PANELS

ALL PANELS WILL TAKE PLACE AT THE RUBIN MUSEUM OF ART

SATURDAY OCT 25

11:30AM 

Fix it in Post   

The Ins and Outs of the least known part of filmmaking: Post-Production. Filmmakers will learn how they can find the most creative and cost-efficient ways to guide their projects through post.  

MODERATOR:

Ian Wile is the founder of Rogue Post, a bleeding edge post production house and his experience spans all aspects of Film & Television with emphasis on Post Production, Digital Intermediates and creative direction and oversight.  Ian's passion for Independent Film ranges from early-stage development to compelling projects that may be lost in the weeds looking for the way home.

PANELISTS:

 Richard Fairbanks is a re-recording mixer, sound team supervisor, and owner of Pharoah Editorial, Inc., working primarily for film and long form television productions. His long list of mixing credits is complimented by Golden Reel, Emmy, Audie, and International Monitor awards. He is proficient with film and broadcast technical issues, equipment design, a member of the Audio Engineering Society, an oboe player, and holds a Bachelor of Music Education from West Texas State University.

 

Pamela Scott Arnold is a film editor with 30 years of experience in feature, television, and documentary film. She has five EMMY nominations and is a graduate of the New York University School of the Arts, undergraduate Film and Television.

Since starting as a sound PA turned union member in 1995 on American Buffalo, TR Boyce has worked in production and multiple IATSE sound/ video positions on films budgeted large (Enchanted, Across the Universe, The Producer’s, Angel’s in America) to small (The Love Letter, Passionada, Romance and Cigarettes, and Lift). During the interim, he has produced short films such as “Preamble”, “Nonplussed”, “The Perfect Goosey’s”, “Gabriel Y Gato”, and P.T. Johansen’ s Field Guide to North American Monsters, the winner of the Chrysler Million Dollar Film Festival in 2003.  Currently, he has two other shorts in post, the short, “Preamble” is making festival rounds.

Ross Kauffman is the director, producer, cinematographer and co-editor of BORN INTO BROTHELS, winner of the 2005 Academy Award for Best Documentary.  Kauffman spent eight years working as a documentary film editor from 1992 - 2000. In 2001 he formed Red Light Films to direct and produce Born into Brothels, a documentary about the children of Calcutta's prostitutes. Born into Brothels was accepted to over 50 film festivals worldwide and has since received over 40 awards.  Kauffman is currently working on a variety of projects.

Ayres D’Cunha is the Owner and President of Analog Digital International Inc., (ADI) a post production facility in New York.  Ayres studied Radio/Television Engineering at St. Xavier’s Institute of Technology in Bombay, India.  While attending school, he was offered a managerial position working with JVC’s Professional/Broadcast International Division.  After graduation, Ayres’ passion for film, along with his fascination of the latest in video technology, lead him to New York where he was offered a position at a leading video company, first as regional sales manager and later as a Technical Supervisor.

1:30PM

How To Sell Your Film and Save Yourself

Where do you begin the process of selling your screenplay or film? What can you do to protect your rights without locking out potential investors and buyers? How do you position your project to make a sale without losing your path to longterm career success?     

MODERATOR:

Reyad Farraj has served as Executive Producer on several independent feature films, including Men Without Jobs (a.k.a Planet Brooklyn). Written and directed by Mad Matthewz, one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 Filmmakers to Look For (2007)”, Men without Jobs was an Official Selection of the 2004 Tribeca Film Festival, the IFP/Los Angeles Film Festival, and is distributed by Universal Pictures Home Video.  Mr. Farraj was also Associate Producer on Jellysmoke, winner of the Target Filmmaker Award at the 2005 LA Film Festival and nominated for the John Cassavetes Independent Spirit Award. Mr. Farraj recently signed on as Executive Producer for Best American, written and directed by Mary Harron (I Shot Andy Warhol, American Psycho, and The Notorious Bettie Page). Best American is currently in development and will debut on the IFC Channel. Mr. Farraj is a member of the New York State Bar and the Federal Circuit.

PANELISTS:

Anadil Hossain is a New York-based film producer and founder of Dillywood, Inc., a full-service motion picture production company which develops and produces international and American film projects, specializing in complex multi-continental logistics. Most recently, Dillywood produced the international unit of Bart Freundlich’s upcoming romantic comedy “The Rebound” starring Catherine Zeta Jones and Justin Bartha, heading a multi-continental shoot in Hong Kong, India, Kenya, France, and Turkey.

Jack Lechner is an independent producer of film and television, based at Washington Square Films in New York City.  As an executive at Film Four and Miramax, Jack was involved in the development and production of such movies as Good Will Hunting, The Crying Game, Four Weddings and a Funeral, The Full Monty, Shallow Grave, Little Voice, The Cider House Rules, Brassed Off, Safe, In Too Deep, Guinevere, Backbeat, and Velvet Goldmine.  More recently, he was an executive producer on the Oscar-winning Errol Morris documentary The Fog Of War; the Emmy-nominated documentary Left Of The Dial for HBO; Very Young Girls, a documentary for Showtime; Naked On The Inside, a documentary for Showtime and the Sundance Channel; and Parking Lot, a reality series for Trio.  He was a producer on the pilot of the acclaimed AMC drama series Mad Men; Shots In The Dark, a documentary for Court TV and Channel 4; and Cult Movies, a documentary series pilot for IFC. Currently in post-production is Smile 'Til It Hurts: The Up With People Story, a feature documentary about the notorious singing group.  In development are a reality series for Bravo, a comedy series with Scout Productions and a drama series for IFC, as well as numerous feature film projects.

A graduate of the NYU film school, where his thesis film received the top prize, John Walsh premiered his first movie, “Ed’s Next Move,” to critical praise at the 1996 Sundance Film Festival. A micro-budget romantic comedy about a transplanted Midwesterner adapting to life in New York's East Village, "Ed's" was quickly picked up by Orion Classics for theatrical release.  The LA Times' Kenneth Turan called the movie "one of the most appealing, audience friendly films at Sundance," while Sight & Sound called it “…a perfectly formed romantic comedy.” For the last three years Walsh has been developing a number of film and television projects.  Of these, several are with his wife, filmmaker Mary Harron.  This year the team produced and directed “Holding Fast” a short film about life in a Tibetan refugee camp in Darjeeling, India.

SUNDAY OCT 26

11:30AM

The Art and Craft of Screenwriting   

Digital filmmaking has made it easier than ever to shoot a film, but the process of writing an entertaining and successful screenplay is still as difficult and critical as ever to the success of a film. Listen in on an in depth discussion of how to create a powerful script and what it takes to turn it into a winning movie.        

MODERATOR

David Donnenfeld, a writer with traditional business experience, has been published in Esquire, Maxim, Details as well as "trades" ranging from Behavioral Health Digest to Red Herring while his fictional works have been optioned/sold to Battle Mountain Pictures and Harper Collins.  Currently, he is partnered with Rogue Post (voted among the "Top 50" Indie film friendly companies*) in script development and also serves as their Director of Imaging Sciences.

PANELISTS:

Sabrina Dhawan is a screenwriter whose produced credits include ‘Monsoon Wedding’, directed by Mira Nair , ‘9.11.01’, a short film for Canal Plus, and ‘Cosmopolitan’ for PBS starring Roshan Seth and Carol Kane. She has additionally written film and TV scripts for Disney Animation, 20th Century Fox, Killer Films, Disney TV and HBO amongst others. Ms Dhawan has recently started writing scripts for producers in Mumbai. She is one of the writers on Vishal Bhardwaj’s upcoming ‘Kaminey’ and is working on a biopic on the life of Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen for UTV. Her upcoming projects include writing a book for the Broadway musical version of ‘Monsoon Wedding’.  Ms Dhawan is also the Head of Screenwriting at the Goldberg Department of Dramatic Writing at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.

Michael P. Hidalgo is a NYC-based playwright/screenwriter. His work has been performed at Columbia University, Rutgers University, the Kraine Theatre, the Asian-American Writers’ Workshop and Theatre Row. He received a BFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.  An adaptation of his play “The Butcherhouse Chronicles”, showcased in the Third Annual Summer Play Festival, is currently in development at Paramount Pictures and Platinum Dunes with Executive Producer, Michael Bay.

 

Marilyn Fu received the William Goldman Screenwriting Fellowship from Columbia University in 2000 for her first script, RIDERS ON THE STORM (in development with producer Jamin O'Brien, director Beth Schacter, and starring Thomas Dekker). In 2007, she was honored with the Tribeca Film Festival's Creative Promise Award for her second script, THE SISTERHOOD OF NIGHT (in development with producers Lydia Dean Pilcher and Jessica Levin, director Caryn Waechter). Her experiences in September 2001 inspired LITTLE ALTARS, which she will direct. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University. She is second-generation Taiwanese and lives in New York City.
 

 

1:30PM

TopGun Bootcamp   

Hear what pioneering filmmakers have to say about making your first film without losing your mind, protecting your artistic vision, and navigating the micro-budgets and maximum chaos of the indie film world. 

MODERATOR:

Aside from his role as Programming Director for the South Asian International Film Festival, Simon Taufique has spent the last decade as an accomplished Film Composer. British by birth, Indian by heritage, and a citizen of America and Great Britain, Simon’s music is an exploration of intimate spaces and cultural borders, the computerized and the handmade, the personal and the global. Simon’s inspired musical experimentation in grad school led to a commission for the film WIDE AWAKE by close friend, M. Night Shyamalan and culminated in music for the indie cult film, TEMPS. Simon has since composed original film music for numerous projects that have screened at Telluride, Angelus, DGA, Tribeca Underground, UrbanWorld, or won awards such as the New Line Cinema Award, Best of HBO NY Latino, multiple IFP Audience Choice Awards, Special Jury Prize at USA, Grand Jury Prize at Miami, Winner at Rhode Island and China-American, and to prove he's still young at heart, the Teen Choice Award at the Nantucket Film Festival.

PANELISTS:

Meneka Das fuelled her passion for film making, taking short courses at the National film school, Raindance & The London film school. She gained experience behind the scenes by working as a film crew on other people’s short films and then finally by buying her own DV cam and making mini shorts staring friends & family! LITTLE BOX OF SWEETS marks her debut feature. It follows the success of her award winning 35mm short film THE AUDITION which was chosen to open Bite the Mango Festival for Mira Nair’s feature HYSTERICAL BLINDNESS starring Uma Thurman. As an actress Meneka played the part of Sunita in the Emmy Award winning BBC/HBO film GIRL IN THE CAFE, Amina in the RSC production of Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, and Dr Shah in the BBC’s RIVER CITY Meneka is currently working on the script for her next feature SUMMER OF OUR LIVES

  

Tariq Tapa was born in New York City. He received a Bacelor’s Degree in English at Rice University in Houston, Texas. In 2004, he enrolled in the Graduate Film Directing Program at The California Institute of the Arts, where he made several short films, including Custody (2005, 10 mins), which was a Finalist at the 2006 Student Academy Awards and went on to screen at the Museum of Modern Art (August 2006) and at the Centre Pompidou (March 2007).  In 2006 he received a U.S. Fulbright Scholarship to Kashmir, India where he made his thesis (and debut) feature film Zero Bridge by himself, while staying with relatives from September 2006 until June 2007.

  

Alison Thompson was born in the outskirts of Sydney in the Australian bush. Raised a preacher's daughter, she has lived and shot in over 30 countries. A former medic and mathematics teacher, Alison moved to New York and enrolled at NYU film school. Three weeks out of film school she Directed and Exec. Produced her first Feature Comedy called HIGH TIMES’ POTLUCK. On September 11, 2001 Alison, rollerbladed 8 miles to the World Trade Center with her medical kit and became a first responder rescue worker. For nine months, she stayed on and worked as a volunteer at Ground Zero where Her 'Potluck' film Investor and many of her friends were among those killed in the WTC attacks. She is the Creator and Founder of the first Tsunami Early-warning Center in Sri Lanka called CTEC. The Tsunami Center is still the only one in Sri Lanka today.