Filmmakers
Director / writer / producer
Heidi Saman
was named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces to Watch in 2014. Saman attended the University of California, San Diego where she studied World Literature and Gender Studies. Upon graduation, she moved to Cairo, Egypt where she was a freelance journalist for The Cairo Times News Magazine. In 2007, Heidi completed a master's degree in Film and Media Arts on a Future Faculty Fellowship from Temple University in Philadelphia. Her thesis film, The Maid (il Shaghala) premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008 and went on to screen at numerous festivals worldwide, including Dubai, Slamdance, and IndieMemphis. Namour, her first feature film, was developed with the Sundance Screenwriters Intensive Workshop, and was the recipient of a Panavision New Filmmaker Grant and a Knight Foundation Grant. Currently she is an associate producer for NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross.
PRODUCER
Matthew Keene Smith
is an independent film producer based in Los Angeles. Films produced under his Twice Told Films banner include Neil Drumming's debut Big Words, a NY Times Critic's Pick that was released by Ava DuVernay via her distribution collective Array, Matthew A. Cherry's 9 Rides that world premiered at the 2016 South by Southwest Film Festival, Heidi Saman's feature debut Namour, and the recently completed short film The Thing About Us from writer/director Keely Weiss and Executive Producer Jill Soloway. Matt was formerly Director of Production, Acquisitions and Development for producer Kirk D'Amico at leading international sales company Myriad Pictures. Matt began his career working for Oscar nominated director Bob Rafelson at Marmont Productions and was Associate Producer on Rafelson’s No Good Deed starring Samuel L. Jackson and Milla Jovovich. Other experience includes working for veteran film executive Andrew Fogelson at former independent film distributor MAC Releasing, for TV legend Norman Lear through his getoutthevote initiative Declare Yourself, and as a programmer for the Slamdance Film Festival.
Executive producer
Kristin Fairweather
is a producer and writer. She runs Fair Weather Pictures and is focused on creating socially relevant, artistically vibrant films that push against the stereotypes typically featured in Hollywood fare. Kristin handles the development, financing, production, packaging, marketing, festival strategy and sale for all of her films. Kristin has been a fellow with several respected filmmaker development programs, including the 2009 FIND Producers Lab, the 2010 Fast Track financing market and the 2012 IFP Rough Cut Lab and the 2014 Trans Atlantic Partners Producing Fellowship. She produced Future Weather, starring Amy Madigan and Lili Taylor, which premiered at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival before being released by Virgil Films & Entertainment. The film garnered many awards, including: the Sloan Feature Film Award at the 2012 Hamptons Film Festival and the jury prize for Best Feature from Napa Valley Film Festival. In the fall of 2013 she produced writer/director Ben Hickernell’s third feature, A Rising Tide, currently in post production. She has optioned the life rights of educator and revolutionary civil rights activist Jane Elliott and is currently co-writing the screenplay for the feature film based on Jane’s extraordinary life.
Director of photography
Dawn Chenette
has collaborated with Heidi Saman on all her short films, including The Maid, which they shot on location in Cairo and premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008. Dawn attended the University of California, San Diego where she studied Visual Arts with focus on Film & Media & a minor in Gender studies. She was the first to bring Eve Ensler's play The Vagina Monologues to UCSD through the College initiative and it continues showing there annually today. Dawn has been the Director of Cinematography and Director for several seasons of nationally syndicated reality television programming, including ABC's The Bachelor & The Bachelorette. Currently, Dawn is a motion graphic designer at the Golden Trailer Award winning trailer house, Buddha Jones in Los Angeles, California.
Costume designer
Peiyi Wong
is a New York and Los Angeles based scenographer and interdisciplinary artist. She designs sets and costumes for theater, opera, dance, and film with a particular interest in experimental and cross disciplinary modes of expression and collaboration. Her work has been presented both nationally and internationally. Notable venues include HERE Arts Center, REDCAT, Automata, P.S. 122, LaMamaETC, The Ontological Hysteric Theater, The Chocolate Factory, Bushwick Starr, Tribeca Film Festival, and the Prague Quadrennial. She holds an MFA in Scenic Design and Integrated Media from the California Institute of the Arts.
PRODUCTION DESIGNER
Sharmila Ray
is a director and production designer who hails from University of California San Diego and resides in Echo Park. She enjoys laying in the sun and almond milk lattes. Her documentary, You Follow: A Search for One's Past was an official selection at The La Femme Film Fest and The India International Film Festival. Her production design roster includes music videos for Don Diablo, the late Scott Weiland, award winning short Joan's Day Out and commercials for Nordstom and JC Penny. Namour is Shar's first feature film as a production designer. Currently she is working on the new ABC Shondaland show The Catch.
EDITOR
Mark Tumas
Mark Tumas is a Brooklyn based director and editor. He is producing work within the forms of narrative and experimental video. In 2012 Tumas received a Princess Grace Film Honoraria Grant to help fund his narrative short "Sweepstakes" that went on to premiere at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival. "Sweepstakes" was also nominated for a 2014 Narrative Student Academy Award.
casting director
Sig De Miguel
of S2 Entertainment is the rare casting director who works on huge studio projects and unique indie films. De Miguel has worked alongside Amanda Mackey and Cathy Sandrich Gelfond for six years where they cast such feature films as the award winning, critically acclaimed United 93 directed by Paul Greengrass; The Good Shepherd , Robert De Niro’s film starring Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie, The Lost City starring and directed by Andy Garcia; The Cooler starring William H. Macy, Alec Baldwin and Maria Bello; A Love Song For Bobby Long starring John Travolta and Scarlett Johansson; The Matador starring Pierce Brosnan, Greg Kinnear and Hope Davis; The Man starring Samuel L. Jackson and P.S. starring Laura Linney & Topher Grace.
ORIGINAL MUSIC
Tyler Pursel
is a RIAA certified Gold and Platinum American songwriter, producer, recording engineer and instrumentalist. He has served as a touring keyboardist and occasional guitarist for Gym Class Heroes and in 2011 received writing credit for several songs on The Papercut Chronicles II. He also arranged and produced the music for LadybiRdS 2007 release Regional Community Theater and played keyboards on the 2008 release by Grace Gale Stronger, Faster, Science. Aside from touring and session work Pursel runs his own studio Walnut Room Recordings in the suburbs of Philadelphia which concentrates on documenting the works of local artists and creating original music for commercials and television networks such as MTV, FOX and the E! Network. He also plays guitar with the Philadelphia PostHardcore band Goddamnit.