Director & Producer - JESSICA SANDERS
Jessica Sanders is an Academy Award-nominated, Sundance and Cannes winning filmmaker and commercial director. Steve Jobs hand picked Jessica to direct Apple's iPad launch spot. Her Sony “Make Believe” film won the prestigious Young Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival. Jessica directed, produced and wrote AFTER INNOCENCE, a feature documentary film about innocent men wrongfully convicted of crimes, cleared by DNA evidence and their struggle to reenter society after spending decades in prison. The film premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Special Jury Prize. Jessica's next feature documentary MARCH OF THE LIVING, filmed in Brazil, Germany, Poland, Israel and the US featured Jewish teenagers from around the world accompanying the last generation of survivors to the sites of the Holocaust in Poland, in an act of remembrance. Jessica was nominated for an Academy Award for SING a short film that tells the universal story of how squeaky- voiced 8 year olds learn to sing and become amazing choristers with the LA Opera, LA Phil, Placido Domingo and other maestros.
Jessica is directing PICKING COTTON, a narrative scripted feature based on the best-selling book by Jennifer Thompson, Ronald Cotton and Erin Torneo. She was awarded the Sloan Science Foundation grant at the Tribeca Film Festival and the Discovery Award at Los Cabos Film Festival to develop the film. The movie is based on a story in her Sundance-winning film AFTER INNOCENCE about the vicious rape of Jennifer Thompson, a white college student by a black man, who she identified as Ronald Cotton. Ronald spent 11 years in prison before he was declared innocent after DNA testing and was released from prison. The movie’s story is about forgiveness as Jennifer and Ronald forge a deep friendship and together are activists for criminal justice reform.
Jessica’s comedic work is reflected in BUNION, a short romantic comedy she directed with Alia Shawkat (Search Party), Michaela Watkins (Casual) and Avi Rothman. Film Critic Elvis Mitchell curated it for LACMA’s Young Director Series. Jessica also directed the ALMOST ASIAN web-series created by Katie Malia, and she is directing the improvised comedy feature I WANT TO FEEL FUN with comedian Little Esther (Alone Together), Simon Rex, Avi Rothman and others.
Her work can be seen at www.jessicasandersfilm.com
Story by - AIMEE BENDER
Aimee Bender is the author of five books: The Girl in the Flammable Skirt (1998) which was a NY Times Notable Book, An Invisible Sign of My Own (2000) which was an L.A. Times pick of the year, Willful Creatures (2005) which was nominated by The Believer as one of the best books of the year, The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake (2010) which recently won the SCIBA award for best fiction, and an Alex Award, and The Color Master, a NY Times Notable book for 2013.
Her short fiction has been published in Granta, GQ, Harper’s, Tin House, McSweeney’s, The Paris Review, and many more places, as well as heard on PRI’s “This American Life”and “Selected Shorts”. She has received two Pushcart prizes, was nominated for the TipTree award, and the Shirley Jackson short story award. Her fiction has been translated into sixteen languages. She lives in Los Angeles, where she teaches creative writing at USC.
Screenwriter - JOANNE GIGER
Joanne Giger is a film and television screenwriter who works in Europe and in Los Angeles. Her feature film MES COPINES, starred Cannes Palme d’Or winner Léa Seydoux, Spanish Goya nominee Rossy De Palma, and French César nominee Soko. Released by Pathé, the film was selected for the 2007 French Film Festival Budapest. Her next feature, the documentary LA VIE EN DEUX, co-written with filmmaker Fred Ballif, was selected at the 2009 Visions du Réel Film Festival in Geneva. Ms. Giger collaborated with director Mathieu Urfer on the romantic comedy PAUSE, which premiered on the Piazza Grande at the 2014 Locarno International Film Festival. The film was produced by César nominees Thierry Spicher, Elena Tatti and Elodie Brunner of Box Productions for whom she has since worked on various films such as LA VALLEE DU SEL, a documentary by director Christophe M. Saber selected by the 2016 Toronto Hot Docs Festival, WILD CATS, a dark comedy currently in post-production, as well as LE MILIEU DE L'HORIZON by 2014 Medicis prize contender Roland Buti which she has adapted for the screen. Currently in pre-production, the film will star Laetitia Casta, Clémence Poésy and Jalil Lespert.
Ms. Giger studied Philosophy at the University of Neuchâtel and earned a bachelor of Fine Art from École Supérieure de Réalisation Audiovisuelle in Paris.
Producer - LOUISE SHORE
Louise Shore is an Irish film and TV producer, based in Los Angeles. Louise co-produced indie feature film ‘UNLOVABLE’, starring John Hawkes and Melissa Leo, and produced ‘ST.PATRICK’S DAY’ which premiered at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival.
In recent years Louise has line produced various TV series for US networks, including TNT and YouTube Red Originals.
Louise began her career in Ireland, working on a range of International TV co-productions such as Showtime's 'PENNY DREADFUL', History Channel's 'VIKINGS', CW's 'REIGN', CBS's 'THE DOVEKEEPERS' and feature films 'CALVARY' and 'LOVE, ROSIE'.
Director of Photography - BRETT PAWLAK
Cinematographer Brett Pawlak, who most is most notable for his work on the award winning Short Term 12 (2013), which opened to widespread critical acclaim at Austins South by Southwest Film Festival, winning Grand Jury Narrative Feature, and Narrative Audience Award.
Pawlak has acted as cinematographer on Sundance Films including “I am Not a Hipster”, “Hellion”, as well as the Sundance Award winning short film “Short Term 12”, which served as the basis for the feature length adaptation. Pawlak’s diverse range of films include “The Meddler” starring Susan Sarandon, “All We Had” Katie Holmes directorial debut, which premiered at Tribeca, and also lensed the pilot episode of the NBC show “This Is Us”.
Most recent credits include “The Glass Castle, starring Woody Harrelson, and Brie Larson, and “Unicorn Store” directed and starring Brie Larson.
Production Designer - JUSTIN TRASK
Justin began his design career as an industrial designer, designing and building custom furniture. Most notably was his work displayed at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile di Milano (Milan Furniture Fair). This eventually led him to Alaska where he was part of a R & D team that developed advance composite shelters for military solutions, utilizing his. His knowledge of 3d modeling and component design in Solidworks was instrumental to the structural engineers to run finite element analysis on the projects. Justin parlayed his real world design and fabrication skills into the film industry, approaching projects in ways that hadn’t been done before. Because of this he was able to rapidly make a name for himself as a commercial production designer, designing many Super Bowl Ad’s at a very young age. For over 10 years he’s designed for Apple, Microsoft, Ford, ESPN & many more. He regularly works alongside the industries top cinematographers, collaborating with Robert Richardson, Claudio Miranda, Jeff Cronenweth, Thomas Sigel, and Dan Mindel. Now that he has 100’s of national Ad’s under his belt, he is eagerly venturing into the world of movies, with his first film that he’s designed getting into Sundance.
Visual Effects Supervisor - EVA FLODSTROM
Eva is a Visual Effects Supervisor, Artist, and Filmmaker with 10+ years experience working in Film and TV. She VFX-supervised the feature films 'Play the Devil' and 'Rain', which premiered at TIFF, campaigns for ABC, FX, Pepsi, Narciso Rodriguez, and a music video for Justin Timberlake. From 2015-2016, Evaworked at JJ Abram's company 'Bad Robot' on films such as 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens', 'Star Trek Beyond', and '10 Cloverfield Lane'. She's also worked as a lead on campaigns for Apple, Honda, and Pepsi. Eva was recently commissioned to create a film for the designer Electric Feathers and Vogue. Her short 'The Tides' won an Audience Award at Slamdance. Eva majored in Art and Biology at Williams College.
Composer - PEDRO BROMFAN
Born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, film composer Pedro Bromfman has been writing, playing and producing “Music For Images” for over fifteen years. A Cum Laude Graduate of Berklee College of Music, Bromfman has composed scores for narrative films (RoboCop, Thumper, Elite Squad I & II), documentaries (Deep Web, March of The Living, Sister Dorothy, G-Dog), Television (Narcos, Chain of Command, Story of Us With Morgan Freeman) and video games (Max Payne 3).
Editor - CLAUDIA CASTELLO
Claudia Castello was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and has lived in the US for the past 15 years. Her passion for documentaries led her to her first feature film as an editor, THE ACHIEVERS, THE STORY OF THE BIG LEBOWSKI FANS, which further sparked her interest for filmmaking. After earning her M.F.A. in Film Production at the University of Southern California in 2011, Claudia’s career took off.
BLACK PANTHER is Castello’s third feature film with director Ryan Coogler. Her close relationship with the filmmaker has led to a frequent collaboration that began with the Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award-winning film, FRUITVALE STATION starring Michael B. Jordan, and the box office hit, CREED, starring Michael B. Jordan and Sylvester Stallone. Castello’s other feature film credits include the documentary ROXANNE, ROXANNE, an Official Selection at this year's Sundance Film Festival and Breakthrough Performance Award-Winner , THE FUNERAL GUEST, BREAKING THROUGH and BREAKING BROOKLYN.
Editor - STEPHEN BERGER
Stephen Berger is known for his creativity, storytelling and ability and desire to connect with the material he working with. Berger’s credits include Spike Jonze’s short film I’m Here and Herve de Crecy and Francois Alaux’s Logorama, which were two of the four short films chosen to open the 2010 Sundance Festival (Logorama went on to win the Best Animated Short Oscar that same year). His body of work also includes Cannes Lion, AICP Show and D&AD award-winning commercials and music videos. He’s worked with A- List directors such as Jonze, David Fincher, Spike Lee, Craig Gillespie, Noam Murro, Paul Hunter, Filip Engstrom and Reynald Gresset for brands like XBOX, Activision, EA, Samsung, Miller, Lincoln, BMW, Starbucks, Farmers, Intel, Sony, Disney and Verizon and artists like Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Ludacris, Bob Dylan, Weezer, Kanye West and Pheonix.
Berger’s first documentary feature film The Nine won multiple awards on the festival circuit and was named one of MOMA’S 2016 “Five best films not playing at a theater near you”. End Of The Line is his 6th collaboration with director Jessica Sanders.
Costume Designer - SHIRLEY KURATA
Shirley Kurata is a costume designer and stylist based in Los Angeles working in TV, film, and fashion.
Re-Recordng Mixer - ELMO WEBER
Elmo Weber is a post-production sound professional that lives and works in Los Angeles. During his twenty-seven year career, Elmo has worked as a Supervising Sound Editor, Sound Designer, and Re-recording mixer on films such as Baywatch (the movie), The Kids Are Alright, We’re The Millers, The Ides Of March, Horrible Bosses, and Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery. He is best known for his long-time collaboration with Actor/Producer Adam Sandler, spanning 27 movies and 5 albums. Elmo has also enjoyed multi-film collaborations with directors Wim Wenders, Seth Gordon, Steven Brill, Michael Almereyda, and James Merendino.
As a fan of documentary film, Elmo has mixed many feature documentaries including: Buena Vista Social Club, One More Time With Feeling, After Innocence, and Academy Award winner: Undefeated.