he was a Contributing Editor), the magazine for the Foundation for Independent Film and Video, The Off-Hollywood Reporter/FILMMAKER, the magazine for the Independent Feature Project, International Documentary (the magazine for the International Documentary Association) and The Benjamin Cardozo Journal of Arts & Entertainment Law. Mr. Seigel has lectured on issues concerning the motion picture industry at the School of Visual Arts , the Association for Independent Film & Video, the Independent Feature Project, the Avignon /New York Film Festival, New York University , Seton Hall Law School and the School of Visual Arts .

His other clients include writers, directors, producers, composers, film and video distributors/sales agents, a marketing company and music companies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

VINCA LIANE JARRETT
Entertainment Attorney
President of FilmPro Finance LLC

FilmPro Finance is a financial consulting service for investors and A-list producers, founded in 2001 to introduce financiers to top tiered producers with A-list packaged projects for slate financing (15 pictures or more for studio output deals utilizing bank financing and equity), and smaller slates combining soft money incentives and equity. She has worked on deals with many of the major banks. FilmPro’s top tiered clients have included Cosmic Entertainment, APG and Icon, and has co-ventured with CreditSpectrum in New York. FilmPro has championed, developed, coordinated and built the team for FFIG (Film Finance Investment Group), a collective of film finance experts current including Focus Films LTD., PricewaterhouseCoopers and strategically partnered with Magnolia Financial Corp. and Film Production Capital LLC, to establish a fund for independent feature films utilizing worldwide tax incentives.

Executive producing several feature projects both in the United States and internationally, Attorney Jarrett consults to independent one-off features packaging such films to senior level producers, distributors, financiers and talent. Currently in production include THE FOURTH KIND produced by Gold Circle shooting in Bulgaria starring Milla Jovovich and directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi, and YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO REMAIN VIOLENT, currently shooting in New York directed by Roberto Monticello.

Attorney Jarrett speaks around the world on film finance addressing investors, financiers and industry professionals, as well as film, business and law students at Harvard University, MIT, UCLA, NYU, Boston University, Boston College of Law, New England School of Law, North Eastern School of Law and NY Film Academy. She continues to be a regularly feature moderator at the Atlas International Film & Television Finance Summit (since 2003), held in NY & LA biannually, and has also been a featured speaker at the Institute for International FilmFinancing held in NY, Boston, CT and RI, and a Key Note Speaker on film finance at New England Film & Video’s 37th Film Festival. A born and raised New Yorker, whose larger family populates LA, including many industry veterans and some former CEOs of studios (Columbia Pictures and Paramount), Attorney Jarrett now resides in Boston where she helped launch the most aggressive film tax credit in the U.S. She received her Juris Doctorate in 1988, and is admitted to practice in New York and Massachusetts.

Establishing a national and international legal practice with foremost experience in entertainment law, particularly the film, television and music industries, Attorney Jarrett represents a variety of established and budding filmmakers (producers and directors) and production companies from the organization of their companies through finding distribution for their projects. Practical experience has varied from complex contract negotiations and drafting primarily in the field of entertainment, corporate and litigation.

In 2002, she formed her own practice, The Law Offices of Vinca Jarrett & Associates, provides both packaging and legal services to her clients, attending major film industry festivals and markets, including Cannes, Berlinale, MIFED, AFM, Toronto and Sundance. In 2006 Attorney Jarrett established Massachusetts Production Capital LLC with partners Stephen Roberts and Will French, founders of Louisiana Production Capital (LPC), and recently merged MPC into the newly formed North East Production Capital.

A graduate with honors of Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York, in 1985, Attorney Jarrett went onto many more accomplishments, including founding and editing the Entertainment Law Digest at Hofstra University School of Law where she received her J.D. in 1988, in which she is featured with the lead article again in 2005 on the "New York State And City Tax Incentive For Film".

 

Eric Latek
Director / Producer / Editor

Featured in the July 2008 issue of Filmmaker Magazine as one the top 25 New Faces in Independent Film
Eric Scott Latek graduated with a BS in Film Concentration, Visual and Media Arts / Mass Communication from Emerson College in 1998. While in school, Latek was selected to write and direct a short film. "A Life In The Day of Ringo Vings" was the end result, and the film went onto to win various awards such as "Best International Director", AFMA International Film Festival, "People's Choice Award ", Adobe Digital Cinema, and "WOW" Award , Tampa International Education & Time Warner Film Festival.

In the summer of 2002, Latek turned his attention to the documentary world. He employed the technique of marrying documentary filmmaking with the aesthetics of conventional fictional cinema. Three years later, the end product would be the motion picture documentary "Sweet Dreams", which follows the lives of a Derek, a 19 year-old street bookie, and Italian Boxer Gary "Tiger" Balletto. The story of the Boxer and the Bookie would have it's World Premiere at Full Frame Festival, and screen throughout 30 selected cities via satellite by Emerging Pictures. It would go onto showcase in such festivals as Australian International Film Festival, RIFF and IFC Stranger Than Fiction Series.

Latek has been working on various mini-series projects, including "3 Degrees", "The Players", and "Driven. Looking to change the face of conventional documentary, Latek continues to push the method of marrying documentary with the filmmaking conventions of fictional cinema.

 

 

 

 

MICHAEL PHILLIPS
Solutions Manager, Post
Avid Technology, Inc.

Michael Phillips is the solutions manager for content production at Avid Technology, Inc., the worldwide leader in digital nonlinear editing, effects and audio solutions. Phillips'  contributions have been for the design of Avid's Media Composer, Film Composer, and Symphony product lines, which offer professional digital online and offline editing and finishing. He also designs infrastructure and solutions to enable programming to be published to multiple digital channels such as interactive television, broadband and DVD.

Phillips joined Avid in 1990 to develop and design film products such as the Avid Film Composer®, which earned him a 1994 Academy Award® for Scientific and Engineering Achievement from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In 1999, Phillips and Avid were rewarded with another Oscar® for their continued efforts in enhancing and developing the Avid Film Composer as well as a Massachusetts Innovator of the year Award.

In addition to his role at Avid, Phillips owns and operates “24p.com,” a digital post-production consulting service for 24P HD and film production. He has also worked in the film industry as a cameraman, sound recorder, and film editor, and regularly consults with independent producers and directors in managing post-production for feature films and using digital technologies for the entire production process. His film credits include, “Johnny Slade's Greatest Hits”, “Patriots”, “Jack in the Box” for editing, and “Leon (The Professional) “and award winning documentary “Cinematographer Style” for digital post consultation and supervision.

Phillips has lectured around the world on new digital processes, spoken at industry forums, and conducted workshops on post-production technologies. He co-wrote the book “Digital Filmmaking, The Changing Art Form of Making Movies,” published by Focal Press. He has been awarded over 10 patents from the United States Patent Office for digital synchronization of picture and sound and other editing technologies surrounding 24 frames, as well as compositing and surround sound. Michael is currently working on editorial solutions and metadata tracking for stereoscopic production.

As producer, Michael is currently putting final touches on “Jack in the Box”, the first feature film from his company Miledia Films, LLC.

Phillips pursued film and music studies at Montana State University.

 

 

 

 

 

Patrick Smith
Writer / Producer / Animator / Director

Patrick Smith has written, produced, animated, and directed five award winning films from 2000-2006. Smith made his directorial debut for the Emmy nominated MTV series "Down-Town", continuing on to direct the popular animated series "Daria." His bizarre, morphing style tells symbolic stories of identity and emotion, and have extended beyond film. His Public Art Installations have earned the artist a multitude of accolades outside the world of animation, his fine art is currently represented internationally by CVZ Contemporary Gallery in New York. Smith is a Senior Thesis advisor at the Pratt Institute in New York, a fellow with the New York Foundation of the Arts, and a curator for multiple international film and animation festivals. His studio is located in Tribeca, New York City.

 

 

 

 

 

 

SHANNON MURPHY
ENCOUNTER STUDIOS LLC
CEO/President

Ms. Murphy's involvement in the industry in the past several years has included producing and directing two pilots for Cable television, producing foreign broadcast specials for Asahi & Nippon Networks in Japan for Shin Koyamada on  The Last Samurai  and producing two independent features  The Retreat  2004 winner of the Woods Hole Film Festival and Telluride Arts Festival and  Constellation  2005 Winner of the Denver PAFF Film Festival, Urbanworld MTV Audience Winner, BMW Film Series Selection, Boston /Roxbury Urban Festival and Nominated Chicago, London and Cannes Agouras Lumieres Film Festivals.  Constellation  had a theatrical release in 2007 with Fox Studios and now is distributed by Warner's Home Video .  Murphy then Executive Produced  Wine Road of the Samurai  a documentary for Nippon Networks in Japan released in 2007.

Ms. Murphy also  developed and co- produced in 2006  Wendy Wu: Homecoming  Warrior , for the Disney Channel 2007 summ e r release which is now being made into a sequel  for a 2009 release. . She is currently  in active development on  the feature film  Joe Jitsu  a for a 200 9  theatrical release. Ms. Murphy  was  also Executive Producing with Phoenix Pictures a television pilot for CBS and Sony entitled  Georgetown  which she created for the 2008 mid season.  For 2009  she is currently in development with  The Secrets of Cain's Castle  a trilogy of children's feature movies based on the 8 novels owned by Encounter Studios for a 200 9  publishing  by Action Publishing where Encounter Studios has an imprint and is also being developed for MOW releases in 2009.

Ms. Murphy also consults for numerous private investors, New York investment firms and small indie film companies on indie productions and investments. She has given seminars with the Pan African Film Festivals , BMW Film Series and others on the topics of production and more commonly production mistakes as she has consulted for numerous projects with problems in production and post. She is an active consultant as well on business plans for production investments and the packaging of films. 

MORE SPEAKERS FOR 2008 TO BE ANNOUNCED!